This past week we went out to eat a little more often than usual because J.P' parents were visiting and we spent the week-end in Austin. I did pack snacks to avoid purchasing prepackaged foods and I did of course have our to go goodie bag handy. I also made sure to compost waste and recycle if any, while in Austin.

On Sunday in Austin, we stumble upon a local restaurant called Wholly Cow Burgers (grass-fed beef), who source their produce and meat from a local organic farm. They made me a mean all-veggie  burger, they gladly took our glass containers to put all our food, and the best part (didn't think it could get any better), they washed our glass containers. Yes, you heard that right! I was about to go and rinse them in the bathroom and the server came up to us and offered to clean them. That has never happened to us before. We were very impressed with their friendliness, and I wish we lived in Austin because we would be eating their frequently.

On Friday, we went to a farm to plate restaurant in Fort Worth called Ellerbe Fine Foods and it was fantastic. They source their produce locally and they even grow some of their own vegetables themselves. I loved eating and looking over at the collard greens growing behind me.

1-PURCHASES

Farmers market (all grown in Texas)

• 30 small cucumbers
• 4 cartons of strawberries
• 6 lemons
• 2 cartons of small tomatoes
• 6 large tomatoes
• 8 red peppers
• 20 super large carrots- I mean gigantic
• 1 bunch mint leaves
• 1 large bag spinach
• 1 head of green leaf lettuce
• 20 oranges
• 20 apples
• 4 red onions
• 2 dozen eggs

Sub-Total: 108.00

Whole Foods

Bulk

• Walnuts
• Ciabatta bread in my cloth bag
• Dates from the USA (so Whole Foods says. I am going to investigate that further.)

Non-Bulk

• White vinegar (I can’t find it in glass- only plastic)
• 2 bags of organic chips (I know, I know- we had company and I figured they were going to be bought anyways, and organic is better than it’s non-organic counterpart.)
• Psyllium Husk in a cardboard box
• Tempeh
• Chickpea Miso in a glass jar

Non-food items

• Toothpaste
• Bathroom tissue wrapped in plastic (I have started to use cloth, but not as much as I would like.)
• 2 small cardboard boxes of baking soda
• Liquid dish soap (looking to make my own)

Sub-total: 77.18

Fun and random Stuff

• I went to Iona Salon in Fort Worth to get my hair done, and what I love about them besides how friendly they are, is that they use organic color systems haircare product. I was lucky to get an additional 15% off because I have mentioned them in several blog posts. 144.50
• Parking in Austin 22.00
• Hotel in Austin 270.00

Sub-total: 436.50

Restaurants

• Tuesday: We went to Chipotle for dinner. After hiding from the tornado’s all afternoon, I was not in the mood to make dinner. 14.88
• Thursday: J.P’s parents were in town. They all went to a chicken joint for lunch. 10.00 I went to Spiral Diner and bought a veggie wrap. 10.21
• Friday: It was J.P’s mom’s birthday, so we took them out to dinner ate Ellerbe (It was a gift- so we are not disclosing the amount.)
• Saturday: We went to Chipotle for lunch 13.65 We ate at a Thai restaurant in Austin for dinner 35.00
• Sunday: We went to lunch at a small local restaurant 19.50 Dinner was pizza 50.00
  

Sub-Total: 103.24

Total: 724.92

2-COMPOSTING
Our compost comprised mostly of the pulp left from juicing. I didn't keep any pulp this week because I didn't have the time to do anything with it, unfortunately.

I had my compost bag with us when we went to Austin to make sure the least amount of stuff ended up in a landfill.

The total weight of our compost was 15.5 lbs.

3-RECYCLING
Again this week, we surprisingly did not have a lot of recycling. Our recycling bin seems to be a lot less full than previous weeks.

4-TRASH
Our trash basket this week was pretty much empty once again. We did a great job reducing our waste even while on the road. We didn't purchase anything prepackaged and we made sure to bring home the stuff that could be composted and recycled while in Austin.

Our garbage this week comprised of the usual suspects: receipts, pieces of plastic from my Kombucha bottles, 1 piece of plastic wrap from tempeh, and a few random pieces of plastic.

5-TRAVEL
This week I travelled to the Little Gym, the farmers market, Whole Foods, Arlington for little E's daycare , J.P picked up his parents at the airport, we drove to Austin, and did some local driving.

The total distance traveled on the TDI was  600 km ( 372 mi) and we did not have to fill up the tank.