And the frogs are (about to get) greener.

So I picked up a used fish tank about two weeks ago.   I picked it up with big plans for my little frogs- to make a cricket house.  Intentions: a. save time by not having to drive to petco every 3-ish days b. save gas by not driving c. not use the plastic boxes crickets come in because I can buy a bunch now in one bag and d. feed crickets good food to make my pretty frogs healthy and happy.  

But I still have not put it together!  Why?  The tank was surprisingly huge!  And I love my Vincent and Louise (the frogs) and want them to have this huge new tank.  However, they are currently on an old piano bench and that bench cannot handle the weight of the new big frog house.  SO I have to find a very durable shelf to hold the frogs then switch them into the big tank then put the crickets into the old, little tank.  But here is my eventual plan.

Soon!!!  I can't wait to have a Cricket Haus. 


Tomorrow, after some really fun volunteering which I have to wake up for in 7 hours (goodbye Saturday) I am going shopping.  But I have regained some self-control after my last post and will be going to thrift stores- not beautiful, fashionable J. Crew.  Oh well.  At least my favorite fashion blogger has tons of good thrift store inspiration.  


Being "green" is hard because once I get in the habit of doing the goals I set, like not eating fast food, not buying new clothes, questioning where my food comes from and eating local meat, I start to forget why I do those things.  I get a mindset, why can't I have that McRib (it just came back and I've never had it...) or why don't I have a pair of beautiful cropped blue pants?  


I have to remind myself, the reason I am doing this is because I care about the planet and don't want to just mindlessly consume everything and anything that looks appealing (most of the time, after a little bit of thought, those things are actually completely UN-appealing).  I can't control what other people choose to buy or choose to do but I can choose what I do.  


So yea, I really want new J. Crew pants.  And I really love avocados and cashews, which I'm pretty positive are not local in the midwest.  And I have a huge weakness for fast food french fries.  But I have to remember that I am not going without- I don't need those things anymore.  In college, a snack was a 0.99 Burger King whopper.  Why?  It was cheap.  Today, I know that that is not only unhealthy but a whole burger for ninety-nine cents can't be good for anything but profit.  


Tomorrow I will go to thrift store and I will have fun finding my creative fashion self.  I'm excited.  And the cricket haus is coming- and it is coming soon. 

Inspiration Lacking

Well...I have decided today that I am tired of not shopping.  I made a goal in June not to buy anything new for myself for a year.  It has been approximately five months and four days...which means six months and 27 days to go.  I wanted to not want (hm...) anything after that time.  BUT I want things very badly all of a sudden.  Like everything.  Reading fashion blogs really is not helping either.


One of my friends told me the other day too that I had lost my NY style, which I'm not sure I ever had but still, it hurts. 


So, to attempt to cure this really un-fun feeling, I'm going to the thrift store tomorrow and I'm taking the camera since the blog is getting too full of words and too empty of pictures (exception: my beautiful paint art).


Side Note:  I started my morning off by reading an article about a poultry magnate which turned into me reading the poultry company's website and eventually got me reading Wikipedia's page for 'Slaughter Houses'.  I unfortunately had chicken for breakfast so this really was all around a 100% a poor choice.  But meat is really grossing me out right now. 

Meatless October

For the month of October, I abstained from eating any meat all month for both National Vegetarian Month and to reduce my energy consumption.  Not eating meat for the month was surprisingly easy and was actually fun because I tried a whole bunch of new recipes.  Last night I made this squash tart and had planned on eating it for lunch today.  However, my extremely persuasive coworker convinced me (aka just briefly suggested) going out for lunch today.  So, I celebrated with the most delicious Chicago-style hot dog I've ever eaten.  I have no regrets, minus that it made me so full that I've been fighting to stay awake all afternoon in my office.  

However, I am going to keep my meat consumption down.  Not only is good for me and the planet, it is also fun to cook new foods (I've become obsessed with squash....with the exception of zucchini, see last week) and it saves me money since buying ethically-raised, local meat is costly and difficult to find.  I was going to say to myself, "you will eat meat on Saturday and Saturday only!".   But after making goals like that in the past, I know that that will set me up for failure because I'll start bartering with myself about which day, how much meat, blah blah and soon I'll be only eating meat like four times a day.  So, I'm just going to cut down.  Or in positive terms, start eating meat once or twice a week.  

