Fresh Produce

I get as excited about new fruits and veggies as some women get about new shoes. I am completely spoiled in that every Sunday there is a farmer's market under the freeway less than five miles from my house. Then every Tuesday from May - October there are markets near my work. So if I forget anything on Sunday, I can walk and get something Tuesday. The Sunday market is year round.

Every Sunday morning I am up bright and early to either go for a run, or do a kettlebell workout in the backyard, depending on how I'm feeling. Then I take a rinse off shower and head to the market. Our market has tons of stalls. We even have local farmers there with eggs, meat, pork, chicken, fish, cheese, olive oils, and everything else local and amazing you can imagine.

I don't think a lot of the people who live here realize how truly blessed we are to have such a thing at our disposal. It is not only very simple to eat locally and seasonally here, but you can also run in to some of your favorite chefs getting stuff to cook at their restaurants. I have the tendency to get overzealous and buy far too much. For instance, tonight I have to cook off some brussel sprouts and prep some beets for a salad, before they go bad. I HATE having to throw out food.

Sunday morning I went to the market with the full intention of just buying a fresh bouquet of flowers. My budget is tighter than usual since tomorrow night I'm taking my homo husband out to a spendy dinner. But as I arrived at the market I knew there was no way I was leaving with just flowers. Upon walking in to the market I spied the most beautiful red onions. They smelled so sweet and amazing I wanted to just bite in to one like an apple. I also got some local honey, baby bok choy, purple potatoes, romaine lettuce (fresh romaine is so different from the almost white crap you get at the store), and gorgeous blueberries.

Sunday afternoon I chopped a huge slice of red onion and made a roast beef sandwich. I piled on cheese, mustard, mayo, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was so large and tasty that for dinner all I had was roasted brussel sprouts. I knew the sandwich calories were pretty much all of my calories for the day, and I'd already had poached eggs on toast for breakfast. The sandwich was really just an excuse to get that red onion in my belly. And boy, was it worth it.

I am so happy that I have a place I can go and get my healthy, yummy, fruits and veggies in town. After discovering the market I can't even eat supermarket produce anymore without cringing about how blah it tastes. I am spoiled, and I totally love it.

Happy picture of the day: my fridge full of yummy veggies and goodies.