Earth Friendly Foodie
You know it’s Tuesday when your ipod’s batteries die and you still have 4 miles left to run…
With no music to distract me I was left alone with my thoughts. I planned my dance class for this afternoon (turns out it’s nearly impossible to plie and run at the same time), pondered plans for an upcoming performance, and day-dreamed about cracking into the coconut in my fridge.
High potassium coconut water is the perfect post-super-sweaty-run recovery drink!
A local grocer sells whole coconuts for just $1.50-less than a container of coconut water and you get all the nutritious, delicious meat!
I am working on making more ecologically sound choices in my grocery shopping so I rarely buy packaged drinks, especially not single servings. [I do, however, have a wine clause to the packaged drink rule! A girl’s gotta have her exceptions. ;)]
I love coconut water but don’t like the idea of how much energy is used to produce one little container. Don’t get me wrong, a fair amount of energy went into growing, picking, shucking, and shipping my whole coconut but there’s very little processing and the “packaging” (the shell) is natural and biodegradable.
My effort to be a more ecologically-minded shopper has also led me to lower my grocery bills. Making kombucha, yogurt, and beans from scratch take a minimal amount of time for a minimal amount of money and produce a minimal amount of “wasted” resources!
I know DIY yogurt is not for everyone but there are simple changes and switches that we can all make. Do you buy single serving containers of yogurt because you always bring one with you fro lunch at work? Switch to the biggest container you can, buy a few 8 ounce canning jars (or better yet, reuse a jar you already have, like a small jelly jar) and divvy out your servings to grab-n-go.
Do you use canned beans because it doesn’t seem worth it to cook them from scratch for just a few servings? Beans freeze really well. I always make a huge pot of them, put a few days worth in the fridge and freeze the rest in pint jars (the same size as a can!). When we run out of beans I just grab a jar and let it defrost in the fridge. Freezing dries out and expands food so make sure to put a little bit of bean water in the bottom of the jar and leave some head space at the top.
Many times the environmentally friendly choice is also the local choice; shopping at the farmers market (no packaging/super short shipping distance/unprocessed), buying pastured eggs, milk, and meat (less energy goes into producing their food/often short shipping distance), or growing a garden (no packaging/shipping!!).
Does the environment factor into your trip to the store? If so, how? If not, why not?
