Before this week-end, I had never eaten food from a truck. The stigma that is attached to it is meat on a stick and crappy food. Texas is big on food trucks. They have food truck parks everywhere. There is actually one walking distance from my place. I have been hemming and hawing about going, but never got the courage. A friend of mine was raving about “Good Karma Kitchen” food truck- vegan/vegetarian and gluten-free. Did I mention they source as much of their food locally and organic? They had me at local!
With all that said, their food was awesome. I had a simple margarita flatbread pizza, and J.P had the spicy asia version. Little E had half of mine. I splurged on their oatmeal and chocolate chip cookie bites and J.P had a lemon bar. So- if I was doing a review, which I am not, they would get two big thumbs up from the three of us.
Speaking of a two thumbs up, our local farmer got one this week as well. You see, they put all their herbs and greens in Ziploc bags. The last two weeks, I just sucked it up and took the bags thinking maybe they would reuse them. Unfortunately, they won’t. They have no way of knowing once the bags leave the market where they have been. Besides, we all know they are a pain to clean anyways. But, they did agree that I could put the greens and herbs in my cloth bags. And, the best part is, they said they would reuse the bags for herbs and greens, seeing as I did not leave with the bags and they packaged them in the morning. Doesn't that make you all happy and green inside? Well, for me it does.
1-PURCHASES
Farmers market (all grown in Texas)
- 15 small cucumbers
- 2 cartons of small tomatoes
- 12 plus large tomatoes
- 8 red peppers
- 20 super large carrots- I mean gigantic
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 1 large bag spinach
- 1 head of green leaf lettuce
- 15 oranges
- 20 apples
Sub-Total: 86.00
Whole Foods
Bulk
- 5 local Texas Grapefruit
- 1 bunch of celery
- Vegan chocolate chips (4.69 lbs)
- 1 small bunch of bananas (2.20 lbs)
- Raisins (3.17 lbs)
Non-Bulk
- 5 glass bottles of Kombucha
- Tortillas chips in paper bag
- Sunflower Oil in a glass bottle
Sub-Total: 93.24
Non-food items
- A Britax carseat 266.99
- Carseat bag 44.99
- Cup holder for stroller (not made of hard plastic-thanks J.P) 24.99
- Dish Detergent 4.99
Sub-total: 341.96
Restaurants
- Wednesday: We went to dinner at Chipotle before looking for a carseat 14.88
- Thursday: J.P had his weekly lunch at Chipotle 10.07
- Saturday: We went the Prairie Fest (to raise money for the nature trails and park) in fort Worth and we ate at Good Karma 31.00
Sub-Total: 55.95
Total: 577.15
2-COMPOSTING
I have finally accepted that we end up with a substantial amount of compost weekly because of juicing. I really do try to use the pulp, but it is not always that easy. I guess it is better the pulp ends up in the compost than the landfill.
Has anyone began composting recently at home? Run into any difficulties?
The total weight of our compost was 16 lbs.
3-RECYCLING
We surprisingly did not have a lot of recycling. The few things we did have were the box and plastic bag for the carseat, some packaging on the carseat bag and the stroller cup holder. We had some junk mail, but it seemed less than usual. I am not going to complain. Our recycling bin is not that full, and we haven’t put out the recycling in a few weeks.I see this as progress. Don’t you?
4-TRASH
Our trash basket this week was pretty much empty once again. I am happy that we have been able to pull this off. I think it just shows, that it is really not that difficult to reduce your waste with a little effort. If we can do it with an 18 month old- anyone really can.
Our garbage this week comprised of the usual suspects: receipts, pieces of plastic from my Kombucha bottles, 1 piece of plastic wrap from tempeh, and a few random pieces of plastic. Once again we had no stickers except a few on the grapefruit we bought at Whole Foods which were grown in texas. Other than that, we have been purchasing our produce solely at the farmers market. We can definitely taste the difference.
5-TRAVEL
This week J.P drove to work one day. I travelled to the Little Gym, the the farmers market, Whole Foods (twice), The Prairie Fest where we met Good Karma Kitchen and to Arlington (little E started to go to daycare 2 times during the week in the morning). We also did some local driving to Chipotle and Buy Buy Baby to look at carseats. Oh yes- we also had to drive around on two different nights because a certain someone did not want to go to sleep.
The total distance traveled on the TDI was 541.3 km (336 mi) and we put 37.1 L (9.8 gal) in the TD for 40.00.
Shared with The GreenBacks Gal
You are making me hungry! Seriously they need to come to Orlando. This truck food thing is crazy popular here. We could use Good Karma healthy selections.
Small menu and delicious food!
What I would do for a Whole Foods or Trader Joes. I’m lucky to find organic milk at our grocery store!
I love WHole Foods, and going to miss when I move back home. ,
Some of those food trucks are really good.
Yes, yes they are!
Wow … how terrific that you got your farmer’s market person to put your herbs & greens in something other than plastic! Sometimes it just takes letting people know that you’d like something different and sometimes suggesting alternatives.
We have a local food truck that caters to vegans … I love it. They have yummy falafel sandwiches and when we’re in the mood for a treat, we head for the truck and buy one to share. Glad that you enjoyed yours!
I have learned if I don’t ask I will never know. I asked and they answered! We don’t have food trucks in Montreal, maybe I need to get that trend started! Thank you so much, Cyndi!
I had stopped composting after our move and just started again but don’t know if I have a place to bring it. In Brazil, we just kinda tossed the compost in a field that’s on a property. If I don’t find a place here… any reason we shouldn’t just toss it somewhere far from the road?? You’re my ECO GAL resource, first person I’d think to ask!! <3
Well, when we went home over the holidays we throw our compost (only veggies and fruit though) in the woods i.e. Gorilla composting. Also I was on a road trip and stopped to pee and throw my banana peel in the grass! Some see it as litter, I see it as not having anything end up in landfill! Bananas take 1-2 weeks to compost so…..I would throw it somewhere off the road, but that is just me! 🙂 🙂
We started a compost bin several weeks ago, and haven’t had any problems yet…of course that doesn’t mean that we won’t sometime. It is still quite cold up here. We just dig a little hole and put the food in and then cover it. They might be deterred because of all the tea and coffee that we throw in there 🙂
Perhaps.:) I hope for you no animals come on over for a buffet dinner at night! lol
That is great, Deirde that you can compost again! I am not sure I will ever be able to stop. It is an addiction. lol
That is great!!!
I compost at home. I have a rolling bin. It needs some work right now because I don’t have the brown to green ratio right but that is due to being busy. I have never had any issue with it. This past summer things broke down really fast since it was so hot.
YAY! I am addicted to composting!