Also, I'm finished with my cricket house but just waiting to take pictures and fill it with crickets.  Guess what?  Crickets apparently really like to eat squash too :)

Zucchini!

This weekend, we visited the farmer's market on a mission to get broccoli and cabbage.  We got that but then saw the box of zucchini.  For $4, we got a ridiculous amount of one of my favorite vegetables.  When we got home, we went a little crazy with our purchase. 

While cooking, we talked about where the zucchini came from.  I had assumed it was local, since it looked like the last of the crop in farmer's garden.  However, Gregory said it could have come from anywhere, since most of the "farmers" at the market are wholesale sellers.  I wish it was easier to tell exactly where everything came from.  We are going back to the market next Saturday, and when we go I want to see if we can find out where what we are buying is being grown.

Recipes for some (the cupcake is Gregory's creation) of the above zucchini creations:

Quick Pickles, Latke, Butter, Meatballs

P.S. After making all of the above in large quantities, we still had enough left over to freeze a large bag for later and have five currently waiting to be turned into bread.  Best four dollars I can remember spending.

The Futura II

I'm really excited about this 1976 Singer sewing machine I bought from Craigslist.  I have absolutely NO idea how to sew.  It took me about thirty minutes to thread the needle last night (but I'm going to blame the red wine for that).  Then I somehow broke it.  Luckily, Gregory's mother taught him how to sew so tonight is my first sewing lesson!

So, now that I am about 1/3 of the way through a year of not buying new clothes, it will be super helpful to know how to fix little holes and hem pants.  I am very excited to get started!

What I'm Eating

This weekend, Gregory and I spent most of the day in his kitchen making a mess, breaking the garbage disposal (oops), and successful cooking enough vegetarian food for our whole week.  We spent about $35.00 dollars on all the groceries.  The recipes came from my new book obsession: Veganomicon.  Everything so far has been delicious and has challenged me in the kitchen.  Also, before the picture of our weekly menu, I have to at least mention my second obsession which is acorn squash.  I could eat it every meal (and most likely will be eating half of one with every meal this week) because they are a. good for both me and my taste buds, b. cheap (try 2 for a $1.50), and c. LOCAL!  Yay!  I really cannot find any reason not reason not to completely overindulge in this amazing fall produce over the next few weeks.  

Insane!

Life has been insanely busy and stressful later.  I am waiting to hear back from dental schools at the end of this month and its so stressful.  I can't take my mind off it.


I am though "celebrating" National Vegetarian Month this October and so far have been having a great time making squash pot pies and vegan po'boy sandwiches.  :) 


Christmas is approaching as well which is really hard for me since 1. I love clothes so very much and 2. love buying other people presents.  Its been almost 4 months since I've purchased a piece of clothing and I am starting to miss J. Crew a lot.  I'm proud of myself though for keeping up with the goals I set, like buying nothing new (unless its is essential like toothpaste), not eating a fast food establishments, and staying aware of trying to waste as little as possible.


Little reminders that make me proud of the things I've kept up with since I started this blog are my growing set of dishes I keep at work, my silly pink cow-print reusable napkins from the thrift store and my removal of diet coke cans from my life (and office desk).


So, I am stressed but also proud!  I hope I can come back to blog more often soon and get to work on more dyi projects.  It will be so nice to know what my life is going to be like next year!

Mission Missouri Menu

Here is what I am planning to eat this week.  Yes, it involves the controversial chicken.  But it also incorporates a lot of vegetables and what I buy might deviate from the list depending on what is local and what is not when I go shopping tonight.  I am setting a budget and starting at Local Harvest.  Out of everything I buy today for my week, I want at least 25% (that's about 6 out of the 19 ingredients of it to be from Missouri.


