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Monthly Archives: October 2008
The breakfast of Eco Warriors
Now that fall is here, Recycla and her family are once again eating one of their favorite breakfasts: Oatmeal.
Ahhhhhh…
A bowl of oatmeal is a warm, nutritious breakfast that tastes good and gives any Eco Warrior enough energy to battle even the most dastardly Hummer owner.
When Recycla says oatmeal, she doesn’t mean one of those single serving packets of oats, sugar, and artificial ingredients. Oh no. Oatmeal in Recycla’s home comes in an 18 ounce cardboard container so that there’s less packaging waste and the cardboard can be recycled later. And why buy something that’s flavored already when you can so easily add your own special ingredients, such as fresh or dried fruit, nuts, and any number of spices?
Recycla’s personal favorite is to cook her oatmeal with skim milk and then mix in raisins, cinnamon, and a tiny dollop of maple syrup. To shake things up, some days she’ll add chopped apples, unsalted almonds, and a tiny splash of local honey to her oatmeal. Yum!
Oatmeal has a number of health benefits, including the ability to lower one’s cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Even better, quick oats take only a minute to prepare in the microwave. Best of all, oatmeal is inexpensive, so Eco Warriors don’t need to spend a lot of money on a breakfast that has staying power and will stick with them all morning.
Some weekend morning, when you have more time to dally over breakfast, Recycla suggests you try steel-cut oats (a.k.a. Irish oatmeal). Irish oatmeal takes about 20-30 minutes to cook, but the result is a chunkier, nuttier, more flavorful oatmeal that will keep you full for hours. Stir in some dates, maybe some walnuts, and enjoy.
What about you Eco Warriors? How do you like your oatmeal?
Photo credits: Yahoo Images.
Posted in food
Safe Halloween
All week long, the Eco Women will be sharing their ideas for making this Halloween your GREENEST and MOST FUN Halloween ever!
Relax! Halloween has got a bad rap as an “unsafe” holiday, but most of what we try to protect ourselves from is the stuff of Urban Legend. Check out Snopes.com to read why you’re probably more apt to be struck by lightning or win your state’s lottery than bite into a razor blade when eating a miniature Snickers bar.
The reality is this: Halloween is a pretty safe holiday. The streets are busy with pedestrians during Trick-or-Treating hours and in many communities the local police or National Guard patrol the streets in a show of tax dollars at work. People who enjoy giving fistfuls of candy to little ghosts and goblins turn on their porch lights and wait by the door. Those who don’t pull their shades and darken their houses accordingly. Kids and adults both behave well under so much supervision!
To keep your Trick-or-Treaters safe is easy:
* Stick to familiar neighborhoods.
* Go out during designated hours.
* Only approach houses with a porch/yard light on.
* Double check costumes for visibility (put reflective tape on a black witch’s costume, make sure little Johnny can see through his Power Ranger mask, hand each child a flashlight if you’re trick-or-treating at night) .
* Double check costumes for ease of movement (have Billy run across the back yard in his zombie costume — if he trips, his costume may need some adjustment).
* Let your kids eat the candy — if it’s wrapped and a familiar brand (Kit Kat, Dum Dum, M&M) it’s safe. The only real danger at Halloween is overindulgence leading to stomachaches.
* If you’re really uncomforatable with city trick-or-treating, take your family to a “safe” Halloween event hosted by a local library, children’s museum, zoo or community organization — most places have several options to choose from.
Honestly? According to Enviro-Girl’s research, the most dangerous place to be on Halloween is Madison, Wisconsin where excessive drinking and debauchery leads to trouble.
Relax, and enjoy your Halloween. There are plenty of other, truly threatening things to worry abou t– but we’ll save those posts for another time!
Green (and cheap!) Halloween Decor
All week long, the Eco Women will be sharing their ideas for making this Halloween your GREENEST and MOST FUN Halloween ever!
…or bought at Walmart, Target or Kohl’s. Retailers try to sell us everything from soap dishes to dishtowels, decorative lamps to dishes for holiday use. It’s conceivable to redecorate an entire house for Halloween, Christmas, Easter and the Fourth of July. But why buy into Madison Avenue’s message that you need a haunted house soap dispenser in every bathroom for $7.99 (or Halloween soap from Bath and Body Works for $10.00) to celebrate Halloween? In these tight times, here are some eco-friendly and wallet-friendly ways to spookify your abode:
* Fill planters, windows, tabletops, vases and shelves with native-growing foliage–dried grasses, colorful leaves, pinecones, berries, branches, pumpkins gourds, and squashes. Enviro-Girl grows a huge patch of gourds and squashes which decorate her house well into the Christmas season. Conveniently, squashes store well in dry places and when she needs one for supper, she pulls one off a bookshelf, coffee table or fireplace mantle to cook up. With an abundance of fall colors and textures growing in your neighborhood, it sure seems foolish to spend money on plastic replicas, doesn’t it?
* Cover windows with gauzy fabric cut out to look like ghosts and ghouls. Here’s one way to do it!
