EnviroMom

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Week 6

Renee — 2009-11-06T08:38:17-08:00

I wanted to try something really different this week, so I fixed African Sweet Potato Peanut Stew. A friend photocopied this from a 2006 Good Housekeeping magazine, and it's a slow cooker recipe, which I love. My friend noted that it was 'excellent!' and 'really thick, not brothy. good over rice.' So over rice, I served it:

African Sweet Potato Peanut Stew
3 garlic cloves
2 cups loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves and stems
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
3 pounds (or 4 medium) sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
1 can (15-19 ounces) garbanzo beans/chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 package (16 ounces frozen cut green beans)

In a blender or food processor with knife blade attached, blend garlic, cilantro, tomatoes with their juice, peanut butter, cumin, cinnamon, ground red pepper, and salt until pureed. Transfer this paste to slow cooker bowl, and stir in water. Add sweet potatoes and garbanzo beans, and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours, or 4-5 hours on high, until potatoes are very tender. About 10 minutes before finished, steam green beans and then mix them into the stew before serving.

OK. So, I made a few modifications. I used my own pre-cooked garbanzos, and fresh diced tomatoes. I didn't have sweet potatoes so I micro-steamed half a butternut squash instead, then cut into bite-size chunks. I left out the cilantro and decided to sprinkle it on top for my husband and me. I also left out the cayenne pepper, thinking that might make it too spicy. I also thought I was being brilliant when I told the kids we were having 'peanut butter stew' for dinner, and planned it for right after soccer practice when I knew they'd be super hungry. They loved the concept. Not so much the real thing. One picked at it and ate a few garbanzo beans. The other dug deep and just ate the rice that I served it over. For us grownups, I served it over brown rice, with the green beans on the side, and the sprinkle of cilantro on the top. I can't say any of us loved this. I think it needed a heck of a lot more spice. I was hoping it'd taste rich like a Thai peanut sauce, but it didn't. If I make it again, I'd for sure add the cayenne and heaps of cilantro. Another thing I wondered is if I'd pureed the whole thing, would the kids have liked it better? None of us are big squash eaters, so this may just have been way too different. Oh well. I will eat the leftovers this week and experiment with upping the spice factor.

Let's see what our guest bloggers cooked up this week. I promise, most were much more successful than I was...

This week, Jen from Life on Bean Road has pan fried some Potato Latkes -- a meal her whole family loves. Potato pancakes or latkes are a staple in many countries and cultures, and as she says, they have a strong resemblance to french fries or hash browns, which are hard not to like. Pass the ketchup!!

This week, Nancy at Nano's Kitchen made some Light Cheddar Butternut Squash Soup served with grilled cheese sandwiches, a fave of mine. I'm finding it's a good strategy to have a substantial side to a meal that might not please all the palates at the table. Nancy mentioned that her hub isn't the biggest squash fan, but did like this soup. And doesn't it look gorgeous in the blue bowl?
(photo credit: Nano's Kitchen)

Beth at The Cummings Clan made Mean Gene's Mulligatawny, a sweet and pungent Irish soup (that I can't begin to guess how to pronounce), and served it with Irish buttermilk bread. She said she liked it but the rest of the family... not so much. Kind of like my stew. But at least her fam liked the bread!! Now I'd like to offer a big round of applause for the moms of the world who heroically eat all the leftovers without complaint.

Marleen at Walking on a High Wire fixed a Pumpkin and Black Bean Casserole. She was motivated to try this because she had some pumpkins that needed fixing. It's sounds nicely layered and spicy, almost like a lasagna. Most importantly, her family liked it.

Industrious Emily has a winner: Sweet Potato Chickpea Casserole. Just 10 minutes of prep, then the rest is easy-peasy baking time. Best of all, kids and adults love it! I will give this one a try with the rest of my chick peas.

Melanie at Recipe Journal made Cherry Tomato Ravioli Soup, and get this. It was so good, and so easy -- she didn't share any with anyone else, and it's her new favorite soup. It's so pretty and yummy looking -- I can see why she didn't want to share.

Mary Beth at Salt and Chocolate made a Mushroom Barley Soup on her weekly soup night -- love that. This soup has such a wonderful mix of ingredients: Marsala, soy sauce, butter, garlic, and of course 'shrooms! She said it was earthy and delicious, and although not all the kids loved it they did decide the mushrooms were like bugs and they were bug eaters. Gotta admire that kind of creativity in kids.
(photo credit: Salt and Chocolate)

Heather at Production Not Reproduction had one of those weeks. You know the kind. Her meal needed to be fast, easy and made from ingredients on hand. Thus she made Spicy Black Beans and Rice. The world needs more comforting/healthy meals like this. Because we all know there's always going to be those kind of weeks.

