Archive for the ‘Cooking & Food’ Category

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Carob is an amazingly versatile food, good for the digestive tract, naturally quite sweet. I love the combination of textures that this recipe makes. It’s excellent served with a dollop of home-made yogurt on top. If you are allergic to wheat or gluten, substitute any other kind of flour that you use.

Sift together into a mixing bowl: Read the rest of this entry »

“If things get really bad, we’ll have to eat beans and rice,” I’ve heard people groan. Well, this isn’t such a terrible fate.

It does take a little planning. Most evenings, I spend a few minutes considering what we might eat the next day. Often there is a container of leftovers from something Kelly or I have concocted,  and if we don’t have them for lunch, we’ll have them for dinner.

If it looks like we’ll be cooking something for dinner the next day, then I consider my beans and grains. Usually I’ll get a feeling of a bean or a grain that I feel like starting with, and then I will decide what else to use. Read the rest of this entry »

Cooking in an ecological way does require some changes from old habits, and Lucid Food by Louisa Shafia can help you do it. Her recipes sound a little more elaborate than my simple cooking style, but I’m going to watch for this book in a library or friend’s house, and see if I am wrong. — Zana

Product Description
Words like “organic,” “seasonal,” and “local” are on everyone’s mind, but how do we integrate food politics into a daily practice that is convenient, affordable, and delicious?

Sustainable chef and caterer Louisa Shafia shows eco-conscious home cooks how to green their cuisine by making earth-friendly food choices, sourcing animal products ethically and responsibly, supporting local food, and reducing one’s carbon footprint through urban gardening, preserving, composting, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

Sprouts are high in vitamins but they can also provide protein, minerals, and other goodies. Their fresh aliveness provides a nutrition that you can get no other way. There are people who become devoted sprout addicts! You don’t have to go that far, but I’m rapidly heading that way. A popular guest article here on this site was an illustrated guide to making sprouts,  so take a look at that too.

It’s really quite easy to grow sprouts. You can use wide-mouth canning jars, with screening cut to size to fit inside the outer jar lid. You can do the same thing with any fairly wide-mouth jar, a rubber band, and screening, cheesecloth, an old stocking, or some other covering that will allow air and water (but not tiny seeds) to pass freely. Read the rest of this entry »

In our hectic lives, it’s all too easy to buy water in handy sized plastic bottles.  It’s a good thing that people are more conscious now of the need to stay hydrated. We carry water around with us a lot more than we used to. This guest article argues for using your own environmentally friendly water bottle. I would add, be sure to get one that is good for you too! — Zana

Discover One of the Best Eco Friendly Products You Could Ever Use

By Raymond Hamilton

Let’s face it, these days we are surrounded by eco friendly products, some of which are good while others are not very eco friendly at all! Personally I have one favorite that I think is among the very best of them.

My vote for the best and most accessible eco friendly product goes to enviromentally friendly water bottles. Now bear with me and let me explain why they are just so important. Read the rest of this entry »

Bread machines are wonderful inventions, and if you have one, you may never need to learn to make bread by hand. If you don’t have one, you can certainly enjoy the special flavor of fresh homemade bread. This recipe can be made with spelt flour instead of wheat, if you prefer.

Making bread by hand takes time, but not all that much. Sometimes I’ve done it after dinner, while half-way watching television, and we’d have hot bread for a bedtime snack. (We currently have a bread machine, so we usually use it.)

When Kelly and I first met, he taught me to make bread using the sponge method. I’ve since tried a lot of bread recipes, and making bread this way remains my favorite because you only have to get your hands into the dough once. Read the rest of this entry »