There are starving kids all over the world - don't waste food ...

I am one who always had an aversion to leftovers, I will admit I have this fear of rotten food. I think it comes from growing up in the restaurant business and hearing all the health department requirements; which obviously are more severe then what the typical person does at home. Suffice it to say I am a little obsessive about food going bad, haha. Through this journey of taking better care of God's creation I started to really look at my leftover aversion and got over it. I also made an effort to try to make just enough food versus too large of portions. Like Mom used to say "there are starving kids all over the world don't waste food". But then I went a step or a few steps beyond just making sure to eat our leftovers and looked at what waste over buying was causing. I will tell you it wasn't pretty! I have always been a just in case buyer and a mood cooker "what if we feel like ...", well this not only makes my grocery bill higher, but causes a lot of potential food wasted.

One thing I realized also was, like most Americans, we love variety. It isn't a luxury for us, it is a requirement. But with that requirement we can waste a lot of food. I had some friends go to Africa and one thing they said that really struck me in my line of thinking on this whole issue was that "the people there eat a lot of the same thing all week", so it was challenging for them because we are spoiled with so much variety. That gave me a lot of insight as to how we needed to approach being last wasteful in regards to food. Here are a few things I am doing to make sure that what doesn't even make it to our meals doesn't end up in the compost or garbage either:

1. Planning meals appropriately - now this means more than just ok we will have this on Monday and this on Tuesday ... one thing I realized, like in other countries they have a few items to cook for the week (creative opportunity here too hehe), so I basically think ok for the week we will have e.g. rice, these veggies, this fruit, eggs. So I am selecting certain things I can make in a multitude of different types of meals while at the same token using up everything I buy.

2. More trips, less purchased - so either I walk or I drive when I am already out for some other reason ... this method I found makes it easier for doing the first step ... I plan to go to the store at least 2 times a week. One thing that happens in other countries is they go out every day buy only what they need and it is all fresh, well I am taking this to a 2 times a week event, this way I can plan for narrower plots of time and everything is so fresh. Believe it or not I am spending a lot less money.

This is the two major things I am doing to reduce the waste and I have to say it is working amazingly. What are way you are reducing your food waste outside of leftovers?

Organics Organics Organics Oh My!

Do you know why I love tuesdays? I get my delivery of organic fruits and vegetables by the company Absolute Organics, in Charlotte, NC. They are a local family run business that gives great service. A few days before delivery they email you what you are going to receive, then you have a chance to request not to receive a certain item. Absolute Organics is one way I have been saving money on our change to organic fruits and veggies. If you are in Charlotte or lucky enough to have a local service like this it is a great and less expensive way to feed your family organics foods. They also have organic free trade coffee (YUM!), organic granola and local honey. If you decide to try Absolute Organics, please let them know eG sent you! Have you ever tried a service like this? If you have a service like this is your area please post it in a comment to help others find them.

eGreen Method: Nix the Paper Napkins with Ease ...

You can buy the restaurant type cloth napkins in bulk (about 25 napkins for approx. $20). We have about 30 we rotate. We keep a small decorative basket in our kitchen that is only for the cloth napkins, that makes it easy to keep them clean. What methods have you used to ease the switch to cloth?

eGreen Methods: Reuse Those Egg Cartons

Aside from giving your egg cartons to the farmers at your local farmer's market, here are so ways that you can reuse your egg cartons so that they avoid the "dumpster graveyard":

• Money Container - Use old egg cartons to store your change for garage and yard sales. Egg cartons are good for this because you can separate all the change and it is easy to get to. At a garage sale I recently tried this and it worked very well. I found that getting change was easier and faster because I knew where the change I needed was.
  
• Golf Ball Storage - An egg carton makes a great place to store extra golf balls. It makes it easy to sort by brand and condition and they are stackable so they can be stored neatly.
  
• Travel Helper - I use them for travel, to hold small items like earrings, necklaces, any emergency item on hand...... threads, etc; weave needle thru the inside top cover so as not to lose it in your suitcase. Hold together with lg. rubber band.
  
