An Introduction of Sorts

And so it begins, an attempt at chronicling crazy life changes and keeping track of the projects we still have left to do.

Dog Food Diet.  I could have called this site "And then I got a dog," but that doesn't fit as neatly in front of .tumblr.com, nor is it as catchy.  (Edit: Since moving posts to Blogger, things have changed.  DogFoodDiet is taken, you'll notice we're under SlackerSustainability.blogspot.com, though once the return to the Google Mothership occurs, maybe we can get back to DFD!)  It doesn't quite cover the full scope of what we're doing now, and what we've changed and are in the process of changing.  At the end of the day though, this all begins with the dogs.

Brick and Duchess, just chillin'

Commodore Oso von Woofbang and Ser Alister Black

  

My husband and I are far from athletic, natural, outdoorsy people. We met online playing video games and our courtship consisted of smoking at bars, keg stands and LAN centers.  Not exactly what comes to mind when you're thinking "modern sustainability."  So what changed?  What happened to the girl with the video game logo wedding dress and the groomsmen dressed as Mario and Luigi?

Last month or so, give or take, I finally broke down.  Rather, Dean and I had our grown up talk.  We needed to start watching where our money went, and from that came the decision to put down the convenience store foods, stop with the cigarettes.  If we were giving up our quick snacks, we might as well start eating healthier as well.  If we're eating healthier, maybe it should be organic.. why not sustainable?  Grass finished beef?  Locally grown produce?  It began to steamroll and now I've got him digging post holes in our back yard so we can set up a garden before fall and build a chicken coop for three or four laying hens.

It's overwhelming and there's little things I see every day that we can improve upon.  We will never be self-sustained.  We'll always probably be on the grid, driving fossil fuel vehicles, and indulging in the occasional monster bag of Doritos.  There are sweeping changes that we can make that will help balance that though, and hopefully through our awareness and personal direction others will take a look at what they're buying, consuming and indulging in.

So why "Dog Food Diet" then?  It sounds like I'm talking a lot about the continued trend towards sustainable living.  Like I said before, it all kind of added up to sustainability but started with our dietary choices.  I love our dogs.  I refuse to feed them shit.  They eat well, better than we did/do.  When we first adopted Brick he ate Purina out of the yellow bag.  He ate 6 cups of dog food a day, give or take, according to the recommended feeding.

What exactly was he eating six cups a day of?  Filler, artificial colors and artificially attained vitamins.  The label to the right is a generic dog food label.  Corn, poultry by-product (which consists of beaks, feathers, talons, etc.  At least this one is labeled as poultry, you don't really want to know what's in "meat by-product"), soybean.  This particular dog food is better than some generics, at least some meat-based protein is a second ingredient as opposed to fourth or fifth.  Essentially he was eating BBQ flavored cereal.  I wouldn't eat it, why should he?  I made the switch to Natural Balance, cut his food intake by almost half and felt pretty damned good about myself.  With the addition of another large dog, Natural Balance was cutting into the pocketbook pretty deep.  I currently feed Eukaneuba Large Breed to Brick and Duch, and while its as low as I'll go on my dog food quality list, its not that bad.  Alister, the hairless crested, does need special diet.  He's currently on Blue Buffalo Wilderness, a super premium grain-free dog food.
As I started feeding our dogs higher quality foods and learning more about ingredient sources and choice, I started bitching about them eating better than we do.  Not no more, sweet thangs.  We're on the Dog Food Diet.

We are corn, wheat, and soy free.  Minimal grains.  Local grass-finished beef and bison.  Hormone free chicken, pork and eggs (even better once we get our coop built).  Vegetables fresh from the farmer's market weekly.

Oh sure, we're not perfect.  I just polished off a bag of dark chocolate covered blueberries (but the berries were organic!) and I'm sippin' down a vanilla coke, but its a start.

Progress so far:

• Cut back our grain intake dramatically.  Haven't bought bread lately, changed out our all purpose flour for rice flour.  I'd like to switch to almond flour but it's a little pricey.  Corn oil was replaced with vegetable oil and where we'd usually do a pasta side, we've had lots of potatoes instead.
• Reducing our pre-processed food intake.  Sadly, eating out is something we've cut back on.  Our meats aren't all local/organic yet, but half of them are.  Vegetable purchases have all been organic, with a good amount locally grown.
• Half the post holes are dug for our garden.
• None of our purchased vegetables have had to be thrown out yet!  We've managed to cook or snack on everything (well, I have.. Dean still hasn't figured that out yet)
• No smoking for almost two weeks!

Things to Do:

• Finish digging post holes so we can clear the back bit of yard and start setting up planter boxes and a chicken coop.
• A box deep freezer would be wonderful.  I'm thinking the best way to purchase beef and pork is going to be in bulk from a local farm.  Storage will be key.
• Get more fun snack recipes!  Everything I have so far isn't sweet or too snackable, though the kale chips do pretty well.  I would like to broaden my vegetable knowledge as well.

Foods That Work for Us:

• Kale Chips - Super easy, snack-able, and so far store-able.  One thing to be aware of though, any salt or seasoning on these goes *a long* way.
• Shepherd's Pie - Its kind of a pain in the ass now that I shouldn't be using instant mashed potatoes, but its reaaaally tasty.  One thing I still have to learn is how to make a good brown gravy not from a pouch.
• Deviled Eggs - Check out Frankie Fights Food for her recent deviled egg adventures.  I'm quite proud of myself for being the "Eggs are evil!" girl to working through a half dozen deviled eggs last week.  I think it also has to do with a bit of ego kicking in because I've learned how to make them with none of the greyish around the yolk.
• Bacon - Being on a high protein, grain free diet means I get to smash my face full of fantastic wonderfulness that is bacon!  One of our local farms sells un-cured bacon by the pound.  I'll have to see what all I can do with that, or how to make it well.. traditional suburban bacon.

Things to Learn:

• Seafood Sustainability and Sourcing - Tilapia tastes like ass.  It's not going to work for me.  I've got to find another fish that's tasty, sustainable and well.. tasty!