Memorial Day is great time to reflect on the importance of family and friends at home with cookouts and time together. So let’s kick off the summer this Memorial Day Weekend by greenifying your celebration!

Here are a few tips for creating a greener Memorial Day:

Spend it Outdoors

Memorial Day, after all, is meant to be spent outdoors in glorious weather!  Not only will you be able to enjoy Mother Nature but you can save on energy costs needed to run the appliances, the air conditioners and the Jacuzzi had you chosen to stay cooped inside.

Be in Season, Be Local

Instead of cooking with exotic, imported foods, you ought to cook with fruits and vegetables sourced locally and in season.  You can save on grocery costs since in-season fruits have lower prices than those that are not and you lessen your carbon footprint, too.

Use Green Fuel

When barbecuing, opt for biofuel like corn and coconut husks as well as lump charcoal.  These fuels are perfectly recyclable and biodegradable.

Use Solar-Powered Grills

If you can afford it, you can opt for a solar-powered grill to make your barbecues.  It’s a grill designed to heat its surface through the sun’s solar power – no gas, no coils, no fuels involved.

Manual Lawn Mowing

If you want to make your lawn look good for guests but want to go green, opt for the manual lawnmower instead of the gas-powered and electric-charged mowers.  You will get your arm exercise while lessening your energy consumption.

Organic Cooking

If you are not a fan of organic foods for whatever reason, Memorial Day is the time to be one.  You ought to include organic fruits and vegetables on your menu for a healthier, greener commemoration of your dearly departed Americans.

Clean up Good, Clean up Green

When you need to clean picnic accessories like lawn tables and chairs, use green cleaners with all natural, all-biodegradable ingredients.  And there is no excuse either as these green cleaners are worth every dime you pay for them!

After the picnic at the park, clean up by using biodegradable trash bags.  You can also take home the food scraps for the compost pit.

Make A Recycling Bin Available At Your Cookout

Most guests can and will recycle if you give them the option.
Make this Memorial Day red, white, and GREEN and remember those who have served our country proudly, giving the ultimate sacrifice.

Happy Memorial Day!

Did you know that as much as 40 percent of our water use in the spring and summer goes toward our lawns and gardens. That’s a lot of water wasted.

Your impact: The UN predicts that 3.4 billion people will be living in countries defined as water-scarce by 2025. When water is scarce, people are forced to consume contaminated water. Cleaning and producing also water requires serious amounts of energy.

Here’s How to Save:

There are several ways you can save thousands of gallons of water and hundreds of dollars a year:

1. Set up a rain barrel: Using rain barrels to water your lawn not only greatly reduces your municipal water use and the polluted runoff from your property that winds up in the watershed, it allows your plants and vegetables to drink up water that hasn’t been chemically treated.

2. Mulch:  Adding a two- to three-inch layer of organic mulch in plant beds helps them retain moisture.

3. Use native plants in your garden: Use native grasses, shrubs, and trees in landscaping. Native plants require less water, reduce runoff and flooding, help prevent soil erosion, and are easier to grow because they are adapted to local conditions.

4. Water in the morning, if you have to: Mornings are cooler, ensuring less water will be lost to evaporation. Evenings are also better times than afternoons to water; however, the leaves do not have time to dry out, increasing the chances of fungus growth.

5. Use a drip or soaker system: Sprinklers tend to water things like your sidewalk, house, or car instead of the ground. Using a drip or soaker system, especially one set up to a rain barrel, saves on water and increases the amount of water going straight to the roots.

6. Use downspout extensions: A simple roll-out downspout extension allows you to use rain water in places that need it most.

7. Get some hose helpers: No need to drag a running hose around as you water potted plants. Hose accessories such as a water wand (for hanging plants and pots), an extension handle, and a shut-off valve ensure the hose won’t pump water into places where it’s not needed.

8. Install a drip irrigation system: Drip irrigation (pictured above) targets plants directly by using a series of tubes on a timer to water each plant. They can cost a few hundred dollars to install, but are 90 percent efficient. Installed sprinkler systems are considered 75 to 85 percent efficient.

9. Create a perennial lawn: Say “no” to lawns that require excessive amounts of water and plant a native, perennial garden instead. Or in spaces that you can’t plant a garden, plant native grasses like big bluestem. These grasses can establish a deeper root system that not only requires less water but can combat weeds.

10. Let it go brown: Just because grass has turned brown doesn’t mean it’s dead. Grass tends to go dormant–or brown–in the summer months. It will go green again naturally with cooler days.

Greening a home is both environmentally responsible and fiscally responsible. Enacting green practices for the home lowers energy bills.

