Christianity and Enviromentalism

Who ever said that environmentalism and Christianity can’t go together harmoniously?

In my efforts to simplify my life, appreciate what I already have, and be resourceful with a little as a way to give thanks to God for the “enough” of His provision for me, I’ve suddenly found myself caring WAY more about the environment, renewable energy, and sustainability. I didn’t see that coming, but it makes so much sense. When I am consciously seeking to be resourceful and not waste what I have, I both become more thankful in general, and more desirous that the system in which I live uses the same restraint.

The earth God gave us is such a marvelously self-sustained system, created specifically to support human life, and we are becoming completely disconnected from it.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve ate exclusively from the plants and trees in the Garden of Eden, a paradise only God could have orchestrated. Then we had the Fall, Man was separated from God and the Garden, cursed to work the ground and labor to recreate the life-giving bounty he had once known in Eden. But when I read Genesis 3, I don’t see merely a curse and an end to the provider/dependent relationship between us and God through the earth, I see grace. We are thrown from the perfection of commune with God in the garden as a consequence for sin, yet God still gives us the ability to glean sustenance from the earth. He didn’t say, “You’ve sinned against Me, so now you have to eat dirt for the rest of your miserable life.” No, He gave us a remnant of Eden; He gave us food from the earth, and a Savior to restore our former relationship with Him.

When God created the earth and its creatures, He called them good. He declared that His creation was something worthy. Then He created humans in His image, giving us the job of caring for the rest of creation. If we, as Christians, are not even MORE passionate protectors of the earth and proponents of a system that provides food from the free resources God in His wisdom constructed (solar energy feeds the grasses, the grasses feed the animals, the animals feed both us and the grasses, and the system feeds itself) then how can we do what Micah 6:8 instructs?

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

In the Old Testament, God gave Israel specific instructions in their farming practices that would enable the poor of the community as well as the livestock to have food to eat.  

Leviticus 23:22 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’” 

And in Deuteronomy 25:4: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain."

In contrast, we have now set up a system that denies real food to the poor (fast food and processed foods are what they can afford to eat), and forces animals to deny their created instincts and natural aversions and live crowded in their own filth, never seeing the sun, and eating waste instead of grass. Why? Greed. Because this system produces more profit.


This big industrial system is going to collapse. It depends on more oil to exist than will last or stay affordable. It's already not affordable--look at the debt load of our government. God gave us the sun for FREE. And what really gets me is that the bigger and cheaper we make our food system, the more people starve all over the world, and the more difficult it is for anyone without money to find real food.

How, as Christians, are we engaging with this problem? 

Tasting Summer: Black Bean & Tomatillo Taco Salad

I love summer’s abundance. So many good gifts of flavor. When I wasn’t denying myself the "convenience" of processed foods, I didn’t rely so fully on what was in season and readily available, and thus I didn’t know what each week of summer really tasted like. Now, with the help of our amazing CSA, every week has a distinct flavor. And since we paid for it months ago, every Friday’s bounty of produce feels like the proverbially-unattainable free lunch.

If only the produce lasted longer than a few days. We usually eat all of it before the weekend is over.

Today I’ll give you a tiny glimpse into what food prep is like for me now. About half of the items used to create this lovely black bean and tomatillo taco salad with avocado dressing were from our CSA.

From our CSA: kale, beet greens, white and red onions, hot peppers, tomatoes, and tomatillos.

From the pantry/fridge: cilantro, lime juice, avocado, olive oil, salt/spices, organic whole-milk yogurt, and Trader Joe’s Black Refried Beans (all natural)

We so enjoyed this salad. The mix of beet greens and kale as the salad base was hearty and filling, taking well to the flavor w h a c k ! of avocado/tomatillo. I might use whole black beans tossed in lime juice and cilantro, or whole pinto beans next time.

For the tomatillo salsa, I boiled the tomatillos until they sort of cracked open and became soft at the touch of a fork, then poured out some of the liquid, mashed them into the remaining liquid, and let them reduce to flavor-packed perfection. If I had more time to kill, I wouldn’t have lost one drip of the liquid, but let it all simmer and just increase the reduction time, thus locking in more flavor.

