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• t-shirt drawer
• cami drawer
• work out drawer
• pajama drawer
• underwear drawer & bra/swim drawer
  
• sock drawer
• junk drawer

So I have decided to keep five pair of pants for lounging around on lazy days, i.e. summer. Three will be transferred to my pajama drawer. It gets damn cold in Wisconsin! Especially at our house; I keep the thermostat locked at 64 degrees October through May. Which is the same excuse I will use later to justify my sock drawer. Three will be added to the sell/donate pile accumulating in my workroom. And, two will be turned into cleaning rags. Actually, the green pants on the bottom are what I stole the drawstring out of for the cami tote bag. I may swipe the pockets off for later use as well.

This week's weight loss is only three pounds. Due partly to the fact there were not as many articles in this drawer as there were in the cami and t-shirt drawers; but, also because several pieces relocated to another drawer. I was in need of PJ's as you will soon see.

I am very proud of this meal for several reasons. First, it is home cooked. Second, I made the sauce from scratch! A first for me and quite a feat, I must say. Peeling and seeding tomatoes was an interesting and messy experience. Third, the tomatoes were heirloom, organic, and local purchased at the Farmer's Market. Mine are just starting to ripen. Fourth, I ate Tofu!!! Never in a million-quadrillion-bazillion years did I think I would ever utter those words. And I lived to eat it again another day. And fifth, Hubby ate it, too. And loooved it!! Ha ha! (He didn't know it contained tofu and never will. *wink*wink*)

I was a little apprehensive to eat it at first since I knew what lurked inside that seemingly innocent creamy white center. Hubby was so impressed that I made the sauce myself,


that he was completely oblivious to the secret hidden ingredient. Dah ta-da tah! Another ewww, healthy item I can sneak past the family. I cannot wait to try this one out on the kids. I am always slipping stuff in their food. They ate asparagus once thinking it was green beans. I peeled the stalks and cut them into lengths resembling cut green beans. *hee*hee* Maybe I will tell them when they are grown.

Here's the recipe for anyone who has four hours they don't know what to do with. Or, if you just feel like being evil like me and pulling a fast one on the family.

Two weeks into my closet diet and already I have begun to amass quite a pile of shed clothing. Today while sifting through the pile, I was sorting the camisoles into sell/donate and cleaning cloth categories when Eureka!

Have you ever noticed that a camisole looks a lot like a tote bag? The handles are already built in. Which is good for me, because I am very much a beginner sewer.

Next up on the purge list: camisole drawer

After reading all of Heather's (from Simple - Green - Frugal) wonderful posts on baking bread and drooling over all the pictures, I finally got up the gumption to try. This was my first ever attempt to make bread.

I had this recipe for Barbecued Flank Steak Sandwiches served on hoagie rolls from a Cooking Light magazine that I wanted to try. So, last night for dinner I did. My local bakery does not have hoagies and I did not want to drive into town for a bag of buns. I know, I can make them! A quick internet search led me to this recipe. I only needed four rolls and it makes 18, but I thought I should have some backups in case something went horribly wrong in baking. (I have an extremely unpredictable oven.)

I gathered all my ingredients and noticed I was out of yeast, damn. I am not a bread baker, but I always have yeast on hand for one dish chicken parmesan. (Which we like to call deep dish chicken pizza. Hubby calls it lasagna??) So, it's off to the store I go. The small local grocery store, not the one I would have to drive to in town. As I am pedaling to the store, I remember it is Wednesday. Farmer's Market! Picked up some lovely tomatoes for tonight's lasagna and the flowers in the background. Back to the bread. I have all my ingredients gathered and food processor ready. Making the dough itself was fairly simple and straightforward, thanks to my food processor. Even the kneading went well. Time to rise. Left the dough in a giant bowl on top of the fridge while I tended to the laundry. 45 minutes later I had a nice big bowl of dough.

This is where things got a bit sticky for me. The recipe said to divide the dough into 18 pieces and shape into an oval. Okay.... a long oval? small oval? large oval? flat oval? I do not know. I know what hoagies are supposed to look like. You know, when they come out of a bag. I made some long and flat and some small and puffy. Good thing I had 18 to play with. Okay, so I got them all shaped and covered to rise another 20 minutes. Unfortunately I only have three baking sheets and can only fit three rolls per pan. So I left the rest to rise on the counter. I remembered I had a bowl of egg whites in the fridge leftover from the lemon bars, so I decided to give them an egg wash. I know I have seen this done before. Haven't I? Well, the first batch of egg washed ones came out all shiny, but not very dark. Butter. I saw Emeril put butter on biscuits the other day on Emeril Green. For color and flavor he said. Well, the butter ones were even lighter than the egg wash. Hmm??? How do you get that beautiful golden color on baked bread?

The recipe also said with scissors to cut a 1/4 inch slash across the top of each. So I did. I cut a 1/4 inch long slash running parallel with the roll. Once baked you couldn't even tell it was there. More like a dimple than anything. Okay.... maybe it was supposed to be a 1/4 deep slash the length of the roll? That made more of an impact. Kind of opened the top of the roll up, making it wider.

