Cook for Good Resolutions for 2010.
Pick a few of these resolutions or do them all. Eat green this year to save money, eat well, and make a difference!
- Cook a pot of beans every week. If you don't do anything else, please cook those beans! You'll save money, lose weight, enjoy delicious meals, and help save the planet.
- Eat fresh food with the seasons. You'll get more taste, spend less money, and get variety through the year with no effort. The planet loves this resolution too as you reduce your food miles and the energy spent preserving food.
- Choose ingredients grown near you. More taste, more nutrition, and more security. Security? Yes: it's harder for the weather, terrorists, or just bad luck to take down a rich network of many local farms. It's also easier to trace and fix any problems, which will be smaller in scope than for a huge industrial source.
- Ship less water. Drink tap water and brew coffee or tea on the spot instead of drinking bottled or canned drinks. When choosing fruit from afar, pick dried over fresh (raisins instead of grapes). Once again, you're saving money, energy, and packaging. You'll also cut your intake of sugar, BPA, alcohol, and artificial everything. See details on the Good Drinks page.
- Waste less food. Start a Stoup container and make Stoup every month instead of letting food mold in the back of your fridge. Adjust your menu plans to use up what needs to be used up. Compost scraps instead of sending them to the landfill.
- Eat more organic and sustainably grown food. Avoid eating pesticides. Encourage farming practices that sequester carbon and make it possible for future generations to thrive.
- Eat less but better meat, fish, dairy, and eggs from kindly and sustainably-raised animals. Put some of the money you save from eating seasonal, local foods that are low on the food chain towards buying food from animals raised the old-fashioned way. Refuse to support the modern cruelty of factory farming.
- Plan to save energy and reduce stress. Take five minutes every night to think about what you will eat and drink the next day. Then soak beans, brew tea, or put something frozen into the fridge to defrost overnight. Pack leftovers for lunch instead going out. No more frantic microwave defrosting, calling out for pizza, or banging your head on the fridge in despair after a long day.
- Rediscover the pleasure of cooking from scratch. Turn off the cooking channel and go play in your own kitchen. Try cooking something that you think can only be made by professionals: bread, pizza, crackers, pie, or ice cream. It's easy and fun to make food that tastes better and is better for you than nearly anything else available.
Resolutions from Sustainable Grub.
I was thrilled today to see that Dee Reid featured Cook for Good in her New Year's Resolutions, saying:
I took a page from Mark Bittman (author of Food Matters and the NY Times Minimalist column) and Linda Watson (Cook for Good website). They advise eating less meat (fewer calories, lower carbon footprint) and more fresh fruits and vegetables....I followed their directions and won the locavore trifecta: lost weight, lowered my carbon footprint and saved money.
Register for Cook for Good workshop.
Start your New Year's off right by getting a Shopping and Cooking Tuneup on January 23rd from 1:00 - 4:00 pm at the Whole Foods Market in Raleigh. See workshop description and registration info >>
Hoppin' John is one of the traditional dishes eaten on New Year's Day in the South. You'll want to have seconds: the story is that the more black-eyed peas and greens you eat on New Year's, the more money and good luck you'll have in the coming year.
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