The question of whether to go green and shift your diet to a more organic is a challenging one these days. These days all we hear are reports of climate change, the need to buy carbon offsets when you go on long airplane ride and the importance of eating organic. I admit to being on the organic and local shopping and eating bandwagon, although I do it more because the food tastes so much better (and is often less expensive) than the stuff I can get at my local chain grocery store.
Over at Green Daily today, Bruce Watson ruminates on the issue of organic food and whether it's as green and planet-friendly as we'd like to think. Go on over and see what he has to say and let us know what you think.
When it comes to packing up a sandwich, what do you use to keep that sandwich fresh and unscathed until lunchtime? I imagine that the majority of you use some sort of disposable plastic bag (whether it be zip or fold top). Assuming that you toss those plastic bags at the end of your lunch hour (or that your kid tosses it out when it's time to head out to recess) it begins to amount to quite a few plastic bags. There are reusable plastic container options out there, but what about checking out a reusable sandwich wrap?
If you want to make your own, check out out how this Australian mom made a sandwich wrapper for her daughter out of some fabric, a zip top bag and some old velcro (via Green Daily).
Last year at the Vegan Lunch Box, Jennifer posted instructions from a reader on how to make a reusable sandwich wrapper out of polyurethane laminate coated fabric.
If you're not feeling crafty, you can buy a ready-to-go wrapper at Wrap-n-Mat.
If the posts that Ellenand I wrote earlier this week about the International Berkeley Water Competition got you thinking about the quality and taste of your own local water, then our friends over at Green Daily have a whole bunch of stuff for you to read. They have put together a feature that tries to answer the question, "What's in our water?" They explore what's safe, what's not and what you can do about. If these are questions that have been plaguing you, head over and give their piece a scan. I'm certain that you'll find it enlightening.
Back in December, I wrote a post about how scientists had found that taking a spoonful of honey could help suppress a cough. There was some dissent in the comments about whether or not the finding was true, although several people wrote in to say that they had had positive experiences soothing a ragged cough with honey.
Whether or not it will help with a cough, apparently honey can help to ease the pain of minor burns. In recent studies, scientists have found that honey has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. So next time you burn yourself in the kitchen, grab that jar of honey and dab a little on for some relief.
Maybe you've heard about "eating green," but aren't quite sure what it entails. Or you already try to eat organic, but sometimes wish there was more you could do for the earth. Or maybe you're already aware of eating green but could use a refresher.
Well, our friends at GreenDaily have done the research for you, and come up with a handy little guide to everything you should know about eating green. Each part of the guide features handy, straightforward information about topics like gardening, artificial growth hormones, and fair trade, complete with online resources and opportunities to learn more.
These days, more than ever, issues of food and the environment overlap one another. Our friends over at Green Daily have been busy this week, blogging about all sorts of green food issues. Here's some of what they had to say.
The Lazio region of Italy is adding organic fruit to local vending machines. They are doing this to make healthy food more accessible and to fight against childhood obesity. I wish that vending machines in this country dispensed organic fruit.
Bluefin tuna is overfished and so several countries have agreed to limit fishing in the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans. This means less tuna for sushi bars and so some chefs in Japan are experimenting with other options, including raw horsemeat sushi.
Taking your own reusable bags to the grocery store is the thing to do these days. Check out clerks have mostly adapted to this practice and often ask me for my bags before I can even offer them. However, one woman had her bags refused and Patricia asks Green Daily readers if anyone else has had this experience.
After a visit to a chicken farm, Jamie Oliver was horrified by the treatment of the chickens. He is now working to improve living conditions for chickens and is asking people in the UK to pony up the extra money it costs to buy a free range bird.
Organic maple syrup comes from trees that are pesticide-free for life. The number of taps allowed in those trees is also limited so as not to oversap the trees. Looking for places to buy organic syrup? Check out Laura's post!
The 100 foot diet challenge means preparing meals that are grown or raised within 100 feet of your home and use as few store bought ingredients as possible. Oh to have a backyard and the space in which to grow some food!
Our sister blog Green Daily has a list of 21 things you can do with old coffee grounds (besides, I would assume, using them again to make more coffee). A couple of the ideas I've heard before, such as adding coffee grounds to plants to help them grow and hanging them in closets to absorb odors, but a couple of them are rather intriguing. Using coffee grounds to soften your hair? Making temporary tattoos? Interesting.
