Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s turning out to be a very busy week in Portland! A new New Seasons is opening, a BONE BROTH bar is opening, Original Fare is having a premiere party and there’s a pie festival that includes pizza AND traditional pie (someone is a genius). I am having trouble just keeping my calendar straight. Plus, I’m traveling for work this week. Whew! August is going to be gone before we know it.

Well here’s one more thing to add to your calendar: the Oregon Food Bank’s LOCAL FOOD CHALLENGE is happening. You may have read my intro post about why I feel so passionately about this cause. Well, as part of my commitment, I’m also doing some blog posts about my journey!

My husband and I spent last weekend playing in the gorge, which is a great and fun place to buy local goodies like fruit of every kind, beer, wine, cider, spirits and more! We came home with a boat load of fruit and hit the Montavilla Farmers Market on the way home buying MORE local food. This time of year, there are so many zucchini, squash and eggplant that are ready to eat,  you can get fantastic deals at farmers markets and u-pick locations. They are sometimes as low as 50 cents each (look for the big piles 🙂 ).

So suffice that to say, we are well equipped to eat a lot of local food this week. We started off the week with a summertime favorite (if you can sneak it in on a cooler day. Or if you have A/C) – ratatouille! You’ll notice that I didn’t put eggplant in this one. It’s because I forgot to pick it up. 🙂 You can simply slice it and add it to the mix without changing anything else. There’s plenty of sauce for the party! Using prepared tomato sauce and serving with rice, quinoa or fresh bread make this vegetarian summer dinner very easy on the wallet.

Oh – and one more thing: to help convince you to join this challenge, I’m giving away a Whole Foods gift card! You can find the source of almost any product at Whole Foods right there on the sign in the store – and if you can’t find it right away, just ask.

Anyway, to enter this giveaway you must sign up for and participate in the Oregon Food Bank’s Eat Local Challenge! I’ll be checking!! 🙂