Follow the Food

Before moving to the desert, we participated in a cross-country bicycle trip that put us up close and personal with some of our food sources. We saw the contrast between big farm corporations and smaller-scale farmers, and heard the stories of local and small town businesses and farmers being run out by larger corporations and chains. After our ride, we read Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma (discussed in a previous post), and started to become more intentional about sourcing our food.

We visited a few farms that were practicing small, local, sustainable agriculture. Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia (mentioned in Pollan's book) boasts a "beyond organic" label, where pigs till the forest, rabbits neutralize waste, and mobile chicken coops permit natural cycles of grass growth. Polyface Farm introduced techniques that have caught on with organic farmers, and we have been hot on the trail!

Despite the lack of water, the Phoenix valley sustains a year-long growing season, and we have been thrilled to find opportunities to support our local (and organic) farmers. Our first find was Bountiful Baskets, a volunteer cooperative that provides local produce and grains on a bi-weekly basis. This organization is run completely by volunteers, and has locations around the country. Their unique status ensures low costs for consumers and high returns for local farmers. We have loved contributing to Bountiful Baskets, and have learned a lot about food seasonality, recipes and cooking/preparation. Since you can never be 100% sure what will be in the next basket, we've discovered several new foods, too (Bok Choy, Fennel, Leeks, and more!), which always turns into a hunt for new recipes.

We'd love to read any comments about your local food options; please share below!

Check back for new recipes and ideas from our most recent basket bounty!

It's Not Easy Eating Green (or is it?)

One of our many meanderings has been on the topic of food, more specifically, how to maintain a more healthy eating lifestyle. We've tried a variety of diet and exercise programs, ranging from P90X to calorie-counting, with plenty of gym memberships in between!

You can probably agree that consistent, regular exercise is essential. The question of what to eat has always been more vexing. A book that kick-started our proactive search to eat more healthily and sustainably (for both the environment and our own bodies) was The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Whether you're a die-hard carnivore or a vegan, a health-fanatic or a fast-food junkie, Pollan's book will have you thinking and re-thinking how and what we eat.

Looking for an answer in a nutshell? Take Pollan's advice:

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
(Pollan, Michael. "Unhappy Meals." The New York Times Magazine. 28 January 2007. http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/unhappy-meals/) 

Ha! I'm a vegetarian, so I'm two-thirds of the way there, right?

Of course not.

So began our quest to determine which plants should be filling our cart at the grocery store (or better yet, our garden). Stay tuned for future posts about eating our greens!

Hot Dishes: Quesadillas

Our second attempt at "convegan" cooking was decidedly less vegan, though still vegetarian (and easily modified in either direction). We opted for real monterey jack and cheddar cheeses where the recipe called for a veggie cheese substitute, and stuffed the tortillas to the brim with roasted onions and red, green and orange peppers. We learned the real trick for tasty quesadillas is in how you roast the vegetables. Throwing them into a high-heat oil like safflower or grapeseed really brings out the flavors. I even topped a few pieces with Sriracha sauce for an extra "kick."

We decided that this is a great quick meal with a lot of flavor for just a little time. True to the cookbook's title, the carnivore in the house didn't even miss the meat!

Hot Dishes: "Convegan" Cooking

Over the years, we have labeled ourselves vegetarian, pescetarian, vegan, and "convegan" (vegan when it's convenient!). Currently our household is divided: one vegetarian convegan and one omnivore.

A recent gift, Vegan Cooking For Carnivores, appeared to be the perfect compromise for us. Chef Roberto Martin boasts that the dishes in his cookbook are "so tasty you won't miss the meat," so we had to put it to the test.

Our first sample was the spicy noodle salad.

It's a relatively simple meal, and the dressing is really what makes it:

3 TBSP peanut butter
zest & juice of 2 limes*
1 TBSP sesame oil
2 TBSP agave nectar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce (or more to taste)

*We used lemons, and it was a happy accident!

This dressing is great over noodles and roasted vegetables, and would go great with almost any salad. Here's to more conveniently vegan cooking in 2014!

What's in a name?

When we decided to get back into blogging, the toughest question was, of course, "But what will we call it?"

Over the course of roughly 24 hours, we tossed back and forth clever (and corny) alliterations, quotes, plays on words, and song lyrics. We scanned the thesaurus and checked for URLs already in use.

We knew that we wanted the title to have a sense of motion - We like to think of ourselves as always "on the move" - traveling, learning, and trying something new. We see life as full of opportunities for adventure, and we embrace the vagabonding explorer's spirit.

That being said, we've found ourselves rather stationary (at least physically) lately. We are in no hurry to pick up and take off on another big trip, but we want to do much more exploring in the place we call home. So what do we call our slower-moving little adventures that seem to take us this way and that, without moving toward any particular new location or goal?

We pulled out the thesaurus (okay, we went to thesaurus.com!), and under "meander" we found synonyms like:

drift
ramble 
roam
all over the map

BINGO!

Enter the song "A Lovely Meander" by Three Fish (thank you, iPod). The lyrics completed the picture for us... and isn't life just lovely anyway?

Perhaps the best part about our blog title is that it allows us to cover a wide variety of topics. We hope to cover our lovely meanders through everything from hikes and traveling, to experiments in the kitchen, garden, training our dog, and more! We hope to share some tidbits of wisdom and experience, and welcome your contributions, too.

Thanks for coming along on our lovely meander through life with us!

Inspiration from a Hedgehog

"A little more to the left... there!"

Mike graciously tolerated my insistence on getting the perfect photos of Flat Spiky out in the great Sonoran Desert. By the third photo, I was carefully placing Spiky under various cacti spines, rather than positioning him at arm's length for a perspective shot.

"Teddy Bear Cholla" - AKA "Jumping" Cactus

This fun opportunity for educational photo journalism (thanks to Flat Stanley and my nephew's 3rd grade class) got both of us talking about our previous blogging attempt. After crossing the U.S. by bicycle, touring New England, working on a farm in Kentucky, and making the big move to the great southwest, we ran out of big and exciting blog ideas... at least, we thought we had.

Hedgehog Cactus

Snapping photos of a paper hedgehog next to a cactus that shares its name reignited our excitement for sharing our own discoveries (no matter how small) with anyone who will listen (or read). We were reminded that adventures don't have to be grand excursions or long trips; discovery can happen in our own backyard, the kitchen, a good book...

And so, ladies and gentlemen, we bring you, "A Lovely Meander." What follows will be our own discoveries as we meander our way through life.