A Pasta and Lots of Stuff Recipe from a Cheap Cookin' Mama as She's Trying to Waste Less Food

One of our mini-eco challenge takers, Cheap Cookin' Mama, cooked up a meal with stuff she had in the frig so she wouldn't waste it. It's a mixture of veggies from her garden, sausage, bacon and pasta. Nice job.

If you want to see the recipe and more pictures of the meal, go to Cheap Cookin' Mama's blog.

A Couple of Things on a Busy Day

Don't forget, September's Mini Eco-Challenge starts tomorrow. It's time to start paying attention to how much food we waste. There is still time to join in. Just let me know you're going to give it a try in the comments.

I'm going to be writing from time to time for Eat.Drink.Better. My first post today on Five Ideas for Using Leftover, Cooked White Rice just went up a few minutes ago. Check it out and if you have any good uses for leftover rice, please share them.

My monthly piece at Naturally Savvy is also up. This month I'm urging you to Leave the Car at Home when it's possible.

That's it for today. It's a very busy but good day. I hope you're having a good one, too.

September's Mini Eco-Challenge

Happy September, Happy Labor Day, Happy Kids Go Back to School Week (if they haven't already)!

What a bittersweet day. The calendar may say that there are still three more weeks of summer, but around here summer ends today. It's the last hurrah. We'll spend the day at the pool with our friends and then that will be it. The pool will officially close at 8pm for the season. Seems like it just opened.

Well, onto the business of fall. We took August off from eco-challenges, but it's time to refocus. This month instead of giving your choices, I've got just one challenge to offer.

Waste Less Food

In the U.S., 30% of food produced gets wasted. That's an awful lot of food, water, and fuel that transported the food gone without ever having done any good. I wrote about this in the Shocking Statistics of Food Waste. I suggest if you're going to take the challenge, you read that, too.

Here's the challenge.

Waste as little food as possible for one week. Cut your food waste by 50% - and shoot for more. If you're in on the challenge, please leave a comment, and I'll make a list of those of us taking the challenge on the right of the page.

We'll start Friday, September 5. Here is what I propose.

• Sometime between now and Friday, clean out your refrigerator. You want that potato salad from 4th of July that is shoved in the back out of there before you begin. That's waste from before. You'll be focusing on stopping waste from this point on. Don't cry over spoiled potato salad.
• Take stock of what is perishable in the frig or elsewhere and plan your next week's meals around it. Say you've got one grilled chicken breast in the frig that is still good. Plan to use it chopped up in a salad or cut up on top of pasta alfredo. Freeze it if necessary to make sure it's still good when you need it.
  
• Plan your meals for who you really are, not who you want to be. Don't plan for seven nights of fully home cooked meals if you know you usually pick up take out a couple times a week because your schedule is crazy. Sure you want to cut back on take out, but if you're wasting food bought at the grocery store because you haven't managed to cut out the take out yet, be honest with yourself. It's better to just do the takeout than do the takeout and waste store bought food.
• Be wise with your leftovers. Freeze what you know you won't be using within a couple of days. Give them away to single or senior citizen neighbors. Often if I have a whole piece of meat leftover I give it to my mom. She appreciates a piece of grilled salmon - it's something she wouldn't do for herself.
• If you have a bunch of leftover, have leftover night at the house. Don't cook a new meal. Reheat everything in the frig and let the family use it up. Even if it doesn't all go together.
• Be careful with your produce. Eat it before it goes bad. If you want a snack and you've got a choice between a peach that only has a day left or pretzels, the pretzels will be good in two days, the peach won't. Eat it before it goes bad. Freeze any banana that is beyond the edible stage and when you've got four or five, make banana bread.
• If your garden is still producing, or producing like gangbusters like my tomatoes are, make the most out of it. Take the time to make and freeze some sauces or meals from your garden. You'll appreciate it in month or two and you won't waste the labor your put into it this summer.

These are just a few ideas. I could go on and on, but I think we're all smart enough to figure out our own ways to not waste food.

