|
Healthy Holiday
Appetizers
Looking
for some healthy holiday appetizers that your friends and family will
love? Why not give these a try?
#1:
Festive
Holiday Stars
- 2 large
sweet potatoes
- 5 large
beets
- 1/2 cup
plain nonfat yogurt (or soy or goat yogurt)
- 2 heaping
tbs crumbled bleu cheese
- 1 clove
of garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp
lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp
ground cumin (or to taste)
- 1/4 cup
chopped walnuts
|
|
1.
Steam whole sweet potatoes in one large saucepan and whole beets
in another until tender (approximately 30 minutes). Remove and set
aside until cool enough to touch. Remove the skins from the vegetables
and trim the ends. Cut into ½-inch slices. Using a star-shaped cookie
cutter, cut the slices into shapes.
2.
Place the nonfat yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, and cumin into a bowl
and mix well. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Arrange
the vegetable stars on a platter. Add a teaspoon of the yogurt mixture
to the center of each, and sprinkle the walnuts on top.
|
#2:
Nutty Cashew Dates
- 12 dates (any type is fine, or try Medjool)
- ¼ cup cashew butter
- 12 whole cashews (roasted or raw) or 24 halves.
- 2 tbs coconut (finely shredded)
|
 |
|
1.
Cut dates
in half lengthwise and remove the seed. Fill date halves with cashew
butter.
2.
Split cashews in half. Place cashew half on
filled date.
3.
Arrange on a platter and sprinkle with shredded
coconut. |
#3:
Sweet And Spicy Veggie Balls
VEGGIE BALLS
- 2 lbs
veggie ground soy
- 1 cup
multi-grain flakes
- 1/3 cup
fresh parsley, chopped finely
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbs
soy sauce
- 1 clove
crushed garlic
- 1/3 cup
ketchup
|
 |
|
1.
Mix
all ingredients together in a food processor until just blended.
2.
Form into small 1" balls and place in a
glass baking dish.
SAUCE
- 1 can
jellied cranberry sauce
- 2 tbs
brown sugar
- 12 oz
bottle chili sauce (For a spicier version, substitute Thai-style
chili sauce.)
- 1 tbs
lemon juice
1.
Heat all ingredients together in a saucepan
and stir until well blended.
2.
Pour over veggie balls and bake at 350º
for 30 minutes.
Serve warm
as an appetizer with toothpicks or skewers.
|
| Taking the "Haul" out of Your Holidays
Did
you know that between Thanksgiving and New Year's, most of us
will throw out 25 percent more trash than at any other time of
the year? Most of this trash is attributed to the packaging and
wrapping from gifts. Since the average American family will buy
and wrap 30 presents a year, by switching to green alternatives
you can make a big impact. Listed below are some tips for making
the holidays a little greener.
THINK
ABOUT PACKAGING BEFORE YOU BUY.
Purchase gifts with little or no packaging, or packaging that
is recyclable.
|
|
|
|
CONSIDER PACKAGING ALTERNATIVES.
Try popcorn (enclose a note saying birds can eat it), biodegradable
starch peanuts, previously used packing peanuts or bubble wrap,
or crumpled newspapers. The UPS store (formerly Mail Boxes Etc.)
accepts donations of used Styrofoam peanuts, so if you receive
them with a gift, donate them instead of throwing them out.
MAKE FUNNY OR UNIQUE PACKAGES FROM SALVAGED
MATERIALS. Visit yard sales, flea markets or your attic
for old tins, hat boxes, fabric and other containers and materials
that can be reused.
MAKE THE WRAPPING PART OF THE GIFT.
Try wrapping in scarves, a set of pillowcases or cloth napkins
or tea towels. Use an oven mitt to wrap kitchen utensils and gadgets.
SAVE GIFT BOXES, BOWS, RIBBONS AND THE FRONTS
OF HOLIDAY CARDS (TO USE AS GIFT TAGS) FOR NEXT YEAR.
