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A little over a week ago, I was watching Guy’s Big Bite on the Foodnetwork, and he made an amazing roasted tomato soup.  I thought that sounded so good, especially now that the temperatures are starting to go down here in Pennsylvania.  Then later that week, Kelly at Planet Green wrote about making roasted tomato soup.  I felt like I was becoming obsessed with roasted tomato soup.

I kept thinking I would make it over the weekend, but I needed to find a place to get good produce fairly inexpensive.  So I decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.  On my way home from work on Friday, I stopped by the Reading Terminal.  It is a great place here in Philly to get fresh meats, cheeses, Amish products, and of course, produce.  I got all the veggies I needed for the soup and more and only paid a little less than $5.  To top it all off, they were locally grown veggies, and it made a very good and healthy soup.

So let’s look at how all this is being more green.  First off, I walked there on my way home from work, instead of driving.  I used my canvas bags, not plastic.  The vegetables were in season vegetables for this area, so they were fresh and local, meaning it was not transported very far.  All that and I saved some money. 

I know there are places like this all over the country.  For example, in Cleveland, there is a great place called the West Side Market.  Even in the suburbs of every city I’ve ever lived in, there are small, local produce stands.

I was on the phone with my mom tonight, and she had a fantastic idea.  She said she was looking for a collapsible bowl but hasn’t been able to find one.  So I did some searching and found some.

Let me back up and explain.  When you go out to dinner, the portion sizes are usually way too big.  I at least try to control my portion sizes to be healthier, but that means there are always leftovers.  Most restaurants will put those leftovers in a “nice” Styrofoam container for you to take home.  It is hard for those of us that are trying to control what we eat and be better for the environment.  This is where my mom’s idea fits in.  A collapsible bowl will easily fit into purse and can be expanded at the end of dinner to bring home those double portion sizes.

I first found a really cute set of bowls at Crate & Barrel that really weren’t that expensive.  As I thought about those, they won’t work for this particular situation because there is no lid.  However, I found that Rubbermaid is making collapsible bowls with lids.  Check out the website, they also list places where you can buy them.  Several grocery stores are listed that you can find here in Philadelphia and in Phoenix.  There are also some national chains that carry them like Target and Kmart. I also found a similar product made by Foldtuk at Target.

So I thought it would be appropriate to write about doing something green on St. Patrick’s Day.  I struggled a little bit with coming up with an idea, but I think this one is pretty good.  Here in Cleveland, St. Patrick’s Day is kinda big, or at least that is my impression.   Many people took off work today to start drinking at 6 or 7 AM!  The pubs were all coloring their beer green.  So I thought what if you were greener with your beer, instead of just coloring it green.

In the Cleveland area, we have some fantastic microbreweries.  Now, I’m not much of a beer drinker, but everyone tells me how great Great Lakes Brewing Company is (especially their Christmas Ale).  For this time of year they have Conway’s Irish Ale.  When I used to travel more, everywhere I went, the locals would rave about the local beers.  So my theory is that there are great local beers pretty much everywhere.  The best part is that local brews don’t have as far to go in distribution, so the environmental impact is much less.

On this fine St. Patty’s Day, raise a pint of the local beer.  If you are more of a wine person, see my post on Wines.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

When I tell people about the going green thing, many people ask if I’m going vegetarian.  That really opens up the opportunity for me to tell them how this is a no sacrifice way of going green and that I am not giving up things that I love (including meat).  I also don’t think I have enough knowledge of how be vegetarian and still be healthy.  Meat is a great source of protein and I recently found out that it is the only natural way to consume B12 vitamin. People who are really into the environment talk about how meat raised for consumption is so awful for the environment.  So I thought I would do some research.

I found a very thorough article published by Environment Health Perspectives.  It is a lengthy article (25 pages), but well researched and very informative.  If you have the time, you should definitely read it.  I’ll give you the short version.  More crops in the U.S. are grown to be fed to cattle than humans.  Tons of emissions involved in transporting the crops to the cattle.  “Modern” care of animals force excessive amounts of methane gas to be emitted. Then there is all the energy and emissions in slaughtering the animals and transporting the meat to consumers. All-in-all animals raised for consumption have just as much negative impact on our environment as driving cars.

The entire article does make me want to really do something different, but I’m torn because I don’t want to give up meat.  When I think about how much meat I eat… Wow! So here is my compromise.  I have decided to take a few baby steps. 

Step 1 - Go vegetarian for breakfast and lunch.  I’ve actually been doing this for the past 3 weeks and it isn’t as hard as you might think.  My breakfasts are usually yogurt and fruit or oatmeal (pretty easy).  Lunches are a touch more challenging for me.  For the past year I’ve been trying to live with more of a WeightWatchers lifestyle, and to help me with that I usually eat SmartOnes or Lean Cuisine for lunch.  So many of the frozen foods that are geared to be healthy for you also contain meat.  While I’m at the grocery store, I’m trying to make a concerted effort to make sure I buy these “healthy” frozen meals that do not contain meat.

Step 2 – Add in more vegetarian meals for dinner.  I’m not there yet.  This is something for later on down the line, but I realize I need to start researching it now.  There are two challenges for me with this step.  The first challenge is that I have a ton of recipes that are meat based, and very few that are vegetarian (besides Italian pasta dishes).  The second challenge, and the harder part, is that dinner not only affects me, but also my husband.  So these new recipes I want to start learning also have to be food that Mike will like and feel satisfied with.  My friend Emily suggested stir-fry, which I think is a great idea and I think Mike will like it.  That is one that I will try. If you have any suggestions, I would be happy to take any tips, websites, recipes, etc.

My end goal is to work down to about 3 dinners per week that have meat.

There has been much debate and many studies done weighing the factors of the packaging of wine.  I find this debate to be troublesome based on the fact that when I buy a wine, I’m looking for taste, not necessarily packaging.  So I decided to do some research to see if there was some compelling reason to change my ways.

Franklin Associates has done a very informative study (search for “tetra pak”) on the comparison of glass bottles, tetra paks, and PET bottles.  Based on who paid for the study (sponsored by the manufactures of tetra pak), read the numbers carefully and with a grain of salt.  However, they make a compelling argument for tetra paks, weighing factors like manufacturing of the packaging, transportation to the winery, transportation to the distribution center, and how the product is disposed of.  With all those factors being equal, the packaging with the lower weight will always win.

As a consumer trying to make a better decision, there were some assumptions that bothered me though.  The comparison was done assuming the winery was in northern California and had to ship 1500 miles to a distribution center.  With that fact, the tetra pak beats the glass bottle hands down, as it should.  But I wanted to see if buying a tetra pak from a California winery is better than my local (Ohio) wine in a glass bottle.  Apparently this study was trying to sway the wineries to make the change, not the consumer forcing the change with buying power.

Unfortunately what I was looking for isn’t available.  So my assumption (using just my brain to come up with this) is that almost all the transportation effects on the environment have been eliminated and therefore local is a great choice.  Additionally, it has the added bonus of supporting your local economy.

My conclusions: If you are going to buy wine from a long distance winery, try to get one in a tetra pak.  I personally will stick to local wineries (and likely buy it directly from the winery).  Regardless of which way you go, always make sure you recycle or reuse the packaging.  I’ve found tons of craft projects using wine bottles and corks… Do a search and find out.