Ideal for EatingEating ethically while eating great!

This was a quick and delicious pasta dish that was perfect for a summer lunch. I didn't have quite enough fresh basil for the pesto, so I used half basil and half spinach. It turned out fantastic!

Gluten-free Pasta with Spinach and Basil Pesto -- prep time: 20 minutes; serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup raw pine nuts
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt to taste
• 12 ounces gluten-free pasta
• 3 more cups fresh spinach
• 1 more tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions.

In the meantime, in a food processor, place 1/4 cup pine nuts, 1 cup basil, 1 cup spinach and 3 cloves of garlic. Process until pasty. Then slowly process in the olive oil. Add salt to taste.

In a skillet/sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté 3 cups of spinach until lightly cooked. Do not overcook. Spinach should remain quite green.

Drain and rinse pasta. Combine pasta, pesto and sautéed spinach in a large bowl. Stir to mix all ingredients together. Serve warm or cold.

Enjoy!

My husband just got back into town yesterday. He missed most of the 40 Days of Earth Day project. He missed loading all the food packaging into recycling bags. He missed counting the most prevalent items.

I was making a grocery list today, and he asked if (Senseo) coffee pods were on the list. I answered that I did indeed need to put them on the list because I do want to keep one bag around. However, I pointed out that I was switching myself over to drip coffee in hopes of reducing the food packaging associated with my coffee intake. After a few minutes, he commented that it feels as if the sole focus of the house is on saving the Earth. He said, "There are things in life that are more important than saving the Earth."

Now, I don't disagree that some things are indeed more important than reducing, reusing, recycling, preventing oil spills, stopping oil eruptions, promoting clean energy, protecting animals, etc. I'm not going to sit here and speculate about WHAT is more important than those things. But I'll concede that something is more important.

But, good god, no wonder the environment is in the fubar state it's in. My husband's usual response to my efforts at being more environmentally friendly is "it's just too much to remember." OK. Well, we won't have any choice about bringing a reusable water bottle with us when us there is no more clean water to be had.

My husband is an intelligent, thoughtful, caring guy. He appreciates natural beauty and doesn't want the Earth to be trashed. "Wall-e" is one of his favorite Pixar movies. He gets angry if he sees someone deliberately littering. He takes his popcorn and drink containers out of the theatre and puts them in the trash.

But I guess that's all he's willing to do. He doesn't litter because that has an obvious and immediate adverse effect on the environment (it looks bad). He doesn't leave his concession stand items on the floor because someone else would have to clean up after him (it's rude). He does recycle (it's easy: the recycling bin is right next to the trash bin). But he does not go out of his way to do anything Earth-friendly. He throws away in the trash the paper from his desk and the recyclables from the bathroom (it's too much of an effort to carry them down to the recycling bin). He buys lots of single-use bottled drinks (he enjoys them and shouldn't have to give them up). He leaves the water on while he brushes his teeth (though he says he appreciates my turning the water off for him since he always forgets to do it).

Granted, he did give up eating land animals a few months ago. He has no obvious and immediate need or reminder to do so. He is, thankfully, following his conscience with that one.

Yes, I still drive a car (though we are a one-car family). I use electricity. I buy processed foods. I still use shampoo and conditioner (I keep trying baking soda and apple cider vinegar, but I guess I'm too vain to let my hair go greasy and frizzy). I wear make-up. I buy new clothes. 

I'm not perfect!

I just wish I weren't the "best" one at being Earth-friendly in my home. I'm not that good. I need someone doing it with me, challenging me to do better.

Since my husband was out of town, I have not yet had the chance to tell him about the commitments I made here, such as using drip coffee and baking all my own baked sweet things for now. He's at the grocery store right now, and I am expecting that he'll return with my favorite Back to Nature cookies -- even though I just baked some amazing peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies yesterday!!! I don't need boxed cookies!

But he thinks he can't show me he loves me unless he's buying me treats of food.

Good heavens, *I* can think of plenty of things that would remind me he loves me, things that be of more value to me than a box of cookies. But he gets offended when I point out something like that. I'm not sure what I'll say if he brings me cookies this afternoon.

This is the end.

We collected our food packaging for 46 days, surpassing our goal of 40 days. We started on Sunday, April 18 and stopped on Wednesday, June 2.

We are a 40-year-old mom, a 42-year-old dad, a 15-year-old girl, a 14-year-old girl, and a 3-year-old boy.

I (Kelly) work from home and eat most of my meals at home. My husband works from home when he is in town, but he has been out of town for most of this experiment. My daughters and son go to school. My older daughter usually takes a lunch to school. But she likes to take processed, single-serve meals. My younger daughter and son get lunch from school. Both of their schools use washable plates and utensils.

We tried to bring home food packaging that we got away from home. In other words, when we got a snack a Starbucks, we'd bring home the food bags and cups. We already had reusable travel mugs for hot drinks. As soon as Starbucks started selling the reusable cold drink cups, we bought those, too. But there were some things we didn't bring home, either because the item was too dirty or we just didn't think about bringing it home. I can only imagine how much food packaging my husband used on his travels. None of that came home, of course.

So our collection does not perfectly reflect our actual consumption. Considering how much stuff is in the tub, the fact that it's not complete bothers me.

What have we learned?

We learned that we use a lot of processed foods. We learned that there is an incredible amount of unnecessary  packaging with most processed foods. We have a better idea of how much food packaging is used and wasted in this country, and that idea makes us really sad.

We learned that it takes planning and effort to reduce the amount of food packaging we use. Processed foods are quicker and easier to prepare than meals from scratch. But meals prepared from scratch tend to be associated with less food packaging. The challenge is in planning meals ahead of time and finding the time to cook from scratch.

My current favorite packaged cookies are Back to Nature's Granola Cookies with Chocolate Chunks. Ten cookies come in a two-welled plastic container inside plastic wrap inside a recycled cardboard box. Let's figure out how much packaging is associated with homemade cookies.

I'll compare Back to Nature's cookies with this recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup smooth nut butter
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts

This recipe makes 24 cookies and depletes no food packaging. You could make this recipe 20 times with just one 5-pound bag of flour. You could make this recipe 10 times with just one 5-pound bag of sugar. You could make this recipe 24 times with just one carton of soymilk. You could make this recipe 4 times with one 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips.

Am I ready and willing to give up packaged cookies and bake all of our cookies from scratch?

I think I am. Alright, I am. I can't expect my husband or my kids or anyone else to reduce their consumption of food packaging until I reduce mine. I will start with my cookies.

Before I get commitments from my husband and kids, I will make my own commitments:

• I will bake my own cookies, muffins and other sweets.
• I will switch to whole-bean coffee in my drip machine (instead of using my Senseo on a daily basis).
• I will use a reusable mug or cup at coffee shops.
• I will take a reusable (stainless steel) bottle of water out with me so that I won't need to buy bottled water.
• I will buy more from the bulk bins at Right by Nature or Market District.

I will add more as I think of them. But this will be a good start.

My daughters will be leaving for the summer in a week. So I'll have to do the first approaching-zero-packaging experiment while they're away. 

Thank you for following our experiment. I hope it has inspired as much as repulsed you!

My tub runneth over.

We've had a couple of items fall out of the tub, and we've had to do some balancing to get everything to stay in.

I personally added only two items to the tub today, mostly because I had leftovers for lunch and made ratatouille with pasta for dinner. The items I contributed were the pasta bag and the plastic bag inside the pasta box. Just shows how much packaging you eliminate simply by cooking from scratch. The ratatouille was all fresh vegetables, tomatoes, garlic, onions, parsley, basil and Vermouth. I made the sauce the evening before which resulted in a little plastic box that had held the fresh basil leaves and a plastic produce bag that held the parsley.

Now, that produce bag I had been used numerous times. As long as they're not wet, broken or gross, I save produce bags to reuses as many times as possible -- something my husband hates! Additionally, I avoid produce bags as much as possible. I don't use them for onions and garlic, ginger, lemons and limes, potatoes, grapefruit, oranges, pineapple or other items that are totally dry and from which I'll be removing the skin/peel. That simple strategy makes a significant dent in food packaging. 

We have only one day left. It has truly become a habit to put the food packaging in the tub. Part of me will miss it.