The hardest place, I think, to stop wasting food is on our dinner plates. It's going to be a challenge to figure out how to not have food leftover on the plate - especially my kids' plates - at the end of a meal.

I'll be blogging about food waste at least once a week this month including recipes for foods commonly leftover.

Who's with me on this?

July's Mini Eco-Challenge Final Check-in

This month's mini eco-challenge officially ends in 10 minutes. 

I didn't buy any beverages in individual bottles/cans/cups for the entire week. I know my husband bought a few and the kids got a couple at the pool when they were friends, but they aren't the ones who signed up for the challenge. I even refrained from taking these types of beverages when they were offered to me at the salon or at a BBQ. I'm hoping that I can keep it up.

I also was able to wake up every morning since my mid-week update, but the weather has been too yucky to actually go outside. It's been raining or threatening to rain for days and days. 

And, we have successfully raised the thermostat. It's been two to five degrees higher all week and it hasn't been that big of an adjustment.

I'd love to hear how everyone else made out and if you ever have a suggestion for one of our eco-challenges, please let me know.

July's Mini Eco-Challenge Update

Happy Fourth of July! I spent last night sitting in a neighbor's driveway watching the fireworks through the trees because one of my boys doesn't like being very close to them. But it was great being with my neighbors, and we didn't have to hide our adult beverages.

So, it's halfway through this month's mini-challenge. How are you doing?

Me, I haven't bought any individually bottled beverages. It's been tempting, but I've stuck to my guns. I was at the salon earlier today, and they offered me a bottle of water or diet soda, and I said no thank you. It's been a bit of an effort remembering to keep my reusable bottles washed for the pool and other places, but not so much of an effort that it's not worth it.

As for waking up early. I haven't done so great. I've been staying up later than I should - I've got some deadlines I need to meet, but I've gotten up two of the four mornings so far. I'll try to make sure I get up the other mornings.

AND, my husband has turned up the air conditioning FIVE degrees! I didn't even ask him to. He's been doing a lot of his own green thinking lately. 

I'm sure you all are busy today, and I'm gonna be heading out to a parade this morning so that's it for today's post.

Still Time to Sign Up for Mini Eco-Challenge

Tomorrow starts July's mini eco-challenge. There is still time to sign up for one of five easy, doable, 7 day challenges. Please click on the link and check out what I've suggested for this month. There is bound to be something for everyone.

July's Mini Eco-Challenge

It's time to sign up for next month's mini eco-challenge.  June is almost over and summer is in full swing. My tomato plants are full of yellow flowers (can't wait for actual tomatoes), school is out and my boys are getting along like brothers (that's how I answer people when they ask me how they get along with each other), we're getting ready for vacation, and here in the U.S. things are turning red, white and blue all over. Oh, and the farmer's market e-mailed yesterday and said there will be corn next week. Oh, yum!

Yep, all signs point to the beginning of July. 

If you've recently discovered A Little Greener Every Day, we have been doing one week mini eco-challenges at the beginning of each month for the past few months. They are small manageable environmentally friendly changes you can make that you only need to commit to for 7 days (although you're welcome to continue with them after the seven days are up).

Enough talk. Here are July's mini eco-challenges:

1. Don't buy any individual beverages in any form of bottle or cup. No soda, juice, iced tea, sports drinks, water, coffee or any other beverage in an individual bottle or cup whether it's plastic, aluminum, glass, paper or any other material. Now may be the time to invest in some reusable travel bottles and coffee mugs. 

2. If you are running central air conditioning in your house, turn your thermostat up two degrees. It's estimated for each degree you turn up the thermostat, you save 2% in energy.

3. Replace 10 regular light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent bulbs. According to the Energy Star website, each CFL uses 75% less energy and lasts 10 times longer.

4. Take navy showers. I'm throwing this one from our first challenge back in the mix. Now that it's summer, perhaps some of you might be willing to try this one. A navy shower is when you get in the shower, soak yourself, turn off the water, soap up, then turn the water back on to rinse off. You only have the water running when you are initially getting wet or when you are rinsing off.  I actually started doing this recently. 