Monday Dinner: Vegetable and Bean Soup
Tuesday Lunch: Leftover Soup
Tuesday Dinner: Brined Chicken, Stuffed Zucchini Boat, with a simple lettuce salad 
Wednesday Lunch: More leftover soup
Wednesday Dinner:  My new obsession, chicken salad (e-mail if you're interested in the recipe)
Thursday Lunch: Leftover something (I still have some of that delicious Lentil Soup from last week lurking in the freezer)
Thursday Dinner: More delicious brined chicken, roasted carrots, and another simple salad
Friday Lunch: Something leftover


Shopping List:

Produce:

• 1 red onion
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 bag of celery
• 10 tomatoes
• 1 lb of kale or collard greens
• 1 bag of carrots
• 12 oz. of baking potatoes
• 2 zucchini
• 1 yellow summer squash
• Head of lettuce
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Parsley

Meat:

• 4 chicken breasts

Dry/Canned Goods:

• 19 oz red kidney beans
• Breadcrumbs
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• Dried thyme
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Miracle Whip Lite

Chicken Salad is Causing Me Grief

The menu worked out great for the week.   I am making next weeks' and shopping tomorrow.  However, the chicken that I have become slightly obsessed with (we've eaten chicken in almost every meal that I brine prior to cooking) is from Foodland.  I do not know anything about Foodland or where their chicken comes from and am hesitant to look it up because I love it so much at the moment.


I went there today to pick up my second my bag and I looked  through all the produce to see if anything was local.  I had this secret wish that everything was local and it was like a hidden treasure for locavorires that only I had discovered.  However, as another complete sane and not trying to justify buying frozen chicken individual would not be surprised to find out, the only local thing was tomatoes (which in Missouri are local just about anywhere you go).  They also had Olathe sweet corn which, from being from NY, I thought might be a town nearby but it is actually a town in Colorado.


Why is buying local food becoming so difficult!?!  I mean, I could just go to Wholefoods or Local Harvest and buy what meets my local demands there but that is very expensive.  And I think it is expensive because people are capitalizing on the "being green" tag-line, but that is a different issue.


It is funny because I thought not buying any new clothes or household items would be difficult but I started that in June and its unbelievably easy.  Food is much, much harder.


Anyways, I'll leave with my dilemmas and use what we have left from our last Sunday shopping trip to make more delicious and unethical chicken salad while pondering how to become the consumer that I want to be.

A Conflicted Consumer

It's a miracle!  I only spent 15 dollars on all the food for the week.  I even doubled the lentil soup recipe (which is currently on the stove) so my boyfriend and I could split it for the week.  When shopping, the store that we went to didn't have carrots so we bought canned, bay leaves so we passed, or chicken broth so we bought bullion cubes.  Now saving this money is awesome.  But it is not really even close to eating local food (who knows where those carrots came from, who picked them and when).


We did buy two pounds of tomatoes from a farmer in Clarksville, MO for two dollars.  I blanched and seeded them, which was a very time consuming process.  I used those instead of the canned tomatoes the recipe called for.  I want to be able to eventually use all local veggies like that and be able to prepare them quickly and skillfully.


At the farmer's stand, a middle-aged woman was carefully looking over the tomatoes, saying to the farmer that her mother could only hold the little ones now when cooking.  She also told the farmer, when he told us he had no more zucchinis for the season that he should have come to her house, as her garden was overflowing with them.  I think it is people like that, who don't go around with any goal or mindset of being "green" or even think of eating local that have it right.  How to get to that point from where I am now though is not clear.


So as I was cooking my lentil soup, the excitement of saving a lot of money started wearing off because I wanted to write a blog about my adventures along the path to being a local consumer-not a budget/cooking blog.


But it is a process and I think I am moving in the right direction.  I want to be able to eat local ingredients, be cheap (or perhaps frugal is a better word), and still eat delicious food. Right now, I've realized I do not know how to do any of that.


A lot of people have already accomplished both- eating locally and cheap.  This blog is on my reading list of this week to hopefully further inspire me!

The Menu is Here

My version of the Walletless Weekdays that I did last week- shop once, spend hopefully less than 30 dollars then eat good for the whole week.  I did not include breakfast since I just drink coffee in the a.m.

