Tiny Choices Survey: Julie!
By tinychoices | February 5, 2010
Vital statistics (name, age, location)?
Julie G, age 33, Perth, Western Australia. I blog at: www.gogreeneraustralia.com/blog/
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)?
I live in a unit with my husband, in a just-out-of-the-inner-city suburb.
Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
By choice: we took the time to save up a large deposit so we could buy a small home that was close to public transport and other conveniences. It was well worth the wait and effort.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)? Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
I walk or take public transport, or get lifts with people, because I’ve chosen not to get a drivers’ licence. My husband has a secondhand Prius. He has a bike, and I’d like to get one too, so we can further reduce our reliance on the car.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
Eating less processed food. Not only is it better for my health, it means I’ve got less packaging waste to recycle, and haven’t contributed as much to the eco-impact of mass-produced food.
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Junk food. I used to enjoy eating it, but the more I learn about it the less I like it - yet I still give in and buy it on nights when I don’t feel like cooking, or feel like comfort food! The fact that it no longer provides comfort, and in fact makes me feel guilty, hasn’t been enough to break the habit for me.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
I think I need to figure out some pantry meals that require zero effort, so I can still eat when I’m tired or haven’t shopped properly. I’d love some suggestions for this if anyone’s got ideas!
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
People love my Sigg reuseable water bottle. It’s pretty and looks sturdy, and if they compliment me on it I mention that I like not having to pay for water. Quite a few people have got their own reuseable bottles after chatting with me about mine.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
Learn how to cook some vegetarian meals. You don’t have to go full vegetarian if you’re not ready (I’m not, yet) but you can make a difference right now if you learn how to make a few standby dishes and just give it a try.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
Whenever I make a new change it feels like a sacrifice for the first week or two. But I’ve always been so happy with the result after a while, that it would feel like a sacrifice to go back to the old eco-unfriendly ways of doing things.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
Depends on what day you talk to me! Some days I read about all the difficulties facing our planet, all the structural problems we’re going to have to fix, and it makes me despair of ever sorting it all out. And then I read about or chat with someone who’s just forging ahead, thinking global but acting local, with some creative idea that seems like it’s really going to work, and I’m glad there’s such a great community of greenies out there doing their bit. It gets me excited again, and sets me off on new projects of my own.
Ultimately, I don’t think there’ll ever be a day when we can sit back and say “Yep, we’ve made the environment safe and sound forever”. There will always be some new challenge. But we’ve got more people than ever before making an effort, even if it’s just in their own backyard. So generally I’m hopeful about the future.
- Click here to read all of the Tiny Choices Surveys!
- Take the Survey: email us your answers to the questions above, along with a photo!
Topics: Surveys | 7 Comments »
7 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I really enjoyed reading this interview!
I also struggle with making pantry meals that require no effort, for those days when life gets a bit too busy. A couple of my suggestions:
1. Breakfast for dinner: Make a quick omelet or fried eggs and eat with toast, or make a bowl of oatmeal, or just eat cereal with a topping of fruits. Even pancakes take only a couple of minutes to cook up.
2. Have servings of home-made soup in the freezer, or cans/boxes of store-bought soup on hand. Make some grilled cheese to go with the soup.
Nupur, we’d love to read your answers to the survey, too! If you’d like, please <a href=”http://tinychoices.com/contact/”email us your responses (that goes for all a ya’ll reading this…)
Julie, I don’t have a lot of ideas on no-prep meals, but here are some quickish ideas (whenever I cook I always double the recipe, and ideally can freeze small containers for future meals):
- homemade freezable soups (as Nupur mentioned)- my soups are more like stews, with veg, beans, hearty greens, and a whole grain.
- The Tiny Choices Meal List
- Rice Cooker Meals
Thanks for sharing! I struggle with the same issue of food, and am hoping that in making suggestions I will stock my cupboards and fridge with these items to make me better adhere to it!
I definitely support the breakfast for dinner. a standby for me that is a one-pot-wonder (because if I have no desire to shop or cook an elaborate meal I most certainly don’t want to do dishes either!) is pasta with black olives, sundried tomatoes and nutritional yeast (and sometimes walnuts). Depending on whether or not you have a great bulk section and olive bar in your grocer, you may be able to get everything “loose” and bring your own containers. I tend to get the sundried tomatoes that are not in oil and keep them in the cupboard which comes in a recyclable plastic container.
Seconding the freezer options- using ice cube trays to freeze small portions of pesto might be helpful. It can then be put on pasta, spread on bread, etc. for an easy meal.
Thinking of things that last awhile- homemade hummus is pretty easy and made from ingredients that don’t spoil quickly- chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, oil. A great part is that you add a variety of spices depending on what you have a taste for that day. You can make it by hand or put it in a blender or food processor.
Spicy clam linguine is super fast and is one of my go to meals.
I made a great quick meal last night of veggie chili. It sounds like a lot of work but it isn’t. One onion, sauteed in some olive oil, then plop in a can of beans and a can of tomatoes. Add chili powder and cumin, a little water and some bulgar wheat. While it cooked I whipped up some corn bread. I think the whole thing was ready in less than 40 minutes. Would have been faster without the corn bread. Plus I had leftovers for lunch today.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions! Breakfast for dinner sounds like a great idea to me :) I’ve been trying to come up with a list of things I can fall back on, these are all going on a list I can put on my fridge to remind me when I’m too brain-dead after work.
We have a couple that come from our camping tricks bag. Hallumi with some quinoa with what ever veg you have on hand fried up with the hallumi, serve with mango chutney (or really what ever you prefer). Takes the 15min to cook the quinoa and you are ready to go as the rest fry up quick.
The second is to cook orzo pasta (this is the one that looks like rice) in water with a stock cube. You can then add some fried veg or ham slices and a hand full of grated cheese. We keep some grated parma in the freezer (and my sliced up ham peices) and that works well, but really what ever you have will work. For one person usually 100ml of dried pasta works well per half a stock cube. Obviously if you make and freeze you own stock you will have to play to find the right concentration. The whole thing again is ready to eat in about 15min.