Shaking my head...

I bought some lettuce yesterday. When I plopped it on the conveyor belt at the grocery, the cashier frowned. "I'm going to sanitize my hands real quick before I touch your lettuce." she said.

Me (thinking): "Hmmm...okay, well that's unnecessary, but nice I suppose."

Cashier: "You should really put this in a plastic bag you know."

Me: "Eh, that's okay, I'd rather not use the plastic. I'll wash it at home though."

Cashier: "We handle a lot of money you know. Some of our cashiers have gotten sick from touching it, then touching their mouths or eyes."

Me: "Uh huh, yes, that's too bad." (point well taken)

Cashier: "You never know. There's all sorts of diseases. People with AIDS have probably touched this money so you should use a plastic bag for your produce."

Me (thinking): "Oh no she did not just say that. Bite your tongue, bite your tongue, bite your tongue...." (Note to self: Alert the CDC that plastic produce bags can stop the spread of AIDS - sweet!!)

Cashier: "All your food isn't going to fit in this (cloth) bag."

Me: "No problem, I'll just carry the crackers."

Cashier (shaking head): "Don't you want a plastic bag for it?"

Jeez! I felt like Joan Crawford, "NO PLASTIC BAGS - EVER!"

Slashing Plastic!

Over at the Going Green With Burbanmom Yahoo group (which is actually hosted by Green Resolutions now that Burbanmom has moved on) the group has been chatting about plastic. I'm excited to see the number of people who are on board with eliminating -- or at least reducing -- plastic from their lives. I think they'll be a great source of support, information, and ideas as we embark on the challenge ourselves this year.

I'm planning to keep a list here of the things we've changed and will bump the post up as we add more to it.

Here's what we've done thus far:

• Use cloth bags instead of plastic.
• Use a travel mug instead of getting a paper cup w/ plastic lid.
• Use To-Go Ware when eating out.
• Use a glass straw.
• We bring drinks with us in Sigg bottles.
• Use bar soap in the shower instead of liquid soap that comes in a plastic bottle.
• I've been trying "no-poo" w/ an apple cider vinegar rinse instead of shampoo & conditioner. I haven't quite committed to this yet though.
• I've also tried almond oil in my hair instead of gel in a plastic tube. It's great for the weekdays when I'm working at home, but I still use gel when I have meetings or am going out and want to look hot (haha).
• Using an apple cider / water / green tea mix for toner instead of store bought in a plastic bottle.
• We use Preserve toothbrushes and razors, which you can send back to the company for recycling.
• I use bar shave soap.
• I use sweet almond oil in a glass bottle for body moisturizer instead of lotion in a plastic bottle.
• We replaced our shower curtain and liner with cloth alternatives.
• I make our laundry soap from borax, washing soda and bar soap - no plastic involved.
• I make my cleaning products from borax, washing soda, baking soda, lemon juice, or vinegar. The vinegar does come in plastic, but we at least buy it in bulk.
• We buy eggs in compostable cardboard cartons instead of styrofoam.
• We've cut out individually packaged items like granola bars.
• I make my own butter.
• When there's something we want that comes in plastic, we find it used instead of buying it new. Like the salad spinner I bought at Goodwill, or the rubbery Ikea molds I wanted for making crayons. No new environmental impact that way.

Crayon Roll Tutorial

I'm in love with these crayon rolls! They are adorable and so easy to make. I think every kid we know will be getting one this year because I can't stop making them. I found a few patterns online and have combined ideas from each for this tutorial.

This particular roll was made with Fletcher's "to-go" crayons in mind. It's a set of 8 Crayola Roll Ups. (Not exactly environmentally friendly encased in plastic and all, but they were a gift and they keep him entertained when we go out somewhere.) You'll see that it's simple to adjust the dimensions depending on the size and number of crayons (or markers or colored pencils) that you'd like to include.

For this roll, I used three pieces of fabric, each 8.5" long by 6" tall and a piece of ribbon about 16 inches long. I used some scrap Disney Cars fabric for the outside and inner lining, and a yellow plaid for the pocket - it used to be one of Fletcher's crib sheets.

Take your pocket piece and fold it in half, with right sides facing out. Iron.

Place it on top of the inside lining, pin and sew along the sides and bottom, using a 1/8" seam allowance.

Starting from the left edge, measure in 1 1/4 inches and mark a line from the top of the pocket to the bottom using a fabric pen. Then measure and mark every inch. When you get to the right side, you'll have 1 1/4 inches left. So, you will have 6 one inch pockets with a 1 1/4 inch pocket on both ends.

