Green Meal Planning Basics

Hi, I'm Louisa, and I’m here to answer your questions about making earth-friendly food choices for your wedding. I love eating, writing, and talking about food, particularly food that’s grown with a healthy planet and healthy people in mind. I’m looking forward to answering your questions, and tackling the challenges that come up as you plan the menu for the event of your life in a way that meets high standards but sticks to your environmental ideals. This will be fun!

A little about me: I’ve just written a cookbook called Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life. The book is a collection of seasonal recipes and tips on cooking, food shopping, and entertaining with the environment in mind. The book came out of my work as a chef and caterer in San Francisco and New York, learning to make great food while observing green kitchen practices.

After years of working in restaurants and catering kitchens, I’ve discovered the joys of writing about food, both in my cookbook and on my blog, lucidfood.com. I am having a blast exploring ideas that interest me, and telling a story in my own voice, with pretty pictures to help explain things. That’s what I’ll be doing here at the GBG, along with helping you find green solutions to your wedding questions.

Hi, I'm Louisa, and I'm here to answer your questions about making earth-friendly food choices for your wedding. I love eating, writing, and talking about food, particularly food that's grown with a healthy planet and healthy people in mind. I'm looking forward to answering your questions, and tackling the challenges that come up as you plan the menu for the event of your life in a way that meets high standards but sticks to your environmental ideals. This will be fun!

A little about me: I've just written a cookbook called Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life. The book is a collection of seasonal recipes and tips on cooking, food shopping, and entertaining with the environment in mind. The book came out of my work as a chef and caterer in San Francisco and New York, learning to make great food while observing green kitchen practices.

After years of working in restaurants and catering kitchens, I've discovered the joys of writing about food, both in my cookbook and on my blog, lucidfood.com. I am having a blast exploring ideas that interest me, and telling a story in my own voice, with pretty pictures to help explain things. That's what I'll be doing here at the GBG, along with helping you find green solutions to your wedding questions.

I'd like to share some tips with you that can be used to make any meal more green, whether it be for your wedding or for a holiday dinner.

 Buy pasture-raised or grass-fed meat and poultry from your local farmers market. Animals that eat a natural diet or are fed only organic feed are hormone- and antibiotic-free. (And they taste better!)

 Forget the disposal! Throw vegetable scraps, bread crusts and eggshells into a big Tupperware container to be composted. Your local farmers' market will often have a compost drop-off. Or if you have a backyard, learn how to compost there. Composting converts vegetable scraps into rich black soil, a renewable resource, and can save millions of tons of garbage from going into landfills.

Buy your produce and dairy from local farmers (again, at the farmers' market.). You'll be supporting the preservation of small farms and undeveloped land, while helping conserve fossil fuels-plus, you'll eat the freshest possible food! When you buy local, you know where your food is coming from, and you support local jobs.

Always bring your own plastic containers and cloth bags (and be sure to clean and re-use those old plastic grocery bags-don't take any new ones!) when you go food shopping. Buy grains, nut butters, cereals and similar items in bulk.

Cut way down on using paper towels. Paper towels are made from trees, and we love trees and want to save them, right? So, use a sponge or reusable micro-fiber cleaning cloth for spills. If you must use paper towels, buy ones made from recycled paper and then compost them. Sponges can last a long time, simply boil them in water for a few minutes when they start to get musty.

I hope you enjoy these tips and can put them to use. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

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