• Craft Helping Hand - When working with small round items, I often use an egg carton to old the item while I paint one side, or just as a holder while they dry. It keeps those little round things from rolling away.
• Fire Starters - fill the paper egg cartons with dryer lint, then pore melted wax over the lint. You can tear apart the sections and use for fire starters when you are camping, or in your fire place. I use left over candle pieces for the melted wax.
  
• Charcoal Fire Starter - Similar to the idea above for fire starters... Using a cardboard egg carton, fill each section with melted wax so that it's about 1/3 full. Place a piece of charcoal (one brickette) in the wax. Close the carton and place on a shelf until you're ready to use. To use, remove the top of the carton, and place the bottom half in the grill. Light the carton. Wait a few minutes and then add more charcoal. This will eliminate the need for lighter fluid.
• Plant containers or seed starters
• Poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Fill about 3/4 with potting soil and vermiculite. Plant seeds and set in a sunny window.
• Jewelry organizer - Paint or cover with fabric. Store any small pieces of jewelry, rings, earrings, chains, cuff links, etc. For a unique way to store pierced earrings, line the top with foam, cover with fabric, and poke earrings through the foam. Easier than trying to find them in the little cups.
• Desk organizer - Remove the top and place inside a desk drawer to hold small items, like paper clips, rubber bands, push pins, etc. Paint or decorate if you want to place it on a desktop where it will be seen.
• Christmas decoration storage - Line cups with cotton, foam, or tissue paper and store small Christmas tree bulbs and ornaments in each cup.
• Palette - Use the styrofoam kind for water colors or acrylics to hold colors. Detach top of carton and use for mixing colors.
• Craft storage - Is your craft work area a nightmare? Use an egg carton to store all those little pieces you don't want to lose track of while you're working.
• Cheap ice cube trays - Use plastic egg cartons to make extra ice.
• Game / toy storage - Some of those little pieces keep getting lost? Use a carton to store doll shoes, game pieces, dice, etc.

What ways are you reusing your egg cartons?

Courtesy of make-stuff.com

eGreen Kids: Cardboard Roll Puppets

Instructions to make home made puppets from cardboard toilet paper roll.

Materials Needed:

• Toilet Tissue and/or Paper Towel Rolls
• Craft Sticks
• Glue
• Scissors
• Construction Paper
• Misc. Craft Supplies (felt, moving eyes, yarn, etc.)

Instructions:
Very Simple! Decorate the cardboard toilet paper rolls to make different people or animals! You can even cut them to different heights. Use the misc. craft supplies to make hair, clothes, mouths, etc. Be creative! Glue the craft sticks inside the bottom edge of the cardboard roll for handle.

Courtesy of about.com

Plastic Bag Tote: Reusing Your Plastic Grocery Bags

Instructions for cutting the bags and making a ball of "yarn", click here

Materials Needed: numerous white, blue and yellow plastic grocery bags, M hook

Finished Size: 15 inches high x 16 inches wide not including the straps

Note: Do not use hook that you don't want to break or be stained. I have noticed that my hook has numerous stains of dye on it from the bags, also this is hard on the hook so you don't want to use your good Brittany hooks while crocheting with plastic bags :-)

