January 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It has been four months of this journey. And this journey will last 10-12 years. That is about how long we have to avert catastrophic climate change. I have boasted before that I am determined and hyper-focused, but yesterday I admit to feeling somewhat lost. I am on my 122nd bag of ocean bound plastic and 540th salvaged item recovered from the half-mile stretch of beach I clean – and I wonder, is it enough? The ocean plastic picking has been incorporated into my life. The brisk evening wind yesterday and the clean packed sand I now need as much as I need my cup of coffee at 5am. So for that I will forever be grateful for this journey, because going to the beach and cleaning let me regain my wellness back.

My tensions headaches are gone, my weight is stable, and my sleep is profound. But in regaining my wellness on the beach, I began to see clearly that mother nature is sick. I think we are on the right path. Individual action must complement institutional change. I was chatting with a parent yesterday whose spouse is a fire-fighter and their child has moderate-persistent asthma, and they well know the effects of climate change. We talked about how interconnected the environment is. I told her about the Snake River Dam, and that the increased solar capacity in California must free Oregon from their reliance on hydroelectric power. Those dams need to be decommissioned and they are grossly inefficient anyway, but when they are decommissioned then the salmon can run free. So increased solar capacity in California and energy efficiencies in California will help the Snake River and the Columbia river to rewild, and when the salmon runs recover then the Orcas awaiting the salmon at the mouths of the river will be able to eat. And whales like Orcas are not only majestic beautiful animals that deserve to be freed from Marine Parks, but also are huge carbon sequesters. When they die, their carcasses fall into the deep of the oceans and takes years to decompose. Their carasses feed the deep sea animals and their organic forms are equivalent to many many trees sucking the carbon out of the air.

I feel a bit better now because I am reminded now it is all connected. Learning to cook Pad Si-Ew is connected to the Orcas! How? Let me finish my blog and I’ll try to make the connection. But in the end, no matter what you’ll know how to cook a super yummy dish!

My friend Usa is one of our Girl Scout Troop high-yield volunteers. She is one of our Cookie Managers and always a positive force for molding these young minds and in the world in general. She is a happy person too and a great cook. She is also Thai, immigrated as an adult and linguisitically and culturally fluent in all things Thai. There are so many Thai restaurants but I have noticed few are actually run by folks of Thai ancestry. So here is Thai food (Pad Si Ew) by a real Thai-American mommy who cooks this dish frequently at home for her children. My friend Usa is amazed that the rest of us pay $12 for a dish on average that is so easy to whip up at home.

Pad Si-ew recipe (2 servings)

Ingredients:(Feel free to use more or less of what I recommend for your preferred taste 🙂 )

Chicken
Gailan  (or collard greens)
Carrots
Oyster sauce : 1 tbs
Black sweet soy sauce : 2 tbs
Fish sauce : 2 tea spoons
Sugar :1 tbs
Rice noodle : 1/2 pack

1. Add about 1 table spoon of cooking oil and stir-fry cut chicken until well cooked in large stir-fry pan. 
2.  Add carrots and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add noodle and then add all the sauces listed above.  4. Stir-fry the noodle until the noodle looks soft and well cooked.   Taste a tiny sample to confirm if more sauce or sugar are needed. 
5.  Add green veggies and stir-fry it until veggies are fully cooked and combined with all other ingredients in pan.   

Enjoy😋
Usa

Wow. That post was super easy. I did not realize all I really had to do was cut and paste Usa’s email. So there you go! Pad Si Ew from Usa. Even @draplasticpicker made it as did all our 6th graders in our troop. The girls were so proud and made extra portions to bring home to their parents.

Like broccoli, also a Brassica oleracea cultivator, Gailan has a lot of fiber. It has 2.2 grams per cup. This dish was a yummy way to include lots of carrots, so common, so cheap and so good for you! One cup of chopped, raw carrots provides almost 4 grams of fiber. So there you go. Easily a dish where you can eat two great veggies and get in 6.2 grams of fiber, and not waste $12 a person at the local Thai restaurant that is unlikely run by Thai people. If it’s run by a Thai family and not a conglomerate, than please go support a local business! Usa included chicken which is relatively better than beef as her protein, but tofu would work as well!!!

Now I know it is all connected. If we all eat more Pad-Si-Ew that we cook at home, thanks to Usa, than we will eat more fiber. We will be eating more home cooked foods, more vegetables, and less packaged waste. Every time the Dr. Plastic Picker household has ordered Thai food, it comes in all those styrofoam containers. Less waste in general is good for the earth and good for the Orcas. And the best thing would be if we then drank tap water at home! Probably I will go donate some money to the Snake River Dam, Save the Salmons NGO now.

Here is another delicious recipe from the Phillipines! Arroz Caldo https://drplasticpicker.com/arroz-caldo-saves-the-environment-and-also-time-from-rehydrating-patients/

And here is Mom-Friend Usa with another recipe, Panang Salmon https://drplasticpicker.com/panang-salmon/