Saving the Environment Starts at Home - Tips for Beating the Take-out Habit

Image from Maple and Spice 

Happy Sunday readers. It's a cloudy October morning here in southern Maine and I'm thinking about breakfast. It's kind of a tradition in our family to have a nice breakfast on Sunday. In the past we have often gone to a favorite restaurant close by our home, and still do occasionally, but lately we've started making that Sunday breakfast at home more often and incorporating things from our own garden and from local farmers into our meal. There are two reasons for this: 1) insuring that we are using local ingredients and 2) reducing the size of our food budget. If you are wondering how these two things tie in to protecting the environment, it is quite simple and comes down to transportation. The more local our food is, the fewer miles it had to be transported using fossil fuel burning planes, boats, trains and trucks. The fewer dollars we spend on food and the more often we eat at home the more we save and the less we commute to earn the money to pay for it. We also save the trip to to restaurant. These reduced trips also reduce wear and tear on our vehicle, further reducing our impact on the planet. 

So as I sat here thinking about breakfast, it reminded me that I had promised you some tips and recipes for beating the eating out and particularly the stopping for takeout habit that is so easy to fall into. 

The first and particularly timely tip is making ahead. Quiet Sundays are a good opportunity to do a little extra cooking that will make meal prep later in the week quicker and easier, reducing the temptation to just pick something up on the way home or hitting the drive through on the way into the office because you rushed out the door without eating breakfast AGAIN. Here are a couple of things that I like to do that are surprisingly helpful. I scramble up a batch of eggs and vegetarian sausage and wrap it up with a bit of cheese in a half dozen burrito wraps and freeze them. A couple of minutes in the microwave in the morning and I have a hot hearty home made breakfast. You could also defrost in the fridge over night and warm it in a skillet if you are not a big fan of the microwave. 

Another thing I like to do on Sunday is making up a pot of rice and a pot of pasta. I divide each into two containers and refrigerate one of each and freeze the others. I then have a base carbohydrate that I can build a meal on with a quick zap in the microwave or two minutes in hot water. You can make mashed potatoes ahead as well, but they are more of a challenge to reheat for those who prefer not to microwave. This generally shaves 5 to 10  minutes off of meal prep which doesn't sound like a lot, but can make a big difference when its late and you are tired and hungry.

One of the most challenging things about making dinner after a long tiring day is deciding what to make. This question taken at the end of the work day can often lead to decisions that we regret later, like the habit of eating a lot of prepackaged frozen food from the super market. This is probably as bad for the environment as the takeout given the damage that industrial agriculture and meat production do.   One way to get around this is plan ahead. While your pasta and rice are cooking, spend a few minutes to jot down a menu for the weeks evening meals. This will save time and frustration later and will allow you to be prepared and be sure that you have all the ingredients you need on hand. 

None of these things are rocket science, and you've probably heard them all before in the context of time management, but perhaps thinking about how these tips can help save the environment is a more compelling argument to get us to start employing them, or employing them more often. 

I also promised you a recipe. Here is one that we found recently that we really enjoyed and was quite simple. Start with leftovers and a recipe of "Quick and easy Pizza Crust". Divide in half and roll into two circles about 7 inches across. On one half of each put some diced leftover veg from your fridge anything like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, etc. works, add some diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning, and sprinkle on some shredded cheese. Now fold the other half of the dough over and pinch it closed. Bake per the dough instructions (you might be able to shave a few minutes off the cook time, so watch them carefully) and voila! you have two tasty filling calzones in just minutes. They are a meal by themselves or pair with a small salad. 

All this writing about food has made me hungry. I think I'll go get that breakfast I was thinking about. And there is the vegan sausage recipe that I'm wanting to try out....

Waste Not Want Not - Made Pet Food Today

I said I was going to do it and I did. This evening in about a half an hour and with some leftover items that might otherwise have gone to waste I made enough pet food to feed these two little darlings for about a week. I had this half eaten duck that we had tossed in the freezer after Christmas dinner.  We figured we would do something with it before long. We had boiled the duck yesterday thinking we were going to make soup, but just weren't feeling like it last night and ended up making a simple vegetarian dinner. And then we had this casserole dish full of couscous that was a bit overcooked and mushy. So this evening I picked all the meat off the duck and pureed it in the food processor. I mixed this with the couscous and made a nice thick meat paste which I taste tested on both the cat and the dog. They lapped it up! Literally. So I figured it was a winner and proceeded to package it up in 1/4 cup servings using an ice cream scoop and some squares of wax paper. When I was all done I had about 32 patties in a gallon zip lock. 

Now I can just take a couple of patties out in the evening and put them in the refrigerator to defrost. They should be ready to go by the next morning. It will be a nice treat for the pets and will reduce my pet food bill while reducing my waste. I wouldn't give this to them every day, because I'm not sure that it would provide 100% balanced nutrition. I would recommend looking into well researched and recommended recipes on line or check with your vet, if you are planning to start providing all of your pet's food. 

