sarah's sustainable life

looking for a new year’s resolution that will:
*slim your waistline
*save you money
*green your lifestyle
AND
*give you more family time?
have i got the website for you! check out notakeout.com! this amazing website has everything you need to start cooking meals at home that will have your family so satisfied they will never miss the take out food! and, as i have stated in previous blog entries, eating at home rather than eating out is guaranteed to save you money, calories, and carbon output. with this website bookmarked on your home computer, you are sure to save stress as well! i am looking forward to trying it out myself, and to hearing what you all have to say!

i’d like to start by saying that i hope everyone had a nice, relaxing christmas break. now it’s time to go back to the business of greening our lives.
as i have stated in previous articles, i do not believe in global warming. however, those of you that do may be interested in this clip i found from the UN climate change summit. i take the UN about as seriously as i do global warming, but i think this fellow makes a good point. basically, whatever you may have read to make you believe in unnatural climate change there is just as much if not more compelling evidence that meat consumption could be a major player in global warming. click here to see photos. what it has come down to are leaders from around the world calling on wealthier nations to eat less meat as a means of cutting down their carbon footprint. for many years i have heard vegan activists and cookbook authors chiding prominent americans who call themselves environmentalists (namely al gore) for never mentioning the impact that factory farming has on the environment or, more importantly, how much it could help if people cut down on or cut out meat and dairy. i am very interested to hear what you all think about this!

from the same company that has been supplying us with “sugar in the raw” (cumberland packing, ironically enough) comes a WONDERFUL new product that is topping my list of must haves in the kitchen. the product: “stevia in the raw”! stevia is a non-caloric, non-chemical sweetener; it is made from the leaves of a plant and can be found in both liquid and granular form. i was introduced to stevia at a brunch in college. the lady hostessing grew her own stevia plants and just crushed up the leaf in the bottom of her tea cup before pouring on the hot tea (kind of like a mint leaf in a mint julep). i thought it was the oddest thing i had ever heard of, but once i tasted it, i was completely addicted. although at times it has been difficult to find, i have been a loyal stevia consumer for (gulp) over eight years now and am thrilled to have tried this new form of stevia, “in the raw”. it is lovely, and if you are looking for a sugar replacement without all the chemicals, i highly recommend it. my only foot note is that, despite all the advice to the contrast, in my taste stevia is not quite as sweet as regular sugar, and if you normally use just one packet of sugar for your favorite steamy beverage, you may need two packs of stevia. well, what are you waiting for? go check for it in the sugar section of your local market or order some online!!

ah, christmas gifts. we fret, we panic, we overspend, and we regret. avoid the traditional christmas gift grief cycle by buying sustainable this year! sustainable gifts can be thrifty, thoughtful, and creative, so don’t think you’ll be stuck buying everyone on your list a backyard compost bin (although some people might enjoy that, too!).

give the gift of quality time and use your christmas dollars to support local, sustainable cuisine. most cities have at least one restaurant that focuses on using local organic ingredients. give a gift certificate for one of these restaurants to any couple you know for a nice holiday treat of quality time. for an extra wow factor (with no extra money involved), volunteer to babysit the night the certificate is used!

give the gift of compassion and make a charitable donation in someone’s name. i actually did this as a “secret santa” when i was in college. i was a little nervous about it at first, seeing as how most people got some pretty cool stuff. when it came time for me to reveal the gift, everyone loved the idea, especially the person whose name was on the donation slip! you’d be surprised how many people are happy to forgo the usual plastic junk to know that they helped someone in need.

give the gift of happy memories and find a new way to share your family’s trusted and loved recipes. it’s easy to find a store that will bind your favorite recipes (once you type them up), or try a recipe box made from upcycled materials. what could be a more appropriate holiday gift than gramma’s recipe for pecan pie?

if none of these seem to fit your family’s wish list, consider the following options:
1) Sony’s Daily Reader or an Amazon Kindle, both download books to read electronically at your fingertips without the paper, ink, and shipping of traditional books.

2) a reusable lunch kit, for anyone who has to eat away from home (and who doesn’t occasionally?). these are great for kids and adults, and the link leads you to a site where the lunch kits can be customized to fit any personality and are made from repurposed antique materials.

3) a new shower head that delivers great pressure and uses less water. i don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy a really great, hot shower. this would truly be the gift that keeps giving (and saving) all year round!

not to be cheesy, but few things are as christmas-y to me as pecan pie. where i grew up, pecans were a rare luxury, and we only used them in large quantities for baking during the holidays. unfortunately, i never got my grandma’s recipe for pecan pie:( i did, however, manage to get an AMAZING and easy recipe for pecan pie from a lady named elizabeth elliott who attended church with us in north carolina. i like this recipe alot because she doesn’t use corn syrup, so the pie is nice and sweet without getting all gooey and stuck in your teeth.

