Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

Image Courtesy of the National Honey Board

Just in time for the holiday, the Honey Board has a few recipes to recommend — for the grill. Honey is a pretty common ingredient for marinades and sauces. These recipes capture that sweet-spicy combination of flavors I personally love.

Before you go for the tongs, the Honey Board has a few pointers on why this food is sustainable AND an eco-friendly choice:

• Honey is an all-natural food that leaves a small eco-footprint.
• Purchasing local honey encourages growth of the local economy and reduces production waste.
• Many farmers have hives on their land, in part because bees are responsible for one out of every three bites we consume.
• If it weren’t for honey bees, we would suffer from a limited supply of oranges, apples, blueberries, cucumbers and strawberries.

Recipes for your holiday cook out include Grilled Tofu Kabobs with a Honey-Chipotle Glaze.

With Memorial Day Weekend just around the corner, millions of people will be firing up their grills to celebrate an American past time. Here are some quick tips to keeping your barbecue safe, waste-free, and fun!

1. What’s the greenest grilling option? Electric and propane grills are definitely better than charcoal. If that’s your only option though, try using cleaner burning, natural charcoals. A great list can be found here at GreenYour.com. If you’ve got your heart set on the flavor that comes from grilling over wood, Woodflame grills were the most eco-friendly option I could find.

2. Skip the meat. As if you didn’t need another reason to lower your meat intake, I also recently came across this health-related article on the 5 Worst Foods to Barbecue. (Hint, none of them are tofu.) You can replace the burgers and hot dogs with some vegetarian knock-offs (respectively, I recommend Amy’s burgers which come in a variety of flavors, and Lightlife Tofu Pups.) Or you could even try making your own ahead of time. I have to admit, I’ve never tried grilling my black bean or white bean burgers, but it’s worth a shot!

Farm Fresh is a series of recipes
designed to showcase produce gathered
from local farms or grown in my own garden.

It’s only April but I’m already thinking about breaking out my grill. My grill is, well, not something to really write home about, or, for that matter, to write a blog post about. I got it for about five bucks from some big box store a few years ago. But, when there are fresh young vegetables to be cooked up, it’s my weapon of choice. Nothing beats grilled asparagus, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers. Nothing, that is, except for Grilled Baby Bok Choy.

Editor’s note: Football season is almost here, so Lighter Footstep’s Chris Baskind shares some tips for greening your tailgate party before the big game. Originally published on August 24, 2007.

Labor Day Weekend is just around the corner — and with it, the football and tailgating season in the United States.

It’s an annual ritual: head out to the game, break out the barbecue, and enjoy an afternoon with friends and family.

[...]

Image Credit: Joshua Thompson via Wikipedia
This week's Weekend Grub is less a recipe for what to cook than some suggestions about how to cook it. If you're looking for recipes, check out yesterday's post on vegan BBQ.

Summer is here, and for many, that means time to start cooking outdoors. For some, bottled gas (propane, most commonly) is a preferable choice for a number of reasons,

[...]

With the weather getting warmer in most of the US, many of us are looking forward to a steak, hot dog or veggie burger hot off the grill. If you're planning on firing up the barbie this weekend, here are a few tips for lowering the impact of that flame-cooked meal: