Today was a fruit & veggie day. After all the sampling & trials for the asparagus pasta, I was ready to detox.

Breakfast was 1 banana, 1 organic grapefruit and one organic apple sliced and shopped into a refreshing fruit salad for 1.9$
For lunch I had a big serving of the freshly picked, local & organic arugula salad, tossed with a little of Guido’s Balsamic for 1.5$

Dinner was a mistake. Or not. Better: it was a temptation I could not resist. I had seen a very delicious recipe on the fabulous blog “Lucullian Delights” (see in navigation: Other blogs I like) for potato bread with chives. Turns out I had a bunch of local, organic chives in my fridge, which came in my weekly produce box. Plus, some old organic local yams – testimonies of a winter that finally passed (although Michigan did have frost last week, which unfortunately destroyed some of the fruit already blossoming). So, I was wondering, could potatoes be substituted with yams? How about the starch content? Was it similar? I decided to take the risk, using the Lucullian Delights recipe, adding another cup of organic whole wheat flour and more chives. What can I say. It was delicious. And so was dinner: I almost ate 1 quarter of my bread, slathered with butter. And just to be precise: we are not talking about a small loaf of bunny bread, but a large wheel! The taste of the chives mingled with the slight sweetness the yams brought to the bread. And the dough was perfect. Fluffy, moist – soooo yummy. Baking bread yourself is really not that difficult. The two important things to have are: a) patience – you need to give the dough time to rise. I had it sitting for five hours before baking it; b) make sure you have an oven thermometer, so you can finetune the temperature. The exact temperature is very important for bread baking! So, now how much did this dinner cost me? 1.49$ for organic dry yeast, 1.8$ organic flour, 1.2$ for Cosimo’s EVOO, 0.2$ organic raw cane sugar, 0.6$ for the yams, 0.4$ organic Castle Rock milk, 0.3$ chives = 5.99 for the bread overall. Let me have eaten 1.50$ of it with 0.4$ of butter = 1.90$ and a lot of happiness for dinner.

Total food cost for today: 5.30$

Updating...

It was runny egg yolk w. asparagus recipe development day today. So my food intake consisted of exactly that: two large ravioli, some asparagus nibbled raw, some pieces of trial pasta… overall I spend 4.64$ on my two giant ravioli

Asparagus: 1.5$
Ricotta: 1$
Two eggs: 0.66$
EVOO: 0.45$
Flour: 0.30$
One more eggs: 0.33$
Roasting & Grilling salt: 0.1$
Balsamic: 0.3$

Add an apple and a little yoghurt for a Total Food Cost of 6$

Gosh. How long was I off air? Mamma mia, time flies… in contrast to that ash cloud that hung over Europe and turned a quick visit to Europe’s bigges wine event – VinItaly – in a three weeks stay. Now I am back in the US and back to Value Eating.

And the best part: the month was all it took to go from beets to asparagus. How cool is that!

So today I indulged in half a bunch of fresh asparagus (1.5$) and fingerling potatoes (0.5$) , drizzled with Cosimo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil (0.45$) – heaven! If I had to choose a preferred vegetable, it would surely be asparagus. The green one that is…. Yumm, a perfect dinner! Spring in every bite!

For brunch I had an organic green smoothie made of rainbow chard (1.50$), a banana (40c) and an apple (30c).

My afternoon snack were one of Nicoletta’s & Giovanna’s Brutti ma Buoni cookies from The Scrumptious Pantry (1.5$), dipped into a strong, black espresso (Dancing Goat, yep!, 0.50$)

Total food cost for today: 7.60$

Tomorrow I will experiment with the second half of the asparagus, fresh ricotta and homemade pasta for a runny egg tortellone. Fingers' crossed!

An early morning phone-call announced lunch meeting at noon. That meant that I skipped breakfast, cause I cannot eat earlier than 10am. I just have the feeling that I need to burn some energy, before I consume more! Which is also why I am not at all a person that eats at certain times. I eat when I am hungry, not when the clock indicates a certain time. Anyways, lunch was great. I had a delicious thin crust pizza at Osteria Via Stato. Their bread is to die for, too. I stuffed my face with it… I needed not only the espresso right after the meal, but another one back home (hello, dancing goat! 40c). I am totally addicted to bread. There is nothing more satisfying than bread.. yep, I am a carbs girl. I admit!

So after all the yummy carbs for lunch (price of which was 18$), dinner was a big salad using all my leftovers in the fridge – tomorrow is Wednesday, so I have the new produce box coming from Green Grocer Chicago. Yeah! ½ bunch of organic, but Californian celery stalks (95c), 2/3 organic (and Californian) cucumber (80c) = 1.75$ plus a cup of herbal tea (27c). It is about time the snow buggers of so we can get fresh local produce again!!! Even if one was content with local root veggies (I would) – there are no more to be found… all eaten. Finshed!!

