Welcome!

TheProjectWives are two married women with a mission, like most every American nowadays, to get back to basics. Many of us have become too lazy and too wasteful. Sound harsh? Tough. It's our reality. Take food for example - it's no longer a matter of price or nutritional evaluation, it's how fast we can buy it and get it in our bellies before we've even had time to think. We've come to heavily rely on products that are supposed to make our lives "easier" but is this really even true? Sometimes yes, sometimes, no but wouldn't it be nice to save and do for yourself where you can?

During the course of this blog we will take you through easy projects in the kitchen, the craft room, the garage, and anywhere else we can find room for improvements. We're not experts as we, too, are in the process of learning so if there's something you'd like us to cover, let us know!

Want an example or our laziness? Cheese. 

Where there once used to be blocks upon blocks of cheese, the grocery 'fridge walls are now filled with shredded bagged cheese that is not only more expensive but worse for you! Factory farms already pump our dairy and meat products up with things like antibiotics that tear down our body's ability to accept antibiotics when we really need it so why add more and more to our already strained sense of nutrition?

When you purchase an 8oz. block of natural cheese, you can grate almost 4 cups of cheese whereas purchasing pre-shredded cheese, you will only get two cups in the bag for the same price.  Does this make sense to you? Ever wonder why shredded cheese doesn't stick together? It's cellulose... i.e. virgin wood pulp or other natural fibers such as cotton. Of course, it's not as appetizing to print "wood pulp" in the ingredient list. Cellulose is found in a lot of foods but has no nutritional value. In fact, human bodies are not even able to process cellulose. This may be helpful-sounding to dieters but nutritionally, cellulose amounts to nothing but cheap filler for companies to feed you with while charging you an astronomical amount in the name of convenience.

Some cheese includes natamycin, a medicine used to treat human fungal infections. Natamycin is used in cheese to prevent mold. YUM! Perhaps it would be less expensive to rub cheese in your eyes than to purchase an eye drop prescription to treat a fungal infection but we do not recommend you do so.

What other products have made us lazier for the sake of convenience? Off the top of my head I can say some of the worst offenders are 100 calorie snack bags, bagged lettuce (which also includes cellulose and typically cost 3x's more than regular lettuce), individually packaged chicken breasts, and jarred spaghetti sauce. I guess it's better than the previously released "ham sticks" introduced to the shelves after WWII but still, the processed and *convenience* foods lining the shelves of our local stores is out of control, wouldn't you agree?

We don't propose people raise their own farm animals and create their own cheese, we're simply asking you, and ourselves, to be more mindful of the things you do and the stuff you buy. Just a few changes and you could not only help your community and environment but your bank account and most importantly, you!

If you like to eat cheese, we suggest you try Cabot. It is a company that's been around since 1919 and is a farm family-owned coop. Their cows are not treated with rBST, the artificial growth hormone that causes animals to over produce milk and is a main source of udder infections in cows (that make it into your cheese and milk products - yuck!). You can absolutely taste the difference. 


Take this quiz and find out much you know about Americans and waste. 
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/425/american-excess.html