We constantly have to weigh our decisions and determine if they support a brighter future for ourselves, our children, and our world.

For anyone on this personal journey to sustainability, I have some advice: Start with one step. Only you know what you can afford, what you are willing to do or not do, and what you can tackle without feeling beleaguered.

This might mean buying some organic produce at the super-market, using the same coffee cup all day long, or refilling aluminum bottles with tap water instead of relying on bottled water. It might mean taking canvas bags to the market or recycling the plastic ones you have collected over the months and years. It might mean enlisting the kids’ help in the kitchen or talking with them about ways you can “save the earth” as a family.

You might think it’s insignificant if you replace just two items on your shopping list with organic products – say, milk and apples. How much of a difference does that actually make? And yet, can you imagine what would happen if 30 or 40 percent of American households bought only organic milk and apples? Two industries would change dramatically. Don’t think otherwise: You can be a sustainability hero one choice at a time.

Twenty-five years ago, when I first entered the movement, I never thought that the day would come when most supermarkets carried organic produce and had whole sections devoted to natural foods. I never dreamed that most public places, including restaurants, would be smoke free. I certainly never expected to see such a growth in farmers’ markets. In fact, the farmers’ market movement is growing so rapidly that there are not enough farmers to keep up with demand. A “good problem,” to be sure, but also a troubling one. Are we running out of farmers? We can all help by getting to know who the local farmers and suppliers are and then supporting them.

The great thing is that once you take the first step, you will feel good about it, and you can take another step, and another.

Here is the recipe for the Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta he prepares on the show. For the rest of the recipes, please visit the original story on CBS.com.

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds heirloom tomato
1/4 cup rough chop basil
1 ounce high quality red wine vinegar (vermouth)
1 baguette sliced 1/4 inch thick – toasted
salt and pepper
4 table spoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 350°F
In a medium bowl, core and chop the tomatoes into a small dice removing some of the seeds. Add the basil, salt, pepper and vinegar and set aside.
Brush the sliced baguettes with olive oil and sprinkle with a touch of salt, toast in the oven for 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Once baguettes are toasted rub each with garlic, top with tomato bruschetta.
Meat Loaf
Mac n’ Cheese
Angel Food Cake

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1⁄4 tablespoon sliced shallots
12 ounces foraged or farmers’ market wild mushrooms, such as shiitake, chanterelle, and oyster, cleaned and trimmed
5 ounces arugula, chopped
12 large eggs, whisked
5 ounces mild Cheddar or sheep’s milk cheese, grated
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 450˚F.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, or until cooked but not too crispy. Drain on paper towels.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add the shallots and cook for about 3 minutes, or until fully translucent. Add the mushrooms. Cover tightly and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms wilt fully and exude their juices. Remove the lid. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the pan is nearly dry.

Stir the arugula and bacon into the skillet with the mushrooms. Cook for about 1 minute, or until the arugula begins to wilt.

Add the eggs. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring just until they begin to set but are still runny. Stir in half of the cheese and remove the skillet from the heat.

Heat an ovenproof, 8″ cast-iron skillet over medium heat. When hot, melt the butter in it.

Season the eggs with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the eggs to the hot cast-iron skillet. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake in the hot oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the cheese melts and is lightly browned and the eggs set. Serve directly from the pan.

This recipe also appeared in Michel’s Book Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place One Recipe at a Time and on The Atlantic.com.

There are a few things to keep in mind: The hot fat (and yes, I use lard) should come about halfway up the chicken, and while you can turn the chicken any number of times for even cooking, keep the lid on it between turnings. This keeps the chicken in contact with the bottom of the pan, which is important. The milk brine provides a little tang and also helps the flour stay on the chicken.

INGREDIENTS

Milk Brine
2 quarts whole milk
1 onion, chopped
3–4 garlic heads, hit once with a hammer or the side of a heavy knife
3 tablespoons fresh thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (2–3-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Flour Mix
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon toasted, ground yellow mustard seeds
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Frying
1⁄2 cup lard
1⁄2 cup (1 stick) butter

TO MAKE THE BRINE
Bring 1 quart of milk to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme. Set aside to come to room temperature. Season to taste with salt and pepper, using enough salt so that the milk tastes a little like seawater.

When the milk is nearly cool, stir in the remaining 1 quart cold milk. Transfer the milk brine to a dish large enough to hold the chicken pieces. Add the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours. Drain the chicken, discard the brine, and pat the chicken dry.

TO MAKE THE FLOUR MIX

Mix together the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, and mustard seeds in a shallow dish. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the chicken pieces in the flour. Turn to coat. Let the coated chicken pieces sit for 10 to 15 minutes.

TO FRY THE CHICKEN

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, heat the lard until liquid and so hot it is nearly smoking. Add the butter to the skillet. Using tongs, lay the chicken pieces in the hot fat, which should come about halfway up the sides of the chicken.

Cover the skillet. Let the chicken fry for 3 to 4 minutes, then turn the chicken pieces. Watch the chicken carefully, turning as needed to brown evenly on both sides and cook through, about 25 to 30 minutes total. (The smaller pieces might be cooked through in 20 minutes.) Adjust the heat if necessary to prevent scorching, but try to keep it as high as you can.

Lift the chicken pieces from the hot fat as they are cooked. Drain on clean kitchen towels or paper towels. Serve hot.

This recipe also appeared in Michel’s Book Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place One Recipe at a Time and on the James Beard Foundation’s JBF Recipes Blog.

If there is one behavior you change, let it be breaking the bottled water habit. Please.

If there is one behavior you change, let it be breaking the bottled water habit. Please.

According to Earth Policy Institute, bottled water “can cost up to 10,000 times more than tap water. At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline.” How is that beneficial to the planet? Here’s some more un-sustainable statistics about bottled water from Food and Water Watch:

1. Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year.
2. That plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce.
3. Over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away (not recycled.)

The other major bummer of Big Bottled Water business is it diverts public attention away from our local water systems which rely on communities to support funding measures for theirmaintenance and upgrades. Bottled water companies will surely be happy to step in to fill in the gap of neglected public water systems but at a cost to communities.

Now, ready for the great part of the bottled water problem? It doesn’t have to be. It might seem like a very small step but imagine if 30 to 40% of American households adopted the No Bottled Water Pledge? That’s a large impact by choosing this one sustainable habit that is super easy to and inexpensive to start. Here’s how you can become part of the solution:

Tap water in most municipalities is very good. If you have questions or concerns about the tap water in your particular locale, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has this useful map which posts annual consumer confidence and drinking water quality reports from your municipal water supplier. Basically, it tells where your water comes from and what’s in it.

If you don’t like the flavor of your tap water, buy a filter for the tap. These are not only inexpensive, but they eliminate up to 98% of “impurities” such as sediment and chlorine, that might be affecting the water’s taste. You can also opt for a pitcherwith a filterinstead that you keep in the refrigerator for icy-cold drinking water.

Fill reusable bottles and make a habit to take them with you – from KleanKanteen to Nalgene to Sigg, there are many sizes, styles, and price points to fit your lifestyle.The color is up to you but Ido recommend choosing a BPA-free model.

I promise, you won’t miss bottled water at all once you’ve tried how delicious and convenient tap water can beAnother bonus, your weekly grocery bill should shrink a little as well!

We have a large vegetable garden in our backyard that Lori and I started several years ago to give our kids some of the same, rich experiences I had growing up. When I was a kid, my mom, who grew up on a farm, tended a sprawling backyard garden that took over ourentire yard. The garden came right up to the sliding glass door of our suburban Illinois home, leaving no room for swing sets and lawn furniture. From working in and eating from garden and eating from it, I learned all about sustainability without realizing it for years later.
Although I love the produce we get from our garden, what I enjoy more is the way it attracts our next-door neighbors, our back-door neighbors, our across-street neighbors and our across-town neighbors.
Everyone likes to gather in the garden; our family, our kids’ buddies, neighbors, dear friends, and new acquaintances. Some people help with the garden, others prepare food picked from it, and still others provide entertainment. Everyone has a good time and there’s room for everyone and what they bring to the table.
Eating on and from the land harks back to earlier times. It’s a reinvention of the old-fashioned block parties and village picnics that used to characterize America’s small towns and close-knit communities when every household boasted a famous pie or chicken-with-dumplings recipe.
These communities were self-sustaining, with farmers supplying the food and the townspeople the commerce. I am not suggesting we go back to those times (if we ever could!), but I am suggesting we all seek more community. When you feed your neighbors, you make a connection that is irreplaceable.
When we begin slowly but surely to rearrange our lives in a manner that allows us to cook and share this way, we find we worry less about over processed foods and hidden health hazards in our conventional food system. We find that we can rest easy, knowing our children are eating, sharing, and loving nutritious, wholesome food every day. What on planet Earth can be better than that?