Shopping List:

Produce:

• 3 onions 
• 13 carrots
• 11 sprigs of thyme
• Small bunch of parsley (need 4 stalks)
• 1 head of Romain Lettuce
• 1 yellow pepper
• Small bag of celery
• 2 heads of garlic
• 1 of potatoes

Canned Goods/Dry:

• 14 oz. can of roasted tomatoes

• 1 cup of lentils
• 1 cup of white long grain rice
• Lite Miracle Whip
• Pistachios (optional, enough for chicken salad)
• 12 cups of chicken broth
• Bottle of balsamic vinegar
• Bottle of white wine
• 1 Bay leaf

Meat:

• 6 chicken breasts

(Already have the olive oil, salt, and pepper needed)

Menu:

Sunday Dinner: Lentil Soup

Monday Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup

Monday Dinner: Lettuce Salad with onion, yellow pepper, and balasmic dressing, brined chicken breast and roasted potatoes.

Tuesday Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup

Tuesday Dinner: Garlic Roasted Chicken

 Wednesday Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup

Wednesday Dinner: Chicken Salad in Lettuce Wrap (Grilled chicken, lite miracle whip dressing, pistachios, onion and celery, all wrapped in a lettuce leaf).  

Thursday Lunch: Chicken Salad Wrap

Thursday Dinner: Chicken and Rice Soup

Friday Lunch: Left over soup

Friday Dinner: Whatever is leftover!

What I am Eating this Week

Postponement

This weekend the menu never happened since three of my friends ended up staying for the long weekend.  Also, this week is busy and ending with an out-of-town wedding so grocery shopping is really unnecessary.  I am going to work on building my workweek menu for next week though.   I am building it off this lentil soup recipe.  It will be a fun Sunday night meal (especially since the heat wave has broken) and great for weekly leftovers.  I am excited to see what I come up with and share it! 

And the Results are...

Well, it is Friday morning now and the Walletless Week experiment has come to a close.  It was all going rather smoothly until yesterday when I woke up late, forgot to make lunch and had to buy lunch.  I went to Subway, which I thought was a better choice and less “fast-foodie” than Jimmy Johns or Wendy’s or McDonalds.  Later, my boyfriend told me though that I don’t want to know where Subway’s chicken even comes from and that Subway should be included in the fast food category.  Next week I am going to research where food from restaurants and grocery stores that I frequently consumes comes from in an attempt to avoid supporting anti-green establishments with my money. 

Anyways, minus the Subway for lunch and skipping on cooking dinner last night (we went to happy hour instead), I spent no money this week.  We still have ingredients left over which is kind of disappointing but if I had planned better, I could have used those for lunch. 

Overall, I did not really like any of the recipes and made up my own for Wednesday with the ingredients.  It was really nice having dinner planned though and not have to think about it or run to the store to get something I didn’t have.

Since I liked the overall concept of shopping once and having the week planned out, I am going to do the same next week but with my own recipes.  I am going to work on my menu and shopping list tomorrow and I’ll publish over the weekend.  I am going to focus on ingredients that I can get the farmer’s market or from the local grocery store while also being conscience of the cost.  I hope to keep it at about $30.00 dollars (like it was last week).  

The Walletless Workweek

Over the past two months, not one week has been remotely the same.  This has caused a slight bit of stress but has been exciting and well worth it.  The main cause?  Meeting and falling in love with a pretty amazing boy.  However, we've both noticed that over the past couple of weeks, our old respective routines have pretty much been abolished.

So, during a long drive back from a weekend getaway, we talked about routine and why we want to get back into it.  The main to reasons are our wallets and waistlines.  We've been eating out (and drinking out) far too often and though it has been fun, we both agree we can still be happy and in love and all that cute stuff without spending lots of money on delicious chicken livers, not so good German pork dishes, and on pints and pints of micro-brewed beer.  

Then, naturally, what followed next in the conversation was "what's for dinner?". We both agreed “something healthy, we're getting fat”.  I happened to find an old magazine article hidden in my what-to-read folder. The article, from Women's Health, is about buying and roasting one chicken and eating it in a different way every night, from Sunday to Thursday.

