Sustainability: Making your meat go further

I’m sure you’ve also noticed the price of meat has gone up quite substantially in the last year or so.

There’s a few reasons for that, mainly a lot of meat processing plants are getting hit with COVID-19 and a lot of the workforce is of course getting sick.

A little while ago, in an effort to make the household more sustainable along with the plastic elimination, moved to purchasing meat from local sources only- this has also proven to be expensive but ironically not nearly as bad with the rise of grocery store prices. That’s made me feel a lot better financially about my choices- if I’m going to spend $10/ LB on ground beef I’d rather give that $10 to the farm down the road.

Nonetheless it’s still a lot to dish out for one meal when you have a family - I’ve started experimenting with different ways to make the meat we do purchase go a little further.

For Taco’s, it’s been the easiest, along with a pound of beef I’ll fry up a few cups of black beans. You can also put them through a meat grinder to match the consistency- but my partner isn’t a fan of the texture so I keep them whole.

Another great filler is zucchini chopped up- this fries up beautifully and will add diversity to the flavor of your tacos.

Together we have a full pan that’s ready to feed the family! I finished off my taco with a double shell (soft and hard) sour cream, cheese, cut up kale and tomatoes from the garden and Homemade salsa.

This may be an unpopular opinion but I actually enjoyed this taco more than others because there was more flavor along with the meat! Even of we get to a point where affordability isn’t an issue anymore I still want to cut my beef with vegetables.

Let me know in the comments what you do to make your meat go a little further! Not exclusive to taco fillings! I want to hear them all.

Furniture Flip - Book themed end table

This is an exciting project to talk about because this was my first ever proper furniture flip. Sure I’ve painted over old wood to try to give it life but never took the proper steps to ensure it truly lives on.

I found this little end table at a yard sale for $10, the woman said she purchased it at an auction in the 80’s and it wasn’t new back then so it definitely came with history.

The Before- Full of history… And Scratches

First step was to remove the varnish from the table, thanks to some chemical stripper this was a breeze- felt incredibly wasteful as I lost a few rags in the process- but I kept the mentality that the process would allow the table to avoid the landfill.

The stripper also dissolved the glue that was mainly keeping the table together so it wasn’t long before I had multiple small pieces to work with which ended up being a blessing- much more workable this way.

The next step was to give it a good sanding- I just did it by hand this time but I think next time for the sake of time (I was on vacation so no rushing) I’d use an electric sander/ buffer.

After the physical labor that was sanding down all the pieces came the priming and painting. I did multiple coats since it was good and hot in the back yard for drying and well.. Vacation.

Reassembling proved to be a little challenging just due to it’s age it was a little warped and some of the inserts on the legs had simply vanished, but I made do.

There was some engineering involved (not really… screws were involved… but “engineering” sounds better)

Using my Cricut cutting machine I made a couple of stencils so I could paint some adorable decals right on the wood.

Once the decals were on, I touched up any areas that needed love after the ordeal that was the reassemble and sealed it all with a clear coat.

The experience although tedious came out with a beautiful piece. I am completely hooked on the process and can’t wait to tackle another project!

I decorated the shelf with some of the older books I’ve purchased on my Nova Scotia Book tour and a locally made coaster.