Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

     Is anyone else obsessed with pinterest? I've found so many great ideas on there for everything imaginable. One of the DIY projects that has been popping up frequently on my pages, are homemade sugar/salt exfoliating scrubs. They're totally easy, green, and cheap to make. 

     I wanted to use mason jars for this but everywhere local seemed to be out. [If anyone in the vicinity is looking for them, Giant Eagle in McMurray has a variety of sizes.]  So I bought glass containers instead at Michael's.You will need lemon juice, olive oil, and sugar or salt. Mix 3 cups sugar or salt, 8 Tablespoons lemon juice and 1 Cup olive oil together and ta daaa! You'll have a great body scrub free of harmful chemicals. Perfect for any part of your body and wonderful before fake tans, the healthy organic kind, of course! See my previous blog on safer organic tanning.

You Can Do It, Put Your App Into It

     I am amazed at how many amazing apps there are! Everything from games to barcode scanning, to pointing out constellations. Taking advantage of this technology can greatly help make a healthier, greener you. Below are a few of my favorite foodie apps. All of these apps are free, so try one (or more!) out today, if you haven't already. Most apps are compatible with iPhones/iPods, Androids, BlackBerrys, Kindle Fires, and Windows 7 Platforms.

• Food On The Table - Just like the free service available on the web, Food On The Table is also available as an app. You have all of the menu planning options and it will make grocery lists on your device, showing you the local sales at your grocery store of choice. Easiest way to make a grocery list ever!
• Fooducate - Fooducate gives the product scanned (or manually entered) a letter grade and information about its nutrients and ingredients. For every item you enter it will suggest alternative healthier choices. Awesome!
• Plant Planner -This app will help you plant your garden. It gives useful information about each plant type, including when to plant after the last spring frost according to your GPS location.

Photo by Organic Gardening

• Calorie Counter  - Not only does it count calories but it can keep a log of physical activity and weight. You can scan the barcode on packaged food items to add it to your daily list. You can also use your account on the computer too. So easy.
• iFood Assistant - Another great meal planning/recipe app powered by Kraft. It has a large selection of recipes including healthy options, recipe makeovers, and recipes for diabetics. It will also make shopping lists for you that are easy to keep at your finger tips.

Annie's Homegrown Giveaway

     I am excited to announce that I will be giving away three coupons for a free frozen pizza from Annie's Homegrown. This is Annie's latest addition to their all natural, organic, food line. To be entered in the contest, just "like" the Organic Dreams Facebook page and "like" the Annie's Homegrown Giveaway post. Winners will be drawn March 20th, 2012, 11pm EST. Check out this link to find out more about the new line of pizzas and receive a $2 off coupon. 

     

This yummy pizza is...

• Certified organic
• Naturally rising crust made with 8g of whole grains
• Organic meats with no added nitrites or nitrates
• 100% real cheese
• Generous 11.5" family size pizzas

Safe to Eat, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

     I learned about this recipe for safe to eat cookie dough from Firm Foundation Health, a health coaching practice in Minnesota, and BMoore Healthy. It doesn't contain any dairy and you can use vegan chocolate chips, making this a great recipe for individuals with those preferences or food allergies. This is only to be eaten raw and not baked. Since it doesn't contain eggs, there is no risk of Salmonella food poisoning, as present in traditional uncooked dough.

I used a chocolate chip & peanut butter chip mix.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup cashews

1/3 cup oats

2 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup chocolate chip...peanut butter...whatever you like! 

(If the cashews are raw unsalted, use a pinch of salt.) 

Directions:

Mix cashews and oats together in a blender or food processor. Blend them together until they resemble the consistency of flour. Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Blend until the dough comes together. Add the chocolate chips you prefer. Put the dough in a container to chill in the refrigerator for at least thirty minutes. You can leave it as one big ball or roll it into bite sized snacks. 

Cashews

     I love finding recipes online that I already have all of the ingredients to make. I was a little worried about putting cashews in my blender. It has the ice crushing option and seems pretty powerful; it did an amazing job! My husband who won't touch cashews, ate half of the dough in one sitting. He thought it tasted more like oatmeal than cookie dough.

Oats

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Eggs

     I feel that supermarkets are misleading about eggs. One brand will say cage free and another brand says fresh and natural...what's the difference? A lot. Brown eggs do not mean they're healthier, organic, or cage free. It just means they came from brown chickens. White eggs come from white chickens, you get the idea.There are even naturally occurring blue and pink eggs. The color of the egg depends on genetics and also the earlobe color of the chicken.  

