Five Life Lessons I Learned From My Car

From the bean of Green Bean

Back in September, I traded in my minivan for a Prius.  Almost immediately, I went through withdrawals - as evidenced by this post.  I missed the ability to schlep dozens of kids and some random piece of furniture picked up at a garage sale.  I missed the cavernous interior which put the kids out of kicking the back seat and hitting each other range.  Heck, it nearly put them out of ear shot which, depending on the day, was a good or bad thing.

A few months later and you couldn't pay me to get back in a minivan or SUV.  My driving habits and outlook have done a 180.  What follows are life lessons that I learned from driving a Prius:

1) Small Is Beautiful.  Size does matter and bigger is not better.  Bigger means less parking spaces and more dings and dents.  It means that fire hydrant is closer when you are backing up.  Smaller means I can squeeze in just about anywhere.  I can have a meaningful conversation with my kids or ask them to do something with them actually hearing me.  It means there is more space in the garage and that nothing goes to waste.

2) Life is a Journey.  Not a Race.  My Prius (and I believe most hybrids) has a handy monitor that continually displays miles per gallon (MPG) and whether you are in gas or electric mode.  I confess that I used to gun it off the line and when getting on to the freeway.  No more.  I ease on the accelerator from stoplight or stop sign, watching just how much gasoline is being used. That may mean that I don't make it to the fast lane if I'm on a short freeway trip.  That's cool.  Life in the slow lane is sometimes more interesting anyway.

3) Silence Is Golden.  At stoplights these days, I often look around.  Who is making all the ruckus?  Seriously.  I'm over here enjoying a song on the radio or a conversation, cruising in electric mode.  Which means I'm enjoying the peace and quiet.

5) Coast When You Can.  Going up hill can burn some serious gas and, let's face, life throws us some hills now and then.  So coast when you can.  Take it easy, take your foot off the accelerator, and just cruise.

6) Try No to Lose Momentum.  Sometimes, we hit road blocks in life and on the road.  And, as we all know, once you've lost momentum, its hard to get up and moving again.  Same goes for our cars so I hit the brakes way before a stop light and coast in, hoping it will change for me.

7) We All Are a Bit Granny, A Bit Race Car Driver.  I take the straightaways at 25 and the curves at 30.  I finally understand (kind of) hypermiling thanks to the MPG display.  Just ease off the brakes and take that curve like a mad woman.  You'll come out of it faster, with momentum, not gasoline, propelling you.

You Don't Need to Own a Hybrid To Learn These Lessons.  Sure, the MPG monitor is super nifty.  And I really think we'd all drive a lot more fuel efficiently if every car had one of these.  Hypermiling, though, is something anyone can do as is coasting, taking it easy off the line, and just watching your foot on that accelerator.  And size?  After years of bigger, bigger, bigger, I think we are finally coming out the other side.

We only need what we actually need.  What we'll use.  Efficiency feels awesome!

* Note the "Best" MPG.  Prius has this feature too so that those of us competitive sorts can compete with ourselves and trot our our numbers with other hybrid drivers.  I do quite a bit of city driving and very little driving on the freeway, which results in a lower "best" MPG than the advertised 51 MPG.  Still, much better than the 16 or so MPG I used to get from the ole van.
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Plastic-Lite Bread Storage Hack

I started making my own whole wheat bread about a year ago.

At first, I stored my bread in plastic bags that I'd kept from store-bought bread. One of the benefits of homemade over store-bought is that you can use reusable rather than disposable packaging.

But I didn't like using the plastic bags. For one thing, they aren't really made for long-term use and aren't particularly durable. Also, it's actually a bit of work to undo a twist tie and untwist a plastic bag to take out the loaf so you can slice it. And then you have to put back the loaf, twist up the bag, and put on the twist tie again. So I started looking for a container. Eventually, my sister gave me a plastic CD container (#5 polypropylene) to store the bread in. It was the perfect size and the lid was easy to take on and off. I could easily do it one-handed.

But after a while, I started to wonder about the plastic. Almost all plastics have mysterious undisclosed additives  Plus it seems like they are adding triclosan to all kinds of stuff these days. And my bread container wasn't even intended for food storage, so who knows what it had in it. So I started looking for alternatives, hopefully something plastic-free or almost plastic-free.

