Waste Not, Want Not

This report just out by the Natural Resources Defense Council: "Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of It's Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill."  As one radio announcer described it- we drop 1 out of 3 grocery bags and don't bother to pick it up.  And Americans are wasting 50% more food than they did in the 1970s.  The cost of this food waste is $165 billion per year.  All this in a country where 1 in 6 Americans do not have enough to eat (U.S. Department of Agriculture).   I am guilty of throwing away old fruits and vegetables that I had the best intention of using.  I recently found
canned foods out of date- the list goes on and on.  When I have the least waste is when I am planning my weekly menus and one big benefit of cooking co-op is the cost savings of buying in bulk but having very little wasted.  By planning meals Monday through Thursday, that gives me Friday through Sunday to use my left overs.  One of my favorite organizations here in Richmond, VA is the Good Samaritan Inn.  Their motto is "Offering a hand up, not a hand out."  What a better use of resources to give to these type of organizations rather than throwing the wasted food money out with the trash.  In these times when money is tight, less food dollars wasted means more dollars targeted to good causes!

Color Me Beautiful Foods

I went to a consultant a number of years ago to learn which colors looked best on me and why.  If you have not done this, watch the YouTube presentation.  I can now go into a clothing store and quickly gravitate to my colors.  Color me beautiful also helps you clean out your closet and give away those clothes you never wear- probably because it is not your color.  So I listened this morning to a few minutes of Color Me Beautiful on YouTube and heard these words: "... makes you look great and feel wonderful...comes from nature...season's colors...the secret to the natural, beautiful you...helps you find a more beautiful you."  So at our church,  we have lunch afterwards.   Those who can stay bring food and we all share.  Yesterday "color me beautiful" foods were in abundance.  Our lunch was visibly beautiful to look at and delicious to the taste.  We had a large salad with Hanover tomatoes, red peppers, Napa cabbage, celery, cucumbers, cauliflower.  We had a vegetable salad of green beans, bakes sweet potatos, and white shoe peg corn with a 3-2-1 dressing (3 parts balsamic vinegar, 2 parts mustard and 1 part maple syrup).  We had a big tray of cut up watermelon.  Then bowls of cantelope, strawberries and blueberries.  A slow-cooker dish of green beans, potatos, and sausage and a platter of chicken.  For desert, a home-made diabetic chocolate pie and a non-diabetic butter pecan cake.  These seasonal fruits and vegetables make you look and feel great.  Eating this way (filling 3/4ths of your plate with color me beautiful foods) is the secret to a natural and more beautiful you.  Go to your local produce stand today and enjoy these last days of summer!