Change the World Wednesday - A Green Halloween

It's Change the World Wednesday time again! This week, the challenge was to celebrate a greener Halloween:

Halloween is coming up so ... this week consider the environmental impact of the treats we give out and offer suggestions for better alternatives. Let's expand on the idea and include parties, costumes, etc.

Change the World Wednesday: Reduce your Emissions

Time for another Change the World Wednesday (#CTWW) challenge at Reduce Footprints. In case you're reading about this for the first time, the goal of CTWW is to get a bunch of people to make a small change that has a big impact on the environment (in a good way), especially if they all do it at the same time.

Last week's challenge was to go car free for a day. Or longer.

Change the World Wednesday: Reduce Water Waste

It's been a while since we joined in on the Change the World Wednesday (#CTWW) challenge at Reduce Footprints. In case you're reading about this for the first time, the goal of CTWW is to get a bunch of people to make a small change that has a big impact on the environment (in a good way), especially if they all do it at the same time.

We have been too busy to post, comment, and write about Change the World Wednesday, but living harmoniously with the Earth is in our blood. So it's not like we've been galavanting around, turning on lights and wasting gas. But now we're ready to get back in the game and work on this.

Please join us. The more people who work on the same environment-saving activities each week, the more of an impact we'll have.

Change the World Wednesday -- Clean out the Pantry

In an effort to further “greenify” our lives, we’re still following the Change the World Wednesday challenge at Reduce Footprints. The challenge for this week was to cook with what you have: in the pantry, the freezer, and the refrigerator.

But it was a busy week. I left for a long, relaxing weekend in Asheville on Thursday morning, so I didn’t have much time to think about (or follow) this challenge. I ended up spending more on food for a four-day weekend than I normally spend in a week. Granted, I brought a lot of it home, but who really needs 4 bags of chips and Chex mix?

Still, I’m challenging myself to not go to the grocery store this week (except to buy lunch meat for Big T, because he sometimes refuses to be as creative as I am when it comes to eating. Or changing the world. Baby steps).

So on Monday, I checked my freezer. Flank steak. Cool. I had a huge box of feta cheese from Costco and some jarred roasted red peppers. I looked online for a recipe and found this recipe for Rolled Flank Steak with Roasted Red Peppers, Spinach, and Feta. Awesome. Except I didn’t have spinach.

This is where you have to get creative. When you’re trying to save the world use up the food in your pantry and freezer without wasting it, you can’t always follow a recipe to a T.

I decided to use basil instead of spinach. But when I went to get my roasted red peppers, they were moldy. Hmmm. I thought I had just bought them. Guess not. I would use sun dried tomatoes instead. And I still had feta. But it seemed weird to spread it all onto the flank steak separately. So I put the feta in the blender with the tomatoes. It was too thick to blend. I had a can of diced tomatoes in the pantry, so I poured some in. Perfect.

The recipe said to slice up the flank steak roll and cook each “pinwheel” separately. Too much work. I stuck the entire log in a bread pan and dumped the rest of the can of tomatoes on top. Done. I’ve included the recipe below. Substitute at will.

While I’m on the subject of saving food, I feel like it’s important to mention that there is a fine line between saving food and saving money. Or maybe it’s a wide gap between the two; I’m not sure. I find that I either use coupons and buy on sale and fill the pantry, but then have nothing fresh to make with all of my staples, or I buy separately just for a few days of meals, but I often buy fresh food at Costco because it is so much cheaper. It costs $5 for a huge box of organic lettuce, and I don’t feel so bad if some of it gets soggy after a week, because it was still so much cheaper than buying it at the grocery store.

I try not to waste food, but it’s hard to cook for only 2 (and a half) people. Big T will only eat leftovers for so long. I’m hoping that after my freezer and pantry have had their makeover, it will be easier to menu plan and buy only what I need. I’ll keep you posted.

Anyway, like I promised, here's the rolled flank steak recipe (with substitutions):

Rolled Meat with Cheese and Red Veggies

(How's that for vague?) 

1 Flank Steak (chicken breast, or pork tenderloin) pounded until thin and as rectangular-shaped as possible
1/2 cup feta cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, or monterey jack)
1/2 cup red juicy veggie like tomatoes or roasted red peppers (you could even use fresh red pepper)
Handful of leafy greens (swiss chard, basil, spinach)

Mix feta cheese with maybe 1/4 cup of the red veggie. You could puree this in the blender, or just with a fork. Spread it on the meat. Layer the leafy greens over it. Roll up the meat and tie with kitchen twine in a couple of spots. Drop it in a bread pan, pour some more of the red veggies over it, and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes (you can easily cut into it to see if the meat is done after 20 minutes).

