Green Options

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After finding myself seeking out organic musical instruments for my child, I had one of those open-palm-to-the-forehead-moments and realized the old stand-by of spoons on pots, dry beans in Tupperware and whisks around a metal bowl were classics for a reason. Simple. Easy. And I don’t have to buy anything.

BUT, for the really adventurous out there - I did find this wonderfully endearing YouTube clip of a man (the language barrier won’t matter) delighting in showing the world how he fashions apples, carrots and even asparagus into musical instruments. It is music so good you can eat it! (Sorry … couldn’t resist).

It is a little weird - but what a fantastic way to take the fear out of vegetables. I don’t know that I can pull off this trick with my paring knife, but I might give it a try. If nothing else, this will provide at least 10 minutes worth of hysterical laughter from my son. 

Enjoy the clip after the jump. 

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.

For one reason or another, thinking about, living with and treating cancer has been a big part of the lives of my friends and family over the past year. Perhaps this has something to do with my current location, but I’m not so sure. Frankly, it is becoming more and more apparent to me that cancer is the new flu. Many of us will get it and, luckily, a growing proportion of us will survive it. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment, as they say. And our diets are a big part of that preventative effort.

The term “antioxidant” is one of those vaguely scientific, overly used words that makes my eyes lose focus. It’s up there with “nutraceutical” and “isoflavanoid.” But I decided to make a bigger effort to include antioxidant-rich food in my diet, so I decided to figure out exactly what it meant.

Lettuce and biodiesel too, that’s the plan of Glen Kertz, CEO of Valcent Products of El Paso, TX. Kertz, who has worked in the greenhouse business for nearly two decades, believes the time has come to localize and simplify food production, and he says his Vertigro system will do just that. I spoke with Glen while he was attending an Orchid growers convention in Miami FL. We talked about his High Density [...]

Stop in at most diners around the country and each breakfast menu reads nearly the same: Two eggs, toast, bacon. Pancakes with sausage. Cereal. Add grits, if you’re in the South. Perhaps a variation on toast in other parts of the country.

Despite the fact that we run Inn Serendipity B&B and “breakfast” is part of our business, we find the average American breakfast is, well, boring. With the same old, same old

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Quick question: What are you having for dinner tonight? No plan? You’re not alone. About one third of Americans don’t know what we’re having for dinner tonight. While a dash of serendipity and spontaneity may be good for the soul, when it comes to eating, having a plan helps both the planet and pocketbook.

No meal plan results in – you guessed it – our falling into the

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In the vegan cooking classes I teach and the outreach I do, I am often asked how to incorporate "organic" food into our diets without breaking the bank. Since I rarely have a simple answer, I usually start off by saying what I think is a really important thing to keep

Keep in mind that the typical consumer is NOT paying the true cost of food. The meat, dairy, and egg industries, in

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This recipe is perfect for anytime, but it makes a perfect accompaniment to a traditional English tea. Makes 5 whole sandwiches, 10 halves, or 20 quarters

Ingredients
1-1/2 pounds tofu, extra firm or super firm*
1/2 cup eggless mayonnaise (Nayonnaise and Vegenaise are great, but Wildwood’s Garlic Aioli is my fave)
2 red bell peppers, finely chopped
4 scallions (white and green parts), finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
3 stalks celery,

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Summer Vegetable Risotto
Use this recipe as a model for many of your favorite seasonal vegetables, so long as those on the sturdy side (bell peppers, artichoke hearts, broccoli, beets) are precooked until not quite tender, either by blanching, steaming, or roasting. As a general rule, for every cup of rice, you will need about 3 cups of simmering broth.

Cooking time: The total cooking time from the first addition of liquid

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If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times: Eat Your Vegetables! From the day we moved onto solid foods until we moved out of the house, we heard this culinary command at least three times a day. Yet at some point, we tuned it out.

A new study American Journal of Preventive Medicine confirms this: Americans are eating fewer vegetables than ever. Researchers evaluated data from two large national health surveys

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We'd never thought of it this way, and maybe you hadn't either. Once again, it's a simple tip: chop your veggies small. The smaller the piece, the faster it cooks. That's right, it's another energy saver!