Meatless...Tuesday?

Life seriously could not be more chaotic these days. The kids have been in zoo camp in Denver this week and Marc has been at an education conference, which means I've been the limo back and forth from Evergreen to Denver. Then there's that pesky little thing called work. I don't know how people with 6 kids, like Design Mom, do it. I'm sinking quickly!

Our Meatless Monday consisted of frozen pizza (I mean, I did actually cook it, if you're wondering.) but I found time to make a real dinner on Tuesday. I got a sample Near East's Toasted Pine Nut Couscous in the mail last week, along with a recipe that I promptly lost. Instead I made this veggie stir fry from Veg Web:

    1/3 cup whole corn kernels
    1/4 cup finely chopped carrots
    1 serving of "herbed" couscous
    1-2 cups baby spinach
    2 teaspoons olive oil
    black pepper
    soy sauce

I left out the soy sauce - okay, I actually forgot it - but it was great without. One box of couscous, one carrot, half a can of corn and 2 cups of spinach made enough for myself and 3 kiddos, with a tiny bit left over for lunch today. I'll probably double the recipe next time to have more leftovers.

Frugal Friday: Farmers Market

The Evergreen Farmer's Market is always good family fun. I was a bit put off at first by the fact that there were only a few booths selling produce - which is what I expect of a farmers market - but all of the other attractions more than make up for it.

Our market has many vendors selling lunch - BBQ, crepes, sandwiches and more - there are booths selling bread, salsa, roasted green chilis, produce, clothing, bags, flowers and more.

Our kids love the sidewalk chalk area and riding the train. I like being able to find locally made soaps and gifts. Mr. Greenhab is in it for the free samples. It's a great, inexpensive way to spend an afternoon while getting some grocery shopping at the same time.

Birthday Wrap-up

What a wonderful birthday week I had last week! I took my actual birthday (Friday) off to work with my mom at an antiques show. She won the "Show Stopper" award because that's how she rolls. (That's her on the right, accepting her award.) I'm blogging about the experience over at the Green Phone Booth tomorrow, btw. It was great to spend time with family and see my mom totally in her element.


And I loved seeing so many people carrying their own bags for their treasures.

This one I found particularly funny and true. It's a flow chart that says something like "Buy reusable bag --> Forget reusable bag in the car, buy another one --> Repeat, try to save the world another day..."

My mom spoiled me, as always, getting me this mason jar drink dispenser I wanted, some vintage bowls, and an old metal milk bottle carrier for my table.

Super Uncle and my mom's beau thought cold, hard cash was the way to go so I could shop at the antiques show (good men). Look how funny they are. My "card" (made from a Kashi box) was wrapped in a brown paper bag.

I love that they never think I'm a crazy tree-hugger. They just go with it.

And my dear sweet hubby bought me this bizarre looking composter that's made from 100% reclaimed / recycled nylon plastic. We have a compost heap now, but it functions more as a food bin for the wildlife than anything else. This baby makes compost in 4 weeks.

One of the best gifts I received though was a night of babysitting from my MIL, who watched the kids while we attended our first quineanera -- one of Marc's students from his first year teaching -- then met up with friends for a night out. We stayed downtown, slept in late and had a leisurely, child-free lunch.

I love being the birthday girl!

Meatless Monday ~ Ghetto Pie

Are there things you're embarrassed to admit you still eat? Like Ramen Noodles or Totino's Party Pizza? Well ghetto pie is my embarrassing food item. Mr. Greenhab used to make this pseudo-pizza back in the day when we were footloose and childfree. We'd come home late from a bar or dancing, starving, make a ghetto pie and watch trash tv. Ahhh...the good ol' days.

Now, on days when we're too tired to cook, or we don't have anything good in the house, we make these and the kids go wild. It's simply a tortilla topped with sauce and cheese, then cooked in the oven for about 8 - 10 minutes. As a responsible adult and parent, I do feel obligated to make veggies with it. Perfect for a Meatless Monday when time and resources are running short.

A day in the life...

For this month's Green Moms Carnival, Beth of Fake Plastic Fish, challenged us all to give our readers a peek into our daily rountines. I love doing photo journals - of course the last time I did one I had two less kids - so I thought it would be fun to show you my day in pictures.

At the end of the day, I realized that it's not so easy to do photo journals any more. But as we say in our house, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

So here is the insanity I call life...

