Green with Envy, Riddled with Guilt

Not Terribly Green Meal (but yummy, nonetheless)

March 9, 2009 at 9:58 pm 1 comment

The other night Boyfriend and I made a tasty dinner out of a mix of some green but mostly conventional ingredients. This is kind of how all of my meals look these days, as I’ve been out of work and pinching pennies. Although there are lots of ways to save money while still eating green, I haven’t been leaving my neighborhood much (the little work I’ve been doing of late has been from my couch), and there isn’t a lot of organic and sustainable food in Bushwick (yet! – this weekend we had a great discussion about this).

Anyway, here’s the meal broken down:

The potatoes are from my local grocery store, and I picked them out because they were labeled “eastern potatoes,” which I assumed meant they were kind of local but I have no clue whether or not that’s true. I sliced them up and fried them in olive oil (pricey, but good for you) – a technique that I learned from my Step Dad, who traditionally makes these kinds of fries to go with big weekend bacon-and-eggs breakfasts.

The rolls, tomatoes and arugula came from the grocery store, and although the rolls were baked locally, the rest probably hailed from California or Mexico. The cheese was Cabot, which is a local(ish) brand that was bought out by Kraft a while back. I generally avoid anything marked with the Kraft logo (because it makes me wanna vom), but it was the only cheddar in the store so I turned the other cheek and went with it.

The only certifiably green component of this meal was the burger meat, which was grass-fed and came from Whole Foods (not my favorite place to shop but I guess a little better than the normal grocery store). Plus, the two of us split a mere quarter pound of beef, and when it comes to sustainable meat-eating, less is more. Boyfriend cooked the meat to perfection – spiced with a little salt and pepper, flattened into patties, and seared on medium/high so the outside got nice and charred and the inside stayed a little pink.

Tasty as this meal was, it needed a pickel, and it could have been a lot greener. Next time I’m making it from 100% farmers market and home-grown ingredients (except maybe for the olive oil). Food tastes better without the guilt.

Entry filed under: food, guilty displeasures. Tags: "green living", Brooklyn, Bushwick, environment, green, hamburger, sustainable, sustainable food, whole foods.