With the refrigerator humming or the oven blasting heat, and water running freely in the sink, it’s easy to see how the act of cooking can ratchet up utility bills and sabotage our good intentions. It does not have to be this way if we take a few commonsense measures.

• Use leftovers. Somehow, leftovers have gotten a bad rap. They are considered second-class citizens instead of opportunities for the broad-minded, inspired cook. Less energy is required to reheat leftovers than to cook something new from scratch, and often leftovers need no reheating at all. I love to spread the celery root puree on page 21o on bread to moisten sandwiches, and I use leftover pork chops to make hash. Soups are a great way to use leftover vegetables, which also can be tossed with pasta or grains for a simple meal. Use your imagination and turn leftovers into treasures.

• Use the stove correctly. If your stove requires preheating, know how long it takes to reach a desired temperature. If a recipe says to “preheat the oven to 350⁰ F,” don’t turn the oven on until you are ready. I try to put the preheat instructions in a sensible place in the recipe, but you may not work as quickly as I do, or your oven may heat up in 5 minutes while mine takes 15. Be aware. Don’t leave the burners on when you are not using them. Be conscious of the heat intensity needed for a cooking method, and turn the heat up or down accordingly. When you cook anything that needs to be brought to a simmer, put the lid on the pot (unless specifically instructed not to). This speeds up the process and saves energy.

• Plan to cook what you buy. How often have you found wilted herbs, flabby broccoli, or mushy apples in the refrigerator? Or how about chicken parts coated with frost and freezer burned in the back of the freezer? Remember what’s in there, or post a list if you need a reminder. Have a plan and stick to it. Eat what you buy soon after purchase, or freeze it and keep a log so that you eat from the freezer with a sensible strategy.

• Use water wisely. Fill the sink when you clean vegetables rather than running them under cold water. When cooking, fill the sink or plastic tub with just enough warm, soapy water to cover used cooking utensils. When done, all you need to do is rinse and let them dry.

I am not suggesting you prepare full-blown meals on Sunday afternoon and freeze them. Instead, I urge you to prepare foods that can serve as your own convenience food, the building blocks of quick, nutritious meals.

1. Cook legumes, grain, and vegetables in ways that make them easy to use throughout the week.
2. Make large quantities of stock every now and then, and freeze it for later use in soups, braises, and sauces.
3. Bake a few loaves of good bread, and freeze them for sandwiches, French toast, and snacks.
4. If the season is right, put up tomatoes, peppers peaches, blueberries, or make jam for future consumption.
5. If you’re uncomfortable with canning, freeze it! Tomatoes, berries and a variety of ripe produce can be frozen whole, then thawed and turned into sauces, desserts and refrigerator jams at a time when you have the time to deal with them.

There are two other benefits to this kind of cooking as well, both of which I particularly champion. First and foremost, it’s a good way to bring the family into the kitchen to work together. As a father of five, I know how rewarding this can be. Second, it saves money and valuable resources, something that appeals to every household in uncertain times. Supermarket checkout tallies rise when you buy a lot of packaged, canned, frozen, and processed foods; they decline as you buy food in the most natural condition offered in the market. (Yet another benefit: you’ll have less packaging to dispose of.)

Believe me, when this kind of cooking becomes part of the family routine, everyone wins. Meals will be more healthful as you rely more on whole grains, roasted fresh vegetables and legumes and less on convenience and processed foods. You and your kids will come to take pleasure in the time in the kitchen, chopping, measuring, and stirring – all easy and basic cooking chores that nonetheless teach useful life skills. I am not such an idealist that I think every child and every adult will love this idea, but try it before you dismiss it. You may be surprised. We are gung ho about attending every soccer and softball game our kids participate in, and why not? It’s fun! I urge you to give equal time to cooking together to feed the family well and do a small part to save the planet at the same time.

This video is available for viewing on dLife.com here.

This video is available for viewing on dLife.com here.