The Greening of Gavin: My House

What a week!

I was thrilled to be spending every single evening at home this week! We cooked a succulent roast beef for friends on Sunday night and enjoyed the leftovers for 3 more meals.
Then on Monday I made Rossi food, sausage rolls (first time!) and 2 flavours of ice cream (again - a first!)
On Tuesday we enjoyed the sausage rolls as a quick dinner and the ice cream as a late night snack when Trav returned from the Reserves. I also made herbed breadcrumbs using an unsuccessful loaf from the breadmaker - planning to use it the next night.
On Wednesday we had roast chicken - stuffed with those delicious breadcrumbs - and then made a basic stock from the chicken carcass. The chicken lasted 3 meals in total and on Thursday after a trip to the butcher I crumbed and froze some chicken and wiener schnitzels all ready for several meals in the future.

We'll be using the stock in tonight's risotto. What I've learned this week is how much can be saved rather than thrown out. Almost from every meal we were able to reuse some food to create the next meal, and this has helped our menu-planning greatly.

Although all of this probably makes complete common sense to many of you - I must mention that my latest source of inspiration is Gavin of The Greening of Gavin over in Melton - his blog recounts his journey over the past to years - from his initial 'A-Ha' response to the Inconvenient Truth, through purchasing a hybrid vehicle, installing rain water tanks, solar panels, a chicken coop, to upgrading to edible gardens and making his own cheeses (and everything in between). Gavin and his family live on 0.19 of an acre in the outer suburb and they have a version of my dream home. Each corner of the yard is put to fantastic use and virtually nothing is wasted. Oh to have enough chilli's that they need to be pickled! Oh to enjoy fresh eggs every day! Gavin we're looking forward to visiting you on Sustainable House Day and I challenge anyone living in the suburbs who says 'I just don't have room' to check out Gavin's blog.