Water for Life

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Contributing Writer

by Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™, http://www.theveggiequeen.com

Water, water everywhere but not this year here in Northern California. So I’ve been thinking about water, and not just this year but for a while now. People are upset about green house gas emissions and while we are working on making changes in our driving habits, and hopefully restructuring our eating habits (decreasing red meat consumption and going veg) to reduce our CO2 emissions, we aren’t necessarily changing our water habits, until mandated.

This year, we will have local government control over how much water we can use.  The city of Santa Rosa made an offer to pay people to take out their water-guzzling lawns. They’ll pay you money (up to $600 for approved irrigation and plants) to do this as it will save water in the long run.  But what else can you do?

Sometimes the little things make a difference, which is what I’ve discovered over time. Using vegetable rinsing water to water house and garden plants. Turn off the water when brushing  your teeth. In the shower use a low flow shower head, lather up and turn off the water, then do a quick rinse. (The guys in my house are still working on this one.) Flush the toilet only when you have to in your low flow toilet. My city requires replacing old toilets with low flow but if you don’t have one you can put a brick in the tank to displace water.

I avoid plastic bottles for many reasons so I have a glass bottle that I refill with filtered water from my tap. Beyond the plastic, think about the production, packaging, transportation, and, perhaps most important of all, the disposal of millions of bottles each day.

Get creative with your water use. As I tell my culinary students, if you had to haul that water in buckets from a river or stream, you’d think a lot more about how you use it. Use it as if it could be your last drop because if we don’t change direction in this stream, one day we won’t have a stream. I’m happy that you’re part of the solution.

Jill is a fellow of The Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy http://www.ecoleader.org

Dump the Boxes, Wrappers, Cans and Containers but Not on the Path

Post written by by Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™ The Veggie Queen is a monthly RYD contributor.

Today while I was walking my dog on a path next to a creek, I came across a wrapper for a Snickers bar. Ugh, I thought, more processed food. Did you know that processed food accounts for 77% of the sodium you eat, according to my friend and fellow Registered Dietitian, Jeffrey Novick, MS, RD?

Therefore, getting rid of the boxes, wrappers, cans and containers is a good idea for both the environment and your health. I suggest buying as many whole foods in bulk as you can for the environment and for your health.

I know two young women, Liat and Jenna, who have made a conscious effort to reduce their use of packaged items. They discovered that at the end of the week they greatly reduced the amount of trash they generated. Additionally, they cooked most days and ate much more healthfully.

It amazes me that one can buy brown rice fully cooked in a shelf-stable package or in 2-pound containers in the freezer. Did you know that you could make extra rice when you cook and freeze it? The same is true for beans and even fresh vegetables when you have abundance. (You do have to blanch most vegetables by giving them a quick dunk in boiling water.) This makes purchasing frozen foods unnecessary.

And, all this leads me back to my morning walk. As the walk was almost over I found a plastic wrapper from a pastry, and once again, it made me think about the necessity of dumping the packaged goods if we want to have many more good days here on Earth. Just don’t leave them on my path. Happy Earth Day.

Keeping Your Heart in Mind: Sprouting Beans

By Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™  www.theveggiequeen.com

Photo courtesy of Google images

Simple food often satisfies in heart matters. Plant-foods contain heart protective antioxidants and phytochemicals. Perhaps the best food for heart, and overall, health has to be the bean, and other legumes. Most often thought of as poor man’s food,  it’s likely that in these times we will think of them as what they are: life saving and life giving.

Today I share a simple thing to do with beans: sprout them. Yes, it’s easy, fun, delicious and nutritious. Use organic beans of any kind. Get your equipment together. You need a quart glass jar, a jar screen or piece of cheesecloth, and a rubber band. (One student asked about using pantyhose as a jar cover but I don’t know if it works. I have semi-successfully used a paper towel when that’s all I have.)

Put 4 tablespoons of beans in the jar. Fill with clean water, put on your choice of cover, and let sit overnight, or all day. Dump the water out (use it to water houseplants), rinse and now turn the jar at an angle, upside down, and put into a bowl in a dark cabinet where you will remember it. 

Rinse and drain thoroughly each morning and night for 2 to 4 days, until the beans have a short tail. Taste a bean and if it’s crunchy and delicious, it’s ready to eat.

If the beans smell funky or are slimy, toss them into the compost – they’re bad. This rarely happens, unless you’re in a very warm and humid climate.

Use the bean sprouts as salad or salad toppers, turn them into raw hummus or use them in cooking, which only requires a few minutes. My favorite legumes to sprout are garbanzo beans and lentils of any kind. Sprout the ones you love.

Simple Sprouted Bean Salad

2-3 cups sprouted beans and/or other sprouts

2 tablespoons honey mustard or Dijon plus 2 teaspoons agave syrup

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1/4- 1/2 teaspoon  salt

The salt is one quarter to one half teaspoon.

Combine dressing ingredients in a small glass jar and shake. Pour over sprouts and serve.

I usually have a jar of sprouts going at all times. It varies what I grow according to my whim. 

Taking Stock of Making Stock by Jill Nussinow- The Veggie Queen!

 Editor’s Note: I’d like to welcome Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, a.k.a. The Veggie Queen to Recycle Your Day. As a monthly contributor she will bring much insight on pressure cooking, and vegetables while also covering green topics. Jill is the author of of the award-winning The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment cookbook with more 100 seasonal vegetable-based recipes. The Veggie Queen is also a Pressure Cooking expert – featured in Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes 75 minute DVD, featuring 14 plant-based recipes from breakfast through dessert. Jill Nussinow is an educator, author/writer, speaker& consultant. The Veggie Queen is the vegetable, vegan, and vegetarian expert!.Visit her site for recipes and much more. Also, be sure to check out her blog for tips/ideas, recipes and a wealth of information on healthy and sustainable eating!

