Bright idea! OK, so really it is pretty obvious.

Confession: I have been eating terrible things. Putting all this bad food (mainly fast food) is killing my energy level and I just don't feel good. I think I am in a winter slump or hibernating...either way, something's got to give. So, tonight I went grocery shopping for produce...I am craving vegetables (I think my body is trying to tell me something). Tomorrow I am going to cook a pork shoulder with apples and onions. To go along with that, we will be having succotash and roasted root vegetables. My sweet friend (shout-out to Julie) recently told me about parsnips. A few weeks ago she tried them for the first time and loved them. Since I have never tried them, I decided this weekend is as good as any. For the roasted root vegetables (in addition to the parsnips), we will have carrots, butternut squash, potatoes, and rutabaga. Speaking of rutabagas, my mom used to make these for me as a child and I remember loving them. I am not sure why I have neglected these as an adult, but I think it is time the rutabaga and I get to know each other again. I also got some bananas and some cucumbers (to make German cucumber salad, of course!).

On to my bright idea...tonight as I was peeling my cucumber and cutting off the ends, a light bulb went off. The more vegetables I eat, the more scraps I will have for my composting bin. If I succeed at eating more fruits and veggies, it is a total win-win for my compost bin and I. To kick things off, I've already prepared a batch of scraps to put in my compost bin in the morning. I will be adding my cucumber skin and ends, 1/2 of a squeezed lemon, old chopped up chives that I never used up, several egg shells, and coffee grounds. Also, the hubby has promised to help me gather more leaves for the compost bin since the bulk of the contents should be "brown" material (the smaller portion is the "green" material, such as wilted lettuce and cucumber peel).

This weekend should be nice and relaxing. I sure wish there was a way to post a "smell" on a blog...can you imagine how wonderful that pork shoulder is going to smell?!?

Edited to add a picture of our dinner. We had the apple and onion roasted pork shoulder, succotash, and roasted butternut squash, parsnips, and rutabaga. Kevin loved it!