Meatless Mondays: Easy Eating

This was a week with very little cooking.  I'm having a hard time shaking this bug, so my meals were basic and boring.  I did make a quinoa veggie soup (just quinoa, veggie broth, carrots, celery, scallions, and some seasoning), and man, was it...healthy tasting.  You know you have failed as a vegetarian when you make something and think, hmm, this needs chicken.


Even on weeks when I'm "healthy," like most folks, I'm beat when I get home.  And I have fibromyalgia, and other bizarre health issues.  Bottom line, I don't get to cook fun meals nearly as often as I would like.  But I've gotten much better at whipping up healthy dinners than I was as a college student (I'm not going to disclose how many meals of cottage cheese with salsa and tortilla chips were consumed between 2005 and 2009), and here are a few of my favorites.  I know all two of you out there are just dying to know :).

boyfriend works long hard hours in the kitchen, comes over afterward, and falls asleep.  Sometimes on the floor, in the middle of the doorway, with his legs in the air.

Once spring hits, I can't get enough asparagus.  My favorite way to eat it is just to coat the spears with olive oil, a little salt and a dash of pepper, and bake at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the asparagus.  It stays crunchy that way, and I like to pair the asparagus with a lightly fried egg.


I discovered that broccoli is actually delicious if you chop it into small pieces, throw it in a baking dish with about 1/4 inch olive oil and a few cloves of garlic (peeled, raw, and left whole).  Roast at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes (though I should warn you that my oven never follows recipes and rarely sets a timer).  Once the broccoli is slightly crispy, remove and toss with lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and chili flakes if you like.  Broccoli is a good source of protein, especially if you pair it with quinoa.


Spinach is an excellent superfood that is actually also a source of protein.  I've started throwing in a handful with my smoothies!  The color is awful, but the spinach taste is mild and goes well with pretty much anything you'd throw into a smoothie.  I've seen chocolate smoothie recipes with spinach (I'll keep my chocolate pure, thankyouverymuch), but I like it with tangier combos.  Smoothies are an important part of my springtime dinners - filling, tasty, and a good way to help meet my daily fruit demands.  Throw in some yogurt to increase the protein factor.


What are your go-to dinners for tired evenings?

Saturday Night Live: Al Gore Puts the "Mental" in Environmental

Al Gore appeared on SNL during Green Week 2009 to share some of his ideas on getting Washington to take the environmental crisis seriously: "Instead of science, I'm going with crazy."  Check out the clip on Hulu.  My favorite line?  "We're melting.  Love, the Glaciers." 

10 Ways to Repurpose Old Nylons and Tights

Now that the weather seems determined to stay warm, I'm putting away my tights/nylons for the season.  I'm weeding through the pairs that are worn out and beyond repair, and have been brainstorming some ways to re-use my old legwear in the process.  (Google helped a little too.)

1. My mom has been telling me since the first time I wore tights that if/when you get a run on one leg, snip it off and save the rest.  Two good legs makes a full pair of nylons, even if they originally came from different nylons.  It seems like there's a poignant life lesson in there somewhere.


2. Like any other fabric, legwear can be used for cleaning.  And apparently nylons are especially good for polishing shoes.


3. Collect those annoying bits of soap bars and tie them off in the foot of an old nylon for use in the shower at home, while camping, in the garage, or in your garden.


4. I don't know about you, but my cats are fascinated by watching me put on tights - and by fascinated, I mean my kitten flies through the air to attack what she sees as a new plaything.  So I figure I may as well make Scout her very own toy out of creatively-knotted washed-up tights.  (I'll trade her for the slipper she just stole.)


5. No-sew sachets: fill the legs with lavender, tie them off and place them in your dresser drawer or closet.  Or, fill with plain charcoal and keep in any room that is prone to mold.  The charcoal draws moisture out of the air, and has worked very effectively in reducing the number of times each year I have to scrub the bathroom ceiling.


6. Nylons work well as filters.  Use them in the kitchen for making smooth sauces, or on your workbench for straining paint.  (To be clear, we're talking two different nylons - no paint flecks in your tomato sauce.)


7. Consider trying textured tights as a stencil for your next project.  Or, use old nylons to add texture to paint like you would with a sponge.


8. Not pretty, but practical: use nylons to protect drinks from bugs while sitting outside in the summer.  I guess you could make this pretty by using your shnazzy colored tights?


9. My patio is limited to a few potted plants at this point, but there are LOTS of ways to repurpose legwear in the garden (a quick Google search will yield enough ideas to make your head hurt).  Use nylons for storing bulbs, tying plants, preventing soil erosion, and about a quajillion other things.


10.  And after publishing this post, I'm going to stick the leg of a sad pair of pantyhose over the nozzle of the vacuum to try and get some jewelry out from behind my dresser.  That way, the vacuum finds the earring without sucking it into the black abyss.  I'm so grateful to whoever first had the idea, because that dresser is heavy.

