4 Ways to Cut Back on Your Meat Consumption
Jan 19, 2012 Eco Friendly Home
Most Americans eat too much meat. It’s a big part of the standard American diet, bigger than it needs to be. There are a lot of good reasons to cut back on meat, including consuming less saturated fat, health concerns, decreasing your environmental impact, and cost. The hard part is actually doing so. Today I’d like to share some ways to cut back on your meat consumption.
1. Participate in Meatless Mondays
I do know how hard it can be to get some families to accept any vegetarian meals at all. My husband used to comment with every vegetarian meal on which meat he thought would improve it. Then I told him one day how much that pissed me off and pointed out how it really wasn’t so different from our daughter’s habit of announcing that she disliked unfamiliar meals before trying them. That was a habit of hers we’d been trying to break, so pointing out the similarity really made him think.
2. Eat Smaller Portions of Meat
If you have trouble giving up meat completely with your meals, you can always go for smaller portions. The portion size many people eat is too big anyhow when it comes to meat.
You can also think of meat as flavor, rather than a major component of the meal. Use a small amount of ground beef or ground sausage in pasta sauce, for example. If you’re making stir fry, add more vegetables and less meat.
3. Buy Grass Fed Beef
Grass fed beef costs a lot more than other beef, and that will encourage you to eat less of it. Many say it’s healthier for you and of course better for the cattle.
4. Eat Meat Only One Meal a Day
You don’t have to have meat at every meal. Pick one meal a day and make it vegetarian. You may have to experiment to figure out the recipes you enjoy most, but that can be the fun part. It’s an excuse to try new food combinations. I have a fondness for black bean and artichoke burritos, for example. I usually keep some beans in the freezer and assemble the rest fresh, although I suspect you could make a bunch and freeze them if you prefer.
Remember that there are many other places to get your protein, and they’re often cheaper than meat. Get used to making meals with other protein sources, and you may find that they can taste great too. Do a lot of experimenting to find recipes that work for you and your family.
Tags: cutting back on meat, food, meatless meals
Use Blackout Curtains to Cut Your Power Bill
Jan 16, 2012 Eco Friendly Home
Whether it’s the cold of winter or the heat of summer, your windows are a major energy leak for your home. Having double paned windows can help quite a bit, but good quality blackout curtains
Quality matters with blackout curtains. If you check the reviews on Amazon, you can see that some curtains are far better than others at blocking light. There’s not much point in putting up blackout curtains if they don’t do the job well.
Cost of Blackout Curtains
Blackout curtains
You can also make your own for a reasonable cost, and it doesn’t have to be complex. Dark colored fleece can do pretty well, for example. The main thing you want to look for is a material that will block a lot of light. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a dark color, so long as it doesn’t let much light through. Layering the fabric can work as well. If you don’t sew, fabric glue may also work, although I don’t trust it to be as strong.
If you don’t want to spend money on all your windows, just get blackout curtains for the ones that gain or lose the most heat. You can pull the curtains back on warmer winter days to let sunlight in, and close the curtains when the day cools down to keep the heat in.
Alternatives
If you don’t want to put up curtains, there are other ways to block heat in your home. I use flattened cardboard boxes in some of my windows. We have a number of them from when we moved a few years ago. We’re a little discreet about where these go, as we have a picky homeowner’s association to deal with and I don’t want to hear anything from them.
You can also use Mylar in your windows. You can buy some that is designed for use in windows, but you can also get it in the form of emergency blankets such as you might keep in an emergency kit, and cut that to size. It blocks quite a bit of energy, yet it’s thin enough you can open the window over it. That’s nice if you’re happy with your window coverings aside from how they keep the heat in or out.
Tags: blackout curtains, mylar, saving energy
My New Vitamix!
Dec 30, 2011 Eco Friendly Home
It finally happened. My dear, wonderful mother bought us a new Vitamix
It was kind of fun getting it. Mom didn’t know that I didn’t discuss it with my husband when she asked if we wanted one. I knew the answer, said yes, and that was it. Then laughed when we came over on Christmas Eve and it was sitting near the door, unwrapped. That led me to telling her that he didn’t know about it. Fortunately, he also didn’t notice it by the door, so at least one of us got to be surprised by the gift.
I really missed our old Vitamix. The plain blender we bought as a budget-friendly replacement made adequate smoothies I suppose, but when you’re used to having really smooth smoothies, uncrushed seeds from berries are really annoying. Our poor little cheap blender really couldn’t compete.
The old Vitamix had lasted really well, although it didn’t quite make it to 20 years before the container cracked. The motor was showing signs of weakening as well, but overall it still worked. Pretty good, even if it didn’t make it to the salesman’s stated 25 year average lifespan. That’s averages for you, I suppose.