I started my day today with a hundred yard dash up the driveway to catch the garbage man. I forget to put the trash out at least every other week.

All three kids are in early morning swimming lessons right now, so the mornings have been a mad dash to get them ready.

Breakfast was oatmeal today. They used to love the flavored stuff in a box. When I switched to plain organic oats bought in bulk they protested. We went about a month without eating it (long enough for them to forget just how sugary the boxed stuff was) then tried again. Success! They like it with a little brown sugar, cinnamon and fruit.

After packing up the kids towels and snacks and pushing them out the door, I log in to get a little work done, converse with some Freecycle folks I've promised items too, and get together a bag for Goodwill.

I've volunteered to man a booth at the farmer's market for an hour this afternoon, so I headed into town a little bit early to see the kids at their swimming lesson. Isn't our rec center purty? It overlooks a lake with the mountains in the background. I'd join that spin class you can see on the deck...if only I wasn't so lazy. I wonder if they'd let me sit there with a margarita and watch the class. I could cheer for them?

There's my little man climbing his way out of the pool. The two older kids have done so well that they were bumped up to the next levels of their classes.

I have some time between lessons and my next commitment, so I dash by the recycling center for a quick drop off. There's a big issue right now with the recycling center. It used to be a manned station where everything was separated. It ran very smoothly that way.

Now the company running it is moving towards an unmanned station that will eventually be single stream. It's not working all that well so far as you can see by the always-full dumpsters.

The local sustainability group that I joined has been working with the hauling company to try to work out a good solution.

Since I'm supposed to be actually working today, I head across the street to my favorite coffee shop, Common Grounds, where I can use the wi-fi and grab some breakfast. Common Grounds is a locally owned, family run business with a cozy mountain cabin feeling to it. They're pretty eco-friendly, serving dine in orders in real coffee mugs and food on real plates with silverware. They even source their coffee locally.

To my dismay, this is how my order came out this morning - styrofoam and plastic. Evidently they were "overrun" because of the farmer's market (which is held in their parking lot) so they went with disposables. Such a disappointment.

I was able to get in almost two hours of work before heading out to the farmer's market for my "shift". I volunteer with Evergreen Alliance for Sustainability, which is working with the parks and rec district on plans for a community garden in town. Things are moving along and we hope to get the area landscaped and compost down this fall, then have plots available for next year's growing season. At this point, we're collecting signatures to show community support. I also manage to pick up some veggies for the family. I wish I could stay longer, but I need to get back to my real job.

Back home again I make a sweet potato for a late lunch and settle in to get my work done.

Around 5:00 I go out to the garden to sit in the sunshine. The kids are running around playing and Mr. Greenhab is building a raised bed.

We haven't thought about dinner so Mr. Greenhab whips up matzo brei and I steam some asparagus. I realize writing this that I haven't eaten any meat in three days. I've settled into a pretty good flexitarian routine.

Our evenings are always a chaotic blur of baths and games and books and chasing little ones around. After the bedtime rodeo is over I eye the berries I need to turn into jam and decide to leave that project for tomorrow. Instead, I crash on the couch with my laptop and write a book review then crawl into bed.

Book Review: Cheap

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Shell

Cheap is a comprehensive historical, sociological and economic account of our society's obsession with buying cheap goods. Shell begins at the beginning with a history of discount retailers like E.J. Korvette and Woolworth, explaining how and why they were able to sell goods for cheaper than other stores. We learn the psychology of how prices are set, markdown reasoning, and the truth behind all those "deals" at the outlet malls.

Shell moves on to cheap food, providing some surprising information. For example, Haiti once exported rice to other countries, but now imports it from the US because it is so much cheaper. In doing so, they've driven poor farmers away from their land and into city slums. Situations like this have happened again and again all over the world, including during the potato famine in Ireland. When disease wiped out potatoes there in the mid 1800's, people starved to death. What many don't know is that Ireland was actually exporting lots of food at the time - fish, beef, oats and wheat - that could have fed the population.

Finally, Shell touches on something close to my heart - where "cheap plastic crap" comes from. This section of the book is sort of an extended version of The Story of Stuff. We once manufactured so many of our goods here in the US but, because we constantly demand cheaper and cheaper prices, we've driven the manufacturing overseas where factory workers sometimes work for just a few dollars per week in extremely poor conditions to make our cheap plastic crap.