It can also be a great excuse to redecorate or add some landscaping. Even simple items like shade trees or blinds can make a big difference in regulating temperature naturally to reduce energy usage.

Following certain guidelines can also save water, reduce waste and make a tidier, greener home

How to Lower Energy Usage

Homeowners do not have to spend thousands of dollars on a solar power system for their home or live like an Amish family to lower their energy bills. A simple Home Energy Assesment can point out several ways to cut power usage, such as reducing drafts to save around 5 to 30 percent off energy bills.
People can reduce cooling costs by as much as 8 percent by creating more shade. Blinds on windows, particularly the west and east windows, helps to regulate temperature. Shade trees planted to block sunlight lower temperatures too.
Running appliances like dishwashers or clothes dryers generates heat too and should be done in the evenings when it is cooler. This makes the house cooler. Following cooler temperature guidelines decreases the need for air conditioners

With a home naturally cooler, people can turn up the thermostat. An ideal thermostat temperature for saving money without the home being too hot to be bearable when wearing light clothing during warm months is 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Ceiling fans can make up the difference and drain less energy than air conditioners.

Turning down the thermostat when the weather is cold uses less energy too. For each degree a thermostat is set below 68 degrees reduces heating energy by 3 to 5 percent.
More ways to save energy include:

* Replace all appliances that are older than 10 years with newer appliances

* Buy Energy Star appliances that use less power

* Switch out light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs

* Use cold water only to wash clothes

* Switch off computers at night

* Turn lights off when not in the room

*  Reduce the temperature on hot water heaters

* Unplug all electronics when not in use

* Dry clothes on a clothesline

4 Ways to Save Water

Water conservation is a large part of being green. Fortunately there are simple ways to reduce water usage without bathing in your neighbor & #39;s sprinklers.

Installing aerators on all faucets can reduce water usage by 50 percent.

Low-flow toilets use only 1.6 gallons to flush, which is more than 50 percent less than older toilets.

Putting bins out to collect rainwater creates an extra water supply to give to indoor plants, gardens and lawns.

People can also cut their water consumption with simple lifestyle modifications, such as turning water off while brushing their teeth. This action saves 4.5 gallons of water every time someone brushes.

Sweeping walkways and driveways instead of using a hose saves up to 80 gallons of water, plus gives muscles some extra exercise.

Ways to Reduce Waste

Recycling and reusing materials are wonderful green practices for the home and office, but stopping waste before it gets created is even better. Unsolicited & junk  mail clogs mailboxes and recycling bins. People can opt out of annoying pre-approved credit card offers to significantly cut down on paper waste. Using cloth napkins, rags, printing on both sides of the paper and using cloth diapers cuts down on paper waste as well.

When people do need paper, there are plenty of products made from recycled papers, such as paper towels, toilet paper and even greeting cards. Other green items, like reusable water bottles and shopping bags, eliminate plastic waste like bottles and bags. Glass jars are reusable as containers for leftover food or for storing items like nails or bolts.

Get Green Materials and Reduce Toxins

Sprucing up a home can include fresh paint and new flooring, but to make a home more green select healthy paints and environmentally-friendly materials. Bamboo offers a green alternative to hardwood flooring. Bamboo is sustainable and matures decades faster than hardwoods. MSN.com recommends opting for formaldehyde-free glues.

Regular paint may contain toxic metals, solvents and volatile organic compounds that contribute to pollution and health problems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A green alternative is zero- or low-VOC paint.

To make sure a home is truly free of toxins, people must also use eco-friendly cleaners. Regular cleaners contain toxic substances like butyl cellosolve, but many stores sell products made with safe, natural ingredients.

Another less expensive option is to make cleaners with green ingredients, such as lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda and borax. Homemade cleaners are simple and effective, plus they do not give off a chemical smell.

An environmentally-friendly home is energy efficient, comfortable, less expensive to maintain and just feels better. Cleaner air, nicer smells and lower bills are just some of the benefits of turning a regular home into a green home.

Happy Meatless Monday! Try this delicious quiche. It’s makes a wonderful  light dinner served with a green leafy salad.

Ingredients

1 recipe pie dough

2 Tbs olive oil

2 red yellow onions (about one pound total)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 1/4 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp dried

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup half and half

3 large eggs

dash nutmeg

4 1/2 ounces Dubliner cheese, grated

Directions:

Cut the onion in half, then cut the onions into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices. Preheat oven to 350°.

Prepare your favorite savory pie crust and fit it to the tart pan. Line the uncooked crust with parchment and top with rice or dried beans – at least two thirds of the way full. Bake the pie crust for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Remove crust from oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Remove the parchment and discard the beans or rice. Using a fork, poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust to release air. Transfer to a wire rack to cool while making filling.