Directions:
white bags

ch 28

• Round 1 - hdc in 2nd ch from hook and in each remaining ch, working around the backside of the ch hdc in each st, join with a sl st to 1st hdc (54 total)
• Round 2-5 - ch 1, hdc in each st around, join with a sl st to 1st hdc at the end of round 5 change to yellow bags, do not cut white bags
• Round 6-7 ch 1, with yellow bags, hdc in each st around, join with a sl st to 1st hdc, cut yellow bags, at end of round 7 pick up the dropped white bags
• Round 8-10 - ch 1, with white, hdc in each st around, join with a sl st to 1st hdc, at end of round 10 change to blue bags, do not cut white bags
• Round 11- 13 - ch 1, with blue bags, hdc in each st around, join with a sl st to 1st hdc, cut blue bags, at end of round 13, pick up the dropped white bags
• Round 14-20 - ch 1, with white, dc in each st around, join with a sl st to 1st hdc, at end of round 20 change to yellow bags, do not cut white bags
• Round 21 - ch 1, with yellow, hdc in each st around, join with a sl st to 1st hdc, cut yellow bags, at end of round 21 change to white bags
• Round 22- ch 1, with white hdc in next 7 sts, ch 24, sk 8 sts, hdc in the next 19 sts, ch 24, sk 8 sts, hdc in next 12, join with a sl st to 1st hdc
• Round 23 - ch 1, sc in next 6sts, work 28 sc around the next ch 24 sp on last round, sc in next 19 sts, work 28 scs around the next ch 24 sp on last round, sc in next 13 sps, join with a sl st in beg sc (94 total)
• Round 24 - ch 1, sc in each st around (94 total)

Courtesy of about.com

Lost 30 pounds since Going Green ...

It is amazing when you choose a life of taking better care of God's creation you end up getting wonderful benefits:

• Weight loss
• More time with your family
• Saving money

Since this journey started we went to vegetarian (I went vegan), walked instead of driving to close places (my daughter loves the walking), buying organic and non-processed foods, eating more raw vegetables and fruits. I have slowly dropped weight and without "dieting". For years I had heard you don't diet you change your lifestyle, well that wasn't as crazy as I thought it was. I was constantly looking for a quick fix. Turns out that turning towards God and changing our lifestyle for the effort of caring for His creation is giving me the result I have been looking for my whole life. Hrmm go figure! (giggles) I will keep you all posted on my progress, I have more to drop, but this lifestyle has sure put me on the track. YAY! What benefits have you seen as a result of going green?

Random Acts of Green Kindness Giveaway

Do a Random Act of Green Kindness, tell us about it and be entered to WIN a $15 iTunes GC. Submit a comment on this page or our facebook page. Make sure to tell us your twitter and/or facebook name in your comment. We post the winner Friday May 14th, 2010 at 11pm EST. Rules below to win a $15 iTunes Gift Card:

• All entries must be submitted by Friday April 16th, 2010 at 10pm EST.
• Retweet or Tweet the following: Random Act of Green Kindness: @Experiencegreen is having a Giveaway - win a $15 iTunes GC, RULES: http://bit.ly/c4iHhW #green #giveaway #eco
  
• Comment on this page or on our facebook page what random acts of green kindness you have done recently.
• You must be a follower on the experiencegreen twitter page.
• You will get an additional entry if you are a fan on our facebook page too.
• We will pick only one winner on Friday, it will be announced on Twitter, Facebook, and our blog.

Depending on how this goes more meatless monday giveaways will be coming so start planning future weeks to go veg!

Green Moving? Cheaper, Greener, Only Way to Move!

Moving is a recent green dilemma I had the last few week, this is one reason I have been missing in action on the blog. From the point of putting the contract in on the house, it was green strategy time. Conveniences win when we don't plan ahead, so be green and plan ahead. Aside from reusing the non-eco-friendly stuff, here are some ways I found to green up my move:

Donate It: The weeks leading up to the move we really dug through everything to sort out the things we didn't really need anymore; gave it all the Goodwill or friends. Other options for your unused stuff:

• Women's Shelter
• Goodwill or Salvation Army ... Find your local branch here
• Freecycling (online way to give stuff you don’t want to people who do)
• People from your community, church or friends could use some our items
• Have a yard sale

Pack It: If you are like me you don't have many boxes and packing materials laying around to reuse. Here are options to stay green while packing:

• Ask your moving company if they have used boxes and packing materials for you to reuse
• If you buy boxes, make sure they are made from recycled materials
• Purchase some reusable plastic containers, I got these for my fragiles for extra protection, so now I have some awesome containers I can reuse items I am storing
• Places like Sam's Club and Costco have boxes and packing materials in the front that are being recycled that you can take for your own use
• I grew up in the restaurant business, I have to say they get the best boxes ever (especially tomato boxes); ask a restaurant is you can have their boxes they are tossing anyways
• I found all of these around the house that I had to take with me anyways, might as well put them to good use:
  