Andrea at Minimonos never ceases to amaze me. This week she cooked Veggie Cars. Yes, cars. Working with veggies she had on hand, principally the humble potato. Check it out:
(photo credit: Minimonos)

This week's edition of the EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club has been brought to you by the winter squash, the garbanzo bean and the potato! Thanks again to all of our guest bloggers who have outdone themselves once again. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to take a veggie car out for a test drive...

Comfort food: what's your weakness?

Heather — 2009-11-05T10:14:24-08:00

Okay, virus. You win! We surrender to your almighty powers. Now please return us to our regularly scheduled programming so that my kids can go back to school and my husband back to work. All this germ-infested togetherness does not equate to tender familial bonding. And the biggest bummer? I'm the least sick of anyone, which means I get to play full-time sniveling caretaker. And in this role I've discovered that when faced with sickness, my so-called disdain for processed food goes right out the window. To wit:

When the doctor on call said to give my son some crackers, I headed straight for the saltines. Kraft Foods Premium Saltine Crackers -- my weakness, my comfort food, which I am now making my children's' comfort food. Oh yummy enriched flour, high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, how I do love you in times of fever and woe. What's sad is that in three months I'll find two partially eaten, stale rows of crackers in the pantry (because no one really likes them after they're feeling well again). While we're at it, let's toss a few cans of chicken noodle soup into the cart, because I sure as heck don't feel like making any homemade.

We are not a family of food purists, but we have made great strides in the past couple of years to reduce our dependence on processed foods. There's a reason they're called 'convenience' foods, and that's what I find myself wanting when I'm feeling low. Do you find yourself making food choices when you're sick that you might not otherwise make when you're rested and healthy? C'mon, let's hear it. What are your comfort food weaknesses when you're down and out?

Baking soda as a natural, non-toxic deodorant

Renee — 2009-11-04T10:22:53-08:00

This is version 8.0.1 of the natural deodorant chronicles. It's so hard not to sweat the small stuff!!

My mom was just visiting, and since she hails from Hawaii and feels a chill when the temp dips below 70, we kept our heat a bit higher than usual during her stay. High for us is ice cold for most, so don't get me wrong. I probably put the heat up to 66 degrees only a few times. And if you turned around after my husband said something tricky like 'Hey! Look out the window! Flying pink dinosaurs drinking margaritas!!' he'd override my heat setting and drop it down to 55 before you even realized there were no extinct creatures or adult beverages to be seen.

In any case, tea tree oil, which has anointed my pits for months, and has done a fairly heroic job of keeping my pits not overly stinky... failed me repeatedly this past week. So you might have spied me doing some clandestine pit sniffing all day yesterday after I dabbed on baking soda with a powder puff straight up. I had heard about this ages ago, but feared it would be too gritty or sandy feeling. Not so. Didn't feel any different than a body powder. So I'm thinking that's the new pit sauce, er, powder. I'll report back once I've given it more than a day's test drive.

Oh, and I want to say I was motivated to try this after reading an email from Beth Terry, of Fake Plastic Fish fame, who said she's a tried and true fan but one time did get a tiny bit of grief from airport security about the unmarked white power in her luggage.

Talking 'bout Reduce/Reuse/Recycle with Parenting Unplugged Radio

Renee — 2009-11-04T09:50:40-08:00

I had the pleasure of talking with Todd and Laura Mansfield of Parenting Unplugged Radio yesterday. Parenting Unplugged is an internet radio program that airs daily at 11am Pacific, and lo and behold these folks are Portland-based just like us. In one of those really freaky small-town Portland things, we all live in the same neighborhood but then met via the phone lines over internet radio with no FTF involved. Don't try to explain that to yer grandma. It even threw my mom for a loop! Todd and Laura talk about everything having to do with parenting, but said the whole green thing was kind of a new topic for them. Although I should mention that they do have a worm bin, so some of this city's renowned greenness has rubbed off on them already. Give it a listen and check them out if you're not already a devout fan!

Update! Reader survey will be taken down Sunday, Nov. 8

Heather — 2009-11-03T13:06:22-08:00

Due to an unprecedented (unprecedented!) response to our EnviroMom Reader Survey, we've decided to run it only through this Sunday, November 8 until 6pm Pacific time. Originally we'd planned to keep it going all month, but since you guys totally rock and have responded so quickly, we'll take it down earlier. This also means we'll notify the two lucky winners of the $50 Powells.com gift certificates on Monday the 9th (which will give them additional time to shop before the holiday rush!). Thank you all so much! And if you haven't taken the survey yet, what are you waiting for?!