In a large, heavy bottomed saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and saute for about 10 minutes over medium-high heat. Then, reduce to medium low and continue to cook for 20-40 minutes, or until they tender and golden. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for 10 minutes more, until onions are completely caramelized.

Stir in herbs and remove from heat.

Place tart pan on a baking sheet to catch accidental overflows. Spread half of the cheese over the crust, topped by the onions and then the remaining cheese.

In a medium bowl, combine milk, half and half, and eggs. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the cheese and onions. Transfer to oven (with the baking sheet), and bake until just set in the center, 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Note: You can also use 6-8 individual sized tart pans, about 3-4 inches in diameter. Just cut individual rounds out of the dough that fit your tart pans.

by Sarah Horan

Tired of reading labels in the drugstore isles looking for pthalate-free skin care, and toluene-free nail polish? Besides using greener cosmetics and personal care products, there’s an easy way to look good and go green: try these super foods for a beautiful boost!

Salmon: Pick up a glistening pink organic salmon steak next time you get to your local fish market. Salmon is high in Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, which besides being great brain food and possibly lowering your risk for depression are also essential for glowing, youthful skin!

Along with being great for your skin, salmon is also high in iron and vitamin B12, which help maintain a healthy scalp, the first and most important step to having beautiful hair. (Another plus, it’s super easy to cook! Just a little sprinkle of salt and pepper and fresh chopped garlic, a squirt of lemon, and pop it on the grill for 6-8 minutes per side until it flakes easily with a fork.  Eat is as it, or serve on top of a fresh green salad or over brown rice…the possibilities are endless!)

Berries: Blueberries, blackberries and strawberries are all known to have a high antioxidant content, which makes them another super skin food. Antioxidants protect your cells from free radicals and maintain a healthy elasticity and youthful appearance in your skin.

Keep some in your fridge at all times-they’re great for a healthy mid-morning snack, or sweet enough to make a delicious dessert when paired with a little organic plain yogurt and a dribble of maple syrup.

Green Tea: This light, aromatic drink is extremely high in polyphenols. Polyphenols are powerful anitoxidants which not only help your skin to retain it’s youthful, healthy look but have also been shown to protect against various types of cancer. Get your glow on by drinking 1-2 cups daily, iced or hot.

Dark Green Veggies: Dark green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, kale and swiss chard are loaded with vitamin A and vitamin C. Both of these vitamins are needed to create sebum, which is the oily substance produced by your hair follicles which acts as your hair’s natural conditioner.

Making sure you get plenty of these veggies will keep your hair looking smooth and shiny. (Also, they go really well with salmon: a double green-gorgeous whammy!)

Nuts and Whole Grains: Nuts of all types should be an integral part of your green beauty diet.  Walnuts, pecans, almonds and cashews all provide a hearty dose of zinc, which prevents hair loss and reduces shedding.

Whole grains also pack a great hair-helping punch, with their payload of zinc, B vitamins and iron.

Low-fat Dairy: Low-fat yogurts, cheeses and milk are an important addition to your diet. Besides being essential to maintain healthy bone structure and heart and muscle health, the calcium they provide will increase the strength of your nails and reduce their brittleness.

This quick-and-easy container salad garden will start serving up fresh goodies in as little as a few weeks. Pair it with a pot of  cherry tomatoes and you’ll be set for salads for months to come.

To grow cucumbers, you’ll need an outdoor spot where your planter will get at least eight hours of sun a day; if your only available locations get much less than that, stick with just the lettuce and the onions, which will tolerate and even appreciate fewer hours of sun or even some light shade, especially in the heat of the summer.

You’ll need:

1 packet lettuce seeds (or 1 six-pack seedlings from a nursery)

1 pound onion “sets” (or 1 packet onion seeds)

1 packet cucumber seeds (or one seedling from a nursery)

1 64-quart bag organic potting mix;  Organic Mechanics is a good choice

1 bottle liquid organic plant food; try Terracycle’s All Purpose Plant Food

1 20″ x 26″ mixing pan (dimensions are approximate)

A mixing pan makes a great planter because it is inexpensive, long-lasting, provides lots of growing room, and is big enough to keep the soil from drying out as fast as it would in smaller planters and commercial window boxes. Ask for one at your local big-box hardware store.

How-To:

1. Poke ¼- to ½-inch holes every few inches around the bottom edges of the pan so excess water can drain. (If you put the holes in the flat bottom and then put the planter on a flat surface, it may not drain as well.)