Pin and sew from the bottom up each line. Remember to back stitch when you get to the top of each line. This is what you'll have:

Now we're going to sew on the ribbon that will hold the roll closed. Fold your ribbon in half and pin to the right side of the pocket so that the tails are going to the left. Sew a few stitches over it either by machine or hand.

Next take the outside piece and place it on top, so that the right sides are facing, pin. Sew around all sides, using a 1/8" seam allowance. Be sure to leave an opening so that you can turn it out.

After sewing around the edges, clip the corners. (The ribbons should still be on the inside of the roll at this point. I sewed it on backwards in this photo and had to remove and re-do it.)

Turn right side out and push the corners out using something sharpish. Fold the edges in where you left the opening for turning. Iron the whole thing. Pin the opening, then sew all the way around the whole roll again using a 1/8" allowance. This gives it a bit more structure.

The finished product:

If you'd like to make this for colored pencils or the tall skinny markers, you'll want to cut your fabric a bit taller so that they don't stick out the top. For regular sized crayons, I only made this one 5 inches tall, but I added more pockets:

For each additional pocket, you'll just want to add one more inch in the length of the fabric.

I'd love to see some photos if you make one of these, so be sure to leave a comment and link to your picture.

Your cuteness fix for Friday

While we're waiting to bring our new children home, I'm trying to keep busy by nesting and making things for them. I've had my eye on a few crayon roll tutorials, figuring crayons would be a good thing to have on our 30+ hour trip home from Ethiopia.

I made this one last night for Macy, but found a few small things that I wanted to change before making more for the boys. I'll try to put up a tutorial in the next day or two.

Homemade laundry soap

I'm blogging at Make it From Scratch today where I shared my recipe for laundry soap. You can make it with some of the all natural cleansers you already have in your home.

Move over Martha, there's a new girl in the kitchen!

As we attempt to go greener in the kitchen, I've been trying to use up all of the wayward items in our cupboards. We're slowly diminishing the number of (BPA lined) canned food, and boxes of random side dishes. I have to say, much like purging belongings you no longer love, or clothes that no longer fit, it feels just as good to get rid of some of the pre-made, prepackaged, who-knows-what's-in-it food that doesn't quite fit in your life anymore.

As the only veggie eater in the house, I've been guilty of eating half of something, then allowing it to die a slow death in the fridge. I love squash and zucchini, but a girl can only eat so much of it in one week before it goes to mush. As I've said before, I'm not really the master chef, so I don't automatically think of other things to do with it. I know how to cook it one way, and that's pretty much what I stick to.

Well that was the old me!

Mr. Greenhab brought home a few bunches of asparagus last week when they were on sale at the grocery store. They (conveniently) didn't have tags on them when they arrived home, but I'm assuming they were not locally grown. He can be quite sneaky sometimes.

We ate one bunch steamed with kosher salt and lemon pepper, as we always do. But who wants that twice in one week? So I channeled my inner Martha, grabbed Oskar (that's him on the right) and actually made my very first no-recipe-make-it-up-as-you-go dinner!

On hand I had some local potatoes and onion, a bit of leftover squash and zucchini, and the asparagus. Mr Greenhab doesn't really love squash and zucchini, and Grandma Greenhab just likes the potatoes, so I had some disguising to do. Here's basically how it went:

Creamy Potato Asparagus Soup Surprise

1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 onion
6 small potatoes
whatever other leftover veggies you want to sneak in
4 cups water
chicken bouillon
1 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
4 tbsp butter
salt & pepper

• Clean, peal & cut potatoes. Boil them in the 4 cups of water in a large pot. I added 3 chicken bouillon cubes as well. Once they were tender, but not mushy, I turned the heat down to low.
• Steam the asparagus for a few minutes, then run it through the food processor until smooth. Add to potatoes.
• I put the onion, squash & zucchini in the food processor together and processed until it was chopped fine enough to be indistinguishable. Add to the potatoes and asparagus.
• Cook all on low for 15 - 20 minutes. (I added the butter in here at some point, but I'm thinking you could leave it out?)
• Mix flour & milk together, bring soup back up to a low boil, and slowly pour in flour/milk while stirring.
• Turn back to low and allow to thicken for a few minutes.
• Season with salt & pepper as needed.

I served this with shredded cheese and homemade croutons on top. Although I made the entire meal with food already in our house, I would say it cost about $6.00 to make, all included, and fed 4 adults and a child, plus enough leftovers for 2 lunches. Not bad!

And did I mention they even commented on how good it was!? Leftover Surprise Dessert didn't go over as well...but we won't talk about that. I'll revel in my dinner success a little while longer.

