sarah's sustainable life

i just wanted to remind you (and myself) of a fun and functional website every vegetarian/vegan should visit often. happy cow is basically a search engine designed for hungry herbivores. you simply type in your city name or zipcode, choose from vegetarian, vegan, restaurant, or stores (or all four) and click to get instant happiness! the search results will give you the name of all restaurants and stores in your area that are veg friendly and registered at the site. for me, it opened the door to a gourmet pizzeria that offers vegan cheese and meat toppings AND a bakery/cafe with lots of vegan offerings. what will happy cow do for you?

for those of you who have been reading my site for the almost two years i have been writing – thanks!! – i wanted to let you know that i am getting ready to change a little something. i have decided to use the free recipe friday format to do a short series called quick international dinners! trying to go where creativity has led, i felt the need from readers i have talked to for whole meal recipes that are quick, nutritious, and exciting. and so this is what i hope to bring you through this new series. every meal will be fairly quick (most 30minutes or less to prepare), healthy, profiling an exiting international cuisine that your family may not be overly familiar with (no more meatloaf and potato night!), and 100% vegan. i will be including brand names in many cases, because a dinner stops being quick when you have to take 30minutes at the supermarket to inspect labels for shellfish or milk ingredients. it begins tomorrow and ends whenever i feel like it – because i can!!:) i hope you stay tuned, enjoy the easy possibilities, and expand your family’s dinner repertoire.

note of caution: many of these recipes are not terribly “outside-the-box”, because that’s not the way that i work (for example, quick thai dinner is simply my quick answer to pad thai). i want every person to be able to feel that international cuisine is within their reach in their own kitchen, and so have foregone most of the complicated instructions and obscure ingredients that are so often called for in more creative cooking.

this is so easy, it is hardly a recipe, but when i posted last week that my son and i were enjoying some vegan hot cocoa, LOTS of people asked me for the recipe. so here it is, in all its simplicity. enjoy some tonight around the fireplace, and make it a part of your new year’s eve tradition.

for each cup of hot chocolate:
8oz almond milk
1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
1-2tablespoons Stevia in the Raw*

in a small saucepan, heat the almond milk to just below boiling and remove from heat. whisk in the cocoa powder and stevia. when all is dissolved, pour into mugs and dust with a little cinnamon or serve with a peppermint stick to swirl in. YUM!!

*Stevia in the Raw – is a brand name. stevia is a natural, calorie free sweetener that comes from the stevia leaf. it can be very concentrated and overpowering, but this brand measures cup for cup like sugar.
*cocoa powder – full of wonderful antioxidants and…it’s chocolate, people. what else do you want?

it is a myth that one must drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day to be healthy. what is not a myth is that the body often mistakes thirst for hunger, causing you to eat when you would just as well be satisfied with a nice glass of water. it is also true that most americans do not drink enough water and that lack of the stuff can cause all kinds of health problems (exhaustion, constipation, and UTIs to name a few). a good way to keep your appetite at bay through the holidays (and all year long) is to drink the proper amount of water for your weight every day. the formula is simple: divide your weight in lbs by the number 2 and the answer will be the number of ounces of water you need to drink daily. for example: 140lbs/2=70oz of water per day. for something a little more special, try adding crushed mint to ice water during a meal or a juicy lemon wedge to a cup of hot water after a meal. mint and lemon contain their own appetite suppressing qualities that may encourage healthy weight maintenance! and enjoy the water. it is refreshing and light during a heavy food time of the year. you won’t need to buy expensive regulating yogurt at the end of it all if you can keep up with your water intake!!

on the tails of last week’s school lunch inspiration, i came across this blog. “fed up with school lunch” chronicles one (anonymous) mid-western public school teacher’s effort to step into her students shoes by eating school lunch every day, all year long. to me, the photos say it all. the food is as colorless and unappealing as any i’ve ever seen, but it also brings back bad digestive memories. in my first few years of marriage, i taught at a public school and as a “perk” was given free lunches there. being financially strapped (as most newlyweds tend to be), i decided to give it a try. three months later, the results really showed up. despite my starting a new exercise program at a local gym, i had gained 13lbs. 13LBS, PEOPLE!! i hate to blame it all on the school lunches, but it was the only change i had made to my routine and, sure enough, as soon as i started packing my own again, the weight came off with very little effort. so what’s my point? school lunches are made to be calorie dense, not necessarily nutrient dense, so that children who don’t get a chance to eat at home are not lacking. for most children in this country, the school meal is too much. too much fat, salt, cholesterol, calories, etc. until we see a major change in the content of public school lunchtime edibles, packing will be the healthiest way for most of us to go.

it’s school time again! for me and many other moms, it is time to resurrect the art of packing the old lunch box. it can be such a hassle to perform this task day after day, but we moms know how important it is to send our children with healthy, filling, and (for some of us) vegetarian lunches. i have written about lunch packing before, but mainly in the context of packing lunches for my husband to take to work. today, i will give you a few tips on packing a worry-free lunch your kids will love to eat!

