I just read on the McDougall forum that Wednesday, September 23, marks 100 days left in the year. I've decided this is a great opportunity to set myself a challenge for the rest of the year. I invite you to join me, with each of us choosing how we will challenge ourselves during the "100 Days."
My challenge will be to eat for free through the end of the year. This means I will need to eat primarily from my own pantry. Fresh foods will have to come from my CSA share, my sweetie's garden, and anything else I can harvest (such as olives) or salvage for free (such as bananas). Of course, trade and barter with other folks will be allowed as well.
Believe it or not, this doesn't mean I will be forced to give up all meals at restaurants. In one weight loss competitive group I'm involved with, the second place weekly winner sometimes gets a complimentary meal pass for a salad bar. I might also be able to barter labor for a meal out. Who knows, maybe I'll drop hints for Christmas that a gift certificate for a free burrito would be a nice gift.
This challenge will accomplish a number of things. It will get me focused on eating food at home, especially important during the holidays. It will help me reduce the amount of stuff we'll have to move once we find a new home. It will keep the budget in line, which will help in paying for a new home. And it will force me to be more creative.
If you'd like to join me in the 100 Days Challenge, leave a comment. Choose any one thing you want to do through the end of the year that will make your life more sustainable or environmentally responsible. Late-comers are still welcome to join.
Here's a little doodad to put on your sidebar if you join me.
<a href="http://chilechews.blogspot.com/2009/09/100-days-challenge.html"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2H3G4C5T6s0/SrlHsgN362I/AAAAAAAACpw/-EK41OwgUE0/s200/100+Days+logo.jpg" /></a>
- Copy the code above.
- In Blogger, go to your layout options, and click on Add a Gadget.
- Select Text.
- Click Edit Html
- Paste the code you copied in the body.
- Then click Rich Text to confirm the image shows up.
- Save.
When you view your blog, the sidebar image should now appear and have a hyperlink back to this blog.
15 comments:
Cool! I'm in! I'm in a challenge-y mood lately.
I've noticed that I haven't been buying food for myself lately - between what I have in stock, what I'm growing in the backyard, what I barter for, and what I am given at the farmers' market from generous vendors, I hardly buy anything at all for myself. It'll be fun to see how far it takes me into the 100 days.
I do like to eat out a couple times a week and will continue that, but will see if I can't get away with not buying anything other than an occasional meal out. Cool challenge!
Not in with this one, but wanted to let you know I started my vinegar today!
My challenge, I will avoid bringing plastic into our home. I watched a lot of videos last night about the plastic problem from Fake Plastic Fish. It is about time I tackle this issue. I'll take pictures.
Rats! I remembered last night that I still buy fruit for myself. Nothing really available at the farmers' market (aka barterable) so I have to buy local fruit at the produce market. Ok. So maybe my challenge will be to see how cheaply I can get by every week. My guess is I only spend a few dollars a week at this point. We'll see...
I'll be interested in organizing better how we eat from what we have:
--Something from the freezer (which is nearly all garden)
--Something from the Mason jars
--Something from the storage bins
--Something from the gallon jars
--Something from the garden
every day!
I need to make better use of the stuff and space I have -- to avoid food spoilage, prevent duplicative buying, quite wasting time, make better use of heated space, have access to improve weatherization, and beat back some chaos.
SO I'm in on the 100 day challenge.
My goal is to (a)unpack/unclutter/organize/put-away/sort/discard/clean etc.
(b) one box/shelf/pile/flat-surface/drawer/etc.
(c) a day (on average since I'll won't be home every day). That could mean, for instance, catching up on the paper shredding, emptying the overloaded dishdrainer, unpacking one of the 40 boxes of books that I haven't gotten around to, or recovering the dining room table as a useable surface.
I found it really thought provoking to think about a way a good way to use these 100 days. Thanks, Chile.
I'm not in on this one unless I think of something I want to tackle but I have to give you a big high five on your challenge. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I had some free figs from the community garden tonight. Any community gardens or harvest exchanges in your area?