This post is my submission for Thrift Green Thursday. Visit their website for more thrifty green ideas!

MIFS #103

The 103rd edition of the Make it From Scratch blog carnival is now up at 11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven.

Local Food 411

Thought I'd share this iVillage article by "Supermarket Guru" Phil Lempert: Save Money and Get Fresher Produce. I don't know about the saving money part, but there are some great links provided there for finding local CSA's, Co-Ops, Pick-Your-Own farms, and farmer's markets.

We're not exactly in a part of the country where you can pick your own or get fresh, local produce in the middle of winter. I did find a good source of local beef though.

Gimmie5

I started writing this blog post, then realized that Beth said what I was trying to say, but did so much more eloquently, so I'll just copy her suggested Letter to the Editor here instead:

Plastic waste is a serious environmental problem. It is made from fossil fuels and does not biodegrade, lasting virtually forever and wreaking havoc in the natural world.

Fortunately, a new program called Gimme5 is attempting to deal responsibly with some of our plastic waste. Customers can return used #5 (polypropylene) plastic containers as well as Brita pitcher water filters and used Preserve products to select Whole Foods markets or mail them back to Preserve for recycling.

Full details of the program are at http://www.preserveproducts.com/gimme5.

This program is the culmination of lots of hard work by Beth Terry and her Take Back the Filter campaign which convinced Brita to find a way to recycle used water filters. Brita partnered with Preserve and will be turning those filters (and other #5 plastics) into their toothbrushes and razors. If you haven't seen or used Preserve products, check out their website. We've been using their toothbrushes and razors for a little over a year now and really like them.

There are two ways to get filters and other #5 plastics to Preserve:

• Drop your #5's at a Preserve Gimme5 bin available in select Whole Foods Market stores. Click here for a list of locations. If your Whole Foods isn't on the list, be sure to check back because they'll be adding new locations.
• If you don’t live near a Preserve Gimme5 location, you can send your #5's and filters to: Preserve Gimme5, 823 NYS Rte 13, Cortland, NY 13045.

This program will only be continued and expanded if people use it, so be sure to take advantage of it and spread the word!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

A few weeks ago I decided to ditch the store-bought granola bars. I felt guilty every time I threw away one of those little unrecycleable wrappers. And we eat a lot of granola bars in our house. We had already put a moratorium on anything individually packaged but had never thought of granola bars as being individually packaged for some silly reason...maybe because they don't come any other way? I don't know.

I happened across a recipe for peanut butter granola bars that sounded yummy, but used a little more butter than I'd like and came out a bit too crumbly -- especially for a messy 3 year old who likes to eat on the run. Over the past few weeks I've tweaked the recipe several times (and eaten a lot of granola bars) and finally came up with something that works for us. I am trying to use organic ingredients, but still have a few non-organic things on-hand like the rolled oats.

~*Peanut Butter Granola Bars*~

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp ground flax seed

Dash of salt

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

In a bowl, mix the oats, flour, flax and salt. Set aside. In a pan over medium heat, melt butter, peanut butter, honey and brown sugar together. Remove from heat and stir in applesauce. Add mixture into the bowl with dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour into a greased 9"x9" pan and press with fork or spatula. Cook at 350 degrees for around 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Important: Allow the granola bars to cool completely before cutting with a sharp knife. They tend to crumble if you cut them while they're still warm. Cut and store in a container in the refrigerator for 7 - 10 days. I actually find they're best after a day or so in the fridge when they've had time to congeal.

I also crumble some up and mix it in with my yogurt - it is sinfully delicious that way!!

Sweet Treats for your Sweet Pea!

I'm blogging today at Make it From Scratch. Check it out!

2009 Goals

Since we're well into February already, I thought it was time to get off my duff and write about our goals for the year. If you ever had a question about what our brownist, least environmentally friendly area was, you need not look any further than these two doors:

Sick, isn't it? Could there be more plastic in there? Sometimes a girl has to shame herself into action I suppose. Food is such a sore subject around the Greenhab household, which is probably why we've waited so long to take action in this area.

So here's the sitch:

We have four people who live in our house on a regular basis: Me, Mr. Greenhab, the kid and Grandma Greenhab. Uncle Greenhab is currently visiting, helping us to prepare the house for the two newest babes who will arrive this summer. If you're counting along at home, that will be somewhere around 6 people on a regular basis.

