Lauren Savaglio

Green & Gold EcoChallenger

I am a professor in public health. One of my specialities is environmental health, in particular food security and sustainability. As much as I am informed and educated, there is always more for me to do to help achieve food sustainability within my own household. Just yesterday as part of one of my classes, we visited a local ecoganic vegetable farm to tour and learn about the process growing food. I feel it's extremely important to reach out and know who is producing our food and how they are producing it. It is larger than just running to the store and grabbing the easiest thing.

My specific goals for the challenge are to:

Purchase ALL my food from the local farmers market...no running to the grocery store to supplement.

Purchase ONLY organic/ecoganic foods from the farmers market.

Commit to farm tour dates next semester for all my classes.

No eating out at all (not even grabbing a bagel for breakfast). Cooking all my meals and snacks at home, where I control the ingredients and production.

I eat fish once a week (no meat otherwise), so I will only chose fish that has been sustainably raised...again from the farmers market only.

While this last one is slightly outside of the first two weeks of October, I will be showing a video about food production in the U.S. to my undergrad students (their choice of either Food, Inc., King Corn, or The Future of Food).

I will promote the challenge and document my progress in my food blog (http://vitaepane.blogspot.com) .

My EcoChallenge Blog

October 13th, 2011

The effort to only use foods bought from my local farmers market is continuing! Officially the EcoChallenge is ending this Saturday. I have found that there are some challenges that go along with buying only local and organic. Mainly the convenience issue. This point was driven home when I used my lunch hour to go to the farmers market, only to discover the market had been cancelled that day (not on the website or anything! Still slightly annoyed by that). I had to rush to find another market and leave work a little early in order to fit everything in before guests came over that night. While it would've been much easier to stop off at the grocery store, I took comfort in knowing that not only was I staying true to my commitment, but I was serving my friends the freshest possible ingredients. Another "plus" is that I feel like I've been saving money. By limiting myself trips to the market, I'm not picking up random things. I'm more conscious of what I'm buying and what I need to buy. Again, this takes some planning, but at the same time, it can be exciting to go to the market and have bags full of fresh, and sometimes never tried before, vegetables. Pear and Fig Pie: http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/pear-and-fig-open-faced-pie.html

October 11th, 2011

A recipe made with the eggs from the farmers market! http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/garam-masala-deviled-eggs.html

October 10th, 2011

Another recipe... http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/crostini-with-goat-cheese-fig-and-fried.html

October 10th, 2011

I had my get together this past Friday (sorry for the delay in the update...was traveling this weekend). I was able to rush to the other farmers market and thankfully, they were open (and there were cheese stands!). I was getting nervous there. I made lots of goodies and here's the first edition: http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/carmaelized-onion-and-eggplant-crostini.html

October 7th, 2011

A quick update on attempting (yes attempting) to get to the farmers market for my produce for tonight's festivities. I walked to the farmers market near me at work (in all theory between the hours of 11-3 today...even got the email newsletter they send out yesterday confirming the market). When I got there, no market! A lovely demonstration and protest was in its place, complete with tents, so from a distance it was deceiving. I am now back at my desk and slightly annoyed that I wasted a big portion of my lunch hour. I have looked up another market in Alexandria that opens at 4. Hopefully I can get there, get what I need and rush back home to get everything ready. And hopefully the market there will actually, you know, be there.

October 7th, 2011

Last night, I began the prep process for my get together tonight. I took stock of what I had in my house and what I need to grab from the farmers market this afternoon. Thankfully, I don't need much. Just from fresh herbs and cheeses for the most part. I tried to cater my menu around what I already had from the market last week. I had plenty of ideas of what to make at first, but I had to pull back and really look to see what ingredients were being used. Most are not in season right now or are not local foods in any season (pineapple and bananas aren't exactly local here in the DC area). I think I have a good game plan and moved forward with it by making some homemade bread. I LOVE making bread. If I could make bread everyday and never buy store bought bread again, that would make me very happy. So, here's the recipe for water bread. Yum! http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/as-part-of-my-ecochallenge-goal-i-have.html

