After almost three months, I chucked the dish sponge. The dish sponge that has washed every last pot, pan, plate, bowl, fork, spoon, knife, younameit, that has passed through this kitchen. I'm pretty sure I personally know and like a lot of people who think it gross that I kept it that long, but this is one expression of my brand of conservation, and I promise that even if it didn't look clean, it was washed, rinsed, dried and occasionally bleached between uses.
Some people like to practice conservation by buying things that are supposed to be green from companies who are supposed to be green, and I think that's great. One way I practice conservation is by just buying less and using less. Because whether or not a company says it's green, a factory is still a factory. It still takes resources and creates emissions to produce a manmade sponge, whether that sponge is made of post consumer materials or not.
This isn't to say that there aren't a lot of really honest companies out there doing the best they can to do the least amount of harm to Earth, but the truth is there are a lot of companies that create green products just so they won't be left out of the money there is to be made by participating in this small but growing revolution.
And while some really dedicated people do, I don't care to spend my time doing the very deep research it takes to find out what every last company I patronize really does behind and beyond the marketing image, so I do what I believe can and does have real impact: I use less. Or actually, if you look at it another way, I use a thing more before I hand it off to the landfills. And I believe that if each of us used a disposable yet reusable thing even just one more time than we normally would before we discarded it, it would make a worthwhile difference in the amount of non-biodegradable waste we produce.
So if I use a paper towel to wipe up something innocuous like water or black coffee, I push it off to a corner to use later in the day when I spill fish sauce or oil on the kitchen floor, or to kill a spider, or even wipe the toilet bowl rim, before throwing it away. If I use a straw to drink clear liquids, I give it a rinse and reuse it (but don't worry, if you're ever a guest in my home, you'll get a new one) until it gets worn or damaged. I save unmarked jars (or remove the labels) and containers for storage and reuse them to store kimchi or pickled jalapenos. (As you can see, my aesthetic preferences and anti-branding quirk are sometimes stronger than my conservationist streak.) I fill the sink and soak the dishes to wash them rather than leave the water running as I'm washing. Stuff like that...
I think other methods of conservation are just as important, but what I think is most important is that we make some conscious effort every day, even if only just one, to waste less. Like taking just 2 packets of ketchup if that's all we're going to use instead of mindlessly grabbing 5 and throwing away 3. Or taking just what we can eat at a buffet, knowing we can always go back for more. I believe in the quiet but powerful critical mass that can be created if we each made these small and easy choices within our own spheres of influence each and every day.
And I also believe I'd better stop being so damned preachy so many days in a row. I think tomorrow I'll talk about something totally apolitical like chocolate.
Wait. Chocolate comes from the Rain Forest... :/
BREAKFAST
I think I mentioned that the corn tortillas in this barrio come in packs of no less than 80, so I have to come up with lots of uses, or we'll end up throwing 40 of them away. This morning, it was corn tortilla quesadillas topped with the very last cup of the leftover gumbo from Saturday.
6 corn tortillas @ $0.20
+ 5 slices of cheese @ $1.25
+ 2 cups of coffee @ $0.40
= BREAKFAST: $1.85 total, $0.95/serving
LUNCH
Lunch for the Man is a raw veg bibim bahp with a fried egg on top, veg packed separately as he'll have to nuke his rice. Oh, and a Gala apple on the side.
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| There's seasoned gochoojahng under that egg... |
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| Veg for the bibim bahp... |
I'm not in much of an eating mood, so I'm having some steamed rice with some of the leftover nuoc cham with deep fried onions in it from last night's fried fish dinner. That and more coffee (which I didn't drink yesterday but already accounted for).
Misc. raw veg $0.40
+ 1 fried egg @ $0.20
+ 1 Gala apple @ $0.20 (all else accounted for yesterday)
= LUNCH: $0.80 total
As many of the good people on the chowhound What's For Dinner thread have been talking homemade ravioli, and as I've got this packet of wonton skins that the Man had me buy months ago to make him cream cheese wontons that I didn't, and as it's one of those overcast days that infuses me with energy to make a somewhat labor intensive dinner, dinner will be wonton skin ravioli stuffed with a sweet potato and cheese stuffing, sauteed in brown butter and accompanied by some of the sweet Italian sausage I bought last week.
Braised or sauteed kale on the side. We'll see what sounds good as I'm cooking...
Should be about 5 bucks for dinner, but I'll be back later with pics and the full breakdown.
Off to eat real quick and roast some yams...
shinae
@8:53 PM - Sweet potato ravioli as planned using up that packet of wonton wrappers that's been haunting my deli drawer for 2 months. I was going to serve the ravioli with the sausage, but decided that the sausage went better with the kale, so I sauteed the kale with the sausage, a quarter of a white onion, a few cloves of garlic, and a handful of those raisins I made for Mads.
1.2 lbs. of yam @ $0.83
+ 1/4 wheel of queso fresco (which worked a lot like ricotta salata when brought up to room temp) @ $0.50
+ 1 egg @ $0.15
+ misc. seasonings (dried ginger, cinnamon, black pepper) @ $0.20 max
+ 2 bunches of kale @ $1.58
+ 1/4 of a white onion and 3 cloves garlic @ $0.20
+ 3 links of Italian sausage @ $1.80
= DINNER: $5.30 total, $1.75/serving (for 3 very generous servings)
And that was dinner. But then I got one of those salty, fatty, generally anything and everything bad for you cravings that I didn't feel like cooking for, so I sent the Man out with a $1.99 coupon for 2 pieces of Church's Fried Chicken plus a biscuit and mashed potatoes. The Man and I shared the chicken, and I learned that Church's is good in a PMS pinch. A little too salty for my liking even given my salt craving, and I'll pass on the biscuits and mashed taters every time from here on out, but it's hard to beat 2 bucks to satisfy a salt and grease craving with almost no effort.
That plus a Diet Coke (because I'm also craving bubbles)...
= SNACK: $3.25
Saturday: $15.00
Sunday: $23.00
Monday: $8.00
Tuesday: $10.00
Wednesday: $11.00
$67.00 spent so far with 2 days left to go. I already know dinner tomorrow will have something to do with them pig trotters, and the Man's lunch of leftover ravioli and kale is already packed.
Slim pickins on TV tonight. I think I'll try to write some more...
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