I checked out My Plastic-Free Life to see what solution Beth Terry had come with. She puts bread in a cloth bag and then puts the bag inside a metal popcorn tin. That's a great idea, and it's plastic-free, but way too cumbersome for someone slicing bread lots of times in a single day with hungry children waiting.

Ideally, I was looking for a glass or stainless steel container -- a plastic lid was fine with me.  But no one seemed to make a container the right size. I thought about a steel bread box, but it seems they aren't air tight at all, and are more for looks (keeping all bread products neatly tucked away in their respective plastic bags) than for utility. Eventually, I found a glass container with plastic lid at our local container store that looked promising.  Sadly, it was just a little too short to work.

I was feeling pretty stumped. I even asked the other Boothers for advice. And then one day, the solution just came to me.

Now I store my homemade bread on a wood cutting board with the old plastic CD container inverted on top of it. So I'm still using plastic, but the plastic isn't touching my bread at least. Not plastic-free, but perhaps we could say plastic-lite. When the loaf is partly used up, I'm able to turn the loaf cut-side down. This is not an airtight system, but it keeps out enough air to keep my bread fresh and yummy for nearly a week, which is as long as a loaf ever lasts at my house anyway.

P.S. I bake bread 4 loaves at a time. I freeze 3 of them.... in plastic bags. No solution in sight.

How do you store your homemade bread?


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Homemade VapoRub!

From the laundry basket of the Homegrown Mama

I just got yet another winter weather advisory on my phone this afternoon.  Yesterday, the forecast was for today to be partly sunny and 46 degrees.  The weather this winter has been all over the place and yet my children have remained remarkably healthy.  I'm ready, though.  Weather this warm tends to breed all sorts of illness and everyday I hear about another one of my friends' children and respiratory infections, croup, and even pneumonia.  This is the time of year that high dollar coupons for Vicks VapoRub are in the newspaper on a weekly basis.  

The ingredients in Vicks are as follows: Camphor 4.8%, Eucalyptus oil 1.2%, Menthol 2.6%, Cedarleaf oil, nutmeg oil, special petrolatum, thymol and turpentine oil.  A lot of people in the mothering communities feel that this is a safe product and is relatively natural.  I cannot get past the presence of petrolatum, or petroleum jelly.  

Do you know what petroleum jelly is?  It is simply a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons.  It does not oxidize with exposure to the air, and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents. It is insoluble in water. It is soluble in chloroform, benzene, carbon disulphide and oil of turpentine.  Petroleum jelly is a byproduct of oil drilling.  Oil drilling, you know, the kind of oil that winds up in gasoline.  Nope.  I'm not going to put a cousin of gasoline on my baby's skin.  

Considering how absorptive our skin is and even more so our children's tender skin, it's imperative that we are careful what we put on our bodies.  I made my own vapor rub cream using organic coconut oil and eucalyptus essential oil.  Coconut oil is a solid at room temperature, so I measured out 2 Tablespoons and warmed it until it was a liquid in the microwave (about a minute and a half).  Then, I added in 20 drops of the eucalyptus oil and mixed with a spoon.  Once the mixture has returned to a solid, it smears on the skin just like any other cream.  When Liam had a nasty sounding cold prior to Christmas, I put on his chest before bed and the next morning, all was well!

Not that I want to keep using this on a regular basis, but it's just nice to know that there is an alternative to the standard care for chest colds.  When your kids are sick, what do you do?

Taking Money from the Enemy

Non-profits often struggle for money, right now seems to be worse than ever, but should they take that funding from just anyone? What if the funding comes from a group that seems to be the enemy? Well, some groups seem to be looking the other way when it comes to the practices of the groups they are associating with.

This is not a new story, this has been happening for a long time. You have cancer organizations taking money from products that are linked to cancer, the Sierra Club has joined up with Clorox, and in my own town a cement plant is funding a green expo. This seems to be going on everywhere and the latest one to come to light is the National Wildlife Federation joining up with Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Yes a group that's mission is to stop climate change and "safeguarding America's wildlife and wild places" has teamed up with a corporation that makes billions of dollars a year selling pesticides and other chemicals, including Roundup, which is owned by Monsanto. How is this going to "safeguard" our "wildlife and wild places"?