Healthwashing: Shame on Kellogg's for 'immunity' claims on kids' sugary cereals

Heather — 2009-11-03T09:19:08-08:00

I'm exhausted from spending the past 60+ hours caring for my H1N1-infected 5-year old. The scary high fever (with added hallucinations), the aches and pains, the vomiting and subsequent dehydration -- he's had it all. Happily, he now seems to be on the road to recovery. But as I was slopping together some dinner last night, I heard Brian Williams share the blood-boiling news that Kellogg's has been promoting 'added immunity' on its sugary cereals like Cocoa Krispies, Rice Krispies and Frosted Crispies. The claim first started appearing on the cereals last spring when H1N1 was ramping up. Kellogg's is being criticized for capitalizing on parental fears. Ya think?

What Kellogg's has done is add more vitamins to its sugary cereals -- vitamins A,B,C and E -- which are thought to help support the immune system. I liked what one person said on NBC last night, that you could spray a pile of sawdust with vitamins and make the same claim. In this article, a food policy analyst stated, "It simply defies logic to think that spraying on some vitamins and minerals to a cereal that's otherwise almost 40 percent of its weight in sugar makes a healthy product. It just doesn't add up."

Pimping junk food as being healthy is certainly nothing new, BUT IT'S WRONG. The sad fact is that there are a lot of people who take manufacturer claims at face value. They don't do the research (and there could be many understandable factors for that) and they aren't getting the information, so they depend on familiar brand names to help them navigate their nutritional needs. Shame on you, Kellogg's, for exploiting your customers.

Many holistic health practitioners (and MDs, too) believe that eating a lot of refined sugar actually depresses the immune system, making you more susceptible to illness. I did a little research (yep, even sleep-deprived I'm a little crazy) on what does actually boost the immune system. If you're inclined, this article from Harvard is pretty interesting. They say that there is no scientific proof that lifestyle can enhance immunity, though healthy lifestyle choices are encouraged (eating whole foods, exercise, drinking water, getting plenty of sleep, etc. -- hey, it can't hurt, right?) Some folks swear by supplements, vitamins, echinacea, zinc, etcetera, and I like to think a daily spoonful of lemon-flavored cod liver oil with extra vitamin D is helping to keep my system in balance. But it doesn't sound like there's much of anything (except the vaccine or living in a bubble) that can protect you from H1N1 or other viruses or diseases.

Bottom line: be leery of health claims associated with junk food, or any processed food for that matter. Stay well, EnviroFriends. Wash your hands, keep hydrated, stay home if you feel rotten, and make good choices in the cereal aisle (or avoid it altogether). Now I'm off to go snuggle with my boy!

Reader survey! Chance to win Powells.com gift certificate!

Renee — 2009-11-02T08:43:13-08:00

Dearest most darling readers. Have we told you lately how wonderful you are? You should hear Heather and I go on and on about you. We love you guys! Your comments, your insights, your fantastic ideas! We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you!! OK. Now finishes the bottom-kissing portion of this post, so I'll move to the part where I ask a teensy-eensy favor of you...

Today we're excited to announce the launch of our first ever EnviroMom Reader Survey. We'd like to ask a few questions about you (but not too personal -- we don't go into the TMI zone!!). If you can share 4 minutes of your valuable time, please take the online survey to give us feedback in the hopes that we can improve the EnviroMom site and better serve you. Once you complete the survey, you can enter to win one of two $50 gift certificates at Powells.com. If you're not familiar with Powells, it's a Portland-based independent bookstore of new and used books. We think it's the best bookstore in the world. And they're online, so don't worry if you're not local.

We'll keep the survey open for the month of November until Sunday, November 8 at 6pm Pacific Time, and will email the winners of the Powells gift certificates at the end of the month on Monday the 9th. Please, please, please take our survey. Thank you.

Happy Halloween (and more thrifted, use-what-you-have costumes!)

Heather — 2009-10-30T09:32:20-07:00

We finished up the kids' costumes last night, and it was Dance Party USA in our house. We're all pretty happy with costumes this year, and the only new thing we had to buy was a pair of brown kneesocks (which will get lots of wear after the fact). This spider came together easily:

A thrifted sweatshirt, and I made the spider legs by cutting apart some black leggings, stitching them into tubes stuffed with pillow stuffing. They are stitched to the sides of the sweatshirt, and I used black ribbon to attach them to one another. His mask is made from some, ahem, breast pads that came from a swim suit (but don't tell him that). I held onto to them for so long thinking certainly I could use them one day. This was my mom's idea! We had the hat, and the antennas are just craft foam stitched on. The web is butcher string!