I whipped this up in about 45 minutes, which yes, did take longer than I’d like for one meal to be prepared, but it was mostly chopping, and waiting for the tomatillos to reduce, so I imagine the time could be slashed if a couple people worked together.

I'm going to give Dave the role of sous-chef next time.

 Black Bean Tomatillo Taco Salad with Avocado Dressing              

*All natural

*Grain Free

*No added sugars (very low on the glycemic index)

Serves 2

Approx. prep/cook time: 45min

For the Tomatillo Salsa:

3 small tomatillos

Sea Salt (to taste)

½ a hot pepper, chopped

Stems from the cilantro (whole)

Water

For the Dressing:

1 avocado

2 Tbsp good Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sea Salt (to taste)

1/2 Bunch cilantro, chopped

1 small hot pepper, chopped, seeds removed if desired (I like to keep about half the seeds for a little kick of heat)

1 lime, juice -about 1/4 c.

Some cooking water from tomatillos

For the Pico De Gallo:

Two small onions, minced

3-5 small/medium tomatoes, chopped

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

1 lime, juice –about ¼ c.

Sea Salt (to taste)

½ tsp. cumin (or more, to taste)

2 garlic cloves, crushed/minced

For the Salad:

1 large bunch kale/Swiss chard/beet greens or any mix of hearty greens you prefer, chopped into ribbons, ribs removed

1 can Refried Black Beans (I like Trader Joe’s brand because they don’t use gross additives and it’s seasoned with sea salt)

For topping (optional):

¼ c. plain whole-milk yogurt (organic)

Grass fed organic fresh cheese, such as cotija or queso fresca (I didn't have any organic options on hand, so we went cheeseless.)

Lime wedges

Directions:

Divide chopped greens into two medium/large serving bowls and set aside.

Place tomatillo salsa ingredients together in a small sauce pan, adding enough water to almost cover the tomatillos, and bring to a boil. Let cook over medium-high heat until tomatillos crack open. Drain about 1/3 of the water (save it for use in dressing.) Remove cilantro stems with tongs and discard. Continue to cook, crushing tomatillos with a slotted spoon, stirring occasionally, until liquids have reduced and the sauce has thickened to desired consistency. Remove from heat.

Warm up the beans on the stove top on medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 10 min or until hot.

Prepare dressing by combining all ingredients except water in a blender. Gradually add the extra water from the tomatillo reduction, pulsing between each addition, until the dressing has thinned to a creamy/runny texture for pouring.

Prepare the pico de gallo by combining all ingredients in a small bowl. Taste it, adding more cumin/salt if needed.

Now pour some avocado dressing on your greens and toss. Top with beans, tomatillo salsa, pico de gallo, plain yogurt, and cheese if desired.

Enjoy!

My Demented Need to be Productive

When my husband gets a day off from work, with no church or social obligations, he enjoys himself. He goes golfing, watches as many episodes of his favorite sitcoms on DVD as he possibly can in one sitting, goes to the coffee shop, makes new friends, and never worries about being productive.

Must be nice.

I am what you might call a “task-oriented” person. I can’t relax unless I’ve first accomplished something.  Or, more accurately, until I’ve made a to-do list that takes hours if not multiple days to complete and finished everything on it. At the moment, this day off is looking far more like the sort of work day my mom would have assigned to us kids growing up, every few months, to help her reclaim the disaster zone that was once her tidy house. I guess I’ve become a lot like her, only I don’t have offspring yet to become my forced laborers, so it’s just me.

I could defer some of these tasks to Dave, but he’s working all day and this stuff is more “project”-y tasks rather than normal chores. Either way, as I said before, I have to work so I can relax. I’m a twisted puppy.

Among my many tasks for today, I’ve assigned myself the waste-not-want-not duty of turning the root veggies we got from our CSA (which we can’t eat until phase two of our nutrition makeover: The Core Plan) into puree to be frozen for later fall soups. 

