Hungry As a Bear

As with most successful undertakings, preparation is key. It's also the most overlooked step, and I am no exception. Since the farmers' market is not til Saturday, I have two days -six meals and snacks- to fill with the local foods that happen to already be in my fridge. Panic!  Upset stomach, wild kids and a lost Nuk derailed my Wednesday night plans to cook some potatoes in advance. At a quick glance the eggs, jams, hamburger patties and bowl of blueberries seemed plenty to get me through until it came down to pack Thursday's lunch and I thought " there's nothing to eat!"

Luckily, my good friend Kara of Millan's Custom Butchering in Armstrong Creek surprised me with
 bear /beef snack sticks to kick off my new food regimen. That's right, bear. I hadn't counted on bear as an option but due to the urgent needs of my stomach, if it's local- it's in. 

So yesterday's menu went like this:
Breakfast- fresh farm eggs scrambled in butter ( nix the Pam for this endeavor), with pepper jelly from Wilson Creek Gardens and a big glass of Jilbert's milk.
Lunch- Despite the onslaught of morning-meeting donut exposure, I made it through with more eggs, this time hard-boiled over fresh lettuce and more pepper jelly. (I love this stuff.) Bear snack sticks with cheese. Blueberries and raspberries from my yard mixed with some raspberry jelly from Wilson Creek to sweeten things up and a non-conforming emergency apple before heading home. I had suffered a lingering headache all day which I chalk up to sudden caffeine withdrawal.
Dinner- The Hubby had already browned ground beef for tacos for himself and the kids and my Wilson Creek beef patties had not defrosted so it was more eggs, scrambled with pepper jelly and Jalapeno salsa (thank you Greg!) for dinner. Aside from the headache (instantly remedied with Tylenol at home) I survived my first day without gut-wrenching hunger pangs. I'm starting to realize cravings and longings do not constitute hunger, and therefore, do not need to be fed. 

Cooking separate dinners is one of the downsides of this experiment. The Hubby and the kids are exempt from the project and due to our work schedules, supper time is the only time we have together during the day as a family. Not that I could coerce my four year old to trade in his Easy Mac for lamb chops anyway, at least not right away, I want him to know where his food comes from and what it takes to bring it to his plate. My daughter on the other hand will eat anything and everything in front of her, ground up or finger foods,  a big smile on her sticky face,  stopping between bites to say her two favorites sounds "mmmm" and "yeah!". She definitely has her mama's appetite. That makes it all the more important to start her off with the most nutritious food available.