Thirty-Eight - No Impact Week: Food

Alright -- we had to make a list of everything we ate yesterday to prepare for today. We went out on a double date to Red Stag Supper Club's cheap date night. The owner also owns the Bryant Lake Bowl (probably my favorite spot in Mpls) and Barbette (had brunch there just before Christmas). Red Stag is the first LEED Certified restaurant in MN and like it's companion restaurants, is dedicated to local, organic food and earth-friendly practices. Read more about it here.

Guthrie
2 homemade blueberry muffins
2 organic granola bars
Amy's Bowl Frozen Meal: Mexican Casserole
@Red Stag Supper Club
   cheese place
   grilled top sirloin with red pepper and onion hash
   raspberry mousse with spongecake

Laura

2 homemade blueberry muffins

1 organic granola bar

1 La Croix sparkling water

Leftovers - homemade mock duck, bok choy, & broccoli stir fry with soba noodles

@Red Stag

   cheese place

   grilled top sirloin with red pepper and onion hash

   raspberry mousse with spongecake

Steps for today:

1. Calculate our "foodprint". This was impossible, since nothing we ate really came up, and it didn't take into account that 3/4s of what we ate was organic, and about 1/4 was local (MN or WI) and 1/3 was local (Midwest) and everything else came from elsewhere in the US. 

2. Change our diet. Honestly, we did not do much to change our diet. We shopped at the co-op as per usual, got as many P6, local, and organic items as possible, the Red Stag is awesome, and we try to cook from scratch (like the muffins and stir fry) as much as possible. Lunch today was local pita and hummus from Holy Land with fresh organic veggies. 

3. Go to farmers' markets and have potlucks. This is a bit of a an Achilles heal for us--we LOVE eating out. We love eating in and cooking meals; we just LOVE good food. Though, I think we should definitely up our potlucks. This is actually spawn me to organize one for this month... (starting to plan) :)

4. Keep track of your food choices this week and reflect. 

5. Write down five things we are grateful for (I think this is a theme...)

   1. A good shovel

   2. The opportunity to volunteer

   3. Mexican food (what we're making tonight!)

   4. Public radio

   5. Public transportation (we both took it today). 

As far as tips, there are some good ones that we try to live by as well as some new ideas for us. Of course, going meatless is a great idea. Trying to have vegan days is also a great idea. I am hoping that when I graduate and we go back to a more normal cooking schedule, that we will deliberately incorporate vegan days into our flexitarian lifestyle. They have a great meat buying guide which you can download here. 

The new idea that we will use is when buying seafood, you can text FISH and the name of the fish to 30644. The reply will provide info about the sustainability of the fish from BlueOcean.org.

I tested it with something that I know is sustainable: Alaskan salmon. The response I received was:

(GREEN) high abundance due to good management; most are caught using purse seines, followed by gill nets and troll gear; cause little habitat damage and moderate levels of by catch. Cool. (I added that last part). This information is based off of the Smart Seafood Guide from Food & Water Watch. This is great when I forget to carry the Seafood Watch pocket guide with me (you can get an iphone app here as well) and forgot when my father ordered Chilean Sea Bass at an Shuang Cheng with me and I even enjoyed sharing it with him! It was very embarrassing, and we talked about it later. He now calls me up with questions, but it's nice to have this tool always with me as I go. 

Check back tomorrow for "Energy".

Peace!