I have to admit that I renewed this book at the library twice. It's not exactly a page-turner, but it is filled with great research and will certainly make you re-evaluate (or re-re-evaluate in my case) your values.

Meatless Monday ~ Rosanna's Lentil Soup

I found the recipe for Rosanna's Lentil Soup on iVillage and tried it out tonight for Meatless Monday.

Rosanna is Rosanna Bowles of Coming Home, A Seasonal Guide to Creating Family Traditions, a book I keep hoping my library will order. She also has a lovely blog.

My proportions for this soup were a little off since I didn't have a full pound of lentils on hand and I only had a handful of baby carrots left in the fridge. In my humble opinion, I'll probably add more carrots than the recipe calls for next time because I like the complimentary flavor. I also added some berbere spice for a little kick.

The kids loved the soup because lentils are a very popular dish in Ethiopia and the berbere makes everything taste like home to them. {Comfort food!}

Update on "He means well..."

Last September, I told you how Mr. Greenhab rescued these plastic box lids from the trash at his school. I thought we'd bring them to the recycling center, but Mr. Greenhab just knew we'd find some spectacular use for them eventually.

Almost a year later, our kids beat us to the punch. I found them outside the other day lining the lids up to make a human sized board game. They took the spinner from Chutes & Ladders and made up their own game. So inventive!

Of course, as often happens with my kids, they then decided that something like this would be more fun...

Such is life.

Frugal Friday: Fountains

Last weekend we took the kids downtown to see the chalk art festival that's held each year on Larimer Square. The art is phenomenal and we thought that the kids would be truly amazed.

But they weren't. Go figure.

After about 20 minutes of hearing "I'm hot!" "Why can't we draw with chalk?" "I'm thirsty!" we headed off to find a spot to eat the lunches we packed.

Lucky us, we found an area with a great waterfall and pond right next to the Platte River.

The kids were in heaven and we spent the rest of the morning there.

The water began here...

...ran through a little pool, then down this waterfall...

...and into another pool.

All across a bike path from the Platte River...

We'd planned to take the kids to Water World sometime this summer, but I think they had just as much fun here for free.

And, of course, they love to ride the free shuttle bus that runs the length of the 16th Street Mall. It's the little things in life...

Plastic Bag Pollution

Remember the amazing photographs from Sean Green's book Plastic Pollution? That's what I thought of last weekend while we dipped our feet in the Platte River, only to spot this wayward plastic bag caught beneath a rock.

Anyone else think it's time to ban these buggers?

Frugal Friday: picnic in the park

Last weekend some friends invited us to a picnic / BBQ in the park. I'd forgotten what a fun adventure this was for kids (and what a cheap adventure it would be for us!).

We got there early and scored a spot near the playground which was nice because the grown ups could sit and chat while the kids played, yet we were still close enough to keep an eye on them.

There was so much good food - smoked ribs, heavenly chocolate cake - and many laughs were had. The kids were worn out and slept like angels that night (and I may have fallen asleep on the couch!).

Frugal summer fun at it's finest!

Green Wiper Blades (with a discount!)

I'm sure windshield wiper blades are probably the last thing you'd expect to see me blogging about but stay with me because this is actually a surprisingly good product.

A few months ago I got an email from The Wiper Store about their green wiper blades. I was "this close" to deleting it when I decided to see what they had to say. Afterall, wiper blades are something that we buy new once a year, they come wrapped in plastic, they are plastic, then we throw them away a year later.

The Wiper Store has changed that a bit:

• Their Tripledge® Green Wiper Blades are the world’s first fully recyclable wiper blade. 
• They arrive in a recyclable paper package. No plastic!
• Their squeegee recycling program ensures no part of the product will become waste.

As conscious consumers we've become accustomed to paying a bit more for products that are labeled as "green", however, I actually found these to be cheaper. My size blades run $7.49 at the Wiper Store, compared to over $10 at my local big box store. And the blades are guaranteed for as long as you own your car, so no running out to buy new blades every year.

The blades are made of silicone and, well, silicone is still silicone. But until someone figures out how to make bamboo wipers, the reality is that we all need these for our cars (or we need to stop driving...but that's another topic).

So, from now through the end of the year, The Wiper Store is offering 20% off to Greenhab readers using coupon code "Press2010".

Full disclosure: The Wiper Store provided me with a set of wipers to try out. I found them to work exactly like regular wipers. I was not paid or otherwise compensated or required to write a positive review in return.