This is one Christmas gift that is going to get a lot of use. Thanks, mom.
Tags: blender, useful Christmas presents, vitamix
21 Ways to Cut Back on Food Waste
Nov 16, 2011 Eco Friendly Home
We all waste some food – there’s only so much to be done for it. But that doesn’t mean you should assume all your food waste is necessary. Here are some ways you can cut down on the food you and your family wastes.
No matter which step you use, make sure you use safe food handling procedures and that leftovers haven’t been sitting around too long before you use them. Doesn’t do you any good to get sick off trying to cut back on waste.
1. Eat leftovers for lunch.
Rather than put all your leftovers from dinner into a single container, separate them out into lunch portions. These can be reheated and eaten the next day or put into the freezer for later use. If you use microwavable containers, they’re easy food on the go for people who have access to a microwave at lunchtime (hear that, dear husband?).
2. Use leftovers in other meals.
Some leftovers do well mixed into later meals. Meats can be added to stir fries, for example, or you can mix up last night’s vegetables with new ones cooked for tonight’s dinner.
3. Save vegetable scraps for broth.
I keep a bag of vegetable scraps in my freezer. Once there’s enough, they can be tossed into some water and made into vegetable broth, and from there into some wonderful soups. You can use the trimmings from many kinds of vegetables, such as carrots, onions, zucchini, bell peppers, celery and so forth. If the vegetable works well cooked, it may go well in your broth.
This also works well if you realize you aren’t going to finish a vegetable before it spoils. Freeze them while they’re still good.
4. Frozen vegetables.
You don’t necessarily have to save vegetables for broth – you can blanch them and freeze them for later use, rather like the frozen vegetables you can buy at the grocery store.
5. Serve the broccoli stalk, not just florets.
Broccoli stalks are actually my oldest daughter’s favorite part. She’s be furious if I tossed those. We cook them just the same as the florets.
6. Dry or can excess tomatoes.
Did you buy too many tomatoes or did your tomato plants go wild this year? Don’t stress out about how to use them all fresh – you can dry or can them for long term storage.
There are many ways you can can your tomatoes. You can leave them whole, slice them or make them into sauce. Think about how you’d like to use them, and make sure you use safe canning procedures as you work.
Tomatoes can also be dried. Sun dried tomatoes are a favorite of mine, but you can also use a dehydrator if you’d like things to go a little faster. Pay attention to food safety and know how long the method you use preserves your food.
7. Make bread.
Some vegetables make very good breads. Zucchini bread and pumpkin bread are classics, but you can find recipes for breads using other vegetables.
8. Dried fruit.
I love my dehydrator. I don’t use it as much as I should, but we’ve made some wonderful dried fruits with it. Kids love dehydrated fruits as a snack.
You can also look up recipes to puree fruit and make it into fruit leather that is far superior to the stuff they sell in stores.
9. Frozen fruit.
Fruit can also be chopped up and frozen for later use. Frozen fruit tastes great in the summer, and it’s also a quick addition to fruit smoothies.
10. Fruit bread.
Fruits go well into bread. I freeze bananas and defrost them when I want to make banana bread, but there are other bread possibilities out there.
11. Fruit salad.
There’s something about fruit salad that gets kids interested. You don’t have to add whipped cream for a fruit salad to interest them either.
12. Save those bones.
If you buy meat with bones, save the bones for soups. Homemade soups are really wonderful when the weather turns cold. I make a lovely chicken soup from scratch that is my oldest daughter’s favorite school lunch.
13. Make sandwiches.
Leftover meats can make great sandwiches. Mix them up with other ingredients and go at it.
14. Make burritos, tacos, fajitas, etc.
A bit of extra meat can be chopped up to make great fixings for burritos, tacos and so forth. Simmer it in an appropriate sauce to get the right flavor.
15. Pizza!
Surely your kids love pizza. Use leftover meats as one of the toppings.
16. Freeze milk.
Going on vacation but there’s a lot of milk in the fridge. You can give it to a neighbor or put it in your freezer. Make sure there’s room for the milk to expand a little as it freezes, but otherwise it should be just fine when you get back. I also freeze milk in cubes so that my kids can drink milk at school rather than juice.
You can also freeze cheese but be warned that it usually crumbles more easily afterward. It should taste fine, just be a little more crumbly, which can make it a bit more difficult to slice.
17. Stir cheese into dinner.
That little bit of cheese you have may go great with a variety of recipes. Think about what flavors your cheese will go with, whether it’s an addition to the main course or a topping for some vegetables.