This experiment just reminded me that when we use our creativity and think outside the box we can help to reduce waste and supply our own needs while saving money. I think I will probably try this again in the future with other leftovers.

Another great thing about this. Since we eat local meat and organic foods, I know that what I'm feeding my pets is just as healthy as what I'm eating myself, and that is something I can 't be assured of when I am feeding them pet food from the store or even from a local feed store for animals. 

Time for Tiny Houses

The Bodega from Tumbleweed Tiny Houses

My whole adventure in sustainability began with an article on tiny houses. Pictured first was one of the earliest and smallest of the tiny houses built by Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Given that I might not have been here today writing this blog, if it had not been for that article, it seems appropriate that I should touch on the subject of tiny houses. In fact, it seems like I should have touched on it a lot sooner. 

For those of you who are curious, that article lead me to do a search on tiny houses and then I found "We the Tiny House People" a documentary about tiny homes and sustainable living. From there it just snowballed. About the same time I read "Midnights with the Mystic" by Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. Somehow the synergy of these two experiences close together launched me into my research on sustainability and permaculture.  But I digress. On to the tiny houses!

As we face a world that has less and less to offer in the way of resources to more and more people, we are all going to have to reevaluate the line between wants and needs. One of the major areas of discrepancy between want and need is in our choices of shelter. Here in the US, most of us live in homes that are far larger than what we need. And these homes contain far more stuff than can strictly (or perhaps even loosely) be described as needs. When we begin to really look at the energy that we put into purchasing and maintaining our homes we start to see that many of us have become wage slaves in order to maintain a standard of living that is far above what is necessary or sustainable. In so doing we have also shackled ourselves to a way of living that is neither ecologically friendly nor truly fulfilling for we have traded a life rich in experience for one that is full of crap (you thought I was going to say rich in stuff didn't you? Well, I'm just calling it like it is folks). 

I have personally embarked on a path toward what I call right-sizing. For many folks, particularly here in the US this will likely involve some down-sizing. While it is not just about the size of the home, (there is also: the amount and type of clothing we wear, the amount and type of food we eat, the number of hours we work and the distance we commute, just for starters) the size of the home is greatly impacted and does greatly impact many of the other aspects of our lives. With this in mind I thought it appropriate to share with you several links to resources on tiny houses and tiny living. I hope you will find them as inspirational and motivational as I have. 

Mortgage Free Tiny House
Honey I Shrunk the House
The Tiny House Blog
Review of Tiny Homes Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn
An article on tiny house bathrooms
Two articles from "The Tiny Life" one on tiny houses and sustainability here and another on the tiny house movement.
And finally one on "The Tiny House Film" in which you get to meet the characters that are featured in the film.

There are so many more great links that I could share with you, but I just have to leave it with these for now. 

Enjoy my friends and live small. Because living small is Living Large!

New Year's Cleaning and Reflection

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are ready for a year filled with adventure, personal growth and achievement. I know I am. 

As I look to the new year I often spend the day cleaning up the house and getting things in order for what the year will bring. Today as I tidied up my kitchen I was pondering on sustainable decorating and cleaning. While a nice tidy house always brings a sense of satisfaction, I'm sure that none of us is deeply in love with the cleaning process that it takes to get it there. A few thoughts crossed my mind, so I thought I would share them with you today. I give you fare warning that this may ramble a bit. 

Avoid dust collectors. I've decided that it is much nicer to add warmth and character to my home with things that are also useful rather than just things that collect dust. Warm colorful afghans draped over the back of the couch and chair add a little flare and they're handy one those cool Maine evenings. Teapots and vintage pitchers on the shelves are attractive and get used often enough to keep them free of dust. A basket full of knitting adds a homey touch and provides entertainment, amusement and useful items. Keeping library books in a basket is another homey touch that also keeps them organized and helps to be sure they get back to the library on time. 

Re-gift and give mathoms. You'd be surprised at how many folks would be just as happy with something of yours that they have often admired as with something you went out and bought. Anyone can spend money, but giving of your personal items takes a bit more sacrifice sometimes. Today isn't the first day that I've given thought to this. As I was getting the house ready for the holidays I noticed some decorative plates that were hanging on the wall. My mother has often admired these plates so, while they were quite attractive,  I took the plates down from the wall and gave them to my mother for Christmas. She was very happy to receive them and I was able to 'reuse' them. So it was a win for both of us and for the environment. In addition I have saved myself the chore of dusting them. Since Mom has a glass fronted hutch for her dishes she won't need to dust them either!

These musings lead me to thinking about other ways that we can make our decorating and house work more sustainable. For me this means; friendly to the environment and to the people who live in the home as well as the ones responsible for keeping the place clean. I'll  have more on this in a later post. Stay tuned and in the meantime live lightly.