Category Archives: Green Ideas

In case the environmental impact of the flight itself weren’t enough

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is great, because I really don’t want to waste brain power writing much about the airplane “meals.”  In short, the tray contained as much plastic as food, and that’s being generous and not putting any of the food in the plastic category.  The flight attendant was quite annoyed when I insisted on returning the plastic wrapped plastic utensils and the bottled water.

Fortunately, the food did get better after this, though it was not always amazing, and I was not pleased with the scarcity of whole grains and vegetables throughout the trip.  Suffice it to say that I am very glad to be back in the kitchen!

Between the ridiculous amount of plastic waste involved and the uninspiring food, we passed on the meals altogether on the return flight, opting instead for the pizza we purchased the night before.

Clothing my pregnant body

Going into this pregnancy, I hoped to avoid buying any NEW clothing.  I mean, what a ridiculous thing, right?  Why buy something brand new that I would wear for a few months at most, when there should be plenty of good condition used maternity clothes floating around out there.

The reality: finding used maternity clothing is easier said than done.  Where is all of the gently used maternity clothing?  Are there lots of mothers out there, hoarding their maternity clothes for the next potential pregnancy?

Goodwill: I struck out at my local Goodwill store — one small, disorganized rack with nothing in my size.  If I were willing to drive to some of the posher Goodwill locations, maybe I would have better luck, but it’s hard to justify the gas for a distinct “maybe.”

Kangaroo Kids: I had a bit more luck at this children’s and maternity resale shop.  I scored a pair of gray dress pants, a black knee length skirt (that I need to grow into), and two tops for about $22.  The downside is the distance — it’s out in the direction of my MIL’s, so it was easy enough to justify a stop, but I wish it were closer so I could pop in more often, since their inventory changes daily.

Scholarshop: Both Scholarshop locations have a maternity rack.  Small selection, but good condition and easy to look through.  I considered a few purchases, but at that point I was waiting to see what I would get from my sister.  Not quite as far away as Kangaroo Kids, but not super easily accessible without a car, either.

My sister’s closet: My youngest sister and I are fairly close in size, and she just happened to be about four months ahead of me in this pregnancy thing.  She is now a new mama, and done with some of the maternity clothes.  I inherited a few tops, a pair of jeans, and a nice pair of corduroy pants.   The jeans and most of the tops are currently a bit big on me, but maybe I’ll grow into them?

New purchases

Belly bands: Back in January, before acquiring any other maternity clothing, I purchased three belly bands.  I hoped to use them to extend the life of my regular pants, but they didn’t work particularly well for that.  The thin, stretchy fabric could not hide the fact that my pants were halfway unzipped.

I am using them now with my maternity pants, as many of my regular tops still fit, but aren’t quite long enough to hide the weirdness of the maternity pants’ waistbands.  Belly band to the rescue.

JCPenney: Looking for a couple of maternity pieces that would be well-suited for travel, and with a gift card that needed to be used anyway, I did some online shopping.  I ordered a pair of pants and three tops.  I wanted a pair of leggings to round things out, but they were no longer available when I went to checkout 😦  They have yet to arrive, and I’m honestly not sure if I’ll keep any of them.

I’d like to get back by Kangaroo Kids and Scholarshop, but I’m not sure when that will happen.

The fact that I can get by, pretty happily, with my limited maternity wardrobe of 2-3 pair of pants and a handful of tops proves that my pre-pregnancy wardrobe (while not huge by most standards) was significantly larger than necessary.  I look forward to whittling it down, but at this point I don’t want to get rid of too much until I see where my shape settles post-baby.

Celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with Green Food

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s a great day to have a green blog 😉

Speaking of green, I grew up with my grandma’s St. Patrick’s day meals, where everything was green — literally!  Green butter, green water, green wine & beer, green horseradish — she really went all out.

The St. Patrick’s Day dinners bring back great memories, and I love the spirit and festivity, but these days, the thought of consuming all that green food coloring makes me cringe.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of green foods out there, so you can still have a green meal without artificial dyes.  As an extra bonus, most naturally green foods are pretty good for you.

Green on green

Here are a few ideas:

  • Green cabbage — a very traditional St. Paddy’s Day food, but the traditional cooking method — boiling forever — robs it of most of the green color (and most of the nutritional value).  Try it fresh in a cabbage salad.
  • Spinach — try a simple saute with olive oil and garlic or fresh with your favorite salad toppings.
  • Pesto — the basil gives it a fabulous bright green color.  Serve with your favorite [green] veggies and pasta.
  • Garnish plates or beverages with fresh herbs such as mint, basil, parsley, or cilantro.
Complete with shamrock plant in the background

There are a bunch of green foods not on my list, so it’s your turn!  What is your favorite naturally green food?

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We’ll be keeping things fairly traditional with our reuben sandwiches tonight.  Since we made our sauerkraut with purple cabbage, we’ll have to make sure to have a serving of green on the side 🙂

Brine your beans

A couple years ago, I switched from canned beans to dried beans.

Advantages of dried over canned:

  • Cheaper — plain a simple.
  • Avoids BPA exposure from canned beans.
  • Avoids excess sodium in canned beans.
  • Less packaging waste.  I buy most of my beans from the bulk bins, reusing plastic bags.  Even if you buy prepackaged dry beans, it involves much less packaging per amount of beans.
  • Dry beans require less energy to transport because they lack the liquid weight.

While I was happy enough with my bean-cooking method (quick soak or an overnight soak, drain and rinse, boil for about an hour), we recently discovered a new method that yields delicious, lightly salted cooked beans, reminiscent of the canned variety in a good way.

We happened across the idea of brining beans while flipping through an old edition of America’s Test Kitchen.  Basically, it’s a modified version of the quick soak, with salt added to the cooking water.

I initially reacted with skepticism, since the number one rule of cooking dried beans is “don’t add salt until the beans are fully cooked — it will make the beans tough and increase the cooking time.”  However, something about this method totally works.

How to brine beans

  1. Put desired quantity of dried beans in a pan.
  2. Add water to cover the beans, plus 1/2 to 1 inch on top — keep track of how much water you add.
  3. For every quart of water, add 2 generous teaspoons of salt.
  4. Cover and bring to a boil.
  5. Boil 3-5 minutes, then remove from heat.
  6. Let stand at least one hour (I’ve let mine stand for up to 8 hours — time over one hour neither helps nor hurts).
  7. Drain and rinse beans.
  8. Return to pot and cover with fresh water.
  9. Bring to a boil and cook 40 minutes to an hour, or until beans reach desired tenderness.
  10. Alternate cooking method: place in crock pot with enough water to cover.  Turn to low, and cook for 8-10 hours.

I’ve used this method successfully with black beans, pinto beans, and garbanzo beans thus far.  It should work for almost any kind of dried bean.

For ultimate convenience, follow the brining steps in the evening, letting the beans soak overnight, rinse them in the morning, and place in a crock pot to cook while you’re gone during the day.  You’ll return home to fabulous beans just waiting to be incorporated in your dinner — almost as convenient as the canned variety!

Ding dong, the books are gone!

After a weekend of waiting and wondering if the rescued math books would find a new home, I peeked outside late Sunday afternoon to an empty front porch!  🙂

I know this is just a small drop in the bucket, but these books will be helping kids learn math skills instead of just sitting in the landfill for the next eleventy hundred years.

I’m still on edge every time I take trash out to the dumpster (which, fortunately, is not all that often), afraid of what I’ll feel compelled to rescue next.