CONSIDER
GIFTS THAT DON'T REQUIRE WRAPPING:
- Lessons for music, art, dance, or a favorite sport
- A
membership to an art museum, gym, or the zoo
- Tickets
to a sporting event, movie theater, play, or concert
- Season
passes to a local amusement park or a state park
- A
gift certificate to a favorite local restaurant or day spa
- A
donation to the recipient's favorite charity
-
A newspaper or magazine subscription
MAKE
YOUR OWN WRAPPING PAPER:
- Use
brown paper bags that the kids can decorate with stamps, paints,
or crayons. Tie with natural raffia.
- Wrap
in pages from a magazine, old sheet music or newspaper comics.
- Purchase
remnant fabric from the fabric store and sew reusable gift bags
(see instructions below). Or make
reusable wrapping cloth by cutting fabric into squares
(with pinking shears). Wrap it around your gift, just as you
would with paper, and tie a ribbon around the gift to hold the
wrapping in place.
IF
YOU USE WRAPPING PAPER, LOOK FOR GREEN ALTERNATIVES.
- Paper
printed with natural inks that do not contain heavy metals.
- Paper
made in a factory where solvents are prevented from escaping
into the air.
- Paper
made from responsibly harvested wood.
- Paper
from pure, unbleached pulp or pulp bleached without chlorine.
SEW YOUR OWN GIFT BAGS
| STEP
1: |
Decide
on the size bag you want to make. |
| STEP
2: |
Cut
the fabric to twice the desired bag depth and fold in half
so the fold forms the bottom of the bag. |
| STEP
3: |
Turn
the fabric inside out and pin the sides together. Stitch the
side seams. |
| STEP
4: |
Turn
outside in, fold the raw edge along the top of the bag, and
hem, either by hand or with a sewing machine. (If fabric does
not run, you can finish the ends by cutting with pinking shears.) |
| STEP
5: |
Attach
a ribbon by cutting a cloth ribbon (at least 12" long)
and stitching it to the seam about four or five inches from
the top. |
|
|
Green Opportunities
Some
earth-friendly tidbits that have landed in our office in recent weeks...
- If
you're wondering what to do with your old athletic shoes, consider
Nike's "REUSE-A-SHOE" program. Nike accepts used shoes,
which they grind up for use in athletic surfaces and fields. For more
information or to find a drop-off location near you, visit www.nike.com.
- If
you're looking for refurbished PRINTER CARTRIDGES OR REFILL KITS,
check out www.recycle101.com.
Buying recycled is good for the environment and good for your pocketbook.
They actively collect empty inkjet and laser toner cartridges for
recycling via bins situated in schools, offices, churches and other
facilities. Call toll-free 1-877-453-3640 or email admin@recycle101.com
to request a recycling bin or prepaid mailing labels.
- California
has a new ZERO WASTE Web site. When you have a free moment, check
it out at www.zerowaste.ca.gov.
- The
next time someone tells you they don't have the time, energy, or inclination
to recycle cans, make sure to provide them with the following information
from the CONTAINER RECYCLING INSTITUTE: A trillion wasted aluminum
cans (17.5 million tons of wasted material) laid end-to-end would
stretch to the moon and back 153 times and would be worth $21 billion
at a scrap price of 60 cents a pound. To replace these cans with new
cans would use 77 million tons of bauxite ore (strip mined from about
14,000 acres) and would consume 560 million barrels of crude oil (enough
to supply 34 million American homes with energy for a year), and would
produce 72 million tons of greenhouse gasses and 1.5 million tons
of SOx and NOx emissions. For more information about container recycling,
visit their Web sites at www.container-recycling.org
and www.BottleBill.org.
-
If you're looking for step-by-step instructions for starting a waste-free
lunch program at your school, consider subscribing to Green
Teacher Magazine, and make sure you receive the Fall 2004 issue.
-
Nonprofit E Magazine contains valuable information and in-depth stories
on all aspects related to the environment. For
a free trial , click here.
Welcome
new Laptop Lunch Retailers!
