Going Green At Home and Discoveries

I have no particular preference with the foods I enjoy. It stands to reason that all the cooking within the last two weeks has reflected this sudden desire a variety of foods. The surprise for me – nothing in the refrigerator has gone to waste. With even my husband noticing this fact it's been an eye opener of what we use to waste while living in Virginia.

I know the arguments and suggestions for 'green living' and logic behind the tips, pointers, and change of lifestyle. We pretty much explored all of them, down to the old green apartment living best as possible, without demanding modifications done to the unit. *For example: take out the 100 gallon water heater for the one bedroom apartment and put in an efficiency for two people. Their maximum amount allowed for the one bedrooms.

A few tips learned along the way – we actually ignored all together. We just couldn't “see” how else to go green at home beyond the actions already done. What we didn't implement there, was in fact learned, remembered, and implemented here. The often overlooked, underrated tip/pointers for sustainable green living DYI green living project:

*Don't waste the food in the refrigerator.

*Learn how to cook smaller portions, with the daily protein requirements.

*Divide meat products in half.

Being in a city, you just don't think in the manner of “not wasting”, since everything is a fingertip away. Carry out or delivery shops everywhere, grocery stores with in half a mile of each other, and the ma/pa restaurants trying to compete with the high-end servers. Unfortunate to say or write this, there were times it looked as if some people were on autopilot and not paying attention – to a thing.

Waking up to a slower lifestyle aided us in the above going green at home to a new level. Overall and including all things, it's been something getting use to friendly people making eye contact, smiling, and truly wanting to have a conversation. The other tidbit: exchanging recipes.

With a small budget for the groceries, and impulse to learn cooking – a little food can go a long way!

My husband watches over our budget as I fill up the shopping cart. On our first grocery trip he looked at me and asked something along the lines of “what – that's it?” All the cart contained: ingredients and few meat items.

When we got home, I immediately divided the meat product (a pound and half of ground beef and Jimmy Dean sausage roll) into two portions. Capitalizing on the green apartment tips already learned and expanding the desire for learning how to cook – the smaller portions and wasting nothing are the result.

The additional, noticeable benefits: the kitchen stays a heck of a lot cleaner (less water use), the freezer is getting stocked with all sorts of halves (reduced the need for the motor to kick on and run up the electricity bill), and nothing wasted. The variety of fresh foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner is right at the finger-tips.

Later on down the line, I will have to update this with the discoveries. I'm considering taking the time to fix up lunch and dinners all in one day. This is not like the time saver method of cooking at the beginning of the week and taking it to work. Essentially, how to get more bang for my buck – all the way around, fix up breads, meals, sweets, and dog biscuits, thereby reducing the need for weekly/monthly grocery shopping.

Going green at home doesn't have to injury the budget, and stepping outside of the box or modifying other techniques saves bundles; learning how to cook (after all these years) priceless.