Day 1

Lunch Time- Day 1

11am rolled around and I was starving! But soon realized I am usually starving by mid-morning and try to hold out until at least noon to grab a bite.
Breakfast consisted of an orange and experimental pancakes topped with Bulgarian yogurt from White Mountain Foods. I made the experimental pancakes last night with flour, honey, milk, yogurt, egg, olive oil and vanilla***.

Lunch consisted of white texas rice, floured and fried tofu*, homemade crackers and broccoli. I also brought a couple carrots and an orange for additional snacking…

Tonight I’m thinking about something to do with sweet potatoes and lettuce.

Up next on the plate: Salt
Stay tuned for texas salt flats, wars and industry oh my.


*Tofu. White Mountain Foods is a local company here in Austin. They are most known for their Bulgarian yogurt, which is made using milk from Texas cows. The tofu however, is questionable. I read a while ago that they use local ingredients and I know soybeans can grow in this region. However I am unsure if they source all their beans locally or if some are supplemented from out of state farms. I have emailed them and hope to hear back soon. As for the tofu I have, I will finish the block and not buy any more until I am sure it’s a go.

***Vanilla?? Hold the phone- vanilla doesn’t grow here! True. However there are a few items that have been acquired from their local origins and brought back by a traveling person. We are not trying to create loopholes to gain access to a wider variety of products but do believe that it makes sense if a person has traveled to a far away location (in this case for academic research) and they bring back something without extra shipping or energy expenditure then it should be allowed. In this case Sam went to Veracruz, Mexico a few weeks ago to collect fish fin clips (ask him about this project, he is super excited about it…). This region is known for its vanilla production and bringing home a small bottle of extract was not a difficult task. He did not however stock up on coffee so as to plan ahead for an entire month without caffeine. That would have been pushing the line a bit. Other items that fall into this category for us are Dulce de Leche from Buenos Aries, Argentina given to me by Dave after his Patagonian adventure (before any of this local business was ever seriously talked about) and a jar of peaches preserved two years ago from trees on the UC Davis campus when I lived there. It’s a mystery if these peaches are still good but I have been carrying the jar around with me long enough that I think its time to crack it open.
Again, we are not trying to use this as a loophole by any means (ie. I am not writing home to California and asking my parents to send me a box full of avocados) but if we have items in the pantry that have been acquired locally then they are fair game.

---UPDATE---
I checked the ingredients on the Dulce de leche and there is some other stuff in it of questionable origin so that's off the list.
However, something to add is a small jar of Verbesina alternifolia honey Sam received from his friend's bees in Kentucky