Citrus Peels

Citrus peels

One way of keeping things out of the landfill and saving money would be to use whatever you buy to the fullest. I am a believer in using the total food and vegetable. Citrus fruits are very popular to eat. Most of us eat the fruit and throw away the peel and seeds. There are uses for the peel and seeds of an orange, lemon, lime or grapefruit.

Citrus peels can be candied and used alone or in fruit cakes and other desserts. The candied peel can be rolled in sugar or dipped into chocolate. They are made into marmalade using the seeds and pith to make the pectin.

The peels can also be boiled in water and the liquid sweetened to make a beverage. The drink can be mixed with other juices or can be consumed alone. The peels can be mixed in white wine for a distinctive flavoring with a sweetener.

They can be used as flavorings in soups, stews and other types of cooked food. For instance you can flavor baked chicken by stuffing it with citrus peels or adding the peels to a marinade or a dry rub.

Why Green Tea?

I recently was watching a show on television and the celebrity doctor was telling the audience about using green tea. He was making claims even though the jury is still out on whether all the purported health claims have any merit. Apparently you would need to drink many, many cups to maybe get some benefits. They have extracts and pills which defeat the purpose if you believe in getting your nutrients from your diet. It becomes another supplement. It almost seems like green tea is a separate plant than black tea or white tea. People have been drinking tea for a long time yet all of a sudden all you hear is about the marvels of green tea. White, green, oolong and black tea are from the camellia sinensis plant. White tea is made from young leaves before they are fully opened and do not have the grassy taste green tea has. All the teas are said to have various antioxidants and more studies are being done on them. But with all the green tea marketing, black tea is the least expensive. Black tea due to being fermented keeps its flavor much longer than the white and green. So if you stock up on food that would be a concern. I personally like black tea, I don't drink enough for it to be a health drink if any of the claims are true. I won't substitute it for vegetables.

We Have Alot of Garbage

It seems very foolhardy of us to think we can just throw things away and that's the end of it. That land for garbage is infinite. We cover up landfills but the garbage is still there. Things are built on top of landfills like apartment complexes and schools but again it's still under there. Garbage is in our oceans causing harm to sea life. People drive to and throw garbage in woods and parks. As we learned in school, matter is neither created or destroyed it just changes form. We need to change the form again of the garbage we have made back to a less destructive form. As a society we need to be serious about it. I was reading a book about food habits of families in different parts of the world. The family sat together with food for a week in front of them. The most obvious was the larger amount and the cost of food that some of the families ate as opposed to the sparse amount of others. One thing that was telling was the amount of packaging that industrial countries use. It was hard to compare visually because the packaging made it seem like a lot more food, taking up more space. As we know the box might be half full from "settling ". Or cans might keep the same size even though the amount in them has shrunk.