If one of your resolutions is to be a little bit more green in 2008 and reuse items and recycle and all that, maybe there's an idea or two on here you can use.
For most of the years of my life, my family has eaten string beans as the main vegetable for Christmas dinner. We don't do the traditional green bean casserole, instead choosing to steam them and dress them with butter, toasted almonds, salt and a little roasted garlic. They are so good and my sister, mother and I often fight over the leftovers the next day.
However, this year we're planning on deviated from our tradition in order to have a huge bowl of these Brussels Sprouts instead. Sadly, according to our friends over at Green Daily, Brussels Sprouts are not a particularly green choice for the holiday table. Apparently the seem to have the ability to cause some people to have a bit of gas after they eat them. If you multiply that gas over the millions of people who eat sprouts for Christmas dinner, it can have something of an effect on the green house effect. Luckily, for those of us who don't want to give up our sprouts, we can follow these simple cooking tips in order to reduce their gassy effects.
Now I realize that it's the day after Halloween and the last thing you want to be thinking about is pumpkin, especially since some of the neighborhood kids smashed your jack 'o lantern last night and you have big chunks of pumpkin to clean up off your front porch. Be that as it may, I wandered across a really fun recipe for pumpkin steaks and I couldn't help it. I had to share.
It's sort of a labor intensive recipe, in which you cut the pumpkin into flat chunks, bake it in the oven until its tender and then pan fry it. But gosh does it sound good. I'm tempted to get my hands on another cooking pumpkin and try it out. It would be a great one to tuck away for Thanksgiving, for those of you who are tired of the same squash or sweet potato dishes. The full recipe is after the jump.
Issues of the environment and food often go hand in hand. Our friends over at Green Daily have a number of current posts up about issues that are near and dear to our foodie hearts.
Yesterday, Patricia posted about a group of Italian farmers who have contracted with a prison to have the inmates make eco-friendly ice cream with local milk and fruit. The group of farmers is leading a campaign to encourage Italians to eat locally as a way of reducing carbon emissions.
Beer is about to get more expensive because of climate change, says Jonathon. Apparently in Australia prices of wheat and barley, vital ingredients in beer brewing, are rising due to extreme drought conditions.
Sarah's got good info about keeping the world a better place by packing lunches in safe, reusable plastic containers.
Want some simple tips on how to go green at the grocery store? Look no further than Rigel's post with recommendations on what to buy when it comes to coffee, chocolate, fruits, veggies and salad dressings.
According to a study that our friends over at Green Daily unearthed, it is now officially cool to eat organic. That poll showed that the number of people buying organic is going up and that 79% of people believe that buying organic food is better for the environment. Ninety-eight percent of frequent organic food buyers believe that it also tastes better than conventional foods.
The study also broke down which groups of people are doing the organic buying and discovered that they are either mostly liberal, mostly college graduates and are frequently both. These results make me blush a little, as I fall smack dab into this demographic and I do my best to buy organic foods whenever possible. Who knew I was so predictable?
Our new sister site, Green Daily, has a post up today that I thought might appeal to you Slashfoodies out there in readerland. They have discovered an article on Gomestic about 10 ways to use an orange peel. Back when I was in high school, I had a friend who would carefully save the peel of her orange, and after she had finished the fruit would return to the peel and meticulously scrap out all the white pith and eat it. Someone had once told her that it had lots of Vitamin C and being the health-conscious person that she was took the advice to heart.
I'm not necessarily recommending that you consume your pith (anyone know whether my friend was correct or not?) but some of these other orange peel tips are quite helpful. My favorites are the recommendations to use peels as a safe home fragrance (boil them in little water with a cinnamon stick or two), to use a bit to keep your brown sugar soft (I always have problems with hardened sugar) and put them in with oil to create infusions.
A jar of honey can become a sticky mess. Next time you're adding honey to another dish or a mug of tea, use a honey dipper to prevent a thick gooey layer from spreading.
The question of whether to go green and shift your diet to a more organic is a challenging one these days. These days all we hear are reports of climate change, the need to buy carbon offsets when you go on long airplane ride and the importance of eating organic. I admit to being on the organic and local shopping and eating bandwagon, although I do it more because the food tastes so much better (and is often less expensive) than the stuff I can get at my local chain grocery store. 
Our sister blog Green Daily has a list of 
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Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