* Invite your children to make monsters, witches, mummies and vampires out of craft supplies to cover your walls. Family Fun Magazine has many cool ideas–including candle holders with spooky eyes made from old jars and spiders made from egg cartons. Occupy your kids while making your house festive! You’ll spend less on craft materials & recycled household goods than you’d spend on votive candle holders at Younkers or Macy’s.
* Use remnants of old Halloween costumes as decoration–a witch’s hat hung on a coat rack becomes an immediate whimsical touch.
* Make a scarecrow out of straw, old clothes & a stuffed burlap sack. Set him in your yard or on your front porch!
* If you possess plastic pumpkins for trick-or-treat candy, use them as centerpieces or porch decorations until the big night.
* Make paper or cardboard bats to hang from ceilings or porch railings. Use old plywood & paint to create gravestones for your front yard.
* If you don’t feel crafty, but don’t want to buy decorations made in China, check out what Etsy has in store–Halloween decorations galore!
Eco Halloween — alternatives to candy
All week long, the Eco Women will be sharing their ideas for making this Halloween your GREENEST and MOST FUN Halloween ever!
Every Halloween, Recycla’s children put on costumes and go out into their neighborhood, going door to door to beg for candy. Recycla’s neighbors are generous people and they not only give out LOTS of candy to the neighborhood children, they often already have sizable goody bags ready for Recycla’s daughters. Without fail, every year, Recycla’s children end up with three or four pounds of candy by the end of the evening. Candy, candy, and more candy. Frankly, Recycla would be happy if people were just a little less generous.
Better yet: What if people stopped giving out so much candy and tried other things instead? Listed below are some of the items that Recycla would love to see in her daughters’ treat bags this year:
- stickers
- pencils and/erasers
- bubbles
- temporary tattoos
- individual bags of Goldfish or pretzels
- juice boxes
Recycla recognizes that a candy-free Halloween would be no fun at all. Even her own husband teases her when she buys pretzels and granola bars to hand out to trick-or-treaters. But her hope is that some people will jump on that bandwagon and just provide a little relief from all that sugar.
What about you fellow Eco Warriors? What do you think?
Posted in eco holidays
Tips For An Eco-Halloween
With Halloween just around the corner, now is the time to start planning the day for both you and your children. Making it environmentally friendly is easier and more cost efficient than you may think. Here are a few tips.
- Resist the temptation to buy your child a plastic pumpkin to carry all their loot. Instead, offer them one of your reusable bags to use. If they want something special for the day, try to use a bag that will go along with their costume choice. Be creative! Can a purse or backpack be tied in somehow? How about buying a canvas bag at your local craft store and letting your child decorate it with fabric paints. Then this could be their own reusable bag to use throughout the year. Or you can use what the Green Mommy always had – a pillow case.
- Don’t buy your child a “glow stick”. These products are used only once, are made of plastic that will sit in a land fill. Although the claim is that they’re not toxic, they are harmful to the environment once the chemicals are released. Instead, give your child a flashlight (using reusable batteries gets extra eco-points!). Again, use your imagination. Can it be made to look like it goes along with the costume?
- Avoid using masks made of vinyl. If your child isn’t allergic, use latex instead or try some natural makeup from your local health food store.
- Reuse or recycle what ever you can to make a costume yourself. Go to a second hand or vintage clothing store and run wild! Need some inspiration? Take a look at some of these from The Daily Green:
Note to self: When thinking of Halloween eco-suggestions, don’t ask your husband for any ideas. All you’ll get is a sarcastic tip to use organic, free-range eggs when out on Mischief Night.
Posted in eco holidays
Tagged eco Halloween, recycle costume, recycle Halloween, reuse Halloween
Eco Halloween — pumpkins
All week long, the Eco Women will be sharing their ideas for making this Halloween your GREENEST and MOST FUN Halloween ever!
When you think of Halloween, what comes to mind? Witches? Ghosts? Candy? Pumpkins?
Pumpkins are one of Recycla’s favorite parts about Halloween and fall in general. She loves their cheerful orange color and the way her front porch looks with pumpkins marching up the stairs.
She also loves seeing how creative other people get when carving their pumpkins. This is a skill that Recycla does not possess — when Recycla carves a pumpkin, it looks like the victim of a tragic knife accident. So she is in awe of other people’s carving prowess.
For those of you who like to carve pumpkins and then light them on Halloween, Recycla encourages you to exchange those candles for white Christmas lights. The pumpkins will look terrific, but without the risk of a small child getting burned by the flame.
Recycla does not carve her pumpkins — not because she mangles them badly, but because she wants to be able to cook the pumpkins after Halloween. Recycla loves how fresh pumpkin tastes and loves to use it in pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and more!
Did you know that pumpkins are GOOD for you? Rich in potassium, a nutrient that helps maintain blood pressure and kidney function, pumpkin has a high fiber content, which has been linked to a lower risk of heart disease. Pumpkin flesh also contains a lot of vitamin C — an antioxidant essential for healthy skin and gums. Pumpkins also contain beta-carotene, which is good for your eyes.
