Who: Megan Kucks, Market Assistant Manager
Hey folks, I'm Meg. I am studying Culinary and Sustainable Food Systems at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. In addition to school, I am the Market Assistant Manager at PFC Natural Grocery & Deli. I am a very physically active person. In my free time, you can find me and my dog Bently out on the dunes, in a kayak, biking around town, or camping. I am participating in the Local Thirty challenge to raise awareness of the economical and physical importance of eating a locally-sourced diet. For the duration of the Local Thirty challenge, I will be participating under the ketogenic diet plan. This follows a high-fat and low-carbohydrate regimen. Many of the meals will revolve around local meats, veggies, and dairy products. I have tried to keep much of my spices and cooking oil options to Michigan-crafted companies, or have included them below in the "10 cheats" section.
Diet: Keto- Omnivore
Cheats:
MCT Oil
Coconut Oil
Lebanese Olive Oil
Stevia
Almonds (I have a food processor, so I can make almond butters and flour bases for baking)
Salt
Pepper
Coca Powder
Sour Cream
Avocados
Grocery Haul:
Cost: $53.97.
This includes specialty cooking and dietary supplement items that I only usually buy once a month. Keep in mind that pictured above are a few staple products that will make your initial cost increase. Routine, normal grocery outings will not include purchasing MCT Oil, Olive Oil, Coca Powder, Coconut Oil, Stevia, Almonds (for butters and flour bases) as this is more of a once-a-month addition to your list. However, as a single person that lives alone, these staples last me much longer than one month. For example, it takes me about three months to go through a large jar of coconut oil for cooking purposes. This will vary on your household size and diet preference.
My normal weekly grocery haul would cost $32.45. This includes a weekly market haul of fresh vegetables, meats, eggs, cheeses, and fruit (eat sparingly on the ketogenic diet)
Basic Meal Plan:
High protein, Medium chain fats (MCT’s), and lots of low-starch veggies. Moderate fruit and simple carbohydrate intake. Keto restricts the amount of complex carbohydrates, sugars, and starch intake that a person would utilize in their normal diet.
Favorite Recipe: Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers
What I learned:
Keto in particular, made me research in depth about Michigan-crafted cooking products. Because keto is a high fat diet, oils are essential to the program. As many oils (olive, sesame, safflower, coconut etc.) are imported and leave a heavy carbon footprint. I aimed to veer as far as possible from utilizing heavily imported goods, even on my "10 Cheats" list (minus Lebanese olive oil, there's nothing like a heavy, decadent olive oil). Hard-to-find items such as soy, miso, sesame and other oils would have been difficult to integrate in to this diet without some footwork laid out. Eden Foods is a staple company I chose to use. Based out of Detroit Michigan, this company seemed to be a solid standard to fit in our guidelines of keeping Michigan-crafted products in the mix.