Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

In which a crazy pregnant lady goes dumpster diving

It all started out innocently enough.  With the warmer temps, I spent some time cleaning our sun porch on Friday in preparation for being able to use it again soon.

In the process of breaking down a cardboard box for recycling, I pulled off the packing tape, and since I was already outside on my way to the recycling bin at that point, I decided to put the tape directly into the trash dumpster.  I opened the dumpster lid and saw a bunch of brand new looking books.

Unable to just close the lid and go on with my life knowing that some perfectly good books were headed for the landfill, I started pulling them out and piling them on top of the dumpster.

I found about 20 middle school teachers’ guide math texts that looked like they’d never been used.  In the dumpster!  I was tempted to just leave the books piled on top of or next to the dumpster and hope that someone would come along and rescue them, but, realistically, people only tend to pick up furniture and other large objects.

If I left them there, they would probably just sit and end up getting water damage from rain, and then they really would be trash. So I brought them inside in two huge armfuls, found a box in the basement as a temporary home, and posted them on ReUseItStLouis (formerly known as FreeCycle).

They had not generated much interest by Saturday, when I made the mistake of visiting the dumpster again (with another small trash item).  Guess what?  More books!  Same topic and condition as the books from Friday — clearly the same culprit.

My shoulders sagged in defeat.  I could (and did) pull out these books, but this is one dumpster, in one alley, in one city, and I’m one person.  Every day, all across our country, perfectly good and usable items, like these books, get sent to the landfill.

I understand that taking the time to find new homes for items we no longer want does require some effort and can be frustrating, we just went through it with our couch, but taking the time and effort is part of being a responsible consumer.

In this case, the books I rescued would be perfect for a math tutor or a family that home schools.  While this story is not finished yet, I received two emails about the books, including one from a person who seemed very interested.  If all goes well, the books may have a new home by the end of the day, which would turn my distressed expression in the photo into a smile.

Spank it oh pita

Huh?  Oh, right, that’s supposed to be “spanakopita,” as in the delicious Greek spinach and phyllo concoction, but my mind tends to twist the word in a creative way.  I can’t see or say the word without “spank it oh pita” popping into my head, and now I’ve corrupted you, too.  (You can thank me later.)

Anyhow, with only a bit of help from yours truly, Matthew made spanakopita on Saturday night, using the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe.  This recipe yields a delicious spinach pie, which of course we double (after baking and cooling, we cut one pie into wedges and pop it in the freezer for future meals).  For a double recipe, we go a little light on the feta cheese (we used about 3/4 lb instead of 1 lb for the double), and the 1/4 lb (1 stick) of melted butter for the phyllo in a single recipe is plenty for a double recipe.

The finished product, golden & flaky

The directions say to “cool completely and serve at room temperature,” but we never wait that long.  We can always eat the leftovers at room temperature 😉

Steaming spanakopita

We enjoyed our distinctly not cool spanakopita with a side of the most delicious oranges ever.  Local Harvest had a limited quantity of citrus that someone brought directly from California after a trip — not at all local, but perhaps the freshest and most truly ripe oranges I’ve had the pleasure to eat.  They were also organic and unwaxed, so I zested each and every one before eating.

Am I asking too much?

As I’ve mentioned in a couple of posts recently, our apartment hunting has been fraught with disappointment, and I feel pretty discouraged about the whole thing.  I admit that we have rather high standards and lengthy list of requirements and wist list items, many that reflect our preference for a greener lifestyle that includes active transportation, cooking healthy meals from locally grown food, and living in an energy-efficient space.

Requirements and Ideal Features

  • Smoke-free BUILDING — not negotiable.  Potential landlords, if you say it’s smoke-free, and it’s not, we will know, trust me.
  • Two bedrooms — that’s kind of the point of moving
  • Second-floor unit
  • Hardwood floors — so much easier to clean than carpet, better for allergies, no vacuum required
  • Garage — I could care less about my car, but I’m tired of lugging Bub up and down the basement steps, and I imagine we’ll be adding some kind of bicycle trailer to the set-up in the near future
  • Functional kitchen — we spend a lot of time in this part of the house
  • Dishwasher — With all the cooking we do, having a clean-up shortcut is VERY helpful, plus using a dishwasher can use less resources than washing by hand
  • Good storage space — can be combination of closet space and storage space in basement, if the basement is clean and dry
  • Energy efficient furnace — I’m sick of seeing places where they say, “Oh, your apartment has a brand new furnace,” and we look at it, and it’s an 80% efficient model, which is pretty much the least efficient you can buy these days, when for just a bit more, they could have had a 95% efficient furnace (huge energy savings)
  • Insulation in the attic — we know from experience that it’s hard to get a landlord to add this once you sign a lease, so ideally it would be there from the get-go
  • A sunny yard to garden — perhaps one of our most negotiable points, given our competing desire for city living
  • Located within walking and/or biking distance of amenities such as grocery store, library, parks, etc.

So, what’s the verdict?  Are we asking for too much here?

I’m thinking about giving it a break for several weeks, and continuing the search in April when there might be more rental stock available.  I’m not sure I can take anymore right now.

Pre-Valentine’s cupcakes

We celebrated the great thaw by biking all around the town on Saturday morning.  We started at the farmers’ market, where our haul included spinach, Napa cabbage, green onions, arugula, and turnips.

My take on turnips: Turnips are one of the very few vegetables that we don’t like (in fact, I can’t think of any others off the top of my head).  We’ve tried them a few times, with various preparations including roasting.  However, they say you should try a new food ten times before deciding you don’t like it, so here we go again.  These were advertised as mild, sweet turnips.  Any favorite turnip recipes you want to share?

The streets still had some icy spots, but we carefully avoided them.  The fenders were essential with all the melting and run-off.  Matthew sported his “3 Feet Please” jersey, shown next to our icy bike lock-up.

After we dropped our produce off at home, we headed back out to the Orchid Show.  I really loved the ancient Maya civilization theme they used this year — if you’re in the St. Louis area, you should definitely check it out.

Our next stop was an apartment possibility that turned out to be not a possibility at all.  Despite my very clearly asking on the phone if the entire 4-family building was smoke-free, and being assured that it was, our noses don’t lie, but the landlord did — waste of our time!

We made a quick exit and headed to lunch at Sweet Art.  Of course, the highlight of lunch at Sweet Art is the cupcakes.  We ordered four, and shared half of each at the restaurant and took the other halves home for later enjoyment 🙂  (I brought containers so we didn’t need any disposable packaging.)

Refueled and renewed, we visited one more apartment before heading home.  Probably another no-go, though nothing blatantly atrocious, unlike the other.

Sunday brought more gorgeous weather, and I followed up on Saturday’s bike fun with a bit more biking on Sunday.  I usually don’t mind winter, but the almost constant covering of ice on the sidewalks and smaller streets was really getting to me — this thaw couldn’t come soon enough!

Eating garden fresh in February

I’m always delighted when I look at my plate and realize that a large portion of the food on it came from our garden (or local sources).  A couple nights ago, we tossed together a relatively quick meal, almost all home grown.

From the top: roasted, shredded beets with butter and salt(actually from my father-in-law’s garden), a veggie saute made from frozen green beans and corn, plus roasted winter squash (sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with fresh ginger, horseradish, and soy sauce), and noodles with canned sauce from our garden tomatoes.  Yum 🙂