• Towels
• Blankets or sheets
  
• Rags
• Clothes
  
• Reusable shopping bags
• Paper shopping bags
• Yoga or exercise mats
• Old egg cartons; I have these saved for my daughter's craft projects, but I have to say they made some great packing materials to secure certain items
• Use old newspapers instead of foam peanuts or bubble wrap (unless you have materials to reuse of course); newspapers protect even your fragile items divinely
• If you use bubble wrap, check out this article for ways to continue to reuse it: 9 Reuses for Bubble Wrap

Clean It: Whether you’re cleaning out the old place or cleaning up your new one, use green cleaners: Not only are they better for your health and the health of the planet, they‘re less expensive than conventional chemical-laden cleaners–and they work just as well or better.

All in all, like all methods of being green have saved me money, forced me to plan ahead, gave me plenty of opportunity to be creative ... all things I love! What ways have you found to be green in a move or even with shipping items?

Ideas to Celebrate Earth Day Giveaway ...

We are giving away a $20 Amazon.com Gift Certificate in honor of Earth Day. Here are the rules to qualify:

• All entries must be submitted by Friday April 23rd, 2010 at 10pm EST.
• Retweet or Tweet the following: @Experiencegreen Earth Day Giveaway - win a $20 Amazon.com GC, http://www.bit.ly/acgtEP #change #green #earthday
  
• You must be a follower on the experiencegreen twitter page.
• You will get an additional entry if you are a fan on our Facebook page too.
• Post below an idea to celebrate earth day (or you can post on our Facebook page.)
  
• We will pick only one winner on Friday, it will be announced on Twitter, Facebook, and our blog.

Thank you for your entries ... Reduce Reuse Recycle ... make it a habit one step at a time!

eGreen Kids: Making Recycled Paper with Your Kids

Don't throw away your old newspapers. Try making your own recycled paper!
Recycled paper can be made from old newspaper, following the instructions below. Recycling paper uses cellulose (plant fibers) over and over again, it uses less electricity, less water, a lot less pollution, and it saves trees from being cut down!
You will need:

• a food processor or an old blender
• an electric iron
• an old wire hanger
• an old pair of panty hose
• newspaper or other paper, torn into 2-inch squares
• white glue
• water
• an insect screen or strainer (optional)
• food coloring (optional)
• a big sink or tub filled with 4 inches of water
• Make sure you have a place to work where you can make a big mess!

Step One:
Make a frame out of the coat hanger. You'll need a frame for each piece of paper you make. Stretch the hanger and bend it into a rectangle/square shape. Take one leg of the panty hose and stretch it carefully over the hanger frame. Make sure it is tight and flat.

Step Two:
Put a handful of the torn up paper and some water into the food processor or blender. Blend the mixture on high until it becomes mushy. Keep adding paper and water until you have a big gray blob. You may have to add a little more water to keep things moving smoothly. Keep the food processor on until all the paper has disappeared. Then leave it on for 2 minutes.

For some color, add a handful of brown or red onion skin (not the onion itself, just the papery outer skin).

Step Three:
Put 2 tablespoons of white glue in the sink water and add all of the paper pulp you just made. Mix it really well. Use your hands.

Step Four:
Scoop the frame to the bottom of the sink, then lift it slowly. (Count to 20 slowly while you are lifting.) Let the water drain out for about a minute.

Step Five:
Hang the frames on a clothesline or put them out in the sun. Wait until they are completely dry with no dampness at all. You can then gently peel off the paper.

Step Six:
Use the iron, set on the hottest setting, to steam out your paper. You can keep making paper until the pulp is all strained out of the sink. Mix up the sink every time you make a new piece.

Try other things like using in insect screen over a wood frame, or a strainer instead of the pantyhose and hanger. Try adding lots of food coloring, for colored paper, or try adding lint or leaves to the food processor. Your paper will have an interesting texture.

