To clean or not to clean your recyclables?

Here is our happy little recycling drying area next to the sink.

I don't like to put icky or wet items in the recycling bin. Yes, it's icky and that's my official stance, however, there are some more concrete reasons... One: it makes my reusable shopping bags dirty and smelly. (This happened once.)

Two: It could potentially attract critters into our casa.

Three: I often reuse my cans and jars for crafty things!

There has been some controversy about whether or not to use up all that water to rinse/wash items out.

I agree with this, so I try to limit the amount of water I use, but it really isn't the best solution - unfortunately, I don't know what is! 

Some recycling centers do prefer that you rinse out items first, to prevent odor, rot, and mold; also, contamination.

If you put all your recycling together in one bin, then that is called "Single-stream Recycling" and there is a potential that liquids or other eewy-gooeys can leak out onto the paper goods, causing the paper to be sent to a landfill, instead of recycling. (kind of defeats the whole purpose, right!?)

You can always call your recycling center and find out what their process is and if they recommend rinsing or not.

One website I found while researching suggested running recyclables through the dishwasher if you have one, but I probably wouldn't do this myself. 

I feel like there's a happy balance somewhere between the use of water and electricity to clean items for recycling and the value of recycling and reusing. The point is to not just throw an open, half used gallon of milk in the recycling bin.

I think the best thing is to simply be conscious of what we are using and do what we can to conserve where we can. (And by "we," I also mean ME, too!) 

Every little bit counts! :)

Any thoughts? Tips? Comments?

 

Here is a great link I found for environmental and energy news:

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/

**UPDATE**  
After posting I searched for info about dishwashing vs. handwashing. Turns out that [depending on your dishwasher] you can actually save a lot of water & energy by using the dishwasher versus handwashing.  
Sooo I guess it may be prudent to throw recycling in the dishwasher after all... (if, in fact, it needed to be really scrubbed out) See info here: Energy Star Handwashing vs. Dishwasher

Tonight's Dinner Brought to You by: Whatever is in the fridge.

Anyone else ever wake up and think "What the heck are we going to make for dinner!?"

I had a crisper full of veggies that needed to be used up, some turkey sausage in the freezer, and a crockpot that had been sitting on the shelf for a few weeks too many. So, after about 30 minutes of chopping, I had this thrown together:

Cabbage and Vegetable Stew with Turkey Smoked Sausage 

• About half a head of cabbage (cut into small-ish pieces)
• Some Baby Carrots (whole)
• 3 Potatoes (cubed) Washed - I leave the skin on for flavor! ..and because I'm lazy and hate peeling. 
• 3 green onions (chopped)
• 3 celery stalks (chopped) (Apparently I like the number "3" today...)
• Turkey sausage* (sliced into 1/4" medallions)
• One 14.5 oz can of beef broth*
• 1-2 Teaspoons each Ground Pepper & Salt

*Note: We still eat meat.. just cutting back. That being said, you could easily switch it up and use vegetable broth (or make your own vegetable stock), and sub a non-meat for the turkey sausage (For example, my second choice was black eyed peas with this recipe, instead.)

I cooked it on high for a couple hours, stirred once every hour at least, and added about a cup of water. Then cooked on medium heat for another three hours. (My crockpot cooks HOT so the times may vary. Just stir and watch for any sticking or burning and adjust the temp as needed.) 

Warning ~ It smells pretty amazing, so you will be hungry the entire time it's cooking!! It tastes equally amazing! 

Kermit said it best: "It's not easy being green."

Welcome to my adventures of exploring the greener side of life! 

If you are anything like me, you want to do your part in the world to "save the environment." 

Then there is also the issue of eating well. Avoiding bad for you food isn't easy. I mean, it tastes SO good!! And it seems to be everywhere!

Some foods are the the product of mistreated animals, or have additives, hormones, or chemicals that affect our bodies in ways we might not realize for years. So instead, opting for leafy greens and healthy fruits, and food with funny names (like "quinoa" ~ I don't even know where to buy the stuff, let own alone how to use it in a recipe!), seems to be the better choice, albeit extremely confusing and overwhelming at times. 

In addition, it would be great to keep a little dough in our pockets. I mean seriously, eating healthy and buying "green" or eco-friendly products is kind of expensive!

Challenging? Yes. Possible? Well, I'm trying my best to find out. 

My husband and I are willing to take this challenge head on. Because it is a little intimidating and overwhelming, we are taking baby steps, to start. 

First Step on our Get Green Challenge: Recycling   
It seems like an obvious choice, but we do not have recycling where we live. We have to collect it and take it to a recycling center - the closest being on the army base several miles away. So, it is a pain, but worth it and it makes me feel good!
I up-cycled an old hamper and turned it into a recycling bin that I keep near the door. My husband is now in the habit of at least putting items in the sink that need to be prepared for the bin. 

Step Two: Reduce Meat Intake
If you want to take even smaller baby steps, you could simply add more greens and beans to your meals, or limit red meat. We recently watched Vegucated which made me want to throw out all the meat in our refrigerator. Unfortunately, we had just went to the grocery so that would've been a waste of money (and I felt like it would be disrespectful to the animals ~ I know, maybe I'm being a little over-the-top here, but hey that's just me).

We have simply cut back on eating meat and making most of our meals with beans and trying new vegetarian recipes.  
Tonight we had vegetarian chili! Super easy and delicious! 

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it out:

Veggie Chili (meatless)

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can Hormel chili starter with beans (vegetarian style is available)  
• 1 can dark red kidney beans
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp dried minced onion (could also use fresh chopped onion, but this is what we had on hand)
• pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste - we are wienies when it comes to spicy!)
• 1 or 2 tablespoons chili powder (to taste)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 green pepper - used food processor to puree, but could simply chop pepper to your liking, and add more veggies as well.    
• Salt to taste - I only put a few shakes. 
• Added a couple tblsp of cornstarch to thicken it up.
• Cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes or so to let it cook down, then simmer. Stir occasionally.

We had ours with peanut butter on wheat sandwiches. Yum!!
(I actually used 1/4 tsp cayenne and 2 tbsp chili powder and it was a bit too spicy for us, so I reduced the measurements above)    

Good luck taking little steps to be a greener human! Don't get discouraged if you can't dive in head first. Anything is something!