October 15, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Happy Friday morning! I tried a few new things recently. Yesterday I had old mushy bananas again, but there are only so many banana bread muffins and variations on almost vegan banana breads that my family and the clinic can eat! I’ve done banana/mango bread. I’ve done banana coconut bread. I’ve varied that recipe so much, that it was time for something new. So I just Ecosia searched “what to do with mushy bananas” and a banana pancake recipe came up. I’ve heard about banana pancakes before, and I’ve made several variations which were okay. I’m not sure why yesterday worked so well, but yesterday I made 2 batches of banana peanut butter pancakes and varied the recipe yesterday and they were 100% out of this world. My in-laws, the kids, and Dr. Dear Friend were in complete agreement. They didn’t look perfect, but they tasted great. I even used the last remaining bits of my home-made vanilla flavored peanut butter. Maybe that’s why they turned out so well? I checked back at our clinic lunchroom and the banana pancakes were gone. Now that is testiment that they were good. And the interesting thing is that honestly, yesterday was a combination of ingredients and circumstances that those pancakes will never really exist again. I’ll try to replicate but I kind of made them by feel. I ommited the oil. I added more soymilk. I added a bit less flour. I didn’t even take a picture of the pancakes, but the memory of their fluffiness and how it paired so well with the matcha green tea soy latte that Dr. Dear Friend kindly bought for me at Starbucks, will be a memory that I will revist when I revisit this blogpost.

With that, I did want to stay true to the entire purpose of this particular blog and my adventures. The entire point is that I’m supposed to pick up plastic (which I did last month almost 30 bags! – but I do owe you a blogpost update) and also to make secondary environmental changes in my life. We live a pretty sustainable life now after I started this blog several years ago. We compost almost all of our green waste and thanks to the amazing combination of forces that are the bunnies that we love, and their poop – our Aerobin400 churns out this magical organic compost that fuels our garden. We eat mostly plant-based and not that much meat. Although yesterday we had just boxed frozen shrimp and tater-tots, but that is honestly once every 4 months or so! We consume less of earth’s resources. Yesterday was the first time in a long time we went to Target, and we went it to get what we needed and left with what we needed which was hopefully more sustainable gifts for our teen daughter’s friend and our daughter’s first real bathing suit. She looked so cute in the two she picked, and I’m so proud of how I’ve raised her to have a positive body image and to love and appreciate herself. This blog has helped me figure that part of my life out, and helped me be a better mother to my duaghter.

It was a magical day yesterday. I watched an exciting school volleyball match with our kids’ school’s rival. Our team lost, but it was such an exciting and well played game. They forced them into the third set, and it was very close. Our daughter was all over the court and communicating, and playing assertively but together with her team.

We had so many environmental wins last week, and the warm glow of knowing what collectively we did is really amazing. Several friends that I “activated” into climate and health activists, are working on their projects including various writing projects and presentations. I’ve cheerleading them from the sidelines and making small and helpful suggestions. Our big two projects are the Rewild Mission Bay work still with a local advocacy meeting soon in November and a blog piece coming out on the Climate for Helath Blog.

But here is why I started writing today. Just 10 secondary environmental changes I did specifically because I knew I had to be accountable to this blog’s readership.

10 Secondary Environmental Net Positives Due to Being DR PLASTIC PICKER!!!

• 12 showers averted (that’s on average 240 gallons of water)
• 1 bag of bad produce from the lunchroom fridge brought home to compost
• 9 coffee grounds containers from friends that I collected to compost
• 1 bucket of compost gifted to a friend for his fig tree
• 1 rug/mat salvaged and cleaned from when we did the Coastal Clean Up at the Chula Vista Boat Launch
• many many succulents that I’ve propogated planted at the HMO parking structure and at my brother’s office in North Park
• 1 yearly planner purchased that is all of recycled content. This is one of the most important things I do personally. I like this planner as it’s functional and I can find it at my local staples and its made of recycled paper and plastic. It’s more expensive but its one of the few things I go out of my way to purchase and wait for. All the fancy planners made of virgin paper and fossil fuels? I laugh at you! New I will not buy! I support the circular economy.
• 5 succulents I gifted to children which kind of inspired our San Diego wide Great Succulent Give Away!
• 1 car trip averted from my clinic office to the sister clinic office, because I didn’t have time and I didn’t need to rush, instead I gave the plants that needed to be gifted to Dr. Dear Friend. It didn’t make sense to spew the carbon since she was there anyway.
• 1 climate friend I’m trying to help breastfeed her first child. Its a small but important thing for us to support eachother.

Well, thank you for reading and helping me stay accountable. Last blog in this series was in July. Click here if you want to see what I did! https://drplasticpicker.com/secondary-environmental-changes-july-2021/