Then there's madam Luke Skywalker:

She has assumed the jedi attitude. A thrifted kid's karate shirt, and a belt resized for a slim waist. The rest is just khaki pants rolled to the knee, with brown kneesocks and mary janes to give the illusion of boots. The jedi robe was made from a thrifted velvet curtain panel, and I followed these awesome, simple instructions. The piece de resistance is the light saber, made from a flashlight, a clear plastic tube, some green tissue paper rolled along the inside, and strapping tape holding it together. Conceived of and created in three minutes! We don't need no stinkin' store-bought light saber!

Here are a few other crafty ideas:

This robot was made by a preschooler and his mama, and I love it!

Yes, those are tofu containers and bottlecaps glued on and spray painted over. I witnessed this one in person, and it was genius! As was this one:

A shoebox guitar, painted up rock-n-roll style and festooned with random hardware. He had his hair spikey, temporary tattoos on his arms, sunglasses, and that's all you need for a rock star!

Finally, Jill sent us this cute photo of her little Minnie Mouse:

That's a Minnie Mouse hat she's holding, a gift from her auntie, and amazingly her mom found this almost perfectly matching dress at a thrift store, along with the leggings and mary janes. Too cute.

I love this thrifty DIY spirit that so many people have embraced for Halloween. Yeah, sometimes it takes a little longer to assemble than an off-the-rack costume, but it's a lot of fun and it's just one more little thing we can do.

Have a spooky weekend, y'all!

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Week 5

Heather — 2009-10-30T08:00:20-07:00

I had a colossal meatless meal disaster earlier in the week -- there was much swearing, a bloody finger, bean patties that simply would not patt-ify and some very unhappy customers. So I started thinking about what I could do with broccoli, one of the only veggies that my kids like cooked. From the deep recesses of my brain I remembered a Victory Garden episode I'd seen on PBS some 15 years ago, back when Russell and Marian Morash were on the program (and how I miss them). Marian made a broccoli soup that cleverly used pureed rice and broccoli stalks as the creamy base, and I'm sure it was this soup that prompted me to buy the Victory Garden Cookbook way back then. I don't think I ever actually made the soup until this week. Did the kids love it? Absolutely not. But hub and I did, and that's all the matters (this is my new motto).

Broccoli Soup from the Victory Garden Cookbook

It's vegan! Unless you choose to grate in some parmigiano reggiano, as I did.

1.5 lbs of broccoli

1/4 cup olive oil

1.5 tsp chopped garlic

1/4 cup rice (uncooked)

4 cups chicken broth (I used veggie broth, because, you know.)

Salt and pepper

grated Parmesan, optional

Separate broccoli florets from stems, cut into very small buds, and blanch for 3 minutes. Plunge into cold water, drain and set aside. Peel remaining broccoli stalks and chop into 1/2 inch chunks. Heat oil in a large saucepan, add garlic and cook for 30 seconds (don't let it brown!). (If you like your soup a little spicy, add some hot pepper flakes with the garlic.) Add chunked broccoli stalks and rice and stir for 2 minutes. Add broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until broccoli and rice is tender. Lift out the broccoli and some of the cooked rice and puree in a processor or blender (add some broth if you're using a blender). Return the puree to the soup base and mix well. When ready to serve, add the florets and cook long enough to heat through. Season to taste with salt, pepper and parmesan.

The kids thought it smelled amazing, but they just didn't like it. I love that you use all of the broccoli, and that the pureed rice and stalks provide the creamy factor. It's pretty thick, but I like a thick soup. I served cheese quesadillas on the side, which they always gobble up. (And just so you know, spellcheck informed me that I originally misspelled 'broccoli' throughout this entire post. Let's hear it for consistency!)

So let's see what our partners in meatless shenanigans cooked up this week:

Nancy of Nano's Kitchen cooked up a Veggie Cobbler. Oh, heavens. I think that is the way to sell vegetables to your family -- bake them into a cobbler! Who doesn't love cobbler? This sounds savory and cozy and makes me excited about the leftovers!

Jen from Life on Bean Road made Short and Sweet Sweet Potato Burritos. OK, how come I never put vegetables in my bean burritos? Corn! Lettuce! Sweet potatoes! This is a no brainer, and the kids would dig it. Easy, tasty, healthy -- it's all here wrapped in a tortilla.

Andrea from MiniMonos is on a DIY roll, literally, with her build-it-yourself Vietnamese Rolls. Forehead slap. My son loves salad rolls from a local Pho restaurant, and they are very similar to these. I've never bought rice paper -- could we really try this at home? Yes! I can see dipping these into the peanut sauce recipe, which has become a staple in my house, shared by Mary Beth in week 1. (Photo credit: MiniMonos.)

Speaking of Mary Beth from Salt & Chocolate, this week she smuggled some veggies into her Zucchini Crusted Pizza! The recipe is from that tried and true favorite, the Moosewood Cookbook. Two cups of shredded zucchini goes into this crust, unbeknownst to those picky eaters. Wah ha ha ha. Top it off as you wish!

Heather from Production Not Reproduction served up Stuffed Acorn Squash, much to the delight of her 4-year old. This is a very pretty dish, which might be part of the kid-allure. And as Heather says, Hello? It has maple syrup in it, so it must be good. She also got sneaky and used fake sausage, which I may need to investigate. Squash, apples, cranberries, pecans...sounds like autumn.

It's a Squash Smackdown! Marleen from Walking on a Highwire channeled her inner Alice Waters and made a lovely White Bean and Butternut Squash Soup. The recipe came from Waters' cookbook, Art of Simple Food, which is exactly what this soup is -- simple, yet you can see how the beans, squash and sage would make a perfect, flavorful marriage. And this is a new idea: Marleen can often get her kids to eat a pureed soup if they use a straw (but not this time, unfortunately)! (Photo credit: Walking on a High Wire)

Beth from The Cummings Clan got into the cool weather spirit with some Lucky Chili. And lucky for her, she got a big thumbs up from hubby and one child. I love a good, spicy bowl of chili, and this recipe uses a new-to-me ingredient -- fresh-brewed coffee! And bonus points for the crock pot!

Industrious Emily has perfected the art of the Veggie Pizza, making everyone at home very happy. Hasta la vista Papa Murphy's and hello homemade. This looks really, really good. I am in search of a no-fail pizza dough recipe -- I've made some inedible ones in the past. Any suggestions?

Just added! -- Melanie from Recipe Journal made Corn Chowder, another great-looking, yummy-sounding soup. Melanie takes the most gorgeous food photos...why else would I be craving soup at 8:30am? These few, simple ingredients get rave reviews from Melanie and her husband. Excellent.

Thanks, everyone, for your continued inspiration! And like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of our Meatless Lives.

Join Seventh Generation's Million Baby Crawl!

Heather — 2009-10-29T09:45:03-07:00

I am generally leery of campaigns led by business entities to raise awareness of a cause. Oftentimes it just feels like a marketing campaign for the company itself. Which it is, I guess, but this one actually feels OK to me. Seventh Generation has teamed with Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families to host a virtual Million Baby Crawl in an effort to get Congress to pass a law banning toxic chemicals in household products. Essentially, they want you to sign up to support their effort and encourage your family and friends to do the same. To do this, you visit their Web site and create a crawler. (You don't actually have to have a baby to participate. It's a virtual crawler.) You give them your name and email address, and then you can direct friends and family to support your crawler by signing up, too. It's a gimmick -- they're trying to gather names (which hopefully will only be used as ammunition when presented to Congress) but sometimes you need a gimmick to get people involved.

It's easy to sit here at the keyboard and lament toxic products and feel like I'm powerless to make change. I have no idea how to make change on this kind of level, so I'm grateful when someone else is willing to take the reins and push for it. Yes, of course, Seventh Generation would ultimately benefit from this kind of anti-toxin legislation -- they're in the business of non-toxic products! But we all would benefit, too.

So, I signed up. This I can do from my keyboard. You can support my crawler or someone else's or make your own. In addition, events will be held around the country to generate local support and awareness. There's one in the Portland metro area on Wednesday, November 18 from 10am-2pm at the Washington Square Mall. Stop by, sign a petition and make your voice heard.

Reviewing The Story of Stuff

Renee — 2009-10-28T09:44:13-07:00

Heather and I put on our best Kent Brockman voices a week ago, when we talked with all the second graders at our elementary school, saying "You might remember us from the 'Reduce/Reuse/Recycle' presentation we gave while you were in kindergarten..." I don't think any of them picked up on the Simpsons reference. But all in all, it was a good talk. You gotta love kids for their unbridled enthusiasm!