18. Make bread crumbs or croutons.
Bread that’s getting a little stale can be made into bread crumbs or croutons. Make sure it isn’t going bad, just a little stale. Dry the bread at low heat in the oven. An easy way to do this is to toss it in a cooling oven after making dinner. You can easily turn it into crumbs with your blender once it has dried.
Bread crumbs go great in meat loaf and other recipes.
Croutons are made by chopping the bread into cubes, then tossing it with some olive oil and seasonings, then drying them in the oven.
19. Add to soup.
Crumble the bread into soup to thicken it.
20. Freeze excess bread, pancakes, etc.
Got more bread, pancakes or whatever than you can eat? Freeze the extra. It will still be good to use later. I especially do this when I make waffles. I’d rather make a bunch occasionally and have easily reheated extras than to make a small bunch.
21. Compost
If the food is safe for your compost pile and won’t attract pests, compost anything you can’t use. Composting meat, dairy and cooked foods is usually not recommended because while they will break down, they also attract rodents and tend to smell bad as they compost. Worms also may not touch the meat, so it will break down much more slowly. Some recommend running meat and dairy through the blender first if you want to compost them.
Tags: can, cut back on food waste, food waste, freeze, limit food waste
Thinking About Food Waste – Blog Action Day 2011
Oct 16, 2011 Eco Friendly Home
#BAD11 – I enjoy participating in Blog Action Day each year. The topics are very interesting, and can be quite important. This year’s topic, food, lends itself to so many possibilities, but I decided to write about food waste in particular. With 3 kids, food waste happens, you can’t stop it entirely. You can try to control it.
Food waste is a huge part of the municipal solid waste generated every year. According to the EPA, it was 14.1% before recycling, and only a small percentage of food waste was recovered through recycling. You can read a detailed report on this at http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009-fs.pdf. This doesn’t count composting at home; it’s just about what goes into the waste stream.
Some food waste is just in the nature of preparing food. The term includes the scraps that come about from preparing food. If you have a compost bin, the waste from preparing fruits and vegetables can at least be kept out of the waste stream and benefit your garden. Those bits aren’t as problematic as other kinds of food waste.
Cutting Down on Food Waste at Home
Home is the place where you have the most control over food waste. You have the ability to buy only what you need and to make sure leftovers are eaten in a timely manner.
Buying only what you need is often difficult, short of going to the store daily, which has its own serious problems. Most of us are simply not perfect at keeping track of the fresh foods in the fridge, and it often gets worse when those fresh foods become a part of leftovers. Even so, we need to try.
Some foods last better than others, of course. Just compare the shelf life of an apple to a banana. When you have fresh foods, think about preparing or serving the foods that spoil quickly first, saving the more durable fresh foods for later in the week.
To control leftovers, start with your cooking habits. How much will you and your family really eat at a sitting? How can you cook enough to satisfy everyone without having leftovers, or at least have fewer leftovers?
Next, figure out how to get people eating leftovers when you have them. If you have the freezer space, you can make them into frozen lunches to go to work or for those days you don’t want to spend much time on lunch. You can also make it a goal to eat those leftovers before freezing them becomes necessary.
Don’t forget your smaller amounts of leftovers. Sometimes you may need to combine two days of leftovers to get a good new meal out of them.
Kids can be some of the biggest offenders on food waste, and the hardest to control. I can’t tell you how often I have to remind mine to finish a half eaten apple or try to figure out a way to get them to eat a dinner they didn’t enjoy that much. I have a few standby additions my kids reach for when they don’t enjoy a meal, which really help limit the complaints and uneaten meals. The right cheese solves many problems with children. So does ketchup.
You should talk to your kids about why it’s important to not waste food. The recent Sesame Street special on food insecurity really hit home with my oldest, who had been quite reluctant to watch something as babyish as Sesame Street; then she had to watch it again the next night because it touched her so much. When I checked, they had the entire Growing Hope Against Hunger episode on that page.
Benefits of Wasting Less Food
The first benefit of wasting less food is obvious. You spend less money on food. That’s pretty simple. A 2006 study found that people throw away an average of 14% of the food they buy. Cut that number down, and you can save a nice little chunk off your monthly grocery bills, or about $600 a year for a family of 4.
Food waste is also an environmental issue. When food waste goes into a landfill, it decomposes and produces methane. Composting it, on the whole, is probably the better answer when you can’t avoid wasting food and have a way to compost it. Just make sure you aren’t doing anything that will attract rodents or other pests.
Is There Anything Else You Can Do?
While there’s only a little you can do directly about it, I suggest you take a look at the EPA’s food recovery hierarchy for more ideas on how to limit food waste. Most of us don’t have enough excess food that can be safely donated to food banks and such, but it’s good to know what kinds of things you should be encouraging in your community.
Tags: #BAD11, food, food waste, leftovers
