NYC Green - No Impact Man

I recently decided upon New York University to finish up my education in the field of physical therapy. A rational person might think I would be mildly concerned about moving to a city with a population approximately 350 times larger than where I currently live, but I cannot wait to make the transition to life in the greatest city in the world.

Since Amanda and I have recently been attempting to live even more sustainably, I wanted to find out how I can continue with this lifestyle, OR become even more sustainable. Some things are quite obvious; New York has a terrific mass transit system, so our greenhouse gas emissions are bound to decrease. But there are some things that I wanted to know more about. Luckily, many of the books I have been reading lately have many potential applications to my new life in NY.

The first of these books is No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by Colin Beavan. Beavan says that he always described himself as an environmentalist, but really didn't know how his actions were very different than anyone else's. With that in mind, he undertook a yearlong project to not only reduce his impact on the environment, but through various organizations and simple actions, leave a positive impact as well. Beavan lives in Manhattan, and during his year of no impact living, he gives up packaging, buying new things, all transportation with the exception of walking and biking, and eventually, electricity. While his eco-experiment may seem a little extreme (and it may well be), it teaches us some very important lessons about how our small individual actions can lead to large collective action. It inspired me to make several changes in my daily life which, hopefully, will inspire others to make subtle yet important changes in their actions which hopefully will inspire many, many others.

I strongly recommend No Impact Man (and Colin Beavan's blog) to anyone who cares about the future of our planet and how they can play a role in making that future as bright as possible.

Pizza!

For the last few weeks, we have set one dinner a week as pizza. I think I can say with some certainty that our unofficial "Pizza Night" is here to stay. And as a hungry college student with access to some wonderful cheeses, I am quite happy about it.

Since beginning this blog, our weekly pizza has already evolved. We used to buy those Pillsbury cans of dough at the supermarket (which, don't get me wrong, are very delicious), but have advanced ourselves to buying mixes of "95% organic ingredients" dough from the Co-Op. Not only does it taste much better, but we're putting more of our dollar back into the community by shopping at the Co-Op than at County Market. We also don't buy those convenient bags of pre-shredded cheeses that are ubiquitous at all big chain supermarkets. Instead, we buy cheese that we know is from Wisconsin (and preferably from Rudolph, WI - Dairy State Cheese Co.) and shred it ourselves. These changes may seem small, but it is ensuring that (1) we have the freshest ingredients, (2) the ingredients have less food miles on them, and (3) more of our pizza money stays within the area.

The Food So Nice They Named it Twice

Couscous primavera was on the menu the other night, and this simple and quick recipe did not disappoint. Couscous is another item which we now purchase from the bulk bins at the Co-Op and store in a used sauce jar. We seem to be accumulating more and more jars and other containers that we would have thrown away or recycled, and I'm excited to fill them with things I would have bought anyway to cut down on superfluous packaging.

Anyway, the couscous primavera took about 25 minutes to make (including prep time), and was not only delicious but inexpensive. However, we may shelve this recipe until the spring and summer, at which time we can get all of the ingredients from the farmer's market and make this a very local dish.

Tofu!

This post is long overdue, but I'm finally putting it up! Last week, Amanda's experimental dish was Tofu Rigatoni Casserole. Since we could not find any bulk rigatoni at the Co-Op, we used some penne we had previously purchased and seem to always have on hand these days. This was a pretty easy meal to make, and one that produced a considerable amount of leftovers, which is always good - until we forget about them in the fridge...

Eating this meal reminded me of how delicious baked pasta dishes are, and made me want to make more dishes with a delicious layer of bubbly, baked cheese on top. But alas, while eating thick layers of cheese on top of everything may be a gesture bursting with Wisconsin pride, it is also bursting with saturated fat. Oh well. Every once in a while is certainly okay though.

Dining Out the Green Way in Stevens Point

The other day, I went to Cafe 27 for lunch, and halfway through declared it to be my new favorite dining establishment in all of Stevens Point. I don't know why it took me so long to go there, but I know that I will now instantly become a regular.

Cafe 27 is a restaurant that is committed to sustainability through the purchasing of ingredients from local farmers, and updating the menu on a daily basis to reflect what is available and what is in season. They also serve New Roots Coffee, one of my favorite local roasters.

Now, I have only experienced lunch at Cafe 27, so I can really only vouch for part of the menu, but I am eager to try some fresh baked goods some morning in the not-too-distant future. Until then, my mouth will be watering in anticipation of the next batch of their delectable sweet potato chips.

The Adventures of Purchasing Bulk Noodles and Making Lasagna

One of the things that Amanda and I are going to try doing is purchasing more things in bulk to avoid all of the plastic and cardboard that seems to encompass everything on our planet these days. Luckily, we have a pretty schnazzy little bag that is the perfect size for holding lasagna noodles, and we just happen to be making lasagna this week. Boom!

Veggie lasagna is one of my favorite things to make. I can put one together in about 45 minutes, and the leftovers feed us for lunch the rest of the week. The only "green" change that we made this time was the aforementioned noodles purchased in bulk. Hopefully we can get our hands on some more of the marinara from our winter farmer's market, and some cheeses from Wisconsin Dairy State Cheese Co. and make this recipe even more local and delicious next time.

Whole Wheat Penne with Marinara - Part Deux: The More Eco-Friendly Version!

Eating well in the winter while adhering to certain guidelines one sets for themselves can be difficult. Odds are the nutritious food you would purchase in the grocery store came from across the country, or if you chose a less nutritious alternative, they are probably loaded with preservatives and have been sitting on the shelves for several weeks and are primed to stay there for several weeks more. That is why when Amanda and I heard about a winter farmer's market taking place at our favorite coffee shop, we had to go and at least check it out.

And what a wonderful surprise it was! There were only a few local vendors there, but you could tell that each of them had put their heart and soul into everything they were selling. There were potatoes, eggs, myriad meats, sauces, baked goods, and gluten-free energy bars, not to mention those selling non-edible items such as homemade soap and yarn.

We bought some homemade marinara sauce from one of the vendors, and decided to go to the Co-Op to finally start purchasing pasta in bulk to curb our purchasing of unnecessary cardboard and plastic. We bought a new jar which henceforth shall hold our pasta, loaded it up with whole wheat penne and waited patiently for dinner. And by waiting I mean we had an eventful day, where I was running around in excitement about my acceptance into New York University's DPT program and Amanda nearly smashed her finger into smithereens. When dinner rolled around, it was utterly fantastic. The sauce was much darker than marinaras we used to purchase from the store, and much sweeter as well. I can say with certainty that we will be at the winter farmer's market every week until we get the actual farmer's market back. It feels good (not only in my stomach, but my heart as well) to support locals that are trying to make a difference with what they sell, and I am glad we wandered upon these wonderful people.