Egg selection at my local grocery store.

     The title cage free is pretty self explanatory. They live outside of a tiny cage, unlike most of their counterparts, but that does not necessarily mean they ever go outside or see sunlight. They live in large indoor houses together, as you can watch in the documentary Food Inc. Ideally, free range chickens are walking around in a pasture, but all that's really necessary to have this label is access to the outdoors. Organic eggs, mean the hens were fed organic feed, and not given hormones and/or antibiotics unnecessarily. 

     So, if a carton of eggs at your local supermarket says 'fresh and natural', they really mean they're coming from somewhere like the video below from Farm Sanctuary. Cage free is more humane, free range is better, and local free range is the best.

     The incredible, edible egg is still a great food to consume. The average egg is about 70 calories, contains vitamin A, and about 10-13% of your daily value of protein. Some brands like Eggland's Best, feed their chickens a precise nutritional diet, making the eggs even healthier.
     I've recently learned last February, many laws were passed nationwide, to change the city ordinances about raising chickens and other farm animals. Pittsburgh has adopted the Urban Agriculture Zoning Code, which allows up to three chickens on property that is 2,000 square feet or more, including the footprint of the home. For every additional 1,000 square feet of property, one additional chicken is permitted. Roosters are not permitted. Chicken coops and other similar structures must be located at least 50 feet from any property line. Check with your city to find out if your regulations changed last February, too.

Gifts & art . . . for a good cause.

Edwin Shaw Photography   www.frontrowmonthly.com

     In December, Front Row Monthly held an event at the Barroom in Station Square (Pittsburgh), for Moral Fibers. Their philosophy is wear art, change lives. They give artists in developing countries jobs and a means to support their families. "With the purchase of each shirt, the artist receives the equivalent of 24 hours worth of minimum wage, or enough to feed one member of his/her family for an entire month. 15% of revenues go directly to the artist, and 10% of our profits are donated to a humanitarian cause close to the artist's heart." Pretty cool. You can check out more about Moral Fibers in this month's Front Row Monthly. 

     SERRV is a non profit, fair trade organization much like Moral Fibers, and helps developing countries and artists around the world.They offer a variety of handmade crafts like scarves, jewelry, pottery, and even coffee and chocolate. Fair trade means the workers are treated ethically and paid fair wages, which is something we take for granted in America. Fair trade doesn't allow workers to work in hazardous conditions, have ridiculously long hours, or unfair slave labor pay. They try to use sustainable resources and are usually against using child labor.

     You can find SERRV shops around the country or buy from their site online. When I was a teenager, Westminster College always hosted a SERRV shop during the Summer, and it was neat to see their eclectic collection of goods.

School lunches & gardens . . . make a difference!

     Do you remember your Kindergarten-12th grade cafeteria food being scary? The burgers didn't seem as if they ever came from a cow, the gravy was always a slightly radioactive color of neon yellow, and the list goes on. Don't think I didn't eat my fair share of school lunches and didn't look forward to cream chicken over biscuit day, just like everyone else at my school.

     My high school actually tried to help students have more nutritional lunches before the current green epiphany that's going on. They gave students options other than just a salad bar too, they had things like a baked potato bar and and started a food/cafeteria advisory council (which I was a member of) for students to have a say in the lunch options. When I student taught, the high school where I was placed didn't sell soda or any individually packaged snack over 100 calories, like chips and desserts, to students.

     Now schools are taking healthy lunches every further and starting their own gardens and some are using the produce in the school lunches. How cool is that!? It's a trend starting all over the county. The Whole Kids Food Foundation is in the process of giving away $2,000 grants to non profits and schools that applied last year (December 2011 was the deadline), to help start their gardens. Kids Gardening/National Gardening Association gives away $500 grants for school gardens and has given $3.96 million to schools since 1982, when they started the program. It's not to late to apply for their grant for the 2012 school year.

     A friend of mine, Stefan Goetz, has been graciously helping his local school in North Carolina plan and plant their school garden for the past three years. "I believe school gardens are important because, contrary to popular believe and recent congressional legislation, pizza is in fact not a vegetable. As made evident through shows such as 'Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,' people have completely disassociated the importance and direct impact of nutrition and their quality of live. My hope is that early exposure will create an informed generation that can reduce or even prevent their own diet related medical problems such as Type-2 diabetes and problems caused by obesity." -Stefan Goetz

Murphey Traditional Academy, North Carolina

     Help raise environmental awareness in your local school and let them know there are grants and resources available to help them get started with their very own school garden.