Green Options

Have you ever found yourself longing for rich cream in your coffee, a creamy mushroom soup or gravy?  Me too… that’s why I was glad to find MimicCreme Non Dairy, Vegan, Kosher, Gluten Free, Cream Subsitute. MimicCreme comes unsweetened, sweetened and sugar-free sweetened.

This substitute is made from almonds and cashews, so its out for those with nut allergies.  I feel blessed that among all our food issues, nuts do not pose an issue (I don’t know what we’d do if my GF girl couldn’t have peanut butter or almond butter, she eats it by the spoonful!). Some of our favorite uses for MimicCreme are ice cream, french toast and cream of mushroom soup.

Here’s our favorite recipe made with MimicCreme (adapted from an Alton Brown recipe):

There are days when my relatively crafty self looks at my piles of crafty-goodness and let’s out a long sigh… What on Earth can I create (or entertain all these kids) out of all this JUNK????

Enter Trash Matcher from Imagination Factory.  On the left side of the grid are types of trash (foil, paper, beads, plastic) and the right a description of what you can make out of it.  If you click the trash word, you will be redirected to a tutorial, complete with substitutions (I hadn’t thought of using leftover white house paint as gesso).

With a metal coat hanger,…

There are lots of cute, environmentally kind supply options for the 2009-2010 school year. Who doesn’t love banana paper and Smencils?  Sometimes, its the basic items that are the hardest to find. Here is a set of basic back to school supplies from Sustainable Group for your child to personalize.

These supplies remind me of my high school days when I made collages on all my binders with magazine photos and funny quotes. They were the talk of class and several friends requested that I also make collages on their binders as well. How I wish these binders and replaceable covers were around then!

The summer heat leaves me dreaming of frozen delights.  Traditional ice cream is high in fat and not good for our bodies at all, non-dairy ice creams are often pricey.  The kids enjoy all kinds of frozen treats in ice pop form… Hubs and I prefer scoops in a bowl.

Here’s a delicious (and simple) recipe for a fruit-y sorbet everyone in your house is sure to love!

Banana Berry Sorbet

(Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Vegan)

Am I alone in dreading all the packaged toys my children receive from their (well meaning) friends?  I try to suggest art supplies or other items which will actually get used instead of being discarded after a week of play, but we still end up with a lot of stuff.

Personally, I really like the idea of hosting charitable birthday parties.

After much brainstorming, we’ve come up with a few charitable parties to host with friends (and then have a family party with a few gifts).  This way, our child still feels special and they learn the importance of giving.

Have a food dehydrator? Looking for a tasty snack that is Raw but no one will be the wiser?

Serve up this flat bread, hummus and veggie combo at your next luncheon and soak in the rave reviews.

If you are opting for half raw eating or don’t have a dehydrator, try this hummus out with traditional flat bread or crackers.

The hummus is made without chickpeas for a variation on taste.  Instead, it is made with a combination of cashews and almonds for a new, creamy flavor.

It’s berry picking season.  There is nothing better than strolling to the wild vines at the back of our property and plucking fresh, warm, untainted berries from their spiky perch.  Except maybe, the lemonade one can make with those berries.  It will never cease to amaze me how excited the kiddos get about going out to pluck a handful of fresh berries or climb the tree after cherries.  I don’t even mind the purple and red stained hands.

The photo is our fresh pitcher of berry lemonade made just moments ago and already teetering on the edge of emptiness again.  This batch was made with blackberries and raspberries which had gotten a little soft over the last couple days.

It’s quite possible that I have found my favorite book, EVER!  (I know that’s hard to believe since I devour books like some do coffee.)

Make It! by Jane Bull is A Cleaner Greener Book, this wonderful book contains basic information (turning trash to treasure & The 3 R’s), teaches kids how to sort recyclable materials (and focuses on donating to charities).  Then it launches into numerous step by step instructions for making new things from our trash.

If your house is anything like mine, you likely have a multitude of little plastic toy parts.  I’m constantly collecting tiny doll shoes, plastic spiders, bouncy balls, etc… and TOSSING THEM IN THE TRASH.  Not anymore! 

I’m always on the lookout for creative uses for t-shirts. We have a bunch collecting dust in our closets and they are readily available at resale shops.

We’ve all heard about the shirt quilt (it’s fun to make for a new college student’s dorm room), but what about curtains, valance, bedskirt, children’s clothing, diapers or dresses?

Martha Stewart has a fabulous idea for making a reusable shopping tote out of t-shirts. What a fun way to reuse all those souvenir and college tee’s.  This bag is simple to make:

It appears that our “New Economy” has made people take a good look at needs vs. wants.  These days, more people (as much as 1/3) feel that a dryer is no longer a necessity, rather its a luxury and an expensive one at that!

Line drying used to be the standard and we are trending toward that again (We’ve doubled the number of people who say the dryer is a luxury in the last three years).  Here’s how to fire your dryer which will result in lower energy bills (good for you and the planet) and happy clothes (the dryer is hard on clothing).

No matter the climate you live in, you can air dry clothing.  Read on to learn how to fight restrictive CC&R’s for  your right to dry and ways to circumvent such silly ordinances.