While prepping for our talk, I re-watched Annie Leonard's fantastic video The Story of Stuff. If it's been a while, you really should carve out 20 minutes to sit down and watch it. I probably looked a lot like an over enthusiastic sports fan while watching this video: Eyes glues to my computer screen. Shouting out spontaneous bursts of support: "Yeah!" "You go, girl!" and the triumphant hissed "Yes!!!" It was good no one else was home to overhear me. A few things from the video jumped out at me this time:

About manufacturing... We put good stuff and toxic stuff together, resulting in stuff that gets thrown away quickly, but with it all now being toxic stuff. Yesterday's thread about the BPA in canning lids underlines this point. There's also warnings this year about how most Halloween face paints contain lead, cobalt, nickel and chromium. This makes me want to scream! I consider myself fairly informed, but imagine there are tons of moms out there who don't know and really want to cute their kids up for Halloween by painting their faces. Arghhhh!!! The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics offers some recipes for safer DIY face paints.
The other thing that jumped at me was about fashion and how we watch tv and feel bad about ourselves, and we go out shopping to feel better, and we buy some stuff, and we go to work to pay for the stuff... Yet, if we resist, we end up being the mom with skinny heels in a 'fat heels year' and the TV blares "You suck!" I'd like to say I'm above all that. But truthfully, I do often feel like the most unstylish, un-chic person in every crowd. Oh well. But I do find I watch less TV, which happened very gradually over time as I had less and less time (probably the TV time loss can be attributed to the amount of time I spend blogging). So I'm exposed to less advertising, which is good so the chants of "You suck!" don't get overwhelming.

Re-watch The Story of Stuff. And be strong. We don't suck. I'm Kent Brockman, signing off...

EnviroBits: Swedish labeling, BPA in canning lids, and my love for Mark Bittman

Heather — 2009-10-27T10:40:37-07:00

I have lots of stuff swirling in my head, so it's time for a brain dump:

*** Let's start with some love. I am publicly professing my love for Mark Bittman, food and cookbook writer extraordinaire (I swear this guy is everywhere). I wasn't really even aware of Bittman until about a year ago (despite owning his Fish book for several years). The man knows his food and he knows how to present it in an accessible, user-friendly fashion that makes me feel like Yes! I can cook this and it will be delicious and good for my family! I've recently become the proud owner (thanks, Mom) of his How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and I love, love, love it. Mmmwah to you, Mr. Bittman.

*** Oh those Swedes! First they get us hooked on modern particleboard furnishings, and now they've gone and started labeling food with carbon dioxide emissions! This information is supposed to help consumers make more informed choices about the food they buy in grocery stores and restaurants -- the lower the carbon rating, the better for the environment. The carbon rating measures the food's production -- the type of facility or soil in which it was grown, fuel used by machinery, packaging and transport. Will it work? Well, similarily a new study recently found that restaurant nutritional menu labeling, like what we have here in Portland, does in fact help people make better food choices. So perhaps the Swedish labeling model will work, too. Skål!

*** Finally, here's some news that will make you want to curl into a fetal position for the rest of the day: your canning jar lids contain BPA! Excellent. You try and do the right thing and can fresh food for the winter, and little do you know you could be slowly killing your family. Sorry, that's extreme, but I'm a little emotional (first love, now death!). Long-time reader Kristi sent us the above link from Utne Reader (and she just pressure-canned tomatoes for the first time ever). Apparently the only BPA-free canning jars are the lovely, but pricey, Weck jars. This article from Treehugger indicates that jarred store-bought baby food is also affected. I really don't know what to think about all of this. The BPA stuff is alarming and it's popping up everywhere and I'm sure I've ingested mass quantities of it my whole life and have fed large doses to my kids. You see? It's time to assume the position. Wah.

Buy-nothing-new Halloween Costumes: 2009

Renee — 2009-10-26T09:35:42-07:00

Halloween is almost here! Are you busy at work, like Cinderella's mice, putting the final touches on your buy-nothing-new Halloween costumes? I'm pleased to say ours are finished. Well, almost. I did envision a bell around the neck of my sheep, and I swear, there is a tiny metal bell somewhere in our house and unless I can find it in the next few days (which isn't looking good), we're going to have to forget about the bell.

Here they are: one Japan girl and one sheep...

