Posted by Daniel Sinclair on Wed, May 05, 2010 @ 10:01 AM
Guest Author: James Gallet is the owner of Envirotech Heating, Cooling, and Energy Solutions out of Emporia, Kansas. Envirotech has been recognized as a national and local leader when it comes to HVAC; Envirotech has been featured in several national trade magazines and James recently started speaking at local and national conferences. He is a business partner and friend of mine. We have been involved in a ACCA group for the last 5 years and I have learned a lot from James. I hope you enjoy his thoughts and learn as much as I have from him.
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Over the past weekend my wife and I had a child free night, so what did we do? We went grocery shopping (I know how romantic). Well I ended up turning this adventure into a learning situation for myself. This school year my kids have been learning a lot
about waste and things we can do to help eliminate landfill waste. One thing that has been addressed was the plastic bags we get at the stores and how many we waste. My wife has recently added two reusable grocery bags to the stuff that is floating around in our family vehicle, you know the ones I am talking about they come in several different colors. Well I had no idea how much one of these bags can hold, each bag probably had equivalent to two or three plastic bags worth of items in it. I also was not aware that some stores will actually give you a credit for using the recycle bags as opposed to using theirs, cha-ching$$$.
These reusable bags got me asking some questions and doing research. I already knew that plastic is bad for landfills and is not biodegradable, but here is what else I learned in doing my research: U.S. households dispose of nearly one hundred billion (that's right 100 Billion) bags annually, millions of which end up littering the environment and harming wildlife (just take a look at the side of the highway next time you are driving and I bet you will see a few). If you reduce your plastic bag consumption by just two bags a week, you would throw away at least 100 fewer bags a year. If everyone in America did this and we tied all of those bags together handle to handle we would make a rope big enough to wrap around the earth 126 times. WOW!
I know that sometimes plastic is great so if you do use plastic bags, please recycle or reuse them somehow. You can take your plastic bags back to many stores where they have recycle bins for them. I propose the new question should be: Paper, Plastic or Reusable?
Please pass this along...James
Is there a grocery store in Lubbock that gives credit for recycable bags?
Posted by Daniel Sinclair on Thu, Oct 01, 2009 @ 03:38 PM
From Beth Sinclair's Kitchen as per request: Crockpot Fajitas
1 small arm roast
1 ¼ cup pinto beans, rinsed
1-2 sliced white or yellow onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small can diced green chilies
2 cans Rotel
½ cup water
chili powder
ground cumin
pepper
garlic salt
Spray crockpot with Pam. Sprinkle spices on bottom. Add roast and sprinkle with spices. Layer beans, onions, and green chiles on top of meat. In separate bowl, mix water, soup, and Rotel tomatoes. Pour mixture on top of roast. Cook on low for 12 hours. DO NOT TAKE LID OFF WHILE COOKING. Serve with flour tortillas.
**If you are short on time, make this recipe the night before, put in refrigerator overnight; start crockpot the next morning. Put another ½ - 1 cup water. Cook for 12 hrs.
From Daniel Sinclair of Sinclair HVAC & Plumbing: If you have a request for a recipe, if you liked one of the recipes you saw on the blog, or would like to post one of your own, please let me know. Lubbock is known for having great mexican food and this recipe is another reason why I love fajitas so much!