{"id":998,"date":"2015-04-20T15:44:14","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T21:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vegetatingwithleslie.org\/?p=998"},"modified":"2017-04-20T14:28:59","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T20:28:59","slug":"waste-not-want-not-a-small-contribution-to-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vegetatingwithleslie.org\/?p=998","title":{"rendered":"Waste not want not: a small contribution to sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Black<\/a>
Black Chickpea Curry and Brown Rice with Asparagus in . . . Asparagus Sauce!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today I was working on a post about sustainability. I got a little overwhelmed with the enormity of our problem even as I recognized how many smart, capable people are coming up with potential solutions in this area every day.<\/p>\n

It was with my head still wrapped in thought about our environmental and social distribution issues that I went to make my lunch. I just planned on reheating some leftovers – Black Chickpea Curry that I made the other day from Anupy Singla’s The Indian Slow Cooker<\/strong><\/a> and a little brown and wild rice. When I opened the refrigerator, I spotted some beautiful asparagus I had just picked up. Even though it’s rainy and cold\u00a0outside now, I know it’s spring when I see asparagus!<\/p>\n

I started to cut the asparagus and realized I could only use about two-thirds of the stalk since the bottom third was too tough and stringy. \u00a0It’s really frustrating when that happens!<\/p>\n

I recently read an article that pointed out that 40% of our food is never eaten – it is thrown away. This brought me back to my thoughts of a few moments before as I was trying to write about sustainability. I thought to myself, “What can I do with that bottom third of the stalks?”<\/p>\n

What I decided to do was to make a quick sauce to pour over the asparagus: I cut off those asparagus ends<\/em>, cooked them for a minute or two and threw them into my VitaMix with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, basil<\/em> and lemon juice<\/em>. 10 seconds of blending and … yum! My little lunch of leftovers was turned into something special. I’m going to do that again tonight. I might even share some.<\/p>\n

Better yet, I felt less overwhelmed by my morning’s reading. Yes, my little contribution was miniscule in view of the task. Kind of like one vote in a country of\u00a0227,224,334 eligible to vote?? Or one drop in an ocean of water?<\/p>\n

In a world of interdependence, though, each vote counts, each drop of water counts, and my asparagus sauce<\/strong> counted. \u00a0Besides, it was delicious!<\/p>\n

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org<\/strong><\/a>, “Like” me on FaceBook\/Vegetating with Leslie<\/strong> or follow me on Twitter<\/strong>, @vegwithleslie<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I was working on a post about sustainability. I got a little overwhelmed with the enormity of our problem even as I recognized how many smart, capable people are coming up with potential solutions in this area every day. It was <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,5,4],"tags":[29,28,27],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes","category-vegan","category-vegetarian","tag-asparagus","tag-sustainabililty","tag-vegan"],"yoast_head":"\nWaste not want not: a small contribution to sustainability - Vegetating with Leslie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vegetatingwithleslie.org\/?p=998\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waste not want not: a small contribution to sustainability - Vegetating with Leslie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today I was working on a post about sustainability. 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