The Japan girl might have originally been called a Geisha Girl, but that had some connotations I didn't want associated with my 7-year-old, so we focused on this storybook we have called Bon Odori Dancer. Her costume is simply an adult robe (that we had), and she'll wear some Asian pj pants under that are also a silky fabric (probably poly). I made an obi sash with a layer of felt, covered by a floral remnant that looks rather pretty in this context, but seemed fairly ugly for anything else. We used a smidge of the floral to cover a plastic headband, and I harvested some silk-lei flowers to embellish the headband. Oh, and there's a shoe-lace tacked to the top of the obi.

For the sheep, we used a vest that was trimmed in fluffy white fleece to give that wool shearling look and turned it inside out. I sewed a bit of black fleece onto some old rabbit ears, then added a few cotton balls on top. There are cotton balls tacked to the back of her vest also for a tail. We borrowed white Oompa-Loompa pants from the costume Heather's son wore last year, then thanks to the great idea from EnviroMom reader Becky, found four black socks to put on her feet and hands to look like hoofs. This kid loves her costume and has begged me to leave the tail on the fleece and says she plans to keep wearing it inside-out after Halloween so she can be a sheep all the time. It will be also hard to keep the ears off her head because she really likes being a sheep.

If you've got photos of buy-nothing-new costumes you'd like to share, please email us enviromompdx [at] gmail [dot] com and we'd be glad to post them!

EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: Week 4

Renee — 2009-10-23T09:22:02-07:00

I acquired a copy of Mollie Katzen's veg cookbook The Enchanted Broccoli Forest in college, during a phase when I decided to become vegetarian for no real good reason -- a bold move for someone who wasn't a big fan of veggies. On second thought, it may be one of those unwritten college rules that you have to be a vegetarian for at least a semester. Anywho, I was not much of a chef but loved the whimsical name, and just had to try the recipe. I made it for a friend but remember wishing the broccoli didn't come out quite so brown. So I'm trying it again some 20 years (oh lordy, did I just confess that?) later, hoping its name will work magic with my family but that I can keep the broccoli trees bright green this time. Behold:

The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

1 pound of broccoli, cut into tree-like spears
6 cups cooked brown or white rice
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 large clove crushed garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp dried mint
black pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
3 large eggs
1/4 freshly minced parsley
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar or Swiss cheese
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp melted butter

Cut the broccoli into tree-like spears. Cook your rice. Mollie's recipe calls for 2 cups brown rice and 3 cups of water cooked in a saucepan about 20-30 minutes. I did mine in a rice cooker instead. While rice is cooking, saute onions, garlic and everything else you might desire in butter until onions are translucent (8-10 minutes). Because my kids are picky-picky-picky, I chopped my onions superfine so they'd be too small to pick out, and I also omitted all green herbs (dill, mint and parsley), as well as the pepper family (black and cayenne). Otherwise there would be much gagging and gnashing of teeth. Never a pretty sight at the dinner table.

Next, the recipe says to beat three eggs, then mix in the parsley, grated cheese and rice. Another version of this recipe also suggested putting sunflower sees in, and omits the eggs. I passed on the parsley and seeds, but opted for the eggs, and cut way back on the cheese -- just sprinkling some over the top of the rice-egg mixture. To expand the forest metaphor, think of the cheese as a dusting of fall leaves below the broccoli trees.

The recipe says to steam the broccoli until it's bright green at this point, then stick them upright into the bed of the rice mixture that's been placed in a greased casserole pan. As I recollect, this made the broccoli turn from bright to dull green, and there's no way I'd get my kids to eat that. So I baked just the rice-egg part in a 325 degree oven (covered with foil) for 30 minutes. Right before popping it out of the oven, I lightly micro-steamed my broccoli (make sure it doesn't get floppy), then poked it into the 'dirt' bed using the end of a wooden spoon to make guide holes. The recipe calls for melted butter and lemon juice on top of the trees, but I skipped the lemon juice and just plopped a tiny pat of butter on the trees as I served it. For my kids (and yes, it's OK if you think they are freaks right about now), it helps if they see the butter. If it melts they don't believe it's there.

My recipe budgets 50 minutes of prep time, and 30 minutes to bake -- so don't expect you can just whip this up. I will say the kids LOVED it. From the first mention of 'enchanted broccoli forest' they wanted to help. They picked the spots where we planted our broccoli trees, then used little broccoli stalks to make people wandering into the woods. For the most part, I don't encourage playing with food, but this was a worthwhile exception and everyone ate their trees! I also got immediate requests to make this again. Yippee!!

Now let's see what our guest bloggers have cooked this week!