1stick margarine
1cup sugar
2eggs
3tsp apple cider vinegar
1T vanilla extract
1cup chopped pecans
1-9inch pie shell

melt margarine and mix with sugar. beat eggs and add to sugar mixture, stirring well. add vinegar, vanilla, and nuts. stir to combine, then pour into unbaked pie shell. bake in a preheated 350degree oven for 40-45 minutes. allow to cool before slicing and serving.

it doesn’t have to be cold outside for one to appreciate a nice hot shower, but this weather certainly makes hot water seem more like a necessity than a luxury. for one peasant carpenter in the shaanxi province of china, necessity has become the father of invention. unable to afford a water heater, ma yanjun created a water heater by placing empty beer bottles in rows connected by hoses, which allow cold water to flow through them and be heated by the sun. ma created this innovative, inexpensive water heater so that his mother could have a hot shower, but has since helped more than 20 other families in qiqiao village to do the same. it seems one man’s thoughtful gift keeps on giving, and many more people will enjoy hot showers in the cold winter months that province tends to experience. not that my opinion is that important, but i think colored glass can be quite beautiful, and with the right variety of beer bottles available, this water heater could be very attractive (especially compared to a normal solar panel).

from Rishi Menon's flickr account - thanks for the beautiful photo!

in a society so cluttered with disposable everything, it’s easy for us to overlook the fact that art and design are everywhere. from your furniture and appliances to the boxes and bags that your food is packaged in, someone designed those items the way they are for a reason. a recent article by weburbanist really has me taking a second look at the “stuff” that sits around my house, and what i consider garbage. for hundreds of years people have been taking a lack of new materials and turning what they already have into useful and beautiful objects. from a beer bottle house built in nevada in 1907 to furniture made of bicycle tires and shopping carts, artists and architects find new use and beauty in the ordinary; more people could benefit from seeing objects this way. it puts me in mind of the purpose of andy warhol’s soup can paintings, taking a closer look at the everyday and maybe even ourselves…

the holidays have already got my head spinning, so i apologize for not having my usual free recipe friday last week, but i am making up for it today with three, that’s right, friends, i said THREE free recipe ideas!! i have a problem for the month of december in my home year after year: leftover turkey! especially now that richard is the only one who eats it, i usually end up with at least one gallon zipper bag filled with leftover turkey meat. over the years i have had many attempts at hiding the turkey in other recipes and today i give you my three most successful turkey recycling recipes to date.

1) richard’s favorite: turkey enchiladas! in a medium saucepan, melt 8oz cream cheese with 1cup salsa (your choice of heat). stir in about two cups leftover turkey (shredded or cubed). fill and roll large flour tortillas, then line in a greased casserole; sprinkle with some more salsa and a little shredded cheddar. cover with foil and bake for about 20minutes at 350, until the cheese on top is melted.

2) my favorite (with leftover tofurky, of course): bbq turkey pizza! toss together 2cups leftover turkey with 1/2cup of your favorite bbq sauce. spread on a prepared pizza crust. decorate with purple onion and green pepper rings, then a sprinkling of cheddar cheese. bake at 375 until the crust is nice and crunchy and the cheese is bubbly.

3) for your holiday party: buffalo turkey dip! fairly simple ratio here. into your slow-cooker dump: 1cup ranch dressing, 8oz cream cheese, 1-12oz bottle buffalo sauce, and about 3cups shredded leftover turkey meat (preferably white; you may want more or less depending on how saucy you like it). simmer in the crock pot on low, stirring occasionally, for about an hour until all the cream cheese is melted and the sauce is hot and bubbly. serve with tortilla chips and your friends will eat up all your troublesome leftovers in no time. (this also makes a good filling for wrap sandwiches.)

hope you get a chance to try one or more of these out. let me know how it goes!

denmark has become the first country on the planet to boast a completely energy self-sufficient region. just in time to become the gathering point for a UN climate change summit, the island of Samso completed a ten year renovation to rely on its own resources for energy. this looks very impressive, and it’s nice to know it can be done, but it raises alot of questions. what does energy self-sufficient mean, anyway? yes, they still drive cars that are powered by imported diesel, and i’m sure the wind turbines and solar panels were not produced on the island using “green” methods, but this is a starting point. the extremely high cost per person (something like 20k USD) to convert would alone slow the process down, but let’s look at the big picture. this was a government sponsored project. the danes had a neat idea, it got the world’s attention, and now there is a micro-model for how we could be improving conditions for the rest of the world. people tend to get very defensive when something like this happens because they are afraid they may have to change something. don’t bother, just be awed at the giant science fair project and hope developers have learned something.