Mr. Greenhab is a carnivore - the man hates veggies - so we eat meat almost every day. I know that the environmental impact of meat - beef especially - is enormous and I'd be happy having it just a few times a week. But if Daddy's not happy, nobody's happy. I'm trying to convince him that we should at least use it as an ingredient in our meals, as opposed to it being the main focus of every meal. We're also looking into co-ops where we can get locally and humanely raised meat but Mr. Greenhab's other nickname is "Cheapest Man on Earth", which is another reason why we've put off greening our food for so long. It's not cheap!

Toddler Greenhab likes snacks. We've made a firm "no individually packaged stuff" rule in our house - so no crackers or cookies or fake fruit in those cute little serving sized pouches. He's pretty okay with that. He does like his snacks though, and seems to know that mom's granola bars are not in the same league as store-bought.

Grandma Greenhab is a vegetarian, but doesn't really like vegetables. She's more of a pastatarian...or a breadatarian.

Me, I like convenience. I admit to being a horrible cook and hating cooking, so this is going to be a challenge for me.

So here are our goals when it comes to greening our food:

• Reduce the amount of pre-made food and mixes we buy - boxed mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, stuffing, desserts, etc. Hubster is on board with that because I'll be the one making them from scratch.
• I'd like to stop eating (factory) canned vegetables, which means buying a lot of local food in the summer and canning it myself. I experimented a little with this last summer. We'll see how the food tastes when I get brave enough to try it.
• Buy in bulk. Our local chain grocery store has a surprisingly decent selection of bulk ingredients like flour, sugar, various seeds, etc. but nothing like pasta or crackers or nuts. We also have a Natural Grocer's / Vitamin Cottage in town. Although all of their "bulk" food comes prepackaged in plastic bags!? I'm not sure how that makes it bulk. What I'd actually like to do is buy everything possible from bulk bins and put it into reusable bags, so I can avoid store packaging altogether.
• Make our snacks. They seem to be one of the biggest culprits of overpackaging. I've been experimenting with granola bars over the past few weeks..
• Eat less meat. Buy meat that is local.
• Eat more local fruits & veggies. We live in the mountains of Colorado, so the growing season is short and "local" becomes a relative term in the dead of winter. While I might want food grown within a 100 mile radius in the summer, I'm certainly happy buying food grown in neighboring states in the winter. (You know, as opposed to the strawberries from Mexico and blueberries from Chile that are in my fridge right now.)

Our other main area of focus this year is to reduce our use/consumption of plastic. We've done a great job of this when it comes to non food-related items. We use bar soap instead of soap in a bottle, we broke the bottled water habit long ago, we buy items in glass or cardboard instead of plastic when available, we even had a N0-Plastic Christmas (ahem, until Hub bought the kid a Big Wheel, that is). But man, when it comes to food, it is im.possible! Just look at that picture of our refrigerator! Every food item we buy has a piece of plastic attached to it somewhere. This is going to be tough. I might take a page from Beth Terry's (of Fake Plastic Fish) book and start weighing it each week. Maybe that will make a make us sick enough to our stomachs to take some real action.

Additionally, we'd like to continue to reduce the amount of "stuff" we buy. Over the past year we've made giant strides in this area. We pushed through the withdrawal early on and would like to push ourselves until it hurts just a wee bit more.

As time and budget allow, we'd like to continue to make our home more energy efficient. New windows would be fabulous, but are a little unrealistic at this time. We do plan to replace two old sliding doors with higher rated French doors this month while Uncle Greenhab, the handyman, is here.

I'm sure we'll work on many other things as the year goes on, but these are in the forefront of my mind right now. I've definitely come to a point where I look at each thing I do and each thing that passes through my hands and ask myself "What's the environmental impact here? What can I do to reduce that." Obviously when it comes to food, I haven't acted much on that! :) But it's certainly something I ponder with all that I do.

The evolution of a blog.

As a kid growing up in the heart of the bible belt, I thought that evolution = the theory that man came from monkey. Period. It wasn't until much later in life that I truly started to understand evolution separately from religion. Accepting the fact that things change, mature, and grow into what we need at a certain time is, to me, paramount in one's happiness in life.

When I started this blog, it was to share with you all of the new and different things we were doing to be green. We learned a great deal about recycling, composting, and the harmful chemicals in our every day products. I started making my own household cleansers and stopped drinking bottled water. I shared all the crazy things I was learning about like the Pacific Garbage Patch and ewaste third world countries.

But things are different now. I no longer shop for sport or for something to do on a Sunday afternoon. I haven't bought a roll of paper towels in over a year. I automatically reach for a sweater or blanket instead of turning up the thermostat. And I always get the urge to climb on top of one of those pallets of water bottles at Costco and tell people exactly what they're doing to the earth when they buy them.