Voila. Let the experimentation begin.

Share your own experiences: How do you save money and try to waste less food at the same time?

Change the World Wednesday -- Use Cloth Towels

This week’s Change the World Wednesday challenge at Reduce Footprints was to use fewer paper towels. As it turns out, Liz and I both try not to use paper towels at all. After all, we use cloth diapers and wipes, it's not too far a stretch. And—as you’ll see—we both went about trying to get our men on board in much the same way. Here’s how it went down:

Gaby: So I did the challenge this week. I thought it was going to be a big deal when I hid the paper towels on a high shelf in the laundry room, but I don’t think my husband noticed.
Liz: That’s so funny—I did the same thing! I considered playing a joke on my husband and removing them from the house altogether, but then I thought he might not think that was funny. So I hid them high up in the laundry room too!
Gaby: Did he go looking for them?
Liz: No, I told him about the challenge, and he took it pretty well… I was anticipating a protest, for some reason. But we normally use cloth wipes, napkins and rags to clean the house anyway so paper towels normally go a long way in our house.
Gaby: Me too. But he didn’t say a word. The week was noneventful, except for a few incidents.
Liz: Like what?
Gaby: Well, you don’t realize that you rely on paper towels for a few things. I used to rely on them for things like cat puke, but I’m ok with using cloth on that and just laundering it. But when an earwig was crawling across my rug, I ran for the cabinet, and then I remembered. No paper towels. And I was like, Crap. I didn’t have time to get them at the top of the laundry room. And I hate bugs. HATE.
Liz: What did you do?
Gaby: I acted courageously. I killed it with my bare hands and threw it in the trash.
Liz: Go you! I’m impressed. Yeah, I ran across an issue when it came time for draining bacon. But I used a rack and just let the grease drip off.
Gaby: You could always set aside a couple of cloths specifically for draining bacon. And just don’t put those in the dryer—fire hazard.
Liz: It’s going to be interesting to see how other people got creative with this challenge and what they used. I also hit a bit of a snag once we started our first ever tiling project. The glue that you use to set the tiles was everywhere. But I dragged out some old washcloths and used those instead, and they worked much better than paper towels. And I can actually reuse them!
Gaby: It’s funny how you don’t realize you can just wash something and use it again. I used to go through roll after roll of paper towels in college. It makes me sad just thinking about it. Okay, but I did totally cheat.
Liz: What happened?
Gaby: Well, we were sitting at dinner, and you know how they say not to sit your baby in any kind of seat on top of the kitchen table? Well, I now know it’s not because it’s a high surface. It’s because they can spill your beer.
Liz: Your beer?
Gaby: Yup. We have these tall, fluted beer glasses, and we were sitting at dinner, and in one fell swoop, Little M reached out and knocked one over. It broke, and glass went everywhere. I really didn’t want to deal with glass in the washer, so I had my husband go get—sigh—the paper towels. I used about half the roll, and then—boom: Little M knocked over the other beer glass! My other son was crying because I yelled so loudly. I used a lot of paper towels. But what are you supposed to do with glass?
Liz: Yeah, I don’t know. That’s a special circumstance.
Gaby: I still feel guilty, so I’ll have to hide what’s left of the roll for the next month to make up for it.

If you want to join in on the Change the World Wednesday challenge, click on the link below or on the banner in our sidebar. Also, feel free to leave comments on our shorter showers post if you tried that this week!

Change the World Wednesday: Take Shorter Showers

The ladies at Green Baby Diaper Service, as well as many of their customers, are into being “green”—taking actions to use sustainable resources, reduce their carbon footprint, and help the environment a little at a time. We’re optimistic—we think little changes made by individuals can change the world. Like using cloth diapers. Or washing your hair with baking soda.

So we’re joining in Change The World Wednesday (#CTWW) at Reduce Footprints, a blog that gives advice for interacting peacefully with the Earth. For more information, you can visit the website and learn about the idea behind #CTWW, but here’s the gist of it:

This week’s challenge was to take shorter showers. We’re trying to save water, so we’re limiting our showers to 5 minutes or less. There are other ways to “up the ante,” like turning off the water while you’re soaping up or sharing a shower with a buddy. (Don’t get any crazy ideas--these days, those buddies tend to be our kids. And yes, they usually pee in the shower, saving even more water. See? Saving the environment is innately programmed in us, it seems.)

Liz and I are getting in on the challenge. We have each tried it since last Wednesday. This is how it went down: