Momnivore Meltdown

Have you ever fallen off the wagon? Been derailed by a some unforeseen force? Fallen flat on your face? Heck, forgotten the mission ("Squirrel!")? Yeah, that's me. The past, oh, month or so has been less than stellar, mission-wise. So it's confession time.

The greenest product I've bought was a pint of Ben & Jerry's. My son's 7th birthday party was an Alien/Outer Space theme, filled with glow in the dark toys and silly string, which can't possibly be natural. We used chemical warfare to rid Fido of fleas, and our favorite farm is on hiatus from the Farmer's Market until fall. My little container garden has all but died, for no reason I can discern, and Basil the Toad seems to have moved out. No, I haven't done well at all lately.

On the other hand, our A/C broke for almost a week, so we saved a lot of energy by not using it. We also saved a lot of personal energy by not moving much that week. We ate very little, mostly fruits and vegetables, since it was too hot to cook, or eat, and we didn't need the calories anyway since we'd given up moving. Since we were eating so much less, I could afford more organic, if not local, food. All in all, I guess we just about broke even. And the Ben & Jerry's was delicious.

I'd like to say I'm back on track now, but I'm not. I finally balanced my checkbook for the first time in several weeks, which only goes to show how far I'd fallen. In a few days we're off on a family vacation, and since it's not an eco-vacation, I doubt we'll conserve much of anything. We're staying in a commercial hotel, eating at restaurants and going to tourist attractions - generally being ugly, wasteful Americans. To be honest, I'm really looking forward to it. After that, it's time for back to school, and that mandatory supply list is always long and expensive. My children also insist on growing, so now I'll have to put them in bigger clothes, i.e. shop. I, personally, can't wedge myself into clothes I bought only a few months ago, but let's not go there.

So is there an end, or a new beginning in sight? Perhaps. At least I feel guilty for not living better, and that's a start. Eventually it may drive me to work harder again. Frankly, for a thick-blooded Yankee like me, summer heat is just like an "Off" switch. My brain fails, my will fails, all motivation is lost. Call me a big wuss, but I just can't take the heat in Florida in summer. I've been trying for years, but I just can't hack it. Even my kids are fantasizing about blizzards by now, and they're almost too little to remember snow. Even in Florida, though, this heat can't last forever. I'm hopeful that I'll get a second wind when it cools off a bit, maybe in October or November, at the latest. In the meantime, I hope the guilt kicks in for me, and that my shameful confession, if it sounds at all familiar to you, gives you permission to forgive yourself and start fresh.

Namaste'

Use It Up

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
That was the mantra of my grandmother's generation. My parents live by those words pretty well, too, but I, unfortunately, have more trouble with it. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to end up with more stuff than I need, want, or can even find room to store. I'm not a clothes horse (more like a fashion victim, truth be told), and I don't collect, well, collectibles. But I'm magnetically attracted to bookshops, and office supplies, and toys for my kids. Nothing big, mind you, but even the little things add up. Perhaps if I only got big things, I'd get 3, then my house would be full and I'd stop...

In any case, here I am, almost done with yet another military tour, facing another move and somehow I've got more stuff again. We'll be moving by the end of the year, so now is the time to downsize our stuff. I officially notified my family last week. No. More. Stuff. Let's start by "using it up".

I don't just mean "Don't buy more stuff," I also mean "Use the stuff we already have and no one bothers to look for before buying more stuff". For example, my dear husband, who is an intelligent man, is incapable of buying hair conditioner. If it's on my shopping list, he will invariably come back with shampoo. In fact, he's told me he read the bottle 47 times and duct-taped his hand to the correct one, only to find it's shampoo, not conditioner, when he gets home. Anyone with long hair knows that you go though buckets more conditioner than shampoo, so long story short, we have gallons of shampoo. Of course, movers won't move liquids, so the shampoo has got to go. No one in this house is to buy another drop of shampoo until every last bottle of the stuff is gone. Period.

I'm also trying the use it up approach in the kitchen. I'm not sure how much Worcestershire sauce I can go through a few tablespoons at a time, but I'll use up that bottle before I buy any more seasonings even close to it, gosh darn it! That jar of capers? My new favorite garnish. Jello molds every Sunday until Christmas. Maybe I can even find a use for that Cheese soup... ok, maybe not. Sorry - I love cheese, REAL cheese. I just can't handle cheese soup in a can. But the rest of it, I'm using. My family is in for some interesting meals in the next few months. Sometimes I even make a game of seeing how long I can put off grocery shopping, but that's another story...

Averse Vegans

Has it finally come to this? Really? Isn't there any other option left besides going (gasp!) vegan? Momnivore - from "mom" and "omnivore". We're clearly an omnivore household, not a vegetarian one, or worse, a vegan one. But after so much soul and stomach searching over the past six months, my husband and I have realized that we can't completely avoid the fact that there's a lot to be said for a vegan diet.

First, let me clarify the difference between vegetarian and vegan for any of you who may not be familiar with both terms. A vegetarian is someone who does not eat animals, i.e., meat. However, they still eat animal products, like dairy products and eggs. A vegan does not eat any animals, nor does he eat any animal products. This is harder than it sounds - no dairy, no eggs, no honey,... it really limits the ol' grocery list. So what's left to eat? Plants. Vegetables, fruits, and grains.

A vegan diet is one of the best for the planet. It takes the least amount of resources to produce, and any scraps or byproducts (like corn stalks, for example) can be composted easily. Plants are the most direct way to turn solar energy in to food for humans, pure and simple. Vegan diets are also highly recommended to prevent or heal a staggering array of diseases. It's the weapon of choice for preventing cancer, reducing inflammation, healing ulcers, lowering blood sugar, heart disease and stroke risk, and minimizing hangnails (ok, I made up the last one, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true). Since I have an autoimmune disease, and my husband has diabetes in his family history, we're always looking for ways to stay healthy naturally. And as much as we both love a hunk of roast beast, all the research keeps pointing to the same - vegan - diet.

So why, if it's so good for us and the planet, would we be "averse" vegans? Well, I like (ok, love) dairy. And my husband loves meat. Heck, we're foodies - and a vegan diet means no Parmesan, no Ruth's Chris, no seafood, to name a few things. To be honest, I'm a pretty picky eater and well, er, I don't like many fruits, or many vegetables. There, I said it. Sure, I like some, but enough to live on for the rest of my life? That's kind of scary.

Our game plan, then, is not to become vegans. We're just going to have vegan meals sometimes. I love Mollie Katzen's idea of side-by-side meals, which are made up of several "side" dishes, rather than a main course and sides. At first, I tried to learn all new recipes and do everything from scratch, but that's just too much for me. Instead, I've decided to make side by side meals out of things I already know how to make. I can't guarantee meals will always be pretty, or balanced, or particularly tasty (sorry in advance, Dear), but it should all work out in the end. What matters is that even with just a few vegan meals a week, we can reduce our overall environmental impact and improve our own health in the process. With any luck, we might even save a few bucks on the grocery bill.

The Perimeter of Publix

Ironically, after struggling with it for days, I never did make much of a weekly menu. At least, not nearly as well as Jen does! I have to admit her "I'm not making a menu" menu is more organized than my "This year I'm getting organized" menu. I did, however, manage to go grocery shopping last week. Somehow, miraculously, I bought enough real food to feed us for the past 8 days, and (gasp!) there's still food left! And, sit down for this, I was under budget. I hate to hit you when I'm sure you're already reeling on the floor, but the final kicker is that I did all this at Publix. Not Sam's Club, not Dollar General or WalMart, but Publix.

I think I've figured out the three main reasons for my success, although obviously the stars lined up and the Gods of Groceries were in my corner. Still, I was greatly aided by the fact that my family eats anything I put in front of them. Well, sort of. Our kids are little, so we try to balance new things with familiar ones, and we give them their favorites for lunch and snacks. They make smart, healthy choices, so why not? How did we raise such great eaters? That's a whole other story, but they are, and it makes my job easier. Dinner is also made easier by the fact that I can cook. In fact, I enjoy it. Sure, it's a pain in the butt if I'm rushed or the kids are whining or the dog is underfoot, wiggling his eyebrows at me (what? your dog doesn't wiggle his eyebrows?), but when push comes to shove I have solid, basic cooking skills and I can throw stuff together and make a meal. The first two factors allowed me to do the third: I shopped the perimeter of the grocery store. That's where all the real food is anyway, and ultimately, that's my goal here, right? To eat real, local, sustainable food and make the world a better place?

I bought seasonal vegetables in their whole forms for the most part. I'm not sure where the global supply of shallots comes from, but I can't cook without them, so they made it into my cart too. I also didn't pay attention to the organic section. That word is so used & abused right now, I only trust it when I meet the farmer. Still, I bought real food, with minimal if any processing, and very little packaging, all of which helps to minimize the carbon footprint of the food chain.
I bought dried beans, which are cheap and simple, and a few family staples, like bacon. When I find a locally raised, pasture fed & finished, naturally smoked, preservative free bacon source, I'll be sure to let you know. I finished the long (2 hour) shopping trip in the meat department, buying Publix "Greenwise" products or natural cuts. The selection was pretty limited, I have to say, but it's a start.

What I didn't buy were processed convenience foods. No Lunchables, no frozen dinners, no meal-in-a-box things. I didn't even buy baby carrots - I bought a big bag of whole carrots, and I've been cutting them in different ways for different uses as we need them. That was the whole mission of this shopping trip I think, to trade a little time and effort for better food. I think it's worked. In the past week, we've had at least 3 vegetarian dinners - rare for us, but there were no complaints. The food has tasted great, probably because of the minimal processing, and we've tried new recipes throughout the week. The kids have tried a ton of new foods, and just last night my husband was shocked to learn how much he loves beets, which he'd never had before. (Ever??) So he and our son learned to love them together.

The main drawback to all this has been the amount of time and effort it requires of me, personally. The shopping will take less time when I learn better what I'm looking for, since I read every label this past trip. But the food preparation is still time consuming. I would caution anyone considering making these changes to allow plenty of time for the first few weeks. The less stressed out you are, the better choices you'll make. I confess, there was one night (only one!) that I was pushed to frozen pizza. Sigh. But by my reckoning, that's 7 nights better than average. Considering the new year is less than two weeks old, I'm pretty happy with that.

Trimming Down Challenges

It's officially 2010 now, so my resolution to live a more local & sustainable lifestyle is truly underway. The past few weeks have been a warm-up session, a time to dabble in the L&S arts and gather information at my own pace. It's been a very forgiving learning time, too. For every new discovery or triumph, I've backtracked a step or two as well. And the new year has already thrown me a curve or two.

In addition to adjusting our eating, we're also cracking down on our budget. We're saving up for a home when these adventurous military years are finally over, so every penny counts (as it does in most homes these days). I mention this because buying local, organic, beautiful produce, products and everything else is far easier if money is no object. Trust me, it's an object for us. So I can't just waltz into the local health food store and buy out the place. I can't have an 8-foot commercial freezer delivered tomorrow with a side of grass-finished beef inside. I can't throw out everything in our home and start again (tempting though it may be sometimes). My guess is that most people can't do those things either. Besides, then we'd all just be on a roller coaster of recycling, composting and responsibly disposing of all our old stuff anyway. Since I won't be starting over, I'm trying to be responsible in what I bring into our home. Hopefully, with time and dedication, more stuff will be leaving our home than coming in soon.

When it comes to food, that means planning meals and making a hard and fast shopping list. I've used a number of menu planning forms in the past. Franklin Covey offers a form with their paper planners, and the Motivated Moms cleaning calendar has one in the appendix. The best one I've found, however, is here. The meal planner and shopping list are in the same document, so I always have what I need, and all the forms on the site are free. "What?! You still kill trees printing out hard copies??" you ask. Yup, I sure do. I'm from the Great State of Maine, and trees are a renewable resource. The paper mills provide good jobs (if lousy air), and I recycle religiously. So yes, I'm a pen & paper kind of woman. You can download whatever works for you to your smartphone if you prefer. Speaking of downloads, DIYPlanner.com is in the process of upgrading servers as I'm writing this, so please be patient if the site is slow to load - it will be worth it!

My budget isn't the only thing tight around here - so are our pants. Specifically around the waist. My husband had very good success with a low-fat, low-carb diet a few years ago and wants to do it again now. If he's hiding any extra weight, I don't know where, but he's determined to diet anyway. In my case, my weight hasn't changed but my, er, demographics have. I'm now a bit more heavily represented in some districts than others.
I'd like for us all to eat more healthfully, not only locally or organically, but more whole foods, perhaps a more flexitarian diet. I had seafood the other day and I'm pretty sure it was the first time my body had seen an omega-3. That's not good. I'm also leaning toward, dare I say it? Portion control. More on that touchy subject later. For now, suffice it to say my Dear Husband literally laughed in my face when I mentioned it.
His diet strategy includes whole grains and veggies, but also a ton of commercial products with no fat, no cholesterol, and other scientifically engineered health claims. This is where it gets tricky. Take, for example, Egg Beaters egg substitutes. He loves them. I showed him how to use just egg whites instead, but he likes the convenience of the product and hates wasting the egg yolks. I finally got a grumble of agreement to ditch the fake eggs by pointing out that his health is more valuable than the yolks, and EB are just egg whites and a bunch of chemicals.

So here I am, with an empty fridge and a blank shopping list, trying to feed a family of four locally, sustainably, healthfully, low-carb and low-fat, and on a budget. And I'm sure I'm not alone. Even if these aren't your challenges exactly, every household has to work around a few issues. With a little planning, a little extra effort, determination and a touch of creativity we can tackle almost anything.