Okay, so I've been giving a lot of thought to the "greening" of my lifestyle over the last few years. As with any lifestyle change (at least the ones that stick) its been a slow process. I've started a mental list of things I would like to accomplish and the things I already have. I'm going to start documenting my journey here (in addition to the recipes and such) so let me begin where I do best, with a list!
Things I've already done:
1. Gone from using paper napkins to cloth. This was really a no brainer, I had lots of napkins I inherited from my grandmother, back when they USED these thing regularly! At first I wasn't sure what to do with the dirty ones, but a friend of mine came up with the DUH idea of putting a small stainless trash can in the kitchen to use as a hamper... So there we go. I love it, and it even has a removable hard plastic liner with a handle that made it ridiculously easy to bring down to the laundry.
2. Gotten rid of my old Teflon pans. I didn't realize how scary a substance this was, especially when you're an idiot like me and used metal forks and stuff to stir your food (hey I didn't know!) and scratched the hell out of them. So yeah, ten years of digesting Teflon, probably not good... But I am feeling good about the cusinart green gourmet ceramic pans I bought recently. And now I use only soft things to stir with! Also, the 50% off sale on amazon helped (going green is infuriatingly expensive, but that's a whole post).
3. Reduced my paper towel usage by 90% by buying cheap dish rags and using them for all but the most gross of messes... Sorry but anything poop or throw up related does NOT go into my washer! I also had a duh moment for this as I thought more about it. Instead of buying brand new rags, as these wear out I plan to start saving and cutting up old clothes that aren't donatable.
4. My family has made a huge commitment to eat organic, with no HFCS, food dyes, additives or other ingredients that I can't pronounce. This has been tough, but I've gotten to be a decent chef in the last couple of years, and have gotten into the habit of cooking A ALOT. It's a pain in the butt, and has increased my food budget by at least 30%, but I don't really feel like a have a choice these days. Soooooo much crap in food. Can't even really call half of it food. Going to be starting a garden (hopefully!) this spring, so here's hoping to offset the costs a bit. My attempts at gardening for the first time since I was 10 years old ought to make for some amusing stories for this blog project! Feel free to laugh at me, I do it all the time!
Okay that's enough for now, I've promised my son some outside time today (and I'm a horrible horrible mother if I ignore my sons desire to go play outside because I'm too busy blogging about how cool and green I am!)
Love this post! What great ideas, and I can't wait to read more. Isn't it scary what it is normal to eat now? So many things have these hidden garbage in them. For the first time the other day Rich and I noticed that worcestershire sauce has hfcs in it. Every other ingredient is something I can buy as a whole food, I don't get it! I recently switched to cloth napkins after you inspired me to do so, and we love it, but I really want to see the pail you are talking about :) Love the napkins, but I really need to stop using so many paper towels and disposable sponges. I need some good dish washing wash cloths.
ReplyDeleteDang it, had this big long reply written and I forgot I was in via Facebook and it totally choked on it... Remind me about the pail, I may not have it out during max's party as people have thrown trash in it in the past (to their credit it is a small trash can!). I was think old flannel shirts or even t-shirt or sweatshirt material would work as dish rags or paper towel substitutes. The good thing about my "pail" is I can throw both napkins and dish rags in it to be washed.
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