5. Wake up 1/2 hour earlier each day and go outside with a journal and write about going green, your thoughts about the environment, what you hope to accomplish environmentally, what you are seeing in the natural world while you are out, or anything else that has to do with this green journey you are on. Take a few minutes out to not write and just enjoy creation.

So those are your challenges for the month. Pick one. Pick all. Or anything in between. Me, I'll be challenging myself (big time) with #1 and #5. I've been doing #5 a couple times a week, but I'm going to commit to doing it for an entire week. As for #2, hubby runs the thermostat, so I'll suggest it, but I can't make any promises. 

So pick a challenge. I triple dog dare ya!

Looking for Mini Eco-Challenge Ideas

I can't believe it's June 17th already. I can't believe today was the last day of school! It couldn't have come soon enough. If I'm this ready for it, imagine how ready my kids are. Tomorrow will be a throw away day. Nothing on the schedule.

If they want to sleep in, they can sleep in.

If they want to watch movies all day, they can watch movies.

If they want to play video games till their eyes bleed, they can do that, too.

But the day after tomorrow we get down to serious summer doings. The pool, the beach, working out in the garden, playing with friends, catching fireflies (did some of that tonight), and chasing the ice cream man down the street shall commence.

And time will fly. Which is why I'm already thinking about July's mini eco-challenge. I thought I'd ask for some suggestions for our monthly one week challenge. What are some simple challenges that we can make for just one week that will make a difference. Maybe we'll even adopt some of these changes permanently.

Allison over at It's the Little Thinks has made one of June's challenges, hiding the paper towels, a habit. I'm attempting to make another of June's challenges, cooking one meal completely from local ingredients, a weekly habit. What's great about these mini-challenges is they let us commit to something for a very manageable period of time, and when we see how easy some of them are, we realize it won't take much to make a longer commitment.

June's Mini Eco-Challenge - How Did You Do?

Well, how did you do? Me, I'll give myself a 70%. Not so great, I know. I did the walking - well over 15 miles. But I didn't start reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, and at this point it will be due back at the library before I even get a chance to pick it up. That's okay. I will get around to reading it.

Now for my local meal. Not all of it was local. The main course, some very yummy honey chicken kabobs, was made from ingredients I bought at the farmer's market on Saturday morning. The chicken came from Lancaster County (91 miles away) and the vegetables were all from farms in New Jersey. The mushrooms came from Kennet Square via the farmer's market. Unfortunately, the marinade was not made from local ingredients. I was going to buy the honey from the bee guy at the farmer's market, but he wasn't there last week. I don't think I can get vegetable oil or soy sauce locally. If I'm wrong, someone please let me know.

Here's my husband cooking the kabobs. They were really good. Definitely something we will be serving to guests. With them, I served a loaf of bread from a local bakery. But, I also warmed up some leftover Purdue chicken nuggets for the boys (they would have gone bad if I didn't use them) and a box of Uncle Ben's natural rice as a side dish.

I've decided to do this weekly over the summer. Hopefully with greater success than I had this past weekend. As the crops become more plentiful and there is more variety, it should get easier. I'm not happy that I didn't succeed 100% with this. I could have. Mainly, I didn't want to get a lot of whining from my kids so I added some things that were sure to please them. I know. I'm a wimp.


Something else that I got locally at the farmer's market that day was a bunch of lillies. The woman said she had gone out to the fields the night before to pick them. Many of them weren't open when I bought them, but today, three days later, most of them are open and they are beautiful. I had made a decision not to buy flowers unless they were grown locally, and I have been waiting many months for the farmer's market to to open so I could have fresh cut flowers again.

I'd love to hear from all of you who took the challenge and see how you did. I hope you did better than I did, but if not, who am I to judge. We'll have another mini-challenge in July.

June's Mini Eco-Challenge - Half Way Point Check-in

So how is your mini eco-challenge going?

Here's my update:

Challenge #1 - Cook a meal with only locally grown or raised food. I haven't done this yet. It's been a busy week and I won't be making a real family dinner until the weekend. I plan on making some chicken and vegetable kabobs, a salad with romaine, spinach and strawberries, and buying some bread from a local bakery. I can get everything from the farmer's market except for a few ingredients for the salad dressing. 

