waste not, want not

Day 2: Pull out the recycling bins.

For about 2 years now I've had the best of intentions when it comes to recycling. I have two bins in the kitchen, one for glass, one for plastic and cans. And I repeatedly pull the beer bottles and water bottles and soda cans out of the trash (the person I live with seems to have amnesia when it comes to the recycling bins) and wash them out and put them in the proper bin. But here's where it goes south. I always forget which Monday is recycling day, (it alternates) and I've been quite lazy honestly about recycling things I know I could but requires a little extra effort. So the bottles and cans tend to pile up in the garage and before I know it our yellow lab is traipsing around the back yard with a plastic water bottle in his mouth as if its a chew toy I left just for him.

So for the past few days I've made a serious effort to think about every single thing I'm throwing away. At least four times today I pulled something out of the trash realizing I could have recycled it- plastic egg carton, cardboard cereal box, empty plastic bread bag, and the cardboard packaging for a new sippy cup.

Now comes the tricky part. What you can and cannot recycle depends on the state you live in and more specifically what will be picked up on your curbside for recycling depends on the municipality you live in. It's worth a phone call to the company that does the pick up to find out exactly what they will accept so you're not wasting your time. I was able to get a hold of someone pretty easily, although it's pretty lame how few things my particular municipality accepts.

Since I was in full blown recycle mode today, I was feeling inspired to apply this to my cooking as well. Instead of tossing the last 2 hamburger buns that had gone stale, I cut them into cubes, tossed them with chopped parsley and a little Parmesan cheese and baked at 450 for 15 minutes. Awesome homemade croutons. I bought a huge bag of carrots last week thinking we would snack on them instead of chips (yeah right) and I knew they were going to go bad before that happened. So I roasted half the bag with some curry powder, cumin, salt and pepper and olive oil and then sauteed the leftover onion and garlic that were at the bottom of the vegetable drawer, tossed all that together in a pot with some vegetable broth and let it simmer for a while

(not sure how long since I was distracted by a fussy baby at this point)  and had some really delicious roasted carrot soup for dinner. I even added a few homemade croutons before pureeing the soup to thicken it, double recycling! That along with the fried green tomatoes from a friends garden, a little pancetta and a quick roasted garlic aioli made for an amazing dinner, one even my meat loving husband devoured.

Not bad for a Monday night. Of course my kitchen is a disaster and now the baby is waking up but I still feel pretty good about everything I accomplished today. I hope reading this has inspired you a little too. :)

P.S-If you'd like the recipe for the Fried Green Tomato Salad or Roasted Carrot Soup email me.