April 2009 Archives

We all agree that we need to do a better job conserving our planet's limited resources, but where do you begin? Here are 10 simple suggestions that will help you get green into your workout routine without much effort at all. Plus, these eco-friendly changes are easy switches that will save you time and lots of money! How awesome and easy is that?

1.) Curb your consumerism. Buy less active wear, expensive running shoes, and/or fad, workout gizmos (that you know are NOT quick-fixes for proper exercise and diet). You'll leave a smaller carbon footprint and leave more money in your wallet too.

2.) Recycle your water/sports bottles. Buy a recyclable water bottle instead of plastic one-use water bottles. Recyclable water bottles will save you big bucks in the long run, as most designer waters are very expensive. Many individual 16-ounce designer waters that include minerals and vitamins are now over $2.00 a bottle. These outrageously overpriced waters are unnecessary, as you can obtain all your vitamins and minerals by eating a sensible diet along with taking a daily multivitamin. Did you know that according to the Container Recycling Institute only 23% of plastic bottles are recycled in the US? 38 billion plastic bottles go into landfills in the US each year. Plastic bottles take up to 1000 years to biodegrade. I recommend these two recyclable water bottle companies: www.MySigg.com and www.KleanKanteen.com.

3.) Use biodegradable body products. Buy biodegradable body wash and shampoo in bulk, which will save you money and decrease bottle use. Then, fill them into smaller, personal-use size reusable bottles. (Most major discount retailers sell biodegradable body wash and shampoo in bulk and oftentimes run brand-name specials.)

4.) Join a neighborhood gym that's within walking distance to where you work and/or live. You'll be supporting the local economy, saving car gas emissions, and costly parking fees.

5.) If the weather is fine, walk outside--it's free. Did you know that out of all motorized pieces of fitness equipment, treadmills use the most energy?

6.) Use organic cotton and/or bamboo, or reclaimed fabric towels. Lots of discount retailers sell eco-friendly towels, such as organic cotton, bamboo, or organic cotton-bamboo blend. For example www.BedBathandBeyond.com, a nationwide retail store, sells them for reasonable prices. They routinely offer 20% coupon specials, which make the towels even more affordable. And, bamboo towels are extremely soft, luxuriant, and absorbent.

7.) Buy recycled and/or natural fitness products. Fitness product manufacturers such as www.GIAIM.com and www.NaturalFitnessInc.com, are beginning to manufacture products using recycled materials, especially rubber.

8.) Choose eco-friendly organic and/or recycled active wear. Today, there seems to be an over abundance of green materials being made into clothing. Time will tell what materials consumers like best due to price, performance, look, and feel. www.LuLuLemon.com and www.Giaim.com offer organic cotton and soy fiber blend, seaweed blend, and recycled polyester active wear for men and women that is form flattering, comfortable, and long-lasting. (I like LuLuLemon, because their clothes look and fit me best, and their retail stores are built eco-friendly too.) Brooks Sports, www.BrooksRunning.com, makes a biodegradable athletic running shoe. Another frugally green idea is to shop your local, upscale thrift shops. The best days to find great clothes are Mondays and Tuesdays after folks have dropped off their clothing over the weekend. Thrift shops are hit and miss--so you may need to visit them more than once.

9.) If you upgrade your home gym, make it eco-friendly. You can easily incorporate all these planet friendly measures when creating your home gym.

10.) Buy used workout DVDs, as it's a great way to recycle and save money too. You can find great quality, popular used home workout DVDs for less than half price at www.Amazon.com and www.EBay.com, and www.Half.com.

For more green fitness inspiration join Intent expert blogger Linda LaRue's free, digital emagazine, Make Healthy A Lifestyle.

Ready to save the planet? Post your green intent and blog about your green successes and struggles, tagging your posts "greener life." We may feature your post in this exclusive green series!

Perhaps in no other category of food preparation than dessert does the light of vegan cuisine shine so brightly. Visit your local health food store or pick up a vegan cookbook to discover the bounty of rich and decadent sweets that can be created without using dairy or eggs. There are even several incredible brands of plant based 'ice cream' which are soy, rice or coconut based. Be sure to sample a few until you find your favorites.

Vegan baking has come a long way. Cow's milk can be replaced with soy, rice and almond milk. Eggs can be replaced with ground flax seeds, applesauce and even blended silken tofu. For more information on vegan baking, check out our book, Vegan Fusion World Cuisine.