Okay, I picked a challenge. I will try? make sure?--how affirmative do I have to be--that I use all my leftovers to the nth degree. And one more part, to use up my produce in whatever way I can find before it rots.
I'm better at these two things than I was a year ago but cooking for one, I sometimes get too enthusiastic about cooking with my solar ovens and make too much at one time. Also, I get tired of eating the same thing after a couple of days.
Very Leftover meat and some cheese or egg dishes aren't a problem as some of my cats like them.
I expect I'll end up making more veg broth from scratch with odds and end from the crisper drawer.
:)
Peace,
Shamba
while not exactly free that is a huge challenge!
I wish you the best!
Heather - you're in. Time to butter up those vendors! :)
JAM - good for you. Is it apple?
Beany - good choice!
Risa - sounds like there will be some good eatin'.
SusanB - ooh, I love your choice. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes!
kale - chicken! Yeah, you. C'mon, surely there's something you're will to tackle for a few months. How about "breathing"? ;-P
There are community gardens but I'm not aware of any harvest exchanges in town.
Shamba - good plan. Make friends with your freezer!
E - in terms of cash, it will be free. The food in the pantry is already paid for. I volunteer in exchange for my CSA share so I'm only paying in time and effort. The garden supplies are paid for, other than ongoing watering needs. Harvest and salvage are free, and additional ingredients needed for preserving or processing those foods are in the pantry. If I barter or trade, I'm doing so with food I already have.
I guess technically, I could say instead "Spend no money on food."
I know I'm a little late, but I was wondering if I could play? I thought of what I would challenge myself to do for the next 100 ... well, ninety-two ... days :).
My challenge will be to exercise every day. I know that doesn't sound like much of anything, but when you figure I do nothing now, doing anything is a huge change. I challenge myself to do *something* every day - mostly it will be calesthenic-type exercises, and I plan to start low (like ten *side-straddle-hops* and five push-ups) and add a couple each day. It will be fun to see where I am in ... ninety-two (ahem) days :).
So, I know I'm late, but can I play?
Wendy - of course you can play! In fact, you reminded me that I have another friend with the same goal as yours that wanted to be added.
I'm late, but I'd like to try as well.
My two goals are:
1. Survive this semester. Because right now it's killing me.
2. Reduce food waste, with the goal of eliminating it. We are a lot better in my house about wasting less than we used to be, but I still feel like we waste a lot. Tomorrow I'm going to clean out everything bad in the fridge and we'll go from there.
2a. I'd like to work my way through some of the soups I canned, and syrups and jams and such too, if I can manage it on top of the rest (mostly the semester issue).
I'm really late for this challenge. But it has inspired me to not buy any food from now until December 24th. However many days that is.
The freezer part of our refrigerator is so packed we don't even know what is in it. And we have stockpiles of dried beans and different kinds of rice, grains: barley, kasha, oats, etc. All that good old hippie food. Pretty much every grain, bean and spice needed to make anything from the Moosewood cookbook. And yet we hit the grocery store often and buy other stuff that is easier and faster to make. (But I don't mean junk food box stuff or TV Dinners.) More like a family discussion of, "What should we have for dinner tonight?" And someone says "Lasagna." And we stop in the grocery store and buy the pasta for it, a jar of sauce, mozzarella and ricotta cheese, parmesan and when we go through the checkout I gasp at how much money it costs to make that. Then all the way home in the truck, I am kicking myself saying, "I really need to get back to cooking good ole hippy food: Beans, rice and veggies.
So my challenge is to use up all the unknowns in the freezer, which I know includes about 6 containers of homemade Pesto. Use up the beans and grains.
I am going to allow myself to buy any missing ingredients needed to complete a meal to make it healthy. (ie: we have no veggies on hand.)
Allie - You're on the list. Hope eating up all your good food will help you survive the semester.
Bayberry Roost - I hear ya! I had to inventory both the refrigerator and freezer to get a sense of what was going on in there. And we'd do the same thing as you in regards to wanting to go for easy meals rather than using up the other food on hand. Looking forward to your reports of hippie meals you've made!
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