Day 1

After consuming my last diet soda, possibly ever, Operation Eat Less Crap 2011 officially commenced yesterday!

Caffeine, I miss you already!

We spent an hour or two going through our favorite cookbooks, and picked out 10 meals and a variety of snacks and side-dishes for the next two weeks. All of the recipes we'll be making serve 4-6 people, so each dinner leaves plenty of leftovers, covering most of our lunches at work too!

Once we had all our meals picked out, it was time to come up with our big grocery shopping list, which Andy organized nicely by aisle :)

We headed to the local co-op (The Wedge in Uptown, Minneapolis), with the goal of buying 100% organic, and as much local as possible. We also decided to buy as much as we could from the bulk areas, like beans and spices. 

When all was said and done, we did indeed buy 100% organic, and 30% local (which our receipt conveniently pointed out for us)--pretty good for it being winter in Minnesota, if you ask me!

I'd say well over half of what we bought was fresh produce, which we all know can end up being quite expensive. I was bracing myself for a pretty big, ugly total as the cashier was ringing everything up, but it wasn't actually that bad:

That's a grand total of $150.15. Probably a bit more than we'd have spent at Cub, but that averages out to about $10 a day, which makes it seem pretty reasonable, no?

We didn't make a complete meal last night, but Andy whipped up some easy Lemony Roasted Potatoes (from Veganomicon):

2.5 pounds Russet potatoes

1/3 cup olive oil

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (who knew that juicer we bought for $6 at the thrift store would end up being used so often!?)

1 cup vegetable broth

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon tomato paste (we just used ketchup!)

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 365 degrees. Peel the potatoes, slice in half lengthwise, and slice the halves into wedges (no more than 3/4-inch thick).

In a large baking pan or casserole dish, combine everything but the potatoes to make the sauce. Add the potatoes and toss to cover them with the sauce. Cover the pan with foil and back for 30-35 minutes. Uncover the pan and let them bake (uncovered) for another 15-20 minutes, until most of the sauce has evaporated and the potatoes start browning on the edges. 

Easy, cheap, and super yummy!

This morning, the rest of the Russet potatoes we bought were chopped up and thrown into the cast-iron skillet with a red bell pepper, onion, and tomato. Add an egg, and you've got a wonderful Sunday morning breakfast!

I can't wait for all the awesomeness that awaits my taste buds in the next two weeks! In the next 13 days, we'll be cooking up:

Black bean burgers

Potato and kale enchiladas

Corn and edamame sesame salad

Quinoa salad with black beans and mango

Cajun chicken with sweet potatoes and salsa

Chicken on chick peas

Black Bean chilaquile

Pumpkin hummus

And much, much more!

I hope you'll stick around!

-K