I was a big punk rock fan growing up. I think I listened to Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death by the Dead Kennedy’s enough times to wear a hole in it. And I know the title was mocking our mass culture of convenience and slack but convenience itself is synonymous with comfort.. and without shame I’m here to say, sometimes I want that. I woke up desiring tacos.. the kind you lazily call in ahead of time, before you’ve even attempted to get dressed. But I have food here.. and I reminded myself that in America we waste 40% of our food (FORTY PERCENT!!). It adds up to an estimated $165 billion worth of food EVERY YEAR. Then there are the environmental costs... Vast amounts of land, fresh water, and energy are consumed in the production of food that’s left to rot while many go hungry.. Not cool. I’ve been a statistic a few times in my life but I can’t allow myself to actively be part of that one. So I dragged all the things out of my fridge that had been hanging around, waiting for their 15 minutes and made them into a smoothie. Convenience? Check! Being part of the solution? Check! If you want to lend a hand in changing this statistic here are some ideas:
Plan your meals and stick to it. Like the meme goes, being an adult is mostly having the “we have food at home” talk with yourself.
Support your local food bank. Here, let me help you find one near you.
Fuck vanity. There’s tons of food that goes to waste because it doesn’t look quite like the others. Maybe it’s lumpy or blemished or the “wrong” size.. and we wouldn’t want anyone to discount us for our differences, yeah? So try a service like Misfit Market or Imperfect Foods to stuff your belly and not the landfill. This option gets extra points for convenience. They straight up deliver it to you. Huzzah!
Day 168: I’m calling this smoothie Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.. because I also really loved that Dead Kennedy’s album AND nearly everything in this smoothie was about to go tits up. Coconut cashew cream, a wavering banana, the end of the kale, an “aged” apple, the last splash of almond milk, some sad grapes, something that I once called parsley and a hefty spoonful of almond butter that could have out lived us all, for texture. It was delicious!