We leave you with one of the most popular recipes. You will never miss the dairy or eggs in these cookies and they are a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Serve them up at your Earth Day Celebration!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
25 minutes prep/15 minute cook / 8 large cookies

Dry Ingredients
2 cups spelt flour
1 cup vegan chocolate chips- try sunspire brand
1 cup walnuts - chopped
¾ cup rolled oats
½ tsp. sea salt
¾ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg

Wet Ingredients
2/3 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup canola oil
2 Tbl. filtered water
1 tsp. peppermint extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Combine wet ingredients in another large bowl. Add wet to dry and mix well. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

2. Place 8 scoops on a well oiled baking sheet and flatten slightly with hand. Space evenly so cookies have room to spread.

3. Bake until golden brown, approximately 10 minutes. Allow to cool before enjoying

Ready to save the planet? Post your green intent and blog about your green successes and struggles, tagging your posts "greener life." We may feature your post in this series!

Mark Reinfeld is the founding chef of the Blossoming Lotus Restaurant. He is the coauthor of Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, winner of 9 national awards. His latest book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw coauthored with Jennifer Murray and Bo Rinaldi is available through booksellers everywhere. Please visit www.veganfusion.com for more information.

Here is a recipe that is typically made with animal products. This is for a hearty main course from our book Vegan Fusion World Cuisine that will satisfy omnivores and vegans alike.


Shepherd's Pie

45 min prep / 1 hour 10 min cooking / 9" x 13" casserole

10-12 medium Potatoes, ½" cubes (approx 12 C)
1 C Coconut, rice or soy milk
2 Tbl Olive oil
¾ C Onion, diced
1 Tbl Garlic, minced
¾ C Carrots, ½" cubes
½ C Celery, sliced thin
½ C Red bell pepper, diced
½ C Mushrooms, sliced thin
2 lbs Tofu, extra firm, crumbled
¾ C Peas
¾ C Corn, fresh or frozen
¼ C Tahini
4 tsp soy sauce
2 Tbl Basil, fresh, minced (1 ½ tsp dry)
2 Tbl Italian parsley, fresh, minced
1 ½ tsp Sea salt, or to taste
1 Tbl Thyme, fresh minced (½ tsp dry)
1 tsp Sage, fresh minced (½ tsp dry)
2 tsp Barley malt syrup
½ tsp Black pepper, ground to taste
½ tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
¼ tsp Cayenne pepper, or to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place potatoes in a large pot with filtered water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft, approximately 15 minutes. Drain well, place in a large mixing bowl with coconut milk and mash well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2. While potatoes are cooking, place oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add carrots, celery, bell pepper and mushrooms, cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add water if necessary to prevent sticking. Add tofu and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Place in a large mixing bowl with remaining ingredients except potatoes and mix well.

3. Place tofu vegetable mixture in a well oiled 9"x13" casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes, using a spatula to create a smooth surface. Score pretty designs on top with a fork. Bake until slightly golden brown and completely cooked, approximately 25 minutes. Cool for 10-15 minutes.

Variations: Potato layer may be placed on the bottom, topped with the tofu layer. Once refrigerated, this creates a more solid foundation, and allows for different sized pieces to be cut and served individually.

Serving suggestion: Serve with Mushroom Gravy (see below).

Mushroom Gravy

10 min prep / 15 min cooking / 3 ½ cups

1 Tbl Olive oil
1 medium Onion, ¼" dice (1 C)
¾ C Shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
1½ Tbl Garlic, minced
2 C Filtered water or vegetable stock
¼ C soy sauce, or to taste
Pinch Nutmeg, ground
Pinch Cayenne pepper

Roux
2 Tbl Spelt flour
2 Tbl Olive oil
1 Tbl Filtered water

1. Create a Roux by placing spelt flour in a small bowl. Add 2 Tbl olive oil and 1 Tbl filtered water and whisk until a thick paste is created. Set aside.

2. Place 1 Tbl of olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining ingredients except roux mixture and cook for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally. Add roux mixture and cook until gravy has a thick consistency, approximately 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Ready to save the planet? Post your green intent and blog about your green successes and struggles, tagging your posts "greener life." We may feature your post in this series!

