In a rash moment last year — before the economic collapse — I caved in to peer pressure, marketing savvy and a (faux) surfeit of disposable income to jump up one tier from Comcast’s pathetic Limited Basic TV to its Digital Starter package.

A year later, I’m back to the $11-per-month channel lineup with a bad case of Food Network withdrawal but a good feeling about the choices I now am making about the way I live.

Now that’s a leap, you might say — from rabbit ears TV to the HGTV-Movie Channel-ESPN continuum and back again as the base for new-found Earth Love. But I swear it’s true.

Fact is, I don’t watch much TV anymore these days (nothing on, obviously); my tin cans and gray board packages all get recycled; I find myself hanging around farmer’s markets, actively making purchases; and I’m about 1/10th of the way to becoming a novice locavore.

Having Limited Basic just magnifies how much I now miss the Food Network.

Most of that channel’s stable of culinary personalities don’t overtly proselytize for recycling or for green living practices, but they do tend to liberally use phrases like “buy local,” “use fresh ingredients” and other such terms.

The home chef — staring in rapt attention at the sight of every slice of local artisan mozzarella cheese or stripped stem of homegrown thyme — is subliminally primed to upscale their food gathering, preparing, consuming — and disposing — practices to match the rewards of the better flavor experience.

I was accursed with, as my father used to say, a champagne appetite on a beer budget. So watching Rachel Ray on the Food Network, fixing gourmet meals in half-an-hour with fresh ingredients, quite a few of which can be grown in one’s own back yard, was mesmerizing. Her “GB” (garbage bowl) is always front and center to collect compostable inedibles and recyclable cans and packages.

Tyler Florence’s “Ultimate” meals only uses fresh herbs and vegetables, and he always espouses a preference for organically raised meats, especially chickens.

Ina Garten, the “Barefoot Contessa,” lives in the Hamptons (‘nuff said), so I just watched cynically, budget beer in hand. I also couldn’t get past Giada DiLaurentiis’ teeth, of which she seemed to have twice as many as most TV personalities.

Now, realizing immediately that I’m not as perky as Rachel, as smooth as Florence, as well off as Garten or as toothsome as DiLaurentiis, the prospect of my own show was, er, doubtful.

So, I began to frequent the farmers’ markets. I bought basil, thyme, rosemary and dill and then prepared an oblong planter for them to grow. Tomato, salad greens, squash and shallots were planted as well, for later harvest and use, with plans to upgrade my home culinary efforts.

No chemicals were used to help them along, and no pesticides sprayed to keep away any critters that scaled the walls of the planter seeking gourmet herb treats. With my loving care, all the little green plants grew straight and strong, with only negligible losses.

With these homegrown delicacies, I created coq au vin with a stew of the thyme and other herbs; baked shrimp scampi with rosemary, shallots, garlic and white wine; chicken with red wine and tarragon, and a slew of other flavorful dinnertime concoctions.

Along the way, my recycling efforts skyrocketed. My 'Big Blue' recycling container now bulges with cardboard, gray board, tin cans and paper. 'Little Red' receives all the brown, green and white wine, beer and olive oil bottles.

My gray garbage can is tiny, and goes to the curb half full these days.

Considering how much better I eat, how much better the food tastes, and how much less I contribute to the degradation of the Earth with my metal, paper and other former throw-aways, I can positively say it’s half empty.