I am a box-cake girl, primarily out of necessity. I enjoy a good cake (or cupcake), but I have not taken the time to learn to make good baked goods from scratch. I aspire, one day, to be as skilled as my friend, Lindsay, who made a chocolate pie with a graham cracker crust that was soooo good I can still taste it after 4 years.

My default cake mixes (Betty Crocker and Pillsbury) have been shelved in favor of organic (and definitely healthier) versions. This week I tried out Dr. Oetker’s Organic brand of Lemon Cake Mix and Vanilla Icing Mix.

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Happy 2011!
I am officially nine days into my sustainable-purchasing challenge–which makes this inaugural blog post 8 days later than I originally intended. Going forward, you should anticipate approximately two blog posts a week. I promise not to bore you with my weekly shopping lists. Weekend posts will recount my past week’s challenges and lessons learned, and mid-week posts will be more open-ended in terms of topics related to the larger sustainable movements.

A Long Drive
As mentioned in the previous post, the closest Whole Foods is 10-times farther from our house than our neighborhood Fred Meyer’s. One gallon of gas (in our 2001 Subaru Forester, with 25 mpg hwy) allows for one round trip to Whole Foods or 10 weekend visits to Fred Meyer’s. The car (and the driver) have concluded that these Whole Foods trips should be bi-monthly to save fuel and keep our carbon footprint down. Although Whole Foods includes a wider selection of organic and sustainably “grown” food products, I hope that our continued patronage of Fred Meyer’s organic/natural foods section will encourage the store to expand its offerings.

Regarding the grocery shopping itself, I found organic options for nearly everything on my list–from produce for a vegetable stew to sliced deli meat for my lunches. Evaporated milk proved to be the Achilles heel of this shopping trip. Whole Foods only carries one brand: Santini evaporated milk, which proudly declares it is made with “fresh milk”.  Perhaps I am not familiar enough with the traditional manufacturing methods of evaporated milk, but I can’t imagine Carnation uses stale milk. I bought the non-organic evaporated milk because my meals were already planned out for the week and I had gathered all of the other ingredients for macaroni and cheese. Is this version the best I can do? Is there a way to bypass the evaporated milk ingredient? Perhaps organic cream or whole milk would produce a similar cheese sauce?

A Small Cheat
Over this past week I’ve had a number of sudden revelations–some small, some large–regarding favorite foods that I suddenly shouldn’t eat for the rest of the year. UGH, I never had a chance to give my favorite frozen yogurt stand (Red Mango) a proper “Good-bye”. Thankfully my favorite lunch spot near the office (Cherry Street Cafe) serves sandwiches and soups made in-house with organic ingredients. No guilt there.

In an effort to be completely honest during this challenge: We went out to dinner at our favorite local sushi restaurant on January 1. I was able to substitute wild sockeye salmon in place of the farm-raised Atlantic salmon, but that was the best I could do in terms of sustainability. (Please see follow this link for more information on both sides of the  farmed vs. wild-caught salmon debate. Of course the method of catching can affect the carbon footprint.) Our server was not aware of any organic products on the menu. The only possible way Blue C Sushi can fit my guidelines is by being a local restaurant, as opposed to a national chain.

A Favorite Recipe
The Skillet Mac & Cheese dish from the 30-Minute Recipe cookbook from Cook’s Illustrated is one of my favorite dinners from my independent adult years. It was a weekly meal in graduate school, offering much needed comfort and low-stress cooking. While there are many amazing organic cookbooks on the market, I have no desire to completely overwrite my favorite meals. This week I attempted the recipe with new, healthier ingredients:

• organic whole wheat macaroni
• Whole Food store brand cheeses
• the aforementioned “fresh” evaporated milk
• organic butter

The Cooks Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen recipes are the result of multiple tests to create the best tasting version. Evaporated milk was the result of such a test, the cooks found that it gave the dish the optimal cheese sauce. Swapping ingredients can affect the dish (as I once learned when I used low-fat evaporated milk instead of regular fat). Much to my relief, this healthier version it tasted almost the same. I could identify the whole wheat pasta texture under the cheese sauce, but for the first time I liked this healthier pasta option.

Sustainable Toolkit
In the last two months, following my initial blog post about my 2011 challenge to only purchase environmentally and economically sustainable goods, many friends and family members have helped me “gear up” for this year by sharing tips, websites, and bestowing me with a number of sustainable Christmas gifts.

• Bamboo utensil set–I plan to carry these in my purse in case a restaurant uses disposable utensils
• The Whole Green Catalog–full of sustainable shopping tips for all aspects of life
• Travel mug made from recycled plastics AND can be recycled whenever I am done with it
• Mesh produce bags made from recycled plastic–to limit my used of plastic produce bags
• Reusable toothbrush–the handle is reused, only the head is thrown away, decreasing the amount of trash I produce.
• Sewing machine–to lessen my dependence on clothing manufactured in abhorrent conditions.

Conclusions
Looking back at the week, the “Local” aspect of my sustainable challenge was mostly overlooked. I was too focused on the “organic” labeling that I did not take enough time to identify which foods were grown or packaged locally. Once the farmers markets start back up in the spring, I suspect it will be easier to be a locavore.