"On the go eating"

On-the-go Eating and still being “semi-green”

We have established that most large chain restaurants use foods with lots of processed ingredients that have traveled many miles to your plate. These foods are often not as flavorful or healthy as other alternatives. Growing your own, finding farmers markets, and local farms is a great way to help offset these things, but what about the times when you need a meal fast and cheap…..

You have several options:

1) Keep easy to heat and serve meals ready to go at home. Many of you are envisioning microwave dinners or store bought spaghetti Os. Actually I am refereeing to tasty homemade meals that are quick and easy. For example, in my family we love chicken tenders (especially my 2 kids) but hate the bready processed chicken that you can get most places. So, we buy local chicken breasts and slice them into strips. We then bread them and fry them in our counter top deep fryer. Once cooled these can be individually frozen and bagged. We keep these in the house so that whenever I get off work late or we have an evening event to get to, I can take them out and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes, add some fresh veggies or fruit and we have a fast, cheap, and semi-green meal. Cooking soups and home canning them is another easy, semi-green meal. These meals save, time, money, and the planet. Often coming in at under 100 food miles compared to possibly over 50,000.

2) Find a local restaurant that buys locally. While most chains use centralized warehouses and such, there are great locally owned and operated restaurants that choose to use local ingredients whenever possible. Even if they are only using local produce it is a step in the right direction. You might be asking, how do I know where they get their products. Simple, just ask. This lets you know where they purchase their products, but also lets them know that it matters. So if they aren’t buying local now, they may start to buy local as more and more people ask them about it.

3) Pack your lunch…or dinner…or breakfast

When you go through the drive through at a fast food restraint and feed a family of four, you are going to spend about $20-$25 and maybe more depending on the restaurant and the choices. However, for less than half of that you can pack a meal that is more nutritious, better tasting, and better for the environment. You can use reusable plates and cups and limit the trash going into the environment, nutritious sides like slices of carrots, peppers, celery, or cucumber, fresh local fruit, and homemade chicken salad sandwiches ( or cold cuts, or any other sandwich topping). Even if the produce is purchased at your local grocery store you are still being more environmentally friendly by cutting down on paper waste.