It’s that time of year. For many parents and their children that means graduation – time for family and friends to shower the graduate with love, congratulations, and gifts. So when looking for the perfect gift for these newly independent, and optimistic young adults, it is important to encourage them to keep their environmental values at the forefront as they make their way in this world.  And what a better way to keep them on the green living path, then with some green graduation gifts!

Here is a list of great green gifts sure to please any soon-to-be grad.
For the Fashion Grad

Gift cards for green retailers. Online stores like Patagonia and Nau offer up everything from organic cotton pants and shirts to jackets made out of recycled soda bottles. Treehugger.com offers up a ton of suggestions for green clothes and retailers.

For the Exploring Grad

For a fascinating learning experience, the high school or college grad might like to try “wwofing,” (from the phrase “working weekends on organic farms”), the recently-coined term for an organic farm stay. You can find hundreds of prospects around the world by going to Wwoof.org.

For the Organic Eating Grad

How about a Gift card  for organic food? These days organic food stores are everywhere. A reloadable gift card for a nationwide grocery store like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s will keep your student in healthy, fresh food for a month or even a semester. You could even get a gift card for a local organic restaurant. (Whole Foods also has a wide variety of tasty, healthy microwaveable food, perfect for quick dorm dinners.) To go along with those green groceries, pick up some reusable canvas bags to carry all that good food back to the dorm.

For the Coffee Drinking Grad

If there’s one thing every student seems to need, it’s coffee. Today most major coffee importers and chains (like Starbucks, Caribou, Seattle’s Best) have Fair Trade brands, which ensure fair wages for workers. Look for other marks of environmental coffee practices – Shade Grown, Organic, Bird-Friendly. Peace Coffee (www.peacecoffee.com) roasts excellent coffee, and they’ll deliver anywhere.

For the “Sweet” Grad

Chocolate. Second only to coffee, chocolate is at the top of the college brain-food list. Chocolate comes in Fair Trade and Organic varieties, and chocolate bars that are high in dark chocolate content are full of healthy antioxidants, not to mention delicious. ??For the “Clean” Grad? Shampoos and soaps. More and more bath products come in green varieties. Aveda and The Body Shop are leaders in this movement, producing natural products that are good for the planet as well as for personal hygiene.

For the Music Loving Grad

Online music and digital music players. Give your grad a digital music player, like the Apple iPod or Creative Zen, and a gift card for an online music store, like iTunes or eMusic.

For The Electronic Grad

A computer is vital for college living and working these days. Why not make it green? The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool is a certification program for computers and other electronics. Check out the EPEAT’s standards and computers that make the grade at www.epeat.net. Don’t forget to pick up some recycled printer paper to go with that green computer.

For The Charitable Grad

Give a gift in your grad’s name to a charitable organization. Heifer International (www.heifer.org) is a fun one. The money donated is used to buy livestock and other needed goods for families and communities in developing nations. For example, a $20 gift gives a family a flock of chicks, $60 gives a trio of rabbits, $120 gives a goat or a sheep, and $500 gives a whole cow.

For the Forward Thinking Grad

Start a retirement account with eco-friendly mutual funds. To help your child prepare for his or her future, start up an IRA in their name with shares of socially responsible stocks and mutual funds. Learn more at www.socialfunds.com.

For the Traveling Grad

Many grads want to do some traveling before they start work.  Talk to them about some fabulous, and inexpensive eco-tourism options including volunteerism, hiking, biking or visiting a faraway nature preserve to learn about the species there and the people who manage it.  For more ideas check out Sustainable Travel International.

There is a green option for almost anything you could buy for your impressive graduate. These alternatives are worth seeking out, to ensure your grad develops good habits that will last the rest of their life.

And if you have other great ideas, be sure to write them in our comments section!

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.

Mothers are very special people; toiling away for our benefit for many, many years; well past our childhood and teenage trials.

Mother Nature has been personified as a female for thousands of years, representing the giving of life, sustenance and nurturing- and it’s quite fitting. If you observe Mothers Day, honor your mom and Mother Nature by giving her a green gift this year!

Organic Cosmetics

Look for organic products and those based on plant materials, such as olive oil. Say no to cosmetics filled with chemicals that end up on our skin and in the environment.

Natural Perfumes

Perfumes are a perfect Mother’s Day gift, but they’re often filled with unregulated chemicals-not a great gift for Mom or Mother Earth. Try more natural options like those from Pacifica ($20 at amazon.com) or Burt’s Bees, which makes solid perfumes perfect for moms on the go ($10 at burtsbees.com or part of a Head-to-Toe gift pack ($15 at amazon.com).