Total Food Cost For Today = 20.42$

The weekend was all screwed up. I was doing cooking demos all over Chicago and that does not encourage eating. With all the tasting, re-tasting and tasting again, more food is really not needed…. I munched on some fruit and fennel, but that was all. So we will leave this weekend blank.

On Monday, I was on my way of preparing my morning Cappuccino, when I realized that the milk started to be a little off. Now, when that happens, there are two things I usually do: either I have the milk sit outside, go completely sour and then use the cheese to do Polenta dumplings – or I throw some of Fabio’s & Nicoletta’s originario rice from The Scrumptious Pantry into a pot, pour the milk over it and cook rice pudding. Very neat breakfast or lunch. Perfect brunch on this start into the new week. 40c milk + 60c rice + 2c cinnamon + 15c honey + 65c 1 apple, plus an espresso (40c) = 2.22$

For dinner I tossed some leftover pasta (60c) from one of the weekend’s cooking demo with the greens from an organic fennel bulb (50c) and threw the last chunks of blue cheese in there (31c). Whoa, that cheese has been around since mid January.. two months for a piece of cheese… guess it was about time it went… Some Olive Oil to line the pan (25c) = 1.66$

Total Food Cost for today: 3.88$

Breakfast: A dancing goat cappuccino and a slice of artisan bread w. yummy honey and an organic apple (50c+12c+15c+65c = 2.42$)

Lunch I tried to keep away from, cause I had a big dinner coming up… I enjoyed one of the herbal teas I had bought at the Empty Bottle Farmer’s Markt – 27c.

Dinner was in a Chinese restaurant that advertises as being a more “real” than the classical American incarnations of Chinese food. Well, I had the pleasure to have lived in China and they do not deep fry all their food to death… but dinner was fun anyhow, sharing food with a crowd of friends is always nice. 15$

Total Food Cost for Today: 17.69$

Today was the day of drinking out – coffee that is. I went to Wisconsin to meet with a group of incredible talented people to discuss a potential future collaboration. Four hours driving both ways meat I needed to get up early. Which meant that after 100 miles I needed some coffee. Now, I wish I would have a thermos for these occasions, so I can bring my own. Other than for food, I have not yet thought about that, but after today, I will certainly change that (I brought the other half of the “polenta lasagne” for lunch and that was great, cause just looking at the food available at the gas stations along the way made me feel a slight nausea. Anyways, I got my green mermaid worth of milk drink and made it to Iowa County w/o falling asleep (3.70$). I had another espresso at a small café/bookstore/food store in Mineral Point (the cutest town and a great store, too – Set in Stone is it’s name! 2.05$)

For food, I had leveraged on the fact that there was one last banana left from last week’s produce box and that this week’s included rainbow chard. Yeah, you are right – a green smoothie breakfast! I was curious to see if I would feel as hungry again shortly afterwards, but I figured that sitting in the car and not moving it might be a good opportunity to give the green smoothie his last fair chance. I added an apple and it was fine. Tasted fine and I was not overly hungry (at least not for the first 100 miles, hence ca. 1.5 hours – that is when I had the so called “cappuccino” which in this country contains enough mik to qualify as dinner!) apple 65c, banana 39c, chard 1.25$ = 2.29$

1.99$ for my lunch (the second serving of the polenta lasagne) and 99c for two organic tangerines in the afternoon = 2.98$
On my way back from Wisconsin I decided to take a nap in a rest area rather than spend more money on coffee… Luckily I am one of those people that can sleep everywhere, anywhere!

Back home I dived into my fridge to clear out all the veggies that were from last week and threw them together for a big salat: three turnips, 1/3 cucumber, 3 small radishes, a couple of celery stalks. Finished off with juice of ½ lemon (Tot 2.5$). Went with a sandwich of two slices of artisan bread (24c) and my imported camembert (35c)

To wind down before going to bed I prepared myself a tea I had bought at least weeks Farmer’s market from a little company called …. A herbal tea supposed to relax. It freaked me out at first, cause it smells EXACTLY like CREST TOOTHPASTE! I never ever had smelled that exact smell before anywhere else but in a squeezable tube that contained toothpaste. If there was a smell in this world I had connected with artifical, it was crest. Guess I was wrong. Looking forward to meet the owner of the company soon again at another market, I wanna know what that herb is!! 27c

Total Food Cost for Today: 11.45$

Today was a day of some kitchen experiments. Well, rather a couple of hours in the evening. But it was so much fun! I love playing around with ingredients.