Since we were both tired from eating, drinking, and driving (obviously not at the same time) for roughly fourty-eight hours straight, having a menu for the next fives days AND very orderly shopping list in front of us was very appealing.  We decided to go for it.  I decided however that I wanted to take it a little farther- buy just what I think I might need for the rest of the week, which shouldn't be much more than dinner and maybe a bottle of wine or two, and not swiping my credit card again until Friday.

This is another experiment in my going-green adventure.  I have a feeling it is going to be difficult for me.  I am pretty good about bring lunch to work but at least once a week, I am tired and forget to pack lunch or my very persuasive co-worker coerces me into buying something delicious with him (it has not been fast food though since I stopped eating it, which by the way has been unbelievably easy and basically a mindless practice).   I see the lunch hour being a potential problem.  Running out of wine might also be another pitfall.

In addition to saving trips to the store and cutting on unnecessary consumption, I hope to save money this week.  In the article that sparked this blog entry, it claims all ingredients to make the 5 meals cost $28.00.  We are on way to the store now and after we get home, I will update the actual cost for what is needed and also what I bought that I determined necessary to be happy and content until Friday.  Here we go!

And so it goes...

So it has been a couple of weeks since my last blog entry but continuing on the being more ecofriendly path has been going pretty well.  The biggest current roadblock is actually not willpower or even remembering to be consistent (which is a pleasant surprise) but money.  I am making the transition from full time volunteer to full time employee but with a one month vacation in between.  The vacation was for the month of July and filled with expenses- like moving into a new apartment.  At first I was going to the local market (which I love and is a two-minute walk away) and even though I wouldn’t say it is that much more expensive than the grocery store, I end up spending more since it is all fresh and local.  At the grocery store, canned veggies are not very good but they are super cheap.  So, until I get my first paycheck (!) in two very long weeks, I am not going to be able to shop entirely there or at markets.

I’m finding that time is also a large factor in living a green lifestyle.  One, because it is time consuming to first off be knowledgeable about why certain normalcies are harmful to the planet and what is a solution that is not just different (becuase that often is just as bad but might sound better) but is actually a less energy consuming process.  I feel like I still have no idea what I am talking about when I try and explain to people why I think that being conscience and knowledgeable is important.   As a sidenote, why do people get annoyed by the fact that I decided to not buy new clothes or want to ask where my burger is from?

A second reason for time being an obstacle in the quest of green living is that it takes much more time to cook meals that are just from local ingredients.  Example, if you want to make a corn salad, it is way easier to open a can of corn than cook and cut fresh corn.  Anyone though will say corn is better if cooked though, but it takes longer.  Then though if you are eating local food, what to do if the ingredient is not local, like my own personal favorite fruit, olives.  You can look up substitutes or just go without.  That takes time though, more time than just grabbing a can of olives with no idea where they are from.  

Going forward, I want to spend more time researching and learning about what is good for our planet and why.  I also need (and do not really have a choice if I am going to keep this up) to eat local without going broke.  It should be an interesting journey!

Sweet Summer.

I’ve been visiting my parent’s this week in upstate New York and it finally feels like summer is here now that I’m lounging by the pool and out of work for the entire month!  Since I’m moving into a new apartment in St. Louis at the end of this week, it’s been kind of a hectic time to keep up with a new change.  

However, as my welcome home dinner, my dad bought local beef for dinner and it was delicious!  My parents even said they might start always buying local beef and even other meat.  That made me happy!  

Not eating fast food has been so easy since I am surrounded by people who want to cook me delicious food this week.  In the airport Saturday, during my 10-hour trip (thanks to delays and missed connections) I broke down and ate a salad.  I had hoped to avoid eating in the airport, since that is basically all considered fast food, and brought two oranges and a bag of pistachios.  However, when I open the first orange I saw it was very mushy and had gone bad.  So, when we de-boarded the first flight, I got a bagel.  Dunkin Donuts uses little paper bags though so I didn’t feel too bad.  And my Nalgen was really helpful at keeping me from getting a bottled drink.  Other than that, it has not been a challenge.