Image via How can I recycle this; post shared over at Your Green Resource, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, and Living Green Link-up at Like a Mustard Seed

"Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria" - World Malaria Day

Link

My coworker reminded me this morning that it is World Malaria Day, and I'm so glad she did.  (My brain is still about 30% phlegm and not paying attention to the news.)  Half the world's population is at risk for malaria, the mosquito-borne infectious disease that totaled an estimated 216 million cases last year and 655,000 deaths.  About 90% of these deaths in 2010 occurred on the African continent, most of them kids less than five years old.*  But despite these sobering stats, huge strides have been made in reducing the number of cases and mortality rates through protective nets, home-spraying with insecticide, effective testing for and the prompt treatment of malaria cases.


World Malaria Day began in 2007, initiated by the World Health Assembly as "a day for recognizing the global effort to provide effective control of malaria."  This year's theme, "Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria," speaks to the idea that continued investment is needed to maintain current practices and allow for widespread adoption of important health interventions.  And while it will take about $7 billion USD annually over the next ten years to end malaria worldwide, the direct economic loss from letting malaria run rampant is estimated at $12 billion USD in Africa alone.**  


Join the fight today!  Against Malaria is a UK-based charity that distributes long-lasting insecticidal nets.  They are highly ranked for their effectiveness and transparency, with an average cost per net of about $4.22.  It's really easy to donate online with Visa or MasterCard, and you get to track where your nets are distributed.  I'm excited to see where my five nets end up, and encourage you to consider donating just a few dollars to save lives!

*All stats from the World Health Organization

**See here for more information.

Meatless Mondays: Flu Edition (Orange Ginger Carrot Juice)

There was no cooking this week worthy of posting, and there wasn't much eating, either.  I thought I was having a bad allergy attack until about 10pm Saturday night when I realized that allergies don't usually make your scalp hurt.  I did manage to haul out my juicer to make an orange/carrot/ginger concoction, but was way too wiped to take pictures before downing three glasses.  I used 4 oranges, half-a-pound of carrots, and about an inch of ginger root (which is probably more than most people would like, but I liked the extra pow).  I actually feel much better (though still pretty phlegm-y) today, so we'll chalk it up to the juice.


What's your go-to recipe for getting over a bug?

Earth Day Reflections on the Millennial Generation

Today is Earth Day, and while I stumbled across plenty of related articles in the news and across the blogosphere, I haven't seen one Facebook update about the environment.  I wouldn't have thought much about it if I hadn't read this article on Blisstree discussing the findings of a San Diego State University study by Dr. Jean Twenge.*  The main headline: Millennials are actually less interested in sustainability and other civic issues than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.


When surveyed in their youth, about a third of Baby Boomers believed it was important to take personal action in environmental cleanup efforts, which dwindled to 25 percent among Gen Xers and 21 percent of Millennials at the same age.  15 percent of Millennials responded that they made no effort to save the environment, double the response for young Gen Xers and triple the response for young Baby Boomers.


Potential explanations offered include increased narcissism and shorter attention spans in the Millennial generation.  Alternatively, it was suggested that Millennials might just be on information overload about the state of the environment. 

"It's not so much that they don't think it's important. They're just worn out.  It's like poverty in a foreign country. You see the picture so many times, you become inured to it." - Dr. Mark Potosnak, an environmental science professor at DePaul University in Chicago

I think both of these points are related to the fact that Millennials were the first kids raised with instant messaging and online social networking sites as part of everyday life.  Through these platforms, we have the ability to share All About Me 24/7 with friends from next door and halfway around the world.  We get global news instantly, and then click to display in our feed that we care about global warming, or poverty, or sex trafficking.  Images and news stories quickly go viral, coming and going so rapidly that we don't consider issues long enough to translate the information into action.  We are a generation of Social Media Activists, but the study indicates that we don't put our time or money where our tweets are. 


In defense of the Millennials, I think it’s worth considering that most 20-somethings are in a different place than our parents or grandparents were at our age.  We graduated in the midst of the worst economic conditions since the depression**, and many are still struggling to find a solid job or career trajectory.  We are getting married and having kids later, and most of us are not even close to buying a home.  We're less likely to be settled in our twenties than the generation before us, and I think that the transitory nature of our lives impedes community involvement.  Our most stable community IS online.  And as apartment renters, it makes sense that we're less likely to have made efforts to reduce our fuel consumption in the home - not only do we have less financial incentive to do so, we are also limited in our ability to make changes to our living space.  Maybe if they give us a little more time, they'll start to see a greater investment in green and civic issues from Millennials.