2. Put your planter where you want it and then fill it with potting mix.

3. Water until the potting mix is evenly moist. Top it off with a little more potting mix, adding enough so it comes to about ½ inch below the rim of the planter and making sure the soil surface is level.

4. Plant two cucumber seeds (or the cucumber seedling) in the center. Poke two shallow holes an inch or so apart with your finger, drop a seed into each, and cover. (If both sprout you’ll snip off the smaller seedling after a few weeks, leaving just one plant.)

5. Plant your lettuce in two horizontal rows about 3 inches away from each of the pan’s shorter ends. Use your finger to draw each row and then sprinkle a couple of seeds near each end and in the middle, or plant a seedling in each location. Press lettuce seeds firmly into the potting mix with the ball of your finger, but don’t cover them, as lettuce often germinates better if it has light shining on it.

Water carefully around the lettuce seeds until the seedlings appear and send down roots, so as not to wash the tiny seeds away.

6. Plant your onions along the two remaining sides. Plant six to 12 of your onion sets, or about 12 to 24 seeds (that should keep you well supplied with green onions on a weekly basis) 1 inch from the edge of your container, about 4 to 6 inches apart.

Make sure the pointed end of each set is up and completely buried. Repeat this step once a week, placing the new sets or seeds at least an inch away from onions that are already growing.

7. Water every two or three days to keep the soil evenly moist (in hot, dry weather you may need to water every day). Once a week, feed organic fertilizer according to the label directions.

Time to pick!

• In about three weeks you can gently pull out or snip off extra lettuce seedlings, leaving the most productive plant in each spot, and eat up the “thinnings” in a salad.

A week or two later, you can start harvesting your full-grown lettuce leaves. Gently bend them down and away from the plant so the leaves separate from the stem, leaving the center of the plant and the roots intact.

By harvesting only the outer leaves, your six plants will continue to feed you for many weeks, or even all summer and late into the fall. If the center of the lettuce plants start to grow tall, that means they’re preparing to flower, and the leaves will get bitter. Plant more lettuce seeds right away to replace those plants, and cut the old plants off at the surface of the soil.

• Onions will be ready to harvest in as little as three weeks, a bit longer if grown from seeds. They’re ready to eat when they are as big as you want them. Leave them longer and the bottoms will start to thicken into bulbs. If you continue to plant more sets (or seeds) every week, you will have green onions to harvest all spring, summer, and fall.

• The cucumber will start to flower after about a month, sooner if you planted a seedling, but not every cucumber flower has the potential to grow into a cucumber: The “male” flowers only make pollen and wither, while the “female” flowers (you can see the tiny infant cucumber attached to the back of the bud/flower) accept the pollen and swell into, well, cucumbers.

Plants often make just male flowers for a while and then start making female ones as well; so hang in there, your cukes will come. Let each fruit grow until it is as big as you’d like (use the package description to know their maximum size), but pick them before they start to change color.

Seed Suggestions

Lettuce: Romaine lettuces are always a good choice.  They have more crunch and substance than leaf lettuce and it takes just a few of their large leaves to make a salad. Romaines are also more tolerant of heat and dryness than leaf lettuces. Some  favorite romaine varieties are ‘Green Forest’ and ‘Rouge d’Hiver’; Winter Density is a bibb-romaine lettuce that tolerates both heat and cold, making it good for fall production as well.

Onion: Onions sets are sold at nurseries, garden centers, and even some supermarkets in the spring. Select small, firm bulbs and buy only as many as you want to plant right away. Or buy more than you need, and store the rest in a plastic bag in the crisper of your refrigerator, and they will stay dormant but ready to grow for months. Any variety of onion set will grow into good green onions. A mix of colors is fun if you have the option. If you can’t find sets, any variety of onion seed will do; ‘Evergreen Bunching’ is a good choice.

Cucumber: Look for a variety that has “bush” in the name, as most cucumbers produce long vines. ‘Bush Slicer’ and ‘Spacemaster’ are two good varieties. Some cucumbers are sold as pickling cucumbers, but there is no reason you can’t eat them fresh: ‘Picklebush’ produces tasty one-salad-sized (4″) cukes. The descriptively named ‘Lemon’ cucumber is a tasty short-vine cucumber worth looking for that bears round, yellow fruit.

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Happy Meatless Monday! This will soon become a favorite!

