Shopping “green” on the cheap

When it comes to being a responsible consumer it is easy to get caught up in feeling guilty based on idealistic values. “I won’t shop at Wal-Mart yet I do shop at Target.” WalMart’s corporate track record and foreign labor practices leave a lot to be desired. ew. Yet, to be completely honest I don’t truly know if Target is much better. I heard just recently that  Gap, the international retailer, recently discovered a subcontractor was using children as young as ten to sew clothing in New Delhi.  And it seems nearly impossible to purchase an item made in the US (not that the US is free of sweatshops, I’m afraid). So, I’m all for supporting local business where I can but I believe it’s also important to encourage fair-trade alliances which often allow poverty- stricken communities to employ safer practices they may not be able to maintain without our business. What a dilemma!

Relax. Take a deep breath. Here’s what is most important- do what you can and what works for you. I’ve discovered lots of little tricks that allow me to indulge in great products on the cheap without making Wal-Mart a destination on my regular outings. Yes, it takes a bit more planning but it also allows me the luxury of avoiding the tacky-cheap-welfare-enforcing-small-business-killing-mega-giant!

Here’s what I do. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I use on a weekly/monthly basis. Once I had this figured out I created a grocery list (the template can be easily edited to reflect your own “regular grocery purchases.”) It also lists the top 12 pesticide-ridden foods (the “Dirty Dozen”) and the 12 with the least pesticides. You can view a more extensive list ranked worst to best by checking out this EWG website. If you can, purchase the dirty dozen in strictly organic form and go with conventional on the other if organic is a bit too pricy. Here’s a list for fish. I print out a handful of my shopping lists on the back side of my daughter’s school handouts (when I’ve got ‘em), post a list on the fridge and just check off what I need when I think of it or add items as I notice I’m out or low.

Next, I’ve scouted out a few different places in town that offer up quality organic and local-safe products and compared prices. I’ve discovered Costco is valuable for inexpensive Pacific brand organic chicken broth, frozen mahi-mahi, organic ground beef, avocados, organic milk, butter and other items on the low-pesticide range. Across the street from our Costco is a  Grocery Outlet, a grocery liquidation store. Grocery Outlet is located along the west coast; if you’re not, look for a grocery liquidation near you- it’s worth it. This is often our stop before we hit our main grocer just in case we come across what we need here first. I snatch up organic or mostly organic personal items as I see them. The above shaving gel and hand soap from Nature’s Gate were more than 50% off the retail price! Liquidation places are also great for frozen vegetables and I’ve also stumbled across organic boxed soups and broths. Great staples to stock up on for next-to-nothin’.

I always finish up my shopping at the local grocer that offers the best fresh organic produce and meats. When I’m really on the ball I make sure to keep a membership with a local grocer, Fresh Abundance, that does weekly deliveries for orders of $35 or more (very reasonable). Most cities offer Community Suported Agriculture (CSA) which offer a service providing local produce boxes delivered on a weekly basis during the growing season. See if you can find one in your area. Remember, it all goes much quicker if you bring your list and stick to it. It is very easy to get distracted- especially if you’re going to shop a few locations- but don’t despair, a little wandering sometimes yields an unexpected treasure.

A Moroccan dinner on the town

It is completely a perfect free-form Saturday. The fam and I have were already out early to visit some friends that will be living part-time in town. We took the two to a disappointing restaurant last night that we were sure would be a huge hummer! I had read numerous reviews in local trustworthy sites that gave this restaurant raves. It’s a Moroccan place, the Marrakesh, that is waaaay tacky from the outside (turns out, equally on the inside). Now, that is never enough to keep me away from a possible diamond-in-the-rough; DeLeon’s (a fabulous local Mexican deli) is a case in point. The comments that pulled me to want to dine there were about the generous fun character the owner/server was. Phrases like, “plan on spending the evening”, “we always take out-of-towners here when they visit”, “we love this place”, pulled me in. I wanted some of that.

Our friends are vegetarians so we phoned ahead to find out if they would have a range of options. We were informed that they had plenty of choices so we decided this would be the place we would go. We made reservations and were excited! really. I had heard so many things about this place that I envisioned the place to be dark and dusky. I imagined tired rich tapestries draping the walls and low tables bordered with faded richly woven pillows. I expected the waiter to be jovial and kind. I expected to eat a buffet of food with my fingers relishing each morsel and scoop. I expected hot teas and exotic beer.

Sigh. One thing most people know about me or attribute to me is my optimism. It’s true. But here’s the thing, I choose to be optimistic because I truly believe that is the only way to experience life fully. Yet, there are those times when a situation pulls me to just want to whine and vent a bit before I go back to my usual “rosy picture”. The whole dining experience was mostly a disappointment. The place did have tapestries on the walls and low tables but the entrance reminded me of some bad 80’s home with random Middle Eastern relics. We joked that we probably wouldn’t want to see the place in the daylight. So far this is all fine, like I said; we can sacrifice some atmosphere for good grub.

We were seated once our guests arrived; three of us on the floor, two of us on the cushioned bench. Our guests weren’t used to icy snowy roads and were looking forward to alcohol of some sort. A beer would be great. (Strike 1). After waiting about 10 minutes we were given towels so we could all rinse our hands under some warm water poured into a bowl in the center of the table. This was kind of cool. The dinner started with soup, moved to salad, then an appetizer, the main course and finished with dessert. We were all to pick our own individual main course. As it turned out the only vegetarian courses were Vegetables with Couscous and Vegetables with Rice.

Soup was good, a small but nice lentil. Salad was a sort of vegetable relish you ate by scooping it up with chunks of bread. yummy. Next, came the appetizers. My husband and I got a very interesting ground chicken and egg dish flavored with cumin/cinnamon hints, baked inside phyllo dough and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It was good; a sort of Moroccan Monte Cristo. They were out of eggs so our vegetarian friends were offered a second serving of soup or salad as an appetizer. (Strike 2). All of this was broken up by intervals of fifteen minutes between courses where we had no food at all in front of us. (Strike 3) This created ample time for actually noticing things like the fact that the cushions were completely falling apart, literally busting at the seams and foam pieces were falling out. The bench was interesting in that the underside of the small round table nearly met the top of the cushion which meant you had to put your legs off to the side, not under the table. (Strike 4-wouldn’t have been a strike if the food was better and wait shorter).

It didn’t get much better. We did enjoy ourselves. We joked about the tackiness anticipating the next course to be the glimmering jewel that would redeem the evening. Our waiter was a jovial kind man as I had hoped. He joked with our vegetarian friends calling them, “Discovery Channel.” Like, “Hey, Discovery Channel you like hiking on the weekends, huh? I know your type.” He was entertaining. The thing is the food never wowed and the second bowl of soup was just a little weird. We were served plenty of tea which was tasty enough although my husband later pointed out (correctly) that it had a faint taste of soap. I think this was just a character of the tea though, nothing really negative. The baklava, as a finish, was good. I even licked my fingers.

I won’t hurry back to the Marrakesh but I think it could redeem itself. I believe if my husband and I had visited and gotten the same meal in a timelier manner we would have probably enjoyed the evening. I think, overall, it was the long wait times and sad vegetarian options that really killed it for us. Perhaps… maybe… I set my expectations too high.

Are there healthy snacks that are still snack-worthy?

It is important to me to strive to eat well (avoiding processed & preserved nutrition-lacking food) and yet when cravings hit it always seems to be during snack time! Of course, my cravings lean toward salty/crunchy which seem to be the most challenging for me to curb. I have come across an incredibly quick and easy flax seed cracker recipe that is both salty & crunchy yet I’m wondering what other goodies I can eat, not only without guilt but, with pleasure. 

I’m not interested in any of those “100 calorie snack packs” either because those babies are loaded with a bunch of ingredients that I can’t pronounce which means they aren’t going to do my body much good. It’s that kind of crap I’m trying to stay away from- that and chips of any variety. I wonder if I could find some yummy salty dip recipes to eat with veggies if that may help.

 I’m going to try this hummus recipe. I love hummus and could always spice it up with some roasted red peppers and other veggies depending on the “dipper” I’m using. Ooooooooo these snack ideas from Real Simple look delish!

I really enjoy nuts for a quick bite- especially tamari-roasted almonds- but if I’m not careful I can eat a large quantity in no time which ends up an equally large calorie count. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big calorie counter but I work to eat what my body needs while balancing my carb to protein ratios. (ohh, I sound so technical) I’ve learned some good tricks for eating proper portions, for example, a meat portion should be no larger than the size of your palm and this usually works for carbs too; it’s got to be less for nuts, damn!

Well, my surfing is yielding things like roasted garbanzo beans, chex mix style snacks and air-popped popcorn tossed in hard grated cheeses. I’ll have to play around with some of these this weekend and see what I come up with. Then, I’ll post my results and see if I was able to come up with some satisfying craving-killers.

Big city service in our “rural” city

I was checking out some local websites and blogs today and stumbled across a guy who has created his own site that will help you plan your city transit route. I had read recently that Google is doing something like this but the closest city to us offering the service is Seattle and not going to do me much good.  The site is in testing phase at this point but it seems pretty spiffy.

Given that I ride the bus to work everyday I was curious what route I would be given so, I went to his site, entered my info and waited for the results.  I was given a route that would include an extra bus transfer and send me through the “less scenic” part of town but was impressed that the ride time was the same. I’m not sure how this program works (I’m really not “techie” at all) but the author asks for feedback so I offered up my typical route that just happens to be a very lovely drive past the river.

If you’re curious about a transit trip planner in your area check out Google transit to start.

When did 5 cents become an incentive?

I’ve just got to go on a bit on how silly it seems to get a few pennies credit for using a reusable bag at the grocery store. I mean where did this come from? I use fabric shopping bags (as long as I don’t forget them at home) because I would like to feel I’m making some positive difference by sparing a few paper or plastic bags. Having a grocery store offer my 3-5 cents per bag for doing so makes absolutely no sense to me.

I seriously doubt there are many (if any) individuals saying to themselves, “Hey, I almost forgot, the grocery store will give me a few cents to use my own bag; I better go buy one.” So, I’ve been thinking it would be great if someone came up with an alternative incentive.  I understand it probably couldn’t cost anymore than the credit that’s already being given but what if that money had purpose? People might be motivated to use shopping totes if each time they used one 3-5 cents went toward:

• fundraising for local schools
• education about sustainability
• local charities
• local foodbanks
• store discounts

That’s my thought for the day. I’m completely open to more suggestions.

Looking to the weekend

Well, the “greenest” thing I did today was ride the bus to work and back. Something tells me this could easily be my fallback good “green” deed for the day. Today was fairly uneventful, not much time spent checking out new and exciting info online as I’ve been trying to figure out how to use this blog and keep my computer from shutting down everytime I go into my imaging program.

Fortunately, we’ve got a newer computer on hand that needs to be hooked up. I’m holding off until we pick up a desk for it for fear if I don’t then the other will end up on some makeshift setup that will be forgotten about and left unaddressed. Perhaps beating my head against the wall to edit some images will be incentive enough to find a desk… fast!

Dinner was yakisoba (sorta). Cooked thin-sliced chicken breast with shredded cabbage, carrots and celery on high heat in a chinese stir-fry sauce and served it on top of leftover whole wheat spaghetti noodles (also tossed over high heat). yummy and easy.

I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday as I’m looking forward to breaking in my new sewing machine this weekend. Nick needs a new neckwarmer for snowboarding so I think I’m going to create one out of a fleece jacket that has not being getting any wear. If the weekend allows I’m going to settle in and see if I can create a pattern from an old skirt and make myself one using some nice chocolate brown corduroy my mom passed along.

Paper vs. Plastic: the big debate

First, it’s killing me that the information I am including below doesn’t include the link to where I located it (because I cut and pasted the info & emailed it to myself) It’s good info. nonetheless so I’m leaving it in; I’ll leave it up to you to verify if you like or read this one about reusable bags and this other at Treehugger.

 ”Did you know plastic grocery bags consume 40% less energy to produce and generate 80% less solid waste than paper bags? Did you know plastic bags can take 1,000 years to decompose whereas paper bags take about a month to decompose? The debate over whether plastic or paper bags are better for the environment has a long history and is often rekindled each time we check out at the grocery store when we hear that familiar question: paper or plastic? Many of us have not been able to resolve this question, but there is an alternative — read on below.

There seem to be pluses and minuses on both sides of the debate. For paper bags, the life cycle stages consist of timber harvesting, pulping, paper and bag making, product use and waste disposal. For plastic (polyethylene) bags, the steps involve petroleum or natural gas extraction, ethylene manufacture, ethylene polymerization, bag processing, product use, and waste disposal. In all of these steps, energy is required and wastes are generated.

Some more facts about these two products may help us to answer this age-old question:

• Plastic bags were first introduced in 1977 and now account for four out of every five bags handed out at grocery stores.

• Paper sacks generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.

• Paper bags are made from trees, which are a renewable resource. Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is made from crude oil and natural gas non-renewable resources.

• 2000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds, 2000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds. The latter takes up a lot more landfill space.

• It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. Energy to produce the bags (in British thermal units): plastic bags: 594 BTU; paper bags: 2511 BTU.

• Paper is accepted in most recycling programs, while the recycling rate for plastic bags is very low. Research from 2000 shows 20 percent of paper bags were recycled, while one percent of plastic bags were recycled.

• Current research demonstrates that paper in today’s landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In fact, nothing completely degrades in modern landfills due to the lack of water, light, oxygen, and other important elements that are necessary for the degradation process to be completed.

• Incineration can decrease the quantity of plastic and paper bags. However, incineration causes air pollution and creates ash that must be buried in a landfill.

So, what is the answer to paper or plastic? NEITHER! Look into purchasing reusable bags or reusing your paper or plastic bags at the store. Reusing a bag meant for just one use has a big impact. A sturdy, reusable bag needs to be used only 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags. Another good reason to use reusable bags is that it cuts down on the amount of plastic bags that get into our environment as litter.

In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by five million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs.

When one ton of paper bags is reused or recycled, three cubic meters of landfill space is saved and 13-17 trees are spared! In 1997, 955,000 tons of paper bags were used in the United States.

When one ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil are saved.”

Shopping totes can be found at just about any grocery store these days for nearly pennies (99 to be precise). If you’re looking for something more stylish you can still find some great bags for under $10- Reusable bags has a large selection of styles and function in all price ranges. Some great compact options (all under $10) are Baggu Bag, Envirosax and Acme Workhorse.

 I picked up this foldable bag with pouch for just $2 on sale at Claire’s (Christmas shopping)- the pouch measures about 3″x4″ and can be clipped in many places quite discreetly.

Welcome 2008!

 After a well-intended busride into downtown for First Night we got ourselves home via the “scenic route” when I put us on the wrong bus coming back home. Definitely makes for a good story for Nick to tell year after year. It’s so cold out that I started to not feel my ears only to have them feel like they were on fire once I got inside.

 Nearly one hour into the year and so far it’s looking pretty good. Our little family did some bonding while roaming around downtown checking out the entertainment. We caught a bit of the rail jam, a magician, a bag of hot mini doughnuts, some improv and tied it up with an Elvis impersonator. Not so shabby.

 I must say, I sense change a brewin’ unlike I have for a long while. It’s a subtle pull built on unplanned yet strategic choices. Things are falling in place. I’m happy in my work, Nick’s happy in his. We have more structure than ever and I can’t believe how much that allows me to make time for creativity. Woohoo!

 Things I’m most excited about for the coming year (in no particular order):

• implementing more reduce, reuse, recycle practices
• making smart new stuff from used stuff 
• sewing projects
• taking classes again
• family vacation
• nurturing my creativity
• focusing on fitness
• learning new recipes and sharing what I’ve learned
• altering and honing our home budget/routine
• saving for our future
• nurturing friendships

I’d like to use this blog as a place to keep track of all the clever ideas, thoughts, resources, stories and inspirations I come across in life. I’m excited about the opportunity to use this as a place to put saved website and blogs in some sense of order or context. I’m so sick of bookmarking pages only to forget how I filed them. I figure by checking in I’ll give myself a place to empty my head of all the brainstorms and ideas that are inspired and triggered by all that I’ve read and seen and picked up around me.