So is what Scotts has to offer worth the price? According to Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of NWF, it is. He had this to say in a press release from Scotts.

"National Wildlife Federation and Scotts are committed to getting millions more children to play outdoors on a regular basis. This relationship is a win for American childhood, because together we will help families raise healthier and happier children who have a lifelong commitment to protecting wildlife and the natural world."

Sounds nice, I agree that kids should be outside more but do you want your kids playing in a yard that was sprayed with Roundup? And how can a company that makes products that harms wildlife and "the natural world" be committed to protecting it?

Let the National Wildlife Federation know how you feel about them teaming up with Scotts.

• Call NWF at 1-800-822-9919, they are open M-F 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST
• Post a comment on NWF's Facebook page
• Leave a comment on their website
• Tweet a message to @NWF

Update: NWF and Scotts are replying to posts on FB. Here is the NWF reply-

"I'm really sorry that you're disappointed with this. Please know this isn't an endorsement of all Scotts products, but an endorsements of environmentally sound products within the Scotts line to ensure the continued growth of their organization in a more environmentally friendly manner."

Scott's reply on one of the comments-
"I work for ScottsMiracle-Gro and can assure you that this partnership in no way means that NWF endorses our products. I can also tell you that we have no intention of influencing NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program, which we greatly respect and support."

I feel people will take this as an endorsement and how can Scotts support something their products couldn't be apart of? Seems like a classic case of greenwashing to me.

Photo Credit: Valley_Photographs

Lentil Barley Risotto Recipe

a suburban greenmom accidentally discovers an amazingly easy cheap delicious vegetarian dinner

Remember last week, when I put my desire to lose weight and eat better (no Slim-Fast shakes here!) out there in print, to keep myself a little more accountable?

Well...it's going fine so far. I've found myself craving big crunchy salads, eating less of everything but what I'm eating has a really high percentage of Good For My Body stuff, drinking tea by the liter. Gallon, practically. It's good. (Except that my body is telling me I need a little more animal protein; I'm starting to feel that "off" way I did when I was completely vegetarian for a few months. But I'll do it right.)

I'm in the middle of a nasty virus, and last night I totally didn't feel like cooking anything at all. But we were hungry. And Saturday night we'd caved and gotten Chinese (mostly because, diet or no diet, our local place has this amazing hot spicy noodle soup that hits the spot when I'm sick--clears my sinuses right out), so I didn't want to do crap again.

So I threw some things in a pot. And ignored them for 40 minutes. And dinner was amazing.

You gotta try this:

Lentil Barley Risotto/Soup

• Saute a small onion and some garlic in a little olive oil
• Add a few ribs chopped celery and a couple of chopped carrots, saute a little longer
• Add a can diced tomatoes and 1 quart vegetable (or chicken) broth; bring to boil (Toss in a teaspoon or thyme or a bay leaf if you want.)
• Throw in half a cup each pearl barley and rinsed green (or brown) lentils; bring back to boil (use less of each if you want a real "soup."
• Lower heat to slow simmer.
• Stir every so often to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom, over the next 40 minutes or so. (Stir more as it gets thicker and closer to done (you may want to lower heat even more).
• Correct seasonings, add a little salt and pepper if it needs it, and serve with a little Parmesan if you want.

This was really good stuff.  And crazy-cheap. Most people don't know that barley, like arborio rice, will give off its starch as it cooks and make a nice creamy risotto-like texture. And it made a lot, so I'm bringing it for lunches as well. 

--Jenn the Greenmom

Cell plan searching

In which Going Green Mama is breaking down and possibly getting a data plan...

My "dumb phone" is dying.

As it approaches its third year of life, my phone - which can barely receive my Twitter repsonses for my work account, let alone send photos or surf the web - is dying, making the sound of battery death more and more frequently and dropping off the the network completely. And my work duties really mean I should have a data plan. (I suspect, too, that my husband would like an upgrade too!)

