It’s safe to say I’ve gotten into the swing of local food life. I don’t think to reach for the can of Pam. I go for olive oil or our giant roll of local butter when I’m cooking eggs or sauteing some veggies. My fridge is full of local vegetables. I haven’t been to the grocery store all week, which is starting to feel a little weird. I often treat myself to a Starbucks while I walk around for an hour at Kroger. I haven’t done that in so long! Here’s a quick update on how we’re eating.

Breakfast Day 7: Eggs??!! What? Yeah. We ate eggs again. This time with some peppers, onions, and cheese. 

Lunch Day 7: I was too lazy to make anything more than a simple salad. So that’s what I ate for lunch. I probably had a piece of toast at some point, too. Turns out that beyond apples, I haven’t found much in the way of easy, local food snacks. I roasted squash seeds over the weekend, but those all disappeared pretty quickly.  Dinner Day 7: I made chili! Kidney beans had to join my list of exotics, but I made it work! I was very concerned about flavorings, as chili powder, cayenne, and cumin are NOT local to Cincinnati. Lucky for me, one of my Mt. Kofinas olive oils is chili pepper flavored! This might be considered cheating by some, but I’m not one of them. With some support from some herbs that I dried last year from my and my sister’s gardens, lots of black pepper, and a dose of salt, the chili turned out quite tasty! I don’t usually include summer squash, but I added it this time to bulk up the soup and make it go a little further.

Breakfast Day 8: I couldn’t make any more eggs. Literally, I only had one egg left. So breakfast was local apple slices and exotic peanut butter on toast. I buy Krema peanut butter, which is produced in Ohio! I doubt they grow the peanuts here, but I’m still supporting a local-ish business.  Lunch Day 8: This should look awfully familiar…. I love leftovers! And chili only improves in flavor as it sits in the fridge.Dinner Day 8: I believe this is the meal I am most proud of. I have made other meat-free lasagnas before, but this one is pretty near and dear to my heart, since I used only local ingredients. I also used part of my mom’s lasagna recipe (for the cottage cheese filling), which is pretty cool. I grew up loving my mom’s lasagna. It was one of the meals I would request for my birthday dinner. It was a lot of work, which is why my mom–a mother of 7 children and wife of a dairy farmer–didn’t make it very often. My veggie version worked out to be a little simpler since there weren’t any noodles to pre-cook. Once the challenge is done, I may need to write this recipe up so I can try to recreate it!
Vendors I bought from and where I found them:

• Mt. Kofinas – Montgomery Farmers’ Market
• Finn Meadows – CSA
• My Artisano Foods – Whole Foods
• Blue Oven Bakery – Northside Farmers’ Market
• Shamrock Farms – Green Bean Delivery
• Hartzler’s – Green Bean Delivery
• Canal Junction – Northside Farmers’ Market
• Deeper Roots – Montgomery Farmers’ Market
• Rice Family Harvest – Montgomery Farmers’ Market
• Traders Point – Green Bean Delivery