This week for dinner: Eat Well, Heal the Planet 2023 Edition!

For years I’ve been making New Year’s resolutions that tie the food we eat and/or the way we cook to positive environmental change. And then I started working for “the man” which was great (actually I love a good 9-to-5 life…can you imagine) but also blogging (and sometimes cooking too) pushed into the background. But this focus on the environment had an impact on my kids (woo-hoo!) and now they’re making me aware of my laziness. My girls and I spoke this weekend and decided we need to get back on track.

We took a minute to look back at our previous resolutions and decided to focus on the following for 2023:

For several years we have focused on eating less meat and more plant-based foods. It went pretty well! And then I just didn’t make it a priority anymore. But this graphic keeps popping up in my head:

This shows so clearly what impact food products from pigs and cows have on CO2 emissions, it’s amazing. The girls and I decided to go back to focusing on the three middle pillars, which might be difficult as we’ve done this before!

This is tough. I have to say that our efforts so far have not been in vain… we are definitely using less paper towels and plastic products than before, and I think we still are pretty good about it. But I’ll admit that I’ve gotten lazy in the last few years. It’s time to be more disciplined again! Like remembering reusable bags in the back seat of the car for grocery shopping (thanks COVID-19 for kicking that good habit). Use only paper towels to clean grease. Eat out less. Resist the urge to pull out the plastic wrap.

Here we go! Back on the wagon!

If you have made similar resolutions, please share them! If you would like to join us on our journey, then please do! If you have any tips or favorite products that helped with any of the above issues, please post them in the comments! The point here is that every little change makes a difference.