If you like pumpkin seeds, you’re in luck: Pepitas contain many nutrients, including bone-strengthening magnesium and copper. On top of that, the seeds contain cholesterol-lowering phytosterols and omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce inflammation and may help prevent heart disease.
Recycla’s children are big fans of her pumpkin muffins, so she ends up baking them at least once per month. (To make the recipe even healthier than it already is, Recycla substitutes a cup of whole wheat flour for an equal amount of the white flour.) A few years ago, Recycla decided to try making her own pumpkin puree instead of buying it in a can. She was astounded by the difference in color and flavor! Since then, Recycla has foresworn canned pumpkin and instead makes enough pumpkin puree every fall to last her family for the next twelve months.
Cooking pumpkins is incredibly easy — here’s how:
- Get your pumpkins. The small pie pumpkins have the best flavor, but you can use just about any pumpkins, even the big ones.
- Chop the pumpkins into smaller pieces and place rind-side-up on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake until the pumpkins are thoroughly cooked.
- After the pumpkin has cooled, scoop out the pulp and put it in your food processor.
- Process until smooth.
- The pumpkin puree needs to be drained, so line a colander with a cheesecloth and place in a large bowl. If you don’t have cheesecloth, use a small-mesh sieve.
- Put the puree into the lined colander and let sit for an hour. During that hour, you will need to pour off the liquid that accumulates in the bowl so that it doesn’t overflow. (Use the nutrient-rich liquid to water your plants.)
- Scoop the puree in one- or two-cup increments into freezer safe containers or bags.
- Freeze until needed.
As for your pumpkin rinds and seeds, don’t throw them in the trash! Chop up the rinds and toss them in your compost bin. As for the seeds, if you want to grow pumpkins next year, toss them in your garden now and cover them with a little dirt. Most of them will germinate next summer. If you don’t want to grow pumpkins, how about putting the seeds outside for your neighborhood birds?
What about you fellow Eco Warriors? What do you do with your pumpkins? Is there a recipe you particularly like?
Posted in eco holidays, food
Quick Link: Save $$$ when going green
Here’s an article on 30 ways to save money when going green.
Posted in living green on a budget, quick link
Quick Link: Green presidents
Who were the ten greenest presidents in U.S. history? Click here to find out.
Posted in quick link, Uncategorized
Eco-Friendly Kid Gifts
Poor Recycla, her daughters have been bombarded by the Birthday Binge–gift bags filled with toxic trinkets, crappy plastic toys gifted by well-intended friends. Enviro-Girl has been there too, asking her sons’ birthday guests to bring bags of nonperishable items instead of gifts to their parties. She ended up wading in more Legos and Hot Wheels than she could count, on top of the bags for the food pantry. Aside from inviting people over with no pretense of a party, there seems to be no way to avoid the crush of presents. What are some eco-friendly or consumable gifts our children can bring to birthday parties to try to stem the flow or redirect the tidal wave of spending at the local WalMart? Eco-friendly BABY gifts are easy to find and give. But what about the more difficult, more selective 4-12 year old set? What can a person buy a kid these days for under $20 without worrying about poison, exploitative labor practices or environmental issues?
The following list is intended for KIDS (ages 4-12) of both genders–all the gifts are in the $20 range and are friendlier to the planet and human health than a Made in China Nerf football or Bonnie Bell lip gloss filled with parabens.
1. Tickets to a movie.
2. A family day pass to a zoo.
3. Cool & unique hair accessories from Etsy at Oh My Mommy Clementine!
4. Team logo gear–a kid totally rocks when wearing their school’s logo on their chest or hat. Most school stores offer sweatshirts, baseball caps and t-shirts for $20 or less, and while they’re not fair trade or organic, they’ll get more use than most toys ever would.
5. Super Hero Capes & masks from Fancy That! on Etsy.
6. Comic books.
7. Any books. (Boys especially love the Kids’ Paper Air Plane Book by Ken Blackburn.)
8. Kate’s Caring Gifts offers a bunch of cool kits for kids–including Make your Own Chewing Gum, Back Sacks, & Imagination Boxes.
9. Pristine Planet sells scads of cool toys for kids, including Solar powered model kits & henna body painting kits.
10. A day pass to a local children’s museum.
11. Personalized jewelry from Etsy is always a hit with girls.
12. A gift certificate to a build-your-own shop. Enviro-Girl’s town boasts a several DIY pottery and mosaic shops which are popular destinations for kids.
13. Eco-friendly cosmetics are a hit with girls. Indigo Wild offers a Pucker Pack–6 assorted lip balms for $20.
14. Magazine subscriptions.
15. Tickets to a sporting event or performance.
16. Art supplies. Stubby Pencil Studio offers all kinds of excellent choices.
17. A roll of arcade tokens (seriously!).
18. Gift gard for itunes or other music.
Let’s face it, no one wants their kid to be a social outcast by attending a birthday party without a cool gift in hand. Hopefully the list above helps your child give a cool AND earth-friendly present that their friends will cherish long after the wrapping paper has been thrown aside.