Mark Reinfeld is the founding chef of the Blossoming Lotus Restaurant. He is the coauthor of Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, winner of 9 national awards. His latest book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw coauthored with Jennifer Murray and Bo Rinaldi is available through booksellers everywhere. Please visit www.veganfusion.com for more information.

For our first podcast interview of our exclusive "30 Days to a Greener You" series, I have the honor and privilege of introducing to all of you award-winning green journalist and Intent Voice blogger Simran Sethi--who also happens to be a close and long-time friend.

Simran's environmental advocacy work in the media is inspiring--which is an understatement. As a visiting professor at University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Simran has also been involved in co-creating Treehugger.com, hosting environmental programming on The Sundance Channel, hosting a panel on global warming with Nobel Laureate Al Gore, and has been identified as one of the top eco-heroes of the planet by the UK's Independent.

Simran, who will be speaking on the Oprah Winfrey Show today (!!!!) for a special Earth Day segment, represents to me what we are currently missing in the ongoing dialogue about how to save our planet. On one hand, we are constantly inundated with a non-intimidating checklist of action steps we can all incorporate into our everyday lives, many of which you probably already do: using tote bags for groceries, replacing our light bulbs, cutting back on our long showers. On the other side of the spectrum, we hear doom-and-gloom scenarios from our environmental soothsayers about the dying bees, the melting ice caps, and the worldwide humanitarian crisis that will inevitably result from the irreversible climate change.

In our conversation and on the Oprah show today, Simran asserts that we need to bridge the gap between those two extremes: acknowledge that there is much harder work ahead of us beyond the light bulb and the tote bag, but still insist that if we all work together, we can get through this together in spite of seemingly impossible odds.

We are all so lucky to have a passionate green warrior as Simran fighting on behalf of Mother Earth. But if we all want to win this, each and every one of us are going to have to join hands, roll up our sleeves, and get right into the battlefield ourselves.

Listen to the podcast here

Watch Simran Sethi on the Oprah Winfrey Show here

Visit Simran Sethi's website

A new poll has brought some welcome news. When asked, "Do you think the country is headed in the right direction?" more responders say yes than no. This is in stark contrast to the latter stages of the Bush administration, when the no's were mounting to unheard-of levels, past 80%. The headline says that President Obama's honeymoon isn't over, but this poll means something more.

It's about the melodrama of meltdown.

Mass media thrives on melodrama, and so does modern politics. We became addicted to the scary side of the economic meltdown -- the term itself is a piece of verbal melodrama. We were "going over the cliff," "crashing," "ending the American dream," and on and on. In the political arena, the right wing issued dire warnings about holding the next three generations hostage with crippling deficits.

But melodramas don't end a crisis. They do just the opposite by freezing the mind with fear and the prospect of doom. Economists constantly tell us that markets are psychological. Recessions, while normal if unpleasant parts of the business cycle, spiral into depressions when the public panics. Melodrama is one stage of panic, so it's good news when people don't buy into it. The new poll is one indicator, if a small one, that our no-drama president is actually leading the country and convincing the public of his point of view.

If you stand back and take a breath, the realities are difficult but not panic-inducing. White collar unemployment among the college educated stands around 4.5%, which is low. The hardest hit are blue collar workers. They have been at a disadvantage for years as the American economy has shifted. Today you have to have computer skills to survive; working on an assembly line is becoming obsolete. What's to be done? Exactly what the administration wants to do: educate the young and provide help for those who can't change or who are caught in the current squeeze.

The same holds for health care. Health care is bankrupting the country and making American products non-competitive in the world. To cure those ills, the government has to reform the entire system, and that in turn will lead to higher taxes. No one is thrilled with this news, but it's not a cause for melodrama. In an aging society, rising health needs exist, no ifs, ands, or buts. The issue has been pushed aside for eight years; now it must be faced.

One by one you can go down the list and see that we've reached a turning point. America has to be reinvented for the future. Obama realizes this, as do many other people. For the first time, however, he has the will, the political clout, and the public approval to move forward. All previous presidents lacked one or the other ingredient, so nothing was done. Echoing the Bush administration's enforced policy of diverting attention from our problems, the forces that foment melodrama are trying to shut down the future. They have seized on a new tactic like tea parties, but the agenda is the same reactionary delusion as before. We find ourselves in convulsive times, but that's no reason to panic. Everyone wants a future, and now we can actually shape the one that fits our best vision of ourselves.

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

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