Making stock is a great way to recycle or reuse ingredients. My stock pile (ever wonder where that term came from?) consists of unused ends, pieces and peels of vegetables such as onions, carrots, leeks, potatoes, squash, garlic and more.

I avoid cruciferous vegetables such a broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and the others, to minimize any gaseous or sulfur order. Almost everything else is fair game. Those possibilities include mushroom stems, corn cobs, green bean ends, tomato tops, asparagus stalks and more. Inedible but still viable (not old or moldy) vegetable pieces go into the stock bag that stays in my vegetable drawer. At the end of the week, I either make stock or freeze the bag.

Sonoma county chef John Ash says that the best stock comes from the browning, or roasting, the vegetables. He thought that I’d agree with that, and I do in some instances. If your stock-making includes stove top simmering, then roast for more intense flavor. If you use a pressure cooker, it extracts the essence of the vegetables so well, that roasting is unnecessary, but still possible.

To make roasted stock, combine part of the vegetables with a couple of teaspoons of oil and roast in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, until browned. Use the directions below.

Combine at least 4 cups of roughly chopped vegetables including your bag of “stuff”, an onion, a carrot, some celery, a bay leaf, a sprig or 2 of thyme (or herbs that you like but be careful of the rosemary which can be very strong) and a few peppercorns, with a couple quarts of water. Pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure or simmer on stove for at least an hour.

I always have a bag of stock makings in my refrigerator or freezer. I use stock for everyday cooking and for making taste-laden soups. It gives my vegetables a second chance before the compost pile.

Eco Holiday Giveaway, ROUND-UP! *** CLOSED***

All good things come to end at some point…right?? Well, maybe not in some cases…but in this case- The Eco Holiday Giveaways are coming to a close and I have 2 more products up for grabs!!!

First, have the chance of winning a SKOY cloth pack! Have you heard of the company called SKOY?  

 If you haven’t, you might want to visit there site. I had the opportunity to test them out and OH MY GOSH-I’m in love! Are you a paper towel feen? My husband is…and I’ll admit I use them pretty regularly. We usually buy recycled paper towels but still all that paper and all those trees, it really breaks my heart. With SKOY you can say goodbye to the paper towel habit and look no further because Skoy is the answer to your problem.

Here are the benefits of using a SKOY cloth…

• 100% Biodegradable
• Absorbent
• Re-usable
• Machine Washable
• Dries quickly so it is not a bredding ground for bacteria- It’s really amazing!
• Can be microwaved or put in dishwasher to kill germs
• Absorbs 15 times it’s own weight and durable
• non-toxic, chlorine free and made using water based colors and inks.

It really is a fantastic eco European made product! It has many uses too…in the kitchen, bathroom, office, auto, boats, camping and more! I’ve used for the first time in the past couple of weeks and I’m loving it and spreading the word to friends and family. SKOY- Wet Wipe Wow!

 WIN IT NOW! All you have to do is visit SKOY and leave me a comment telling what your favorite 4-pack is!

Be sure to leave me a valid email address with your entry.

If you don’t leave your email address with your entry your entry will not count!!!

Pls. folks, this is part of the giveaway rules!!

INCREASE YOUR CHANCES: There are THREE ways to earn extra entries!!! - PLEASE,  make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

• Copy & Paste the Recycle Your Day holiday button on your blog!
• Twitter This, or Stumble giveaway. Don’t forget to leave your Twitter name!!
• Subscribe to RYD feed and confirm subscription- only applies to new subscribers.

GIVEAWAY ENDS- Saturday, Dec 27, 2008- Winner will be announced on the 28th!

 Winner will have 3 days to claim their prize otherwise prize will be forfeited and re-draw will occur!

U.S. ENTRIES ONLY, PLEASE!

Good luck!   :)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NEXT UP, we have a DVD on Pressure Cooking- remember the Green Up Your Cooking post about pressure cooking? Well, “The Veggie Queen” left a comment on the post.

In this 75 minute DVD, Jill Nussinow, AKA The Veggie Queen, gives you a fresh look at pressure cooking. Learn how to cut your cooking time in half with step-by-step instructions for 14 dishes, from breakfast through dessert!

Using a pressure cooker will help you:

• Reduce cooking time by 50% or more compared to conventional cooking techniques
• Decrease energy usage
• Keep your kitchen cool
• Make great tasting food with or without added fats
• Boost your nutrition by locking in flavor and color
• Make cooking meals change from boring to delicious

WIN IT NOW! All you have to do is visit The Veggie Queen’s site and and leave me a comment telling what pressure cooker you’d be interested in purchasing!

Be sure to leave me a valid email address with your entry.

If you don’t leave your email address with your entry your entry will not count!!!

Pls. folks, this is part of the giveaway rules!!

INCREASE YOUR CHANCES: There are THREE ways to earn extra entries!!! - PLEASE,  make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

• Copy & Paste the Recycle Your Day holiday button on your blog!
• Twitter This, or Stumble giveaway. Don’t forget to leave your Twitter name!!
• Subscribe to RYD feed and confirm subscription- only applies to new subscribers.

GIVEAWAY ENDS- Saturday, Dec 27, 2008- Winner will be announced on the 28th!

 Winner will have 3 days to claim their prize otherwise prize will be forfeited and re-draw will occur!

U.S. ENTRIES ONLY, PLEASE!

Good luck!  :)

**** MAKE SURE YOU LET ME KNOW WHAT CONTEST YOUR EARNING THE EXTRA CREDIT FOR! THANKS! 

*** Winner’s are Julie and Gina! Thank you to all those who entered. 

 This complete’s the Eco Holiday Giveaways!!