All was going well. My rolls didn't look much like hoagies or have any color. But they smelled great! Then I got to the ones resting on the counter. Note to self: Next time put resting dough on parchment paper! They were stuck to the counter and when I moved them they deflated. Those one came out somewhat flat. Sliced in half they fit perfectly in the toaster. I had one for breakfast with natural peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam. Yum! We used them as hot dog buns at lunch. They also worked well as garlic bread with tonight's dinner.

All in all, it was a good experience that I will try again. Just wish I could get more rise and more color. But as Heather said, "even the mess-ups taste good".

Flock is a free web browser you can download for your computer. It works with Mac, Windows, and Linux. I use it with Mac OS X. It comes preloaded with tons of green websites, news feeds, a blog editor, people sidebar for you to easily connect with Facebook, Flickr, You Tube, Twitter, etc., and web mail for AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo. It works with tabs rather than having a bunch of windows open all at once, although you can do this if you prefer. The address bar alerts you if there is a feed or media stream available on the site you are visiting. It also gives you lots of search options.

If you download Flock's Eco-Edition, they will donate 10% of search proceeds to an environmental charity of choice, as deemed by the voting of the community of Flock’s Eco-Edition users at the end of this year. That means you! (if you are using Flock)

What's better than having all the green goodness at your fingertips and doing some green goodness with it to boot?!

Let the purge begin!


I have decided to focus on that large nine drawer dresser full. Beginning with my t-shirt drawer.

Pretty, isn't it? Like my own personal rainbow in my closet. Well it's making me blue. In my pursuit to live a simpler life I have been slowly ridding our household of unnecessary, unused items. I feel another purge coming on!

Let's face it, I have way more clothes than one human could need. Three closets, in fact. Two for clothes - one for shoes and out of season clothes. Plus, a large nine drawer dresser full.

There was a time when I actually used all of these. Honest! Six years managing a store in the mall, it was a requirement of the job. Tisk, tisk. All that money wrapped up in clothes. Makes me feel foolish now. These days, I would say I wear MAYBE 25% of my current wardrobe. So it has got to go.

But, where?
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Five years ago my then spouse and I were living the American Dream. Successful dual-income family, living in a brand new house, two cars in the driveway, toys in the garage, closet spilling over with clothes, eating out, weekends at the cabin, coming and going as we pleased without a care in the world. Spending money without batting an eye.

Fast forward one year... despite my working three jobs, fourteen plus hours a day, and his income we were bankrupt. No house, no marriage, no life, but a whole hell of a lot of debt. Some dream!

Two more years past. Remarried, dual-income family, I cut back to one job - eight hours a day, two kids in the mix, living in a mobile home park, two used cars in the driveway, two toys - don't own a garage, closet full of clothes, freezer full of convenience foods provided by the Schwan's man, having fun and loving life.

Fast forward one year... Still married, single income family, now a stay at home mom volunteering to fulfill my work addiction, bought a refurbished 100 year old house, two smaller, nicer but not new cars in the driveway, bicycles in the garage, garden in the backyard, closet waiting to be purged and listed on freecycle, pantry full whole organic foods, freezer full of homemade stock and spring berries; finally at peace with not equating my success with number of material possessions my salary will allow and sometimes beyond what my salary will allow, but with the harmony my family has at home. Quality not quantity.

What does all this have to do with sustainable living? My first marriage was hardly a sustainable one. We were spending more than we made, working on our careers more than our marriage, putting our individual wants before the needs of the family, and generally had our priorities out of order. Something had to give. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on the way you look at it) everything did.

It was a good life lesson.

• I do not need a giant house to impress family and friends; that never visit because I am always at work to pay for giant house, that is merely a pain to clean and requires four paychecks to heat.
• I do not need a vehicle the size of a tour bus, complete with dvd to entertain me on the exhausting half hour drive, and navigation to keep me from getting lost on the same route I take every day to work.
• I do not need a garage full of toys that teach my children to covet material possessions when the best things in life are free.
• I do not need to work three jobs to pay for an overflowing closet full of clothes that will be out of style before I could ever possibly wear them out, requiring replacement.
• I do not need to feed my family nutrient deficient food in five minutes or less with an ingredient list that takes longer to read than prepare.
  

It was not until I let go of all the things Americans use to define themselves that I began to find sustenance in my life.

Spending time with family.
The partnership with my husband.
Pride of growing our own food.
Gratitude of a home cooked meal.
Assurance of natural products.
Heartwarming of helping others.
Safety of living below our means.
Comfort of a simple life.

Priorities now:
Do I need it or do I want it?
Will it benefit the family/household? Short-term? Long-term?
Is there an alternative? (safer, cheaper, reusable, re-purpose, already own)
What is my motivation?
Is there something of greater importance that should come first?

Slowing down, making less money, and having fewer possessions has led me to a happier, healthier, sustainable life. Going green was a welcome byproduct of the transformation. I believe the two go hand in hand. We cannot sustain our current lifestyles. We will consume and consume until we become consumed.

Only through a sustainable living it is possible to reach the highest of all human goals, to permanently be able to experience inner peace, happiness and harmony (self-realization).

Learn to live with only what is needed to sustain life. You will be far "richer" for it.


To read more about sustainable living and what it means to other "greenies" check out the APLS Blog Carnival.
This month's topic: Sustainable Living is being hosted August 15, at Better Living.