Making your own paper can be fun, and it's a great way to re-use old paper. You can recycle all kinds of paper for re-use. Sometimes paper printed from color-inkjet printers will run, that is, the color will bleed off and become part of your new paper, but that can make for an interesting effect!

Meatless Monday Giveaway ...

Did you have a Meatless Monday? Tell me how it went for you, if you struggled or did it full on; existing vegetarians can enter too. Submit a comment on this page of how meatless monday went for you or if you picked a different day this week to go meatless, just tell us about it. Make sure to tell us your twitter and/or facebook name in your comment. We post the winner Friday April 16th, 2010 at 11pm EST. Rules below to win a $20 iTunes Gift Card:

• All entries must be submitted by Friday April 16th, 2010 at 10pm EST.
• Retweet or Tweet the following: Go Meatless for a Day: @Experiencegreen is having a Meatless Monday Giveaway - win a $20 iTunes GC, http://www.bit.ly/acgtEP #vegan #green
• You must be a follower on the experiencegreen twitter page.
• You will get an additional entry if you are a fan on our facebook page too.
• We will pick only one winner on Friday, it will be announced on Twitter, Facebook, and our blog.

Depending on how this goes more meatless monday giveaways will be coming so start planning future weeks to go veg!

Move over paper towels we have dishcloths to save our planet ...

I raise my hand and say "I, Cheale, am a paper towel addict", but I had to look at my vice closely and find ways to reduce the amount I use. Continually using paper towels and those "oh so" convenient disposable cloths, that have been filling our markets for the last several years, are obviously not eco-friendly. You can switch to eco-friendly paper towels (I do keep them around for occasional use), but that will still fill our landfills. We have lovely dishcloths to replace that are very eco-friendly or you can also go with rags or sponges, but how do we insure that our dishcloths or sponges stay sanitary for our health.

To properly disinfect your dishcloths or sponges, you should toss them in your washing machine with bleach and hot water. You can dry them in your clothes dryer. However, if you want to sanitize your dishcloths even more, hang them in strong sunshine. You can do the same with your shaggy mop.

But of course you don't want to have to throw them in the washing machine with every use, that isn't being very green either. The best way to kill 99.9% of the bacteria that's present on the dish cloths is to disinfect them in your microwave oven. To do this, according to a 2007 study from the Journal of Environmental Health, dampen the cleaning tools. Then, place it in your microwave oven on "High" power for 2 minutes.

Do you have any other methods to sanitize your dishcloths or sponges?

Mom, Where is the soft toilet paper?

One of those moments I love as a mother, when your child just makes you laugh. My first grocery trip with green methods in mind I decided to switch to an eco-friendly toilet paper. We were down to our last roll of the typical soft toilet paper, so it was perfect timing. My daughter's bathroom contained the last roll. The day came that she used my bathroom and used the new toilet paper. She comes out says to me, " Mom, what happened to the soft toilet paper?" ... I said, "We switched to a toilet paper that is more earth friendly" she says,"But why?" ... I responded,"They help save trees, don't you care about trees?" ... she looked up at me," But mom, the soft one feels better on my bottom! Can you buy the soft stuff again?"

Well, she didn't win, but what I did do is explain to her more about why that toilet paper was a more environmental friendly choice, so she is now pro the sacrifice. This is something I find amazing with my child, if you educate her on something versus just telling her that is just the way it is she becomes positive about the change. One thing I pray to accomplish with this blog, educating will assist change.

Next time you go to the store consider this when you buy your paper products:

• According to Greenpeace’s recent release of its first Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide, “Americans could save more than 400,000 trees if each family bought a roll of recycled toilet paper—just once.”

I will be honest with you, my daughter is right the soft kind does feel better, but is a softer tissue worth destroying our trees? As my daughter says now "Trees give us oxygen why would we want to kill them?" We have to keep in mind that these products we use and throw out immediately. Try a switch one day!

What to look for in green toilet paper:

• Chlorine free.
• Made from 80-100% recycled content.
• No added dyes or fragrances.
• Safe for low-flow toilets.