epicurious: fresh eating?

Ok friends, I realize, I have not posted pictures in a while. And I think posts are 100% better with visual aid so I am happy to say I got over my "but then I have to upload them and everything" phase for the sake of displaying my thoughts this evening.

I have found myself involved in more than one conversation as of late about the film Food Inc, eating locally by participating in a community share garden and food in general. The last one is nothing new, I have always loved the topic. However, I am starting to become more curious about what pursuing more local eating would look like. Even on the level of making a more concerted effort to get to the farmer's market to get these weekly:

I'm trying to be reasonable here, after all, it was only a short 3 or 4 months ago that I first publicly confessed a new love for McDonalds. But something in me says that eating fresh ingredients and supporting local producers is a bit more sustainable love. So as I explore this interest, here is the outpouring of it that took place in my quiet little kitchen tonight.

Chopping lots and lots of veggies:

Tossed with lots of this:

And a generous amount of seasonings because I tend to underseason; I used salt, pepper, basil and a few generous dashes of the cute little seasoning below that I received back in February as part of Jodi's cooking demo party:

From there I shook it up, potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, onion, carrots and all and baked for 45 minutes at 425, stirring a couple of times along the way.


I also took my shaking bowl, added a few more pinches of seasoning and tossed some chicken in there (my own shake & bake) and baked that side-by-side with the veggies for good measure. As much as I could live on carbs alone, I think part of this whole eating healthy things means balance so I thought that might even things out a bit. I baked the chicken for 30 minutes, covered with foil because of the blazing heat of the oven and it turned out great.

In other pursuits of health, the countdown is on to our weekend getaway to the cottage, one of our favorite places in life. 3 days until there is only a quiet lake, sleeping in, taking naps and hoping it rains so we have nowhere to go and nothing to do.