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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Cheater salad dressings and some links to share

Cheater dressings: cheaper than commercially prepared, less packaging waste.
Okay, okay, I know I'm trying to make more of everything from scratch, but all this rain, rain, RAIN has me feeling very lazy. So today we'll be topping our salads with a cheater dressing: semi-scratch Italian made using a package of seasonings plus my olive oil, water and red wine vinegar.
   To console myself on not making the dressing completely from scratch, I remind myself that these cheater dressings do reduce packaging waste. The little seasoning packet tossed today is better than the big plastic bottle that packages a ready-made dressing.
   Same goes for the semi-scratch cheater Ranch Dressing, made with seasoning I buy in bulk, along with my mayo and milk. And there has to be a lower carbon-cost of shipping these seasonings without the added weight of the liquid ingredients.
   Tho' we recycle all plastic containers, using less plastic is always a good idea. Besides, we can expect high oil prices to raise the prices on all petroleum based or packaged products!
   I managed to visit the library yesterday. Brought home and skimmed through The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better by Chris Farrell, the Economics Editor of Marketplace Money, an NPR broadcast. I say 'skimmed' 'cause I'm less interested in investing than I am in frugality. Aside from the usual "buy used, reduce, reuse, recycle" advice, the book shares several links to frugal sites.

   Please let me know if you visit any of these and come across any new frugal ideas!
Frugal Link Love from The New Frugality
Frugal Living on About.com
Frugal Village
Sustainablog.org
World Changing
Simple-Green-Frugal
1Green Generation
The Daily Green
Inhabitat
Green Yahoo
Greener Penny
Freecycle
TreeHugger (Love this site!)
Green Money Journal
Slow Food USA
Happy link hopping!!

10 comments:

Tightwad Mom said...

Thank you for the links! I adore reading about anything frugal! I have really been trying to cut down on our plastic consumption, too. Like you said the more it's packaged the more it costs! I have even gone so far as to rinse out the plastic bags food comes in and reuse them to package food for the kids lunches.

Dmarie said...

we do too! I have no shame when it comes to carrying around a sandwich in a repurposed cheese bag! ;)

Practical Parsimony said...

I do the same. Bread bags, cereal bags (inner liner), bagel bags--all can be used for food storage in the refrigerator or for a lunch. Mostly, these go off with other people. For my own lunches, I have loads of Tupperware. I know I bring my T back, and I am not so sure of others. Cereal liners (bags) are great because they keep wet things well. I don't have time to read right now, but will later tonight. That is a great collection of sites. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Today I saw a very interesting report about plastic in our world, what I saw made me very sad...so much waste, such a indestructible material and so harmful. even this so called Plasticizer (not sure this is the right term, its an ingredient used to make soft plastic) it causes so much illness... I grew up with knowing to avoid plastics but do not know much about its harmful ingredients. I often use glass whenever i am able to.

greetings from germany;)
sarah

Judy T said...

I'm a plastic bag reuser as well. My co-workers think I'm a bit off but, oh well. Some of your links I'm familiar but I'll have to have fun exploring the new to me ones.
And stop by or drop me an email fullfreezer (at) gmail (dot) com. I've got a prize for you.
Judy

Cooking in Mexico said...

I make salad dressing whenever the bottle of Dijon mustard is scraped empty. There is still enough mustard remnants to which I add olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, salt and pepper and give the whole thing a vigorous shake. Instant salad dressing!

Kathleen

melissa said...

Great list of links! I love freecycle! I agree that there's no wrong way to minimize packaging waste either! Every little bit makes a difference.

A SPICY PERSPECTIVE said...

That's a great list of sites to check out... better get started. :)

fer said...

Great advice! is always good to use less plastic. And thanks for the links too

Susan said...

Appreciate all the links. Always keen to have a look around at other ideas.
Re-using plastic bags works for me too.
Seems packaging for just about everything is getting worse as each month goes by.

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