Candles

Another Mother’s Day favorite – but did you know that many candles are made from crude oil byproducts. Burning candles releases all sorts of nasty stuff; including benzene, styrene, acetone and particulate matter.

The wicks on some candles may even contain lead! Additionally, scented candles may contain more synthetic chemicals. As a more earth friendly and healthy choice, soy candles or candles made of beeswax are the way to go and for scented candles, look for soy or beeswax ones that incorporate essential oils – and have a non-lead wick of course.

Sponsorships and Memberships

Mothers being the caring folk they are generally derive great pleasure from helping others. Perhaps a donation in her name for a tree planting or a conservation project might bring her joy. Maybe a membership to an online organic cooking club. A trip to a health spa. The possibilities are endless.

Fair Trade Clothes and Accessories

Look for items made from organic cotton and produced in fair trade conditions. “Fair trade” is a term applied to products that meet certain conditions relating to labor (non-sweatshop), environmental standards and social policy.

For example, if you wanted to buy your Mom a handbag as a gift, run a search on your favorite search engine for : fair trade handbags. Or “fair trade” preceding any product you’re thinking of buying – you’ll be surprised the range of items now available.

Green gift certificates

Sometimes its hard to decide on a gift for your Mother, especially a “green” one; so why not let your mom decide for herself.  Many green online stores now offer gift certificates and by giving a voucher to a store that specializes in environmentally friendly products, you might open up a whole new world for your mom!

Finding green gift stores online is pretty easy as so many stores with a focus on the environment have popped up in recent years – search on terms such as: green gifts mother’s day or earth friendly gifts mother’s day.

To all of our wonderful mother’s- Happy Mother’s Day!

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.

Who’s Green? is excited to announce a new Feature – “Pro’s Who Know.”

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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

The best way to ensure you have everything you need to prepare delicious meals is to keep a well-stocked pantry. When you cook at home you can prepare healthy, nourishing food using quality, fresh ingredients—much better than prepared food that is often loaded with calories, fats, sodium and added sweeteners.

Here are some basics to get started~

First Step- Use Nontoxic Food Storage Containers

Choose glass, ceramic and stainless steel over plastic whenever possible. These materials are long-lasting, can often be transferred directly from the pantry or fridge to the oven or microwave, and – most importantly, they won’t leach chemicals into your food.

Stock Up With Bulk Whole Foods

The pantry is the place for go-to foods you need to make meals. Most of your stores should be real foods – unprocessed whole foods, like grains, root vegetables, legumes, dried fruit and nuts – and minimally processed foods like pastas. A good rule of thumb: Foods without ingredient lists or heavy-handed health claims on their packaging (or without packaging at all) are the best choice. Those foods with short ingredient lists made up only of items you recognize and can pronounce are good, too. Anything else is best thought of as “food” in name only.

Plastic  Storage Containers Are A No-No

Plastic may be versatile, lightweight and cheap, but some types of plastic also leach chemicals into foods. If you’re keeping some plastic around, purge anything marked with a recycling code No. 3 or 7 first. Those numbers are used to mark hard plastics that often have the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A. Whatever you use for food storage, avoid microwaving or cooking in plastic, and avoid using plastics that show signs of age, since these conditions make chemical leaching more likely.

Limit Canned Foods

Unfortunately, plastics aren’t the only packaging that leach chemicals into foods. The lining of cans also contains the suspect chemicals bisphenol-A and phthalates, both of which can mimic human hormones. A recent analysis found that families can reduce their exposure to the two chemicals by more than 50% simply by steering clear of canned foods, like soups, tuna and beans. Canned foods are an important part of emergency preparedness, though, so you’ll probably want to keep some on hand just in case. Eden Organic is one brand that uses BPA-free cans.

DYI Green Cleaning Products

Save space in the pantry by stocking just a few simple cleaning agents: baking soda, vinegar, alcohol, club soda and lemon juice. That, a little knowhow and some elbow grease are all you’ll need to clean just about anything in the house, from the kitchen counters and the oven, to the windows and the toilet bowl.

Best of all – unlike most toilet bowl cleaners – these ingredients are useful in cooking, and relatively safe around small children and pets. If you’re making the switch, don’t dump those cleansers down the drain! Check with your local waste hauler, municipality or with Earth911 to find the nearest hazardous household waste drop-off location and time. (That’s right: Many are so toxic, they’re considered hazardous waste.)

Include Reusable Items

Whether it’s cutlery, flatware, napkins or towels, the rule of thumb should be: Wash and reuse. If you’re using disposable paper plates and napkins, or plastic forks and knives, they’re not only cluttering your pantry but also cluttering our landfills.

Don’t be too quick to be taken in by marketing about biodegrable or plant-based items, either; the Earth-friendly choice is reuseable, and – in the long run – far cheaper.