And so we've started the hunt for a new smart phone.

My biggest issue about smart phones - other than the much higher costs - is that I'll likely use it far more frequently, and our exposure to radiation, however small, could be a concern. I realize that the jury may still be out on the link between cell phones and cancer, but I recognize that the device would be tucked in my pocket or purse for hours a day, and there's no harm in limiting risk.

So I checked out the Environmental Working Group's list of top 10 safest phones, which to my dismay wasn't updated since December 2010. Since new phones are released all the time, I'm surprised this hasn't been updated in more than a year. I was also able to find a list of smart phones (undated), which I may be able to cross-reference once I find a finalist or two from the functionality end.

With no clear answer on what my next phone will bring, how can I limit my exposure? The Environmental Working Group has some ideas:

• Text instead of talk, as it emits less radiation (and data use).


• Use headsets or speakers.


• If you have fewer bars, limit your use, as it takes more radiation to make it to the tower!


• Limit children's cell phone use - ideally to emergencies only. Is Angry Birds really worth it?

Giving Up Kraft Dinner: Life Change Check-In

From her Canadian perch on the Atlantic coast... EcoYogini

Two weeks ago Andrew and I decided that instead of the typical "New Year's Resolutions" that always make me feel guilty and inevitably fail (mostly because I forget about them), we carved out one small lifestyle change (and I art-ed about a few Life Journey stuffs I wanted to realize).

Pre-made meals (such as zoodles, Kraft Dinner, frozen pizza) only ONCE a week. 

Previous to that we were averaging about four of these bad boys a week, and my dry compost pile (and ridiculous amount of gross preservatives and unhealthy nutrition) was piling up. It was just so much easier to have a meal in 10 minutes (KD) than 45min. That and a few other obstacles (check out the post for details) meant it felt like a daunting task.

Surprisingly, these past two weeks have been a fabulous success! We stuck to our 1 pre-made meal (ordered pizza on Sunday) and we've survived. A few things that I feel have helped so far:

• Sitting and chatting about this life change together. Sometimes I get excited and make all these changes or plans without consulting Andrew. As a result, they often feel like "my" goals or plans, placing the onus solely on myself. I feel burdened, stressed and guilty and ultimately it fails. This time we sat down around coffee (fair trade organic!), chatted about what we'd BOTH like to change and made a decision together. 
• Meal planning. So far each Sunday we've sat down and planned what we'd like to eat for the week. Then (after some coffee) we head out to the market and grocery store to purchase what we need. 
• Choosing some easy meals and some more involved meals. Tonight we had chicken quesadillas. Easy peasy that I used to make during my undergrad. 
• We make our meals together. I can't emphasize enough how much easier cooking healthier meals can be when I have a cooking partner. We both take on important roles and do our fair share of the work. Then we thank each other for the lovely meal. :)

It went well enough that I thought I'd share one of my favourite recipes of this week with you!

EcoYogini's Ginger Beef (modified from Chef Michael Smith's "Chef at Home" recipe)

Ingredients:
cubed beef (if you can find grass fed beef that would be ideal- confession, we didn't...:S)
1 knob of ginger, thinly sliced
1 cup of organic beef broth (or broth you made yourself! we are not that crafty yet, small steps!)
1 jar of orange marmalade (again, if you made this yourself that is seriously fab)
1 cup of orange juice
1 tbsp of 5 spice powder
1 clove of garlic, chopped.
Kosher salt

Prior to searing, salt the beef (Andrew used Kosher salt). In a large-ish pot (we used our awesome Green Pan dutch oven-y thingy), heat the pan and using tongs sear the beef (Andrew flips them once to sear two sides: "It's a lot of beef").
Take the beef out and put it aside.
Add the ginger with the beef juices (ick) until it softens, then add the garlic.
Re-insert the beef and add the liquids (and marmalade and the spice powder).

Put on a tight fitting lid and let simmer for about an hour.

Serve with rice and veggies of choice! It tastes so deliciously like yummy spicy citrus. We had enough left over for my lunch today as well. Here's to hoping this meal planning, sans boxed healthy eating lasts past the one month mark!