1) keep a chart of lunch options handy. this takes a little time, but it is SO worth it!! using help from websites and cookbooks (like the vegan lunchbox and the sneaky chef), i put together complete meal outlines in calendar form. this way, i can plan ahead and have the supplies on hand and make sure there is good variety in josiah’s lunchtime diet. (jennifer mccann recommends using the school’s lunch calendar as a guide so that your child can have similar lunches and not feel left out.)
2) have your child help. whenever possible, allow your child to help in the planning and preparation of the food. kids are more likely to want to eat the food you pack when they feel they’ve had a voice and a hand in it.
3) know when to say when. there will be days you just don’t have time to make everything from scratch; that doesn’t mean you need to give in and send your child with processed meat on white bread and potato chips! there are SO many brands of wonderful, ready to eat lunch box fillers that are high on nutrition and easy on the environment. revolution foods, ella’s kitchen, tasty brand, and go raw are all great choices. remember, though, you will pay for the convenience in money, so try to go homemade as often as possible.

to be continued later this week…

i wanted to share with you some healthy snacks i’ve recently found that my son LOVES, and maybe your kid will, too. they are definitely worth a try, not too expensive, widely available, and extremely nutritious.
preemptive disclaimer: i do not get paid by companies to endorse their products! all that i share with you at sarah’s sustainable life comes from a wish that you will have success feeding your family healthy food that they’ll love.

kim nori – that is, roasted, lightly salted seaweed sheets that look like little crackers. there are many brands on the market; we get ours from whole foods (because it’s easy). my son is CRAZY about these, calls them “sea chips”. prior to this, i had no success getting him to eat nori. if you think highly nutritious sea veg are out of the question for your toddler, give these a try!

fruit & veg smoothies: not juice, but prepackaged smoothies. why? because they toss into a lunchbox or diaper bag without worries about spillage or spoilage. and the label is very clear, there is nothing inside but organic (usually) fruit and veg. our favorite is ella’s kitchen because they have such a great variety of veg smoothies. c’mon, you know kids eat fruit just fine, what we really want to sneak into those snacks is more vegetables!

dried veg: that’s right, DRIED. sound on the bland side? trust me. not only are they tasty, they are perfectly suited to toddler taste buds. no salt, no sugar, just crunchy dried veg that are fun to munch on in place of crackers, pretzels, or other starchy, nonperishable foods you may be tempted to pack for the trip to the playground.

summer in texas means just one thing to me – my daily cuppa will be poured over ice (american style)! in fact, in my new home state i have a hard time taking in anything other than iced tea all summer long, and so this mini-revelation i had is highly applicable to me.
i have always been skeptical of “cold brew” teas. how does one tea leaf require heat to distribute its properties into the water and another does not? i’m not buying it!! it turns out the folks at sun harvest know how to overcome my doubt – with a BIG sale! i bought a large box of cold brew blueberry green tea and was impressed with the flavor. and as i was sipping through my first pitcher it occurred to me, “hey! if i could cold brew all my iced tea all summer long, imagine how much energy i could save!” this thought led me to another, that perhaps heating water in an old-fashioned kettle on the stove during the winter might not be such a great idea, either. so after some research, here is my definite answer on the best way to get your elixir of life: cold brew iced tea in the summer (or whenever you like to drink it cold) and the only energy wasted is your own, pulling out the tea bags. the rest of the year, use an electric kettle to heat water quickly, cheaply, and efficiently.

i can’t tell you how many people have asked me, “how does going veg effect the environment?” thankfully for me, the people at turtle island (makers of the beloved thanksgiving tofurky feast) have done the research and put quite a nice, informative page together! so, if you are one of those who is curious, check out the link and find out why “vegetarianism IS environmentalism”, as my favorite bumper sticker reads;)

here is a few related comments from our friends at mercy for animals (please visit the site to see citations on the information referenced):
* a recent UN report concluded that animal agribusiness causes more global warming than all forms of transportation combined…through greenhouse gases contained in manure and intestinal gas of farmed animals, deforestation to grow feed crops exclusively for animals, and the massive amounts of energy used to produce the feed crops, heat and cool animal housing, and transport, process, and refrigerate meat.
*a recent study done by cornell university found that the US alone could feed 800 million people with the grain we feed our livestock. on average, 6lbs of plant protein are required to produce only 1lb of animal protein.
*factory farms produce 1.4billion tons of manure every year, which emit methane and ammonia into the air and water (through manure runoff).

a rather disappointing dinner out turned upward for me at the checkout. as my husband paid for our not-so-great tamales, i noticed on the counter a “green map” of san antonio. i was intrigued! the brochure held a list of restaurants, services, organizations, and properties all aimed at keeping life local, sustainable, and “green.” a visit to the website revealed an open-source social network, links to local “green” discounts, and a list of independent, sustainable businesses that grows every day (no pun intended). echotown has done a great service putting all this information in one place. the next time you are in need of a dry cleaner, organic pest control, haircut, auto glass repair, or are even just looking for a more “green” restaurant for your date night, check out echotown.net – i know i will! as their slogan states, “go local, go green, tell everyone!”