Go car-free! It’s delicious!

Top Ten FOOD-RELATED Reasons To Ditch Your Car(s)

10. You could win an Ipod Nano for being pledging to be car-free on September 22nd in the DC Metro area, which you could fill with cooking-related podcasts.

9. By not having to buy a new Ipod, the money you save from (or get from selling) the Nano can take you and a date out to a nice restaurant in the city.

8. Stop having to worry about gas prices and beat inflation. It will give you more money to spend on foods that drivers cannot afford anymore.

7. Besides gasoline, you won’t have to pay for vehicle registration, auto insurance, car repairs and maintenance, parking (especially in cities) and other car expenses that can kill your budget. You’ll have more money and can eat out more or buy better food. Enjoy the finer things in life!

6. By not driving, but perhaps by strolling to your nearest farmer's market for much of your perishable shopping, you'll be supporting your local economy, culture and the market demand for natural, fresh produce.

5. By not driving, you won't eat out nearly as much since you won't be able to get to places as easily. You'll cook at home more making yourself a better cook, plus you'll save significant calories and money you would have used by going out.

4. By grocery shopping in smaller trips, so you can carry it all home without a car, you will be more efficient in your shopping and thus waste less food, not overbuy and spend less money overall on groceries each week.

3. Less driving means being involved in way less traffic and less stress. Less stress is something that affects your health in so many good ways. You’ll even enjoy the taste of your food more as you relax while eating it, and you’ll eat less tasteless junk as well.

2. You'll be lowering your own personal carbon footprint about as much as one can in just one fell swoop. This will promote a cleaner globe and help to slow environmental change, so that food will still be around in 50 years for you and your grandchildren to enjoy together.

1. Less driving à More walking/biking à More calories burned each and every day ( à More food you can eat without gaining weight and more justification for eating out when you do since you’re walking there)

To see some of the efforts that my community, Arlington, VA is doing to promote care-free living, check out:

• Arlington’s Car-Free Diet
• Full Access Solutions in Transportation (FAST) for Potomac Yard in Crystal City-Arlington, VA
• Washington DC Metro Area Car Free Day, 9/22/2008

Tangy Toastadas (or Down with Tupperware)

When Julia (my fiancée) and I were getting ready to move from Michigan to DC, we made an important and intelligent decision about our culinary future together. Down with the tupperware!

Forgive me if this doesn't sound like a familiar rallying cry, but those misshapen, non-matching, funny-smelling lumps of plastic did no wonders for my eating experience. Besides being expensive, hard to wash and annoying to lug to work or school, they contribute to two kinds of waste. They permeated through our cooking behaviors, and I'm sure we were not alone.

The first kind was a sort of active waste: having lots of tupperware makes you think that leftovers are a really great thing, and you never put the effort in to actually cooking the amount of food you need. This contributes to the second form of waste: not eating the leftovers because you have so much. This is particularly bad, because you've already made the extra food and loaded the excess into a container and probably left it in your fridge for a while before finally forcing yourself to eat it so it doesn't go bad, or throwing it away because it has gone bad. You might say that I would waste more because I pitched or gave away my tupperware, but the key is that I'm not replacing the hunks of smelly plastic with disposable, less eco-friendly versions. In fact, the point is to reduce all but the best or most necessary leftovers. Cook (or order for that matter) what you're GOING to eat. It's a simple and marvelous concept. You waste less food, less money, plus have the added bonus of not being forced to eat old leftovers, unless they're really good and you've intended it this way.

Of course, if you're not cooking for a family, but for yourself or for two, making just enough food can be much more difficult. Many recipes serve four at a minimum, cooking TV shows always make a ton of food, and sometimes it just seems difficult to conceptualize cooking for just a couple people or just one. But I think it is more than possible, and that you can actually come up with better dishes this way. Plus, often when you come up with a great small recipe, it's easier to make larger when you DO have more people, rather than vice versa. All this is why I will be focusing on meals I've created or recipes that are size adjustable, or simply those that work really well for just one or two people.

Let's start with a meal that Julia made a couple nights ago. It is something we've had before, it's easy and it's flexible. I look at it as a healthier version of taco night. Tostada night. Well, really “Toastada” night -- because “toast” is the key to making these healthy. Get your own corn tortillas. They are naturally low in sodium and fat, and even have more than 1 gram of fiber each. All you have to do is crisp them (or toast) them in the oven on 400 F with a light spray of cooking spray on each side for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly brown and crispy. You can add salt to taste, but I find it adds little besides some excess sodium. They taste great with just the spray -- plus a couple drops of Tabasco will add all the flavor you need! From there, you can add any taco ingredients that you would normally want and pile them on top of the “toastadas”. Let's just say they beat the store-bought shells in flavor, texture and health.

A few notes about making the toppings as great as possible. Tang! My I've found how much interesting flavor a spritz of a lime wedge will add to a taco or tostada. It is literally amazing. Make it your last topping you add to each “toastada” and you'll love what it does for all the other toppings.

With that much flavor coming through, black beans, salsa, avocado slices, chopped onion, green onion, tomato, the lime wedges, Tabasco and a little reduced fat sour cream are all we need to enjoy a wonderful and easy dinner for two. No need for cheese; no need for meat either. It really is a terrific little thing to whip up in only a few minutes -- plus you get to decide how much you make. Tupperware or no tupperware, there will NOT be any leftovers because this dish is just too tasty!