Please support
these fine stores this holiday season!
|
Davis
Food Coop
620 G Street at Sixth Street
Davis, CA 95616
Telephone:
(530) 758-2667
|
Restore
Our World
129 West Colorado Avenue
Telluride, CO 81435
Telephone:
(970) 728-3553
|
|
Hartville
Hardware
940 W. Maple Street
Hartville, OH 44632
Telephone:
(330) 877-3631
|
Sammy's
Kosher Market
728 Bedford Road
Bedford Hills, NY 10507
Telephone:
(914) 241-4477
|
|
MXYPLYZYK
125 Greenwich Avenue (at 13th Street)
New York, NY 10014
Telephone: (212) 989-4300
|
TOM
BIHN - Portable Culture
108 West 1st Street
Port Angeles, WA 98362
Telephone:
(360) 565-0143
|
Open
Harvest Natural Foods Coop
1618 South Street
Lincoln, NE 68502
Telephone:
(402) 475-9069
|
TOM
BIHN - Portable Culture
609 Second Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
Telephone:
(206) 652-4123
|
Green Games
THE ADVENTURES OF VERMI THE WORM! Did you know that worms can help you
throw away less garbage? Vermi the Worm is squirming to show you more
about where he lives and how he eats food scraps to make fertilizer!
You can go on the full adventure with Vermi or you can visit certain
areas within the adventure at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/kidstuff.
ECO QUEST Ever dreamed of saving the Irrawaddy Dolphins from extinction?
Well now you can - by playing the online Eco
Quest game, created to educate people about the threats to endangered
species. Please note that new species will be added over the next few
months.
COOPERATIVEGAMES.COM has a great selection of family board games based
on cooperative play. These fun games promote friendly and open exchanges,
joint decision making, and creativity. Some of their most popular
games include Save the Whales, Rainbowland, Secret Door, Nectar
Collector, and Sleeping Grump. Visit their site at www.cooperativegames.com
to see their complete selection of games and outdoor play things.
What Works...Success
Stories
- "I've
found that the Laptop Lunchbox is great for sending with my 21-month
old on his occasional forays to the babysitter. I can just pack the
little containers with soft cooked baby carrots, Joe's O's, slices
of apple and a bagel, and I know that he's set for the morning (and
that the sitter won't resort to giving him something gross!)"
--
Judy Kittleson, Freeport, NY
- "Just
want you to know that we took our new Laptop Lunches on the plane
to Hawaii and they were great! Also we gave one to our grandson, and
he absolutely loved it and insisted on lugging it with him to the
beach. At two and a half it's like a suitcase for him! Great success."
--
Sara Halprin, Ph.D., Portland, OR
Laptop Lunches
make good hats too!
|
A Happy Green
Festival Customer!
|
Do
you have a success story or photo to share? Email it to us at newsletter@obentec.com.
Featured Web Site:
http://www.SustainableTable.org
| |
GRACE
(Global Resource Action Center for the Environment) has launched
Sustainable Table to help educate consumers on how to shop smarter,
eat healthier, and enjoy the abundance produced by local family
farmers. From the benefits of pasture-raised meat to the overuse
of antibiotics in factory farms, www.SustainableTable.org
provides useful information that makes it easier for consumers
to make healthful choices. “You are what you eat. And more families
than ever before want to eat sustainably,” said GRACE President
Alice Slater. “We launched Sustainable Table to give families
more choices about what goes into their bodies.”
|
|
|
SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE BECAUSE IT:
- raises
healthy food for consumers
- does
not harm the environment
- is
humane for workers and animals
- provides
a fair wage to traditional family farmers
-
supports rural communities
January Highlights
Hearty bread recipes,
greening your office, and tips for purchasing green appliances!
© December 2004, by
Obentec, Inc.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Feel free to reprint
or forward this newsletter with the following acknowledgment and contact
information clearly visible: "Thank you to Obentec, Inc. for permission
to use this copyrighted material. For more information, contact Obentec,
Inc. by email at info@obentec.com
or by phone at 831-457-0301, or visit their Web site at http://www.obentec.com.
Reprint permission granted with this full notice included."
<
|