I just finished cleaning out the bathroom, living room, kitchen, and dining room, and doing all our laundry.

Then I cooked 2 lbs. worth of chickpeas (much cheaper to buy dried beans, soak them overnight, and cook them for an hour or two than buying a tiny little 14 oz. can for the same price.)

I’ve still got to make curried cauliflower and chicken satays for dinner, run to Target (strictly adhering to my list so as not to be lured into the spending web that Target weaves for me better than Shelob does to a hobbit), and do some ironing.

If I sufficiently complete most of my list, I’m going to whip out my sewing machine, a hand-me-down from my mom, and fiddle with it to see if I can thread it myself and get one step closer to sewing my own clothes. I’ve got some dark brown slacks just begging to be hemmed into shorts.

This my friends, is a day off.

Going Broke on Healthy Eating

August is here. And today is the 7^th day of our nutrition makeover. This is phase one: The Advanced Plan. We eliminate all artificial ingredients, all grains, and all sugar (I mean ALL; even our fruit choices are restricted to berries and sour apples/citrus.) We will now subsist on organic meats that are naturally fed and drug-free, organic raw dairy, TONS and TONS of veggies, nuts, avocados , olives, small cold-water fish, beans, healthy oils, and more veggies on top of veggies.

The PROS:

·         We get to eat lots of healthy fat. Fat is delicious. Guilt-free is the way we all should feel when we eat God’s greatest gifts to gastronomy: butter, the skin on roasted chicken, and don’t forget olive oil, and whole milk. Mm mm mm.

·         We don’t feel bloated! Seriously, without any grains or artificial ingredients, our feeling of “get-up-and-go” is on a whole new level.

·         We get to enjoy as much meat as we like if it was raised right. Cows: on pasture, without drugs or grains. Chickens: fed only vegetarian grains and allowed to roam free. Fish: swimming wild through cold waters that give them a hefty dose of omega-3 -rich fats, and small enough to be less of a mercury risk.

·         Now that I’ve been weaned off the sugar, foods that I didn’t ever find very sweet are suddenly amazingly sweet—like milk, and granny smith apples.

·         Dave and I have both already lost some weight. Dave more than me, which is good because I actually want to gain more lean muscle, not necessarily lose fat.

The CONS:

·         Ignorance is bliss. Knowing now what I know about the food industry in America makes me think twice about anything I put inside my body. The mere thought of a Big Mac makes me want to throw up.

·         I miss baking cheesecake. I miss baking cookies. I miss BREAD.

·         Good food is expensive. I’m a frugal gal, and I’m used to waiting until chicken is under $1/lb before I stock up. Now I’m lucky to find it for $2.99/lb. ON SALE. Beef? Don’t even get me started. We’ve looked into purchasing a ¼ of a cow, and it looks like the cost would be between $600-800 for just the ¼. (Good news though, we found a place in town selling it for $4.99/lb. for a mix of grass-fed organic steaks. Now to save up for the 26-lb.-box!)

·         We used to pay the price of health in order for the convenience of pre-packaged foods: frozen burritos, TV dinners, boxed cereals. But now we must carefully plan, gather ingredients, prepare and cook all our meals from scratch. So not only are we paying more for our food in general, we are also paying more in terms of time spent on our meals.

I feel the keen sting of my balance sheet this month as I had to get rid of so many staple pantry items and replace them with healthier alternatives, most of which are also costlier. 

For example:

 1 64oz bottle of canola (which is disgusting, rancid, chemically-processed rapeseed oil)    =   $1.99

vs.
 
 1 16oz jar of coconut oil 
 =   $7.99            

$7.99-$1.99 = $5 difference, and you don’t get half as much quantity in the exchange.

So this is my new learning curve—finding a way to eat for optimum health while remaining committed to a budget. I’ll let you know when I figure out how, because as of this month, I’m way over.




P.S. If anyone is reading this and has thoughts about how to eat whole foods/organic on a budget, PLEASE leave some feedback. Thanks.