When we drive in the U-Haul back to St. Louis on a fun 14-hour drive, I am going to try and persuade my dad to eat a packed lunch in a park or rest-area rather than stopping at a fast-food joint.  I’ll update on that later this week!  Next week, I am going to try to bike instead of drive on errands, if possible.  As for the rest of this week, I am just going to keep up with same goals and try and get this move over with!

Goodbye to the French Fry

This week, I’m sticking with no beef.  As my previous post said, it was not that hard to do and I think will be good change for my diet and lifestyle.  This week, I’m going no fast food.  I usually eat about once or twice from fast food places.  I have a particular soft spot for Wendy’s cheeseburgers and McDonald’s fries.  Well, not anymore.

Beside not being good for my waistline or any other part my of body, fast food is bad for the environment in more ways than one.  First off, the beef that I talked about last week is a staple at many fast food joints.  The second and easiest to see point is the sheer amount of garbage generate from a meal.  Besides those to points there are a lot of practices used by various fast food joints that are not exactly kind to our planet. 

So this week’s green challenge is no fast food.  I am including all carryout restaurants in that bracket.  Also, I want to get in the habit of not drinking out of disposable containers.  Also, when I go out to eat, I want to avoid getting Styrofoam to-go boxes.  That is going to be grouped in with this week’s challenge.  Not that I got the cheeseburgers out of the picture, I think this might be easy to do.

No Beef? No Problem.

For the past nine months, I've been living with three vegetarian roommates and one of my other omnivore roommates has cried out any many occasions when peering into the fridge or looking down at his plate, "where's the meat?".  I've notice actually that we've all been eating a lot less meat and actually gotten use to it.  The vegetarians are great cooks and knowing the rest of us enjoy hearty meat dishes, go to extra lengths to prepare protein heavy veggie meals.
So when I recently read that removing red meat from your diet can be equal to driving 5,340 miles less a year, I thought, 'how hard can it be'?  It seemed like an easy first choice on my path to living a more eco-friendly lifestyle.  So that is why I chose my first change to be beef.  Cattle raising is particularly taxing on the environment.  Of course this includes dairy as well but I decided I'll start with just the meat.  It seemed like a simple choice that could potential lower carbon footprint by 2,400 pounds of CO2 a year.


This week went smoothly for the most part.  I actually forgot about not eating beef for the most part.  I only realized this morning that the spaghetti I ate for dinner last night had meat sauce on it and mostly like that meat was ground beef.  I forgive myself for that transgression though and was proud particularly of my willpower at about 3 o'clock this afternoon.  My friends and I christened our new apartment last night with a party that lasted well in tonight.  When I woke up this morning, on a mostly deflated air mattress as I do not have a bed yet, I'll say that I felt just a little less than good.  This afternoon, driving home from dropping a friend off, the fast food chains were calling to me as I still felt sick to my stomach.  Usually a cheeseburger and fries and clear that right up.  I have in, but settled for a chicken sandwich.


Which brings me to next weeks change- no fast food because of the amount of trash generated from a single serving meal.  However, I think the key to success with the giving up on the beef is going to be remembering over the next few days and weeks that I am not eating it.  If I remember, I won't a repeat of the spaghetti sauce incident.  I also realized this week that I eat very little red meat at all and at some point, I might consider just giving up on it all together.  I'm starting with the beef though.  It was a change that after some research I think really is better for the environment and for my lifestyle is completely manageable and actually really not a big deal at all.

Change is a Good Thing

To be honest, I've considered myself a relatively environmentally-friendly person.  I've been getting off feeling guilt-free since I drive a Prius, own reusable bags, and recycle.  However, after spending a good part of the last year around people who were far more informed about being kind to the planet and actually practicing what they preach, I've decided it is time for me to step it up. 


I'm going to use this blog to look at different ways that I live and see how I can revamp them to be more earth happy, but while also keeping me happy.  To start, I am going to use a lot of these tips from this great article from Yes! magazine.  I am not going to do everything at once (since I've learned from experience that rarley works for me).  The goal is to start change a week, finding out it's pros and cons, and seeing if it can be a lasting practice that benifits the environment.