My fellow Millennials, what do you think?  Do we care as much as we tweet we do?  Non-Millennials welcome to comment as well!

(I'm a little biased - I had the privilege of working with some amazing Millennials to raise money to build clean water wells in African communities.)
  
*Full study available here.

**Data for the study was collected before the big economic downturn, but the trends of settling down later and taking longer to find a stable career path were already established at this point.  So we can’t blame everything on the economy, even though it’s fun.

Office/Community Yoga

When the trees are this pretty, why stay inside?

On Tuesday, I spent my lunch break outside doing Yoga on a stretch of grass with five coworkers.  It was a perfect 73 degrees, and only slightly distracting to hear the conversations of some hilarious third graders on recess next door.  We had been trying to organize a class through our University's off-site exercise program, but had found it tricky with the myriad meetings filling our schedules and conference rooms.  Then, a lovely employee who also happens to be a yoga instructor offered to teach a series of classes at a mere $5 a session, which is a good deal cheaper than most offers AND extremely convenient to attend on the job.  The class has been a great way to help build exercise into my week, get some much-needed fresh air and Vitamin D, and spend time with coworkers I might not otherwise see or get to know.  


Yoga has become so popular that I bet at least one of your coworkers - or member of your church, Bible study, or play group - has the skills to lead a class!  Another option is to gather your coworkers/friends and pop on a yoga DVD, or just find a patch of grass to do your own routine.  It's an activity that can be done in a way that's frugal, eco-friendly, and community-building, and it's very easy to individualize to accomodate injuries or weaknesses.  After a few months of modified Tibetan yoga, I have noticed a considerable improvement in my core strength and neck muscles, something I never thought was possible after my car accident and nerve damage diagnosis.   


One of the most important lessons I've learned over the last two sessions is that college students aren't the only individuals who excitedly commit to something up front and then never show up.  Now, the excuses from coworkers who flake tend to be understandable and completely valid (last-minute meeting, too many projects on their desk, out sick that day), but to a certain degree, the choices we make with our time reveals where our priorities lie.  We live in a culture that values working hard and a lot, and exercise too often gets put on the back burner.  This time around, we asked people to pay for the six-week session up front, though they are welcome to find someone to take their place if they are unable to attend a given class.  The monetary incentive definitely increases participation.

Yoga not your style?   Try out these cubicle exercises from the Washington Post, or click here for the videos, which are even more awesome!


Shared over at Your Green Resource and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways 

Cool Green App: Verde (Free until April 22nd!)

Thanks, Mark, for alerting me to this cool free app!  I don't have a smart phone (does that make it dumb?), but for those in the modern world, Verde  by Verde Sustainable Solutions, L3C helps you track energy consumption to save money AND the environment.   Isn't it nice when they go together?

"The application walks you through the process of listing your personal electrical usage, and together with your local KWh cost found on your electricity bill, Verde will calculate your total energy consumption, and make suggestions on how you can make changes to save money, and save energy!" (quote)

In honor of Earth Day 2012, you can download this app for FREE until April 22nd.  And apparently the latest version is integrated with Facebook and Twitter, which I'll take to mean you can brag to your friends about how much money you're saving on electricity.  Awesome.

Meatless Mondays: Creamy Dijon Asparagus with Lemon Edamame Risotto

White food doesn't photograph that well, ya know?  Natural lighting would have been better, but I didn't finish cooking this until 9pm last night.  But it was tasty.

I made Asparagus Salad with Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce and Chopped Hard-Boiled Eggs from Once Upon a Chef, which was adapted from Jacques Pepin’s More Fast Food My Way.  The only change I made was to coat the asparagus with olive oil, toss with salt and pepper, and bake at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes.  And I garnished with parsley, because I scored a huge fresh bunch at the market.


The risotto was inspired by a recipe from The Kitchn.  Actually, I made a variation of their Spring Lemon Risotto with Asparagus and Fiddlehead Ferns a few weeks ago, yesterday saw edamame in something else, and decided to pair them up. Here's what I did:

Ingredients
5 cups vegetable stock (I made my own)
1 cup risotto rice
1...or maybe it was 2...tablespoons butter
2 scallions (green onions) - I chop the white parts finely and then cut the green parts into 3/4 inch segments
2 (small) cloves garlic, minced
zest of one lemon, juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup edamame (if from the freezer section, thawed)

1. I keep vegetable odds and ends in a bag in the freezer, and boil them in water when I need vegetable stock.  In this case, I simmered broccoli, garlic, onion, asparagus, carrots and a little salt while preparing the asparagus dish.  I then drained the pot so only the broth was left, and cooked the risotto.

2. While the rice is cooking, melt the butter in a skillet.  Lightly brown the garlic.

3. Add the white part of the scallions, followed by the wine, lemon juice, and edamame.

4. When rice is cooked, add to the skillet and mix.  Then add lemon juice, zest, and parmesan cheese.

I'm sure their version was better, but mine was simpler.

