Leftovers - No Food Waste Night 3

So the day is wrapping up and it is time for my daily report:

Breakfast was completely unremarkable. The kids and I slept late after a rough night. We munched fruit my mother-in-law brought us on Monday (strawberries, raspberries and bananas), some nuts and drank milk (cow for L1 and breast for L2). Both kids seemed more interested in putting a little into their tummies and getting back to bed than eating a real breakfast.

For those who don't know us, we tend to snack through the day on healthy foods such as cheese, nuts, fruit and starches like crackers and breads. Sometimes we have a real lunch but most days naps and life get in the way. We are happy for now with our flexible schedule. Today we had some rosemary rice crackers with melted cheese, grapes (both from my mother-in-law's visit), date and walnut bars, pear and decaf vanilla Chai tea. No food scrapes existed from breakfast or lunch. Not even a few cracker crumbs - the chickens were very disappointed. They hung out on the steps to the kitchen, hoping for anything we dropped. They have been known to sneak into the kitchen if the door is left open and hang out under L1's table looking for odds and ends.

Dinner was also an easy 1, 2, 3 event. With the oven preheated to 325 degrees, a pan with the leftover carnival squash went in along with the casserole dish I had made up the night before. I baked them for over an hour to make sure everything was bubbly and hot. My husband picked up tortilla shells on the way home for us to wrap around scoops of casserole. The extra zucchini tots got warmed in the oven right before we sat down.

The verdict? We happily filled up on tortillas filled with potatoes, salsa, cheese, beans, taco meat and topped with sour cream only to finish up with the sweet squash. The carnival squash was made with butter and maple but it tasted of sweet coconut. I would definitely eat carnival squash again and am looking forward to possibly growing it next season! We saved the seeds and can't wait to see what sprouts.

The food waste? We had a little squash left and that will go to work in a lunchbox tomorrow. As for the 1/4 cup of the meat mixture, we will toss that tomorrow at the corner of the property where we have a small fox/possum/other critter run. I know we aren't supposed to feed them and we usually don't but this little bit every couple of weeks shouldn't disrupt the natural order too much. They are here to graze on our plethora of mice, moles, bunnies and woodchucks anyway. Overall the day was a success. I haven't thrown any food into the trash so far this week. All leftovers have gone to the chickens or for another meal.

This mini challenge has been a great way of making me think about what we bring into our home. When we first moved in, we had only one bag of garbage a week. Granted we were two adults with two cats. We are now a family of four, one dog, three cats and chickens. With kids, most people think there is so much more trash but we don't use disposable diapers or wipes, we don't do snack size anything. We recycle. I would think we would be able to have little to no trash. Perhaps my next mini challenge will focus on finding and eliminating unnecessary trash and purchases that have them. Another day, another change. Gandhi was right when he said that we need to "be the change we want to see" because I do believe that one person or one family in this case can make a difference. And every day I work on making these small changes, I am reminded of what one of my EMT instructors told us at the start of class:
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." (Aristotle)

What habits are you trying to break or make? Comment below.