October 6th, 2011

Tomorrow, I will be hosting a get-together at my house for a group of friends. I have been thinking about what I should serve (can't go hungry in my house!). The problem is that a lot of things I've been considering, I don't have all the ingredients and I may not be able to get them from the farmers market. Luckily, there is a farmers market in Penn Quarter (DC) near my work tomorrow afternoon. I am planning on walking over there on my lunchbreak to stock up on some things. I have never hosted company and not run to the store for something before, whether it be a type of cheese or specialty item. I just hope I can get to the market early so they don't run out of fresh herbs (selling like hotcakes with the weather turning colder). Anyone have any good appetizer-like recipes for what's in season? I have lots of eggplant, peppers...

October 5th, 2011

Yesterday turned out to be much less productive than I had anticipated. During the day at work, I dreamed of making a new fantastic dish with all my veggies. Instead, I got the flu shot. How did this derail my dreams? Well, apparently, I was one of the few people in the WORLD who has a reaction to it. At least it wasn't an allergic reaction, but a really, really bad headache. So bad that it made me feel nauseated. I promptly left work, got home, and napped (I love naps) for two hours. I got up and made some pasta (I had whole wheat pasta on hand) with Italian sweet pepper sauce. (The recipe link is below. I made it last week as well.) I had some basil on hand from what I've been growing (completely organic) and used lots of it. Figured I needed to start finishing it up before it all died from the cold weather we've been having. Oh, and after I ate dinner, I promptly went to bed and slept another 10 hours. Just what I needed to feel refreshed this morning! Stay tuned for new recipes over the next couple of days. http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/09/pasta-with-creamy-italian-sweet-pepper.html

October 3rd, 2011

Meal made with the awesome produce from the Arlington Farmers Market. http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/when-i-was-trying-to-figure-out-what-to.html

October 3rd, 2011

Waking up at 5:30 this morning, it was very tempting to (1) hit snooze multiple times and (2) not worry about breakfast until getting to work - they have a lovely cafeteria, which opens at 7. #1 did happen. Twice. BUT I scrounged together some will power to avoid #2. By getting ready a bit more quickly (I'm saving water by taking speed showers!), I was able to motivate myself to make myself some breakfast at home before running out for the day. I think it'll be easy to adhere to my goals during the weekend. Plenty of time to pull meals together, not so rushed to get to work or other places... However, during the week when sleep is precious and time is scarce, it'll be more challenging. So, my poor students, if you see me a little more sleepy than usual this week, blame it on the challenge and my committment to eat the breakfast I have prepared as opposed to buying it on the run!

October 1st, 2011

Day One This morning started out the challenge strong. I braved the cold (I'm convinced it's Fall now) and rain to go to the farmers market. I stocked up on lots of veggies and eggs. I even grabbed a type of squash that I haven't tried before so recipe experimentation will occur. I have updated my food blog with pictures of my bounty (link below). http://vitaepane.blogspot.com/2011/10/ecochallenge-2011.html

September 28th, 2011

T minus three days... I am trying to formulate in my mind how to make sure I get what I need from the market this Saturday morning. Thankfully, the market I normally go to is on the first day of the challenge. I'm taking that as a positive sign. Time to start fresh! I'm just hoping I can prepare enough snack foods to eat on the run to get me through the times when preparing a full meal isn't possible. I'm just thankful that I can cook and enjoy it as well. Now to get the rest of my family signed up...

Comments

From: Mike Mercer

Nice job Lauren of pulling so many others in. A real inspiration! Enjoy the challenge.

From: Sadaf Hasnain

YAY! IT'S BEGUN! LEGGOOOO GREEN AND GOLD! We got this! ^_^

Full list of teams | Green & Gold Profile

My EcoChallenge(s)

Sustainable Food Options

My EcoChallenge Team

Green & Gold