I think our family has reached a certain green point where I don't have the same type of information to share that I always have. I've seen this happen to several of my favorite green superhero bloggers - Mama Bird at Surely You Nest, Michelle at Green Bean Dreams and, of course, Burban Mom.

That's not to say that I've achieved greenness and I can now move on with my life - far from it!! I've always viewed being "green" in relation to an extensive color wheel or those paint samples you see at the hardware store. It's not an "either you are or you aren't" type of thing.

So I guess I'm just trying to say that this blog is evolving. It's kind of "a dude in flux" (from my favorite movie Beautiful Girls) right now. I can only imagine that I will take it where our continued efforts to live more sustainably take us this year. In my prediction, that will encompass raising children who are kind to the earth and to each other, eating more sustainably, and making more things at home - whether that is food, gifts or anything else.

I hope you continue to enjoy the blog as much as we enjoy sharing our changes with you!

The newest member of the Greenhab family...

Is this gorgeous old farm table...

Isn't she a beaut? Last summer I had my eye on a smaller version in my mom's antique store. My uncle did some work for her and, in lieu of cash, took the table, then gave it to me for my birthday. (All together "Awwwwwww")

As much as I absolutely loved it, we just found that it was too narrow and small for our family - especially since our family is about to expand. So we traded up (thanks mom!) for this ginormous farm table. It just fits in perfectly in our mountainy cabin and I can almost hear it whisper "Come sit down a spell."

The legs of the table were made from old porch columns.

And the wood planks on the top came from a tobacco barn in North Carolina. It's the wood that the tobacco was laid out on to dry. The top has been re-planed, as you can see, but the bottoms of the boards are still rough and rustic.

It's kind of hard for me to imagine buying a piece of furniture new when sitting at a table that seems to tell its own stories of times past.

Making due

This is what happens when you have a broken hot water heater and a child who insists on taking a bath. A sink bath with water warmed on the stove. He thought it was incredibly funny (in case you can't tell from the photo!).

Make it From Scratch Blog Carnival #101

Welcome to the 101st edition of the Make it From Scratch Blog Carnival! This week we have yummy looking recipes, fun craft projects, and some great tutorials. So grab a cup of coffee and cuddle up to your computer. You've got some reading to do!

Crafts...

First of all, you have to stop by Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood and see the skirt that the youngest Make It From Scratch contributor, Lydia, made with her very own brand new sewing machine. Way to go Lydia! (Photo courtesy of Lydia's very proud mommy!)

Mama Bear shares a resource for tons of downloadable fun -- including an adorable little monkey calendar -- on I've Got a Little Space to Fill.

Homesteaderbelle discusses Making Quilts From Old Clothing. There are few things in life that I find more precious than a quilt made by hand, with love, by generations past. Belle makes these quilts with her mom, sister and grandmother. Beautiful work Belle!

Cindy at My Recycled Bags provides a tutorial for a very sweet Valentine's Day bag that you can make with your kids. I can just picture it now all stuffed with Valentine's!

Abi at Homestead Blogger shares Tea Cup Pincushions.

Kathryn at Knittsings gives a great review of a free stitch design software that she finds to be very user-friendly and easy to learn.

Cooking...

Miss Thrifty shares her recipe for Winter Vegetable Pie with a Cheese Crust - a dish she made when challenged to find a recipe for a box filled with organic produce. It looks divine!

Simply Forties' recipe for a Granny Smith and Brown Butter Custard Tart will have you running to the kitchen. Now I have something to do with my over-ripe apples tomorrow!

I am DROOLING over the Egg Noodle Egg Drop Soup recipe on the Frugal Front Porch this week. We've tried a variety of recipes and techniques here in the Greenhab household. This one sounds like a winner!

Pseudo Life, Real Mind shares a recipe for Sweet Sprouted Wheat Bread that is made in a crock pot! Who knew?

Rani at Christ's Bridge provides a recipe for Sweet Sour Cabbage (with bacon - yum!) that sounds delicious!

Heather shared a sinful looking recipe for Double Delicious Cookie Bars on the Make it From Scratch blog this week.

Kitchen & Cooking related...

Also in the cooking category is Less is More's review of "Everyday Food: Great Food Fast". All recipes in the book can be made in 10 - 20 minutes and only take a few ingredients.

How to Me has come up with an awesome tutorial on How to Raise Your Cabinet's Spice Level. This is going straight onto my "to-do" list!

Other...

Carole at Fowl Visions has some expert advice for making Homemade Nest Boxes for Chickens out of recycled items.