For week 4 of the EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club, Melanie at Recipe Journal is dishing up Butternut Squash Risotto. I don't know about you, but I've got a pile of CSA squash just waiting to be cooked at my house. We are big rice eaters, so this will give us a way to tackle our squash stash. (Photo credit: Recipe Journal)

Industrious Emily brings us her well-honed go-to meal of Potato Soup. As she says, it's perfect for filling up on a cold day, and it satisfies her husband who doesn't always go for the soup-as-dinner proposition.

Jen from Life on Bean Road shares her old standby Veggie Lasagna recipe. According to Jen, it's great for freezing and leftovers too. Love that! She also served her lasagna with apple crisp, which is not a combo I would have thought of. Yet, here it is: autumn. Best time of year for apples. And it sounds so yummy now that I'm thinking of it that I could probably sit and eat lasagna and apple crisp all day until you had to wheel me out the door.

Beth at The Cummings Clan shares her recipe of Black Bean Soup with Lemon Cream. Black beans and lemon, you say? Yes, it's an interesting pairing. But Beth says the lemon and sour cream brighten up the soup nicely, with the added benefit of being entirely optional! She says it also goes well with tortilla chips, which there never can really be enough of, in my humble opinion. As an added bonus, this is a quick meal.

Nancy at Nano's Kitchen has baked up some Butternut Squash Lasagna. While this looks utterly delicious to me, Nancy said she felt it could use more vegetables. So if your veggie crisper is bursting at the seams like mine, you can try to cram in some bonus veggies and really customize this recipe. (Photo credit: Nano's Kitchen)

Marleen at Walking on a High Wire is sharing Double Broccoli Quinoa. Quinoa is one of those grains I've bought in bulk, but still haven't managed to cook! This sounds really tasty, and would be a good way for me to try out quinoa since it's paired with other foods my kids like. I love that it's a one dish dinner.

Mary Beth at Salt and Chocolate brings us Pesto Pasta. She also shares a frustration I often feel -- the desire to branch out and try new things, while not wanting to drive all over town looking for exotic ingredients, and ending up with an odd lot of said ingredients that she'll only use a tiny bit of. That's why this week's recipe turned out to be an old favorite, rather than something exotic and new.

Heather at Production Not Reproduction made Pad Thai for the first time at home. Thumbs up from the grown-ups, with the kids evenly divided on the results. She also jokes that the family is a little tired of her taking pix of their meals, which is totally what my kids are saying: 'Mom, that's so weird. You're not taking pictures of our dinner, again, are you?'

Always creative Andrea at Minimonos offers Nonviolent Harry Potter Pizzas that the kids got to build themselves. Andrea must be a natural marketing whiz, because she figured out that Vegetarian Pizza might sound uninspiring. But Harry Potter pizza faces? Who wouldn't want some of that?

Week 4, and again our guest bloggers have brought us an incredible variety of yummy vegetarian dinner recipes. Thank you everyone! Enjoy your weekend, and I hope you find the time to try out some of these great recipes.

Cork placemats: just as durable as plastic

Heather — 2009-10-22T09:25:48-07:00

A few months ago, after we finished our kitchen recession remodel, I went in search of round placemats for our new round kitchen table. Since I intend to keep this table for the rest of my days, I want to keep it in good shape. We never used placemats on our old, battered 50's dinette, so I've been out of the placemat loop for the past decade. (Placemat loop?) I figured I'd find some sort of cloth mats, but to my delight found cork placemats at Crate & Barrel marked down to $3 a piece (and it doesn't look like they carry them anymore). I was a little hesitant. Would they stain? Would they crumble? It's one thing to purchase an item made of a sustainable material, but if it doesn't hold up then it's not really sustainable, right?

Well, four months later I'm happy to report that these placemats totally rock. They look as good as they did brand-new. No rips, no crumbling, no drink rings, and the food wipes right off. They are cushiony and naturally resistant to mold and mildew. I love that I don't have to keep throwing them in the wash like I might with a fabric mat. Vinyl mats wipe clean, too, but I just could not go there. These are such an excellent alternative. Now I'm planning to line some of our drawers with cork (since I didn't have enough Marmoleum remnants to do all of the kitchen) and will skip the pricey version in favor of cork rolls from a craft or hardware store (thanks for that idea, Rachele).

From what I've read online, cork is a natural renewable resource, and it is harvested by stripping the bark from cork trees. It doesn't harm the trees and it grows back. The downside is that the trees only grow in Europe, primarily Portugal, so cork travels a ways to get here. But don't most products travel a ways to get here? Not a good argument, I know, but it's all I've got right now.

Any good cork success/failure stories to share? What are you using for placemats? Any good crafty reuse ideas out there for making your own?