Ingredients

•    12- 6 inch corn tortillas

•    Olive oil spray

•    3 red peppers, seeded and sliced thin

•    2 onions, sliced thin

•    2 T olive oil

•    6 cloves garlic, minced

•    3 T lime juice

•    4 cups black beans (2 cans)

•    1 T chopped jarred jalapenos plus  1/4 cup brine

•    1 bag broccoli slaw

•    2 cups cooked quinoa

•    2 ounces queso fresco or vegan cheese

•     1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt (I now use tofu mayo or non dairy yogurt)

•    2 T fresh cilantro, minced

•    3 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions

1.    Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.    Spread tortillas on 2 baking sheets and coat with oil spray on each side.

3.    Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until crisp.

4.    Rotate baking sheets after 4 minutes.

5.    Put 1 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium low heat and add onions and peppers.

6.    Cook covered for 10 minutes.

7.    Uncover and increase heat to medium high.

8.    Cook for 6 more minutes.

9.    Add garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds.

10.    Remove from heat and stir in 1 T lime juice.

11.    Salt and pepper to taste.

12.    Heat remaining 1 T of olive oil in skillet.

13.    Add beans, jalapenos and 1 T of the brine.

14.    Cook for 5 minutes, mashing beans with the back of your fork or a potato masher.

15.    Toss coleslaw mix with remaining of jalapeno brine.

16.    Season with salt and pepper.

17.    In a small bowl combine yogurt (or vegan alternative), cilantro and garlic.

18.    Spread beans on tortillas, and top with quinoa, vegetables and slaw.

19.    Top with yogurt/mayo mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Recipe courtesy of Cooking Quinoa

This is a must have in your recipe file. You can whip it up for friends and, no matter what else you serve, it’ll be the first thing to go.

Serve it with crostini, tortilla chips, or crudités. Or just eat it by the spoonful. It’s that good.

Ingredients
•    1 cup 3/4″-inch pieces asparagus

•    2 tablespoons unsalted butter

•    1 cup chopped leeks (white and pale-green parts only)

•    2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

•    1 1/4 cups whole milk

•    1 cup grated mild white cheddar

•    Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

•    1 14-ounce can chopped artichoke hearts in water, drained

•    1/4 cup fresh (or frozen, thawed) peas

•    2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

•    2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

•    2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

•    1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

•    4 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese, divided

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°F. Cook asparagus in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Drain; let cool.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring often, until soft, about 10 minutes. Whisk in flour; gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly.

Cook, whisking occasionally, until thickened; remove from heat. Add cheddar; whisk until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth.

Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Fold in asparagus (reserve tips), artichoke hearts, peas, chives, mint, flat-leaf parsley, zest and 2 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese.

Transfer mixture to a 4-5-cup baking dish; arrange asparagus tips on top and dot with another 2 ounces goat cheese. Bake until golden brown and bubbling, 15-20 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Courtesy of Epicurious

What Is Sustainable Eating?

Sustainable eating is defined as consuming food that is healthy for the body and the environment. In addition, it is humane for workers and respectful of animals, provides fair wages to farmers, and supports agricultural communities.

Sustainable eating is directly tied to our health. The main component of sustainable eating is consuming a plant-based diet, one in which plant material makes up the majority of the volume of food on the plate.

With a high level of antioxidants, plants protect our bodies from oxidative stress, which damages cells, later causing diseases. A plant-based diet not only assists your body with its elaborate natural defense system aimed at minimizing damage from environmental toxins but also decreases your carbon footprint. In addition, eating food grown in a sustainable way reduces the potential consequences of pesticide contamination.

Eating foods that are grown locally is an important aspect of sustainable eating. Local produce varieties tend to be chosen for flavor and nutrition over shipping ability and are often in the market within 24 to 48 hours after harvest.

In contrast, imported produce is picked before it is fully ripe and before nutrient content is completely developed. Therefore it can lose more of its nutrient value in the long travel time to your market. Finally, eating a sustainable, plant-based diet has a positive impact on biodiversity, climate change, and the water supply.

Reconnecting to food through sustainable eating can be a revolution against a broken, industrialized food system that has made us and the planet sick. Changing your eating behavior, even partially, will have a great impact on your health and the environment.

Easy strategies that are good for your health and the environment

•    Eat seven to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (choose in-season, locally grown ones).

•    Buy organic—especially meat, poultry, and dairy products.

•    Shop at local growers’ markets.

•    Use frozen fruit and vegetables to substitute for out-of-season produce.

•    Eat less animal protein: 6 to 8 ounces per day for women and 8 to 10 ounces per day for men.

•    Increase vegetarian food choices (more beans, lentils, nuts, and soy).

•    Drink filtered tap water instead of bottled water.

•    Join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) group for fresh, local produce delivered to your door.

•    Use fewer processed grains: choose whole oats instead of packaged cereals, and eat whole grains like faro instead of processed and refined starches.

•    Buy real, whole foods with less packaging.