Challenge #4 - Walk. I bought the pedometer. Yesterday I walked over 14,000 steps! That's seven miles. Today I only logged 8000 steps or about 4 miles. So I am well on my way to the 15 miles I thought I'd walk.

Challenge #5 - Read The Omnivore's Dilemma. Well, I'm STILL getting through Affluenza. I'm almost done, but I don't think The Omnivore's Dilemma is going to happen this week. But it's next on the rotation.

Let me know how you're doing in the comments.

Silly Me - Amendment to June's Mini Eco-Challenge

So yesterday, I went to buy a pedometer for challenge #4 of our June mini eco-challenge and it turns out pedometers measure steps, not mileage. Which makes sense because not everyone's strides are the same size.  

But I'm not giving up the challenge. I'm going to do one of two things to figure out mileage. I know it's exactly one mile from my house to the end of the major street I live right off of. I'm going to walk that and see how many steps it takes me to do a mile.

The other thing I can do is to use something like Google Maps to find out the distance between my house and my bank if I walk between the two.

I've challenged myself to walk 15 miles this week. Since I've never paid attention to mileage when I walk before I don't know if this is too much or two little. We'll know at the end of the week.

Start Your Mini Eco-Challenge Today

Today is June 1. You know, last night my family and I ran to Barnes and Noble, and they had a table display of 2009 calendars! Can you believe it? 

But back on topic. We start our June mini eco-challenges today. I still haven't purchased my pedometer so I suppose after church I'm going to have to run out and get one. I can't think of a store that's within walking distance where I can buy one. Bummer.

Good luck, everyone. Check in throughout the week and let us know how you are doing. 

If anyone is interested in joining us, but hasn't signed up yet, you're still welcome to pick a challenge!

Reminders

If you haven't signed up for June's mini eco-challenge yet, there is still time. I'd love to have at least two more participants so we can beat our May numbers by a whole one person!

The Sesame Street Love the Earth DVD give away contest will run through next Thursday. If you want a chance to win it, you need to leave a comment under the post.

Enjoy your weekend - I'm off to prepare for my younger son's sixth birthday party!

June's Mini-Eco Challenge

It's hard to believe it's almost the end of May and that Memorial Day weekend has come and gone. I had a really, relaxing, enjoyable weekend. Our community pool opened and we walked or biked to the pool each day (I'm going to do a post later on in the week about how to make your pool membership greener). We went to two BBQ's. Saw the Indiana Jones movie. And last night we had an impromptu neighborhood party on our friend's front lawn until it was time for all the kids to go in and cleaned up for bed. 

It's time to get back to work though, and I thought I'd turn our thoughts A Little Greener Every Day's next mini-eco challenge. In May, we had five people including me choose one or more of the challenges that I put forth. This month, I'd love to have six people (or more) participate in a one week challenge that will run from June 1- June 7. 

Here are this month's challenges:

Challenge #1

Cook a dinner made with only locally grown, raised, or made foods. The farmer's markets are open now and many of them offer more than just produce. You can get meats, eggs, and breads at most farmer's markets. 

Challenge #2

Ditch the paper towels. Use rags to clean up messes instead of paper towels. Of course, you shouldn't just throw the paper towels in the trash. Stash them away where they are out of sight, out of mind so when a kid throws up or a cat coughs up a fur ball, you've got them for the truly gross jobs.

Challenge #3

Make your own coffee with organic, fair trade coffee for an entire week instead of heading out to the coffee house. Heading out for coffee in your car uses up gas, creates pollution, and usually ends up with a paper cup, a cardboard sleeve and a stir stick in the trash. 

Challenge #4

Walk - Buy a pedometer and set yourself a challenging goal in miles. At least half of those miles must be walked by taking yourself somewhere on foot that you normally would have driven in your car. This will take some time management, but you can do it.

Challenge #5

Pick one of last months challenges. They included taking no plastic or paper retail/shopping bags, taking navy showers, packing trash free lunches, hang drying all your laundry, and choosing from a list of environmental books to read. They were good challenges. No reason to exclude them. If you choose one or more of them last month and have continued past the week, challenge yourself with a new one. 

I'm going to take on challenge #1, #4, and #5 - from last month I am choosing another book but one that is  not on the list (I've read all those). I'll be reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. That book can be added to the challenge list.

Green Challenge Update

We're a little more than half way through our week. I can proudly say that I haven't taken a single plastic or paper bag. I've had a few cashiers look at me like I was some sort of crazy hippie. The girl at Target when I said I didn't want a bag for my DVD really didn't quite understand, but I left without a bag.

I'm also reading Affluenza. I'm not as far as I'd like to be because I'm also committed to reading another book (Chasing Daylight - it's amazing how these two very different books seem to be shouting some of the same messages to me). But in the first 50 pages, I've already learned an awful lot about consumerism in America and how explosive it has become. I'll do a book review when I'm finished reading the book.

So how is everyone else doing with your challenges. I know Allison checked in the other day in the comments. I'd like to hear from the rest of you.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Conserve!

Today is day one of our week long Mini Eco Challenge. If you've taken up one of my five challenges, it's time to start. And, if you want to join in, but haven't, just pick one and start today. Let me know in the comments section and I'll add you to our list on the side.

I've pledged to take NO paper or plastic bags, no matter what, this week. That means that if I forget my reusable bags, I will only carry out of the store what I can carry in my hands. I've also pledged to begin reading Affluenza. I've even got an hour of reading scheduled into my editorial calendar today (for you non-writers, an editorial calendar is simply a list of writing you must get done each day).

Do Good!

A Little Greener Every Day's First Challenge

First, I must wish you all a Happy Earth Day! 

Now, on with the business at hand. The other week, I had my first contest. Today, I'm issuing my first challenge. I was inspired by the Crunchy Chicken blog's very intense challenge, the Extreme Eco Throwdown, for the month of May. She's asking readers to pick something like giving up electricity, giving up driving, or buying nothing that contains plastic for an entire month. 

Although I was inspired by the challenge and awed to see how many people are rising to it, I don't see myself actually participating in one of her challenges. I don't know if I'm just not ready to take these extreme steps yet or what, but I think I need smaller, less intense challenges to start out with. And I have a feeling that the majority of the readers of this blog are ready to take another step further into being green, but not the giant leap Crunchy is suggesting. 

So, here are my challenges. If you feel convicted, pick one and let me know which one. Instead of taking the challenge for an entire month, we're going to do one week. The first week of May. From May 1-7th. 

Challenge #1

Take no shopping or retail bags. No paper. No plastic. Carry your own reusable bags, and if you don't have one with you, buy only what you can carry out in your two hands.

Challenge #2

Take what is known as Navy showers. Here's how they work. Turn the water on. Get wet head to toe. Turn the shower off. Shampoo and soap up. Turn the shower back on. Rinse off. Turn the shower off. Get out.

Now, you may need an extra "turn the shower back on" if you need to condition your hair. But you get the idea. 

Challenge #3

Commit to trash free lunches if you eat lunch outside the home daily. What does this mean? It means that when you are done eating your lunch, there should be no trash to throw away. It probably means you will have to pack your lunch daily in reusable containers. No take out containers, ziploc baggies, disposable cups, paper napkins, etc.

Challenge #4

Hang dry ALL your laundry for the week. And no, you can't just let it pile up for the week and not do it at all. Well, you could, but it wouldn't count for this challenge.

Challenge #5

Read one of the following books: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver or  Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor. Extra brownie points if you get the book from the library, buy it used, or borrow it from someone.

These are personal challenges. If you can get the others in your household to take the challenge, too, that's great. But if you can't, go it alone.

Personally, I'm going to attempt #1 and #5 (I'll read Affluenza). 

I encourage everyone reading to pick one of these challenges. They are very doable. Think about which one you'd like to take and post your choice in the comments section.