But before I arrived in front of my stove, I had half a Ciabatta bread roll (from Cook au vin, great artisan baker who sells around the Chicago Farmer’s Markets!) w. butter & honey & a glas milk for breakfast = 50c+15c+15c+40 c = 1.20$
And for lunch an organic banana and the other half of the bread with some of my imported Camembert (39c, 50c, 50c) = 1.39$

For dinner I used the leftover of the polenta seasoned with chilli peppers & oregano. I was thinking in the lines of a polenta based veggie lasagne. So I lined the baking pan with 1 Tbsp of Roberta’s intensely sunny tasting sun-dried tomato spread, and then layered polenta (in which I had mixes on egg) – grilled eggplant – polenta – grilled eggplant (the eggplant I had briefly grilled on the griddle pan on the stove). After 20 min in the oven at 450 F, I turned the whole things upside down on a plate and hade two slices of it with a side of salad, the remaining organic romaine lettuce. Very yummy!

As a perfect condiment I used some of the green garlic pesto I had prepared earlier: Vera from Videnovic Farms had brought this green baby garlic to last Saturday’s Farmer’s Market – I passed four bunches through the food processor with ¼ cup of Cosimo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil and seasoned it with a tsp of Roberta’s Roasting & Grilling Salt. To die for! So yummy! I can totally see me using that as a spread on my sandwiches… I am also thinking a savory crepe with a thin layer of this “garlic pesto” and then filled with minced beef & sautéed chard… sooo many ideas. I love products like that, a food that you smell or taste and then a firework of ideas goes off in your head! So, be prepared – I will be babbling about green garlic pesto for a while!!

Polenta 40c, ½ organic eggplant 64c, 1/2 tbsp Sun Dried Tomato Spread 60c, 1/2 egg 33c romaine lettuce: 35c = 2.22$
Green garlic pesto: 4$ garlic, 1.2$ EVOO, 0.1$ salt = 5.30$ for ca 20 teaspoons. = 27c

TOTAL FOOD COSTS FOR TODAY: 5.18$

These days I am not sleeping enough, so the morning I need coffee to get up. Not a good habit at all! So breakfast was my DancingGoat Castle Rock Café latte (50c), two slices of bread (24c) and some honey (30c). Mid-morning snack was an apple (65c).

For lunch I had the final serving of my soup, with a drizzle of Cosimo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil to finish it off (1.69c).

About mid-afternoon, a vision began to appear before my inner eye and was not going away. It just sat there… wherever I looked: a nice piece of meat! As you will have realized by now, I am not the biggest of meat eaters. But I like my steak once in a while! Or a nice burger. Or lamb chops. Or meat stew. For these occasions, I have my freezer well stocked. Whenever I come across a great product at the Farmer’s Market or some Farm Store, I will by my frozen meat and poultry. Actually I have to admit that there is a little too much meat stored in the freezer compared to the amount I am eating. Like this huge bird that is waiting for me to throw a dinner party for extended family & friends, and possibly also the neighbors! But. Anyways. I have these nice steaks I had bought in Fairbury at the farm of the Kilgus Family. One ended up on my plate, juicy, tasty – the quintessence of great pasture feed meat for 5$. After cooking the meat, I neatly cut off the meat before plating it, cause the bone went into the freezer to used the next time I cook a nice bean soup. As sides I sautéed the greens that were on the organic red beets in my produce box (not local at this point. The first non local beets – but it IS the end of March). How much is the price of the greens? Very good question, cause usually the greens are considered waste and thrown out (very unfortunate habit). I will count it as if it were a beet: 35c. Sauteed in a little olive oil and finished off with a bit of Roberta’s Roasting & Grilling Salt (30c). For carbs I slow cooked some of Nicoletta’s & Fabio’s Polenta, which I seasoned with some hot chillis and oregano (40c) = 6.05$

Total Food Cost for Today: 9.33$

The morning I prepared myself a nice caffe’ latte using one cup of organic milk and preparing some artisan Dancing Goat Espresso in my small Italian mokka that sits on the stove. Thanks to Dancing Goat I have now altered my caffe’ making ritual. If you remember a previous post on the Italians rules on preparing caffe’ – well, those rules work in Italy. They do not work here. I had to go through some frantic moments of heart racing, cause I used as much grind beans as I would have used in Italy. WrongWrongWrong. The Italians roast their coffee beans really dark. The longer the roasting process, the less the caffeine! So now I do not even fill all of the sieve with coffee and it is perfect! 40c milk, 10c coffee beans = 50c.

For lunch I reheated half of what was left of my veggie soup from the day earlier. For variation, I minced up three small green garlic (greens & bulbs) and mixed them (fresh) under the soup. Looked nice and tasted great – a little delicate punch of baby garlic. Again, I ate two slices of bread with the soup (& butter!) = 1.74 c (50c for the baby garlic).

While I was munching on my organic afternoon apple (65 c it is SO great to still be able to find delicious local produce NOW!) For dinner I was called out for dinner with friends who were so kind to invite me, so we are gonna blank on that one!

TOTAL FOOD COSTS OF TODAY = 2.89 USD