What is Your Cat Saying to You?

This post has nothing to do with anything.  Scout selected a book off the shelf to chew on.

My former roommate gave this to me as a gag gift, and Scout picked this out of alllll the books on the shelf.  Little cat, what ARE you trying to tell me?

Meatless Mondays: Brookledge Breakfast Casserole

Here's another family-favorite recipe that has been present for every major holiday I can remember!

While the original recipe calls for sausage from meat, we typically either leave the meat our or use vegan/vegetarian sausage instead.  And here's the thing: when you add faux meat products to a casserole, you can't really tell that it's vegetarian (boyfriend disagrees, but admits that it still tastes good).  Of course, just because it's fake meat doesn't mean it's healthier, and many meat substitutes are highly-processed and list lots of unpronounceable ingredients (or at least unpronounceable to me: I was a social science major).  Two brands that are recommended across cyberspace include Gardein and Quorn, and here is a recipe to make your own vegan sausage.  


Whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy this as much as we do at Brookledge, the old name for our family home.  (And keep in mind, our family tends to eschew following recipes and measuring, so feel free to adjust the amount of cheese, mustard, spices, etc below based on your tastes and how much Dijon is left in the jar.)  This is not necessarily the healthiest of recipes, but it's quite the treat.  Plus, I served it with vegetables.  Bam.


Ingredients:
6-8 slices bread, cubed
1 lb sausage
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 can cream of celery soup
8 eggs
1 and 1/4 tbsp Dijon mustard
3.5 cups milk 
1 tsp yellow mustard
1/4 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg


Optional: try green chilies for more zest, and asparagus or broccoli also work well in this dish.


1. Cook onions and sausages and/or asparagus/broccoli in butter until onions are translucent (this makes them sweeter) but with care not to overcook the veggies. 
2. Place bread in greased 9 x 19" glass pan.  Add onions and sausages and/or asparagus/broccoli, followed by cheese.  Then layer the rest of the ingredients.  You can store this raw overnight.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for about 2 hours, with the last 1/2 hour uncovered.  


This casserole is nice and filling, and freezes well after baking.  Enjoy!

Upcycled: Grandma's Sunday School Certificates

While going through the basement a few months ago, my mom and grandma came across Grandma's Sunday School certificates from her childhood.  Aren't they sweet?  My grandma painted the frames a nice bright blue and put them up in the guest room.  I thought this was a fun way to turn old documents languishing in the basement into a very clean, modern display.  And on this Easter Sunday, it makes me grateful for the faith tradition that has been passed down.  He is Risen Indeed!  

Spring Green: Community Plant Trade

The nearer-to-empty state of the table is actually a tribute to how well this little experiment went.  Two coworkers came up with the idea to designate a table in the break room for a "Spring Has Sprung: Plant Non-Sale" where green-thumbed coworkers could donate extra seedlings, bulbs, planting materials and seed packets for the browner- (or blacker-) thumbed among us.  I've seen pea shoots (not peashooters, though Plants vs. Zombies is where my mind went, too), chrysanthemums, squash seeds, and a few other packets that were already snatched up by the time I thought to take a picture.  Someone also thoughtfully set out a flier for an upcoming plant sale from our local arboretum.  There was very little organization or oversight needed to plan the "event," participation was completely voluntary, and it encouraged people to join in a green activity even if they don't normally identify with - or like - the crunchy lifestyle.  This little give-and-take plant trade would also be a fun activity for church groups, bible studies, play groups, preschools, or any other community group!


And which group do I fall in?  I took home two little zinfandel grape plants from an event two years ago, watered and fertilized them, thought I had killed them, and was pleasantly surprised to see the green leaves returning a few days ago.   I must be doing something right.


Shared over at Your Green Resource!

From My CSA Box This Week - Fresh-Squeezed Orange Juice

The juicer that boyfriend bought me for my birthday finally arrived from backorder!  As I was jumping up-and-down with glee, I felt something sharp cut my foot, and discovered a shard of glass in my sock.  I have no idea where it came from.  It was quickly forgotten as we peeled all of the oranges I've collected from my CSA boxes and turned them into this:

This baby is going to get a LOT of mileage.  I cannot wait to play around with different fruit and veggie combos, and am hoping to stay away from buying packaged juice from the grocery store from now on.  I also hope this aids me in avoiding wasting food - if my produce starts to turn, I'll just juice it up!

On a side note, I can see why fresh-squeezed orange juice is so pricey.  We used nine oranges, and I drank that stuff down in three days.  But it was totally worth it.  

In case the song and dance routine I made up about the new juicer didn't properly express my gratitude, thanks, boyfriend!!