Miss Freeze.

Freezers are a huge suck of energy, but whether we like it or not: it’s a staple appliance in every home, and they're here to stay. Most people use them for meat, and at-home fast food. Vegetarians and vegans, alike, tend to use them to store chopped and flash frozen fruit as an arsenal for smoothies. I know I do.

But have you ever considered using them for fast food too?

I’m not talking about Michelina’s frozen stir fry.

Life is a little hectic, and sometimes it can be a little difficult to stick to a healthy vegetarian/vegan diet when you’re rushing around in the morning, to get to your 9 to 5 job.

As Dolly would say: what a way to make a living.

Especially with the coming winter, none of us really want to get up early enough to make those raw meals we so love, and once the snow hits the ground, and the produce at the store is less than marvellous, things can seem so much more daunting than we’re used to.
Remember the first raw food bento box of the spring? Remember how excited you were for lunch time? Winter doesn’t have to be an endless array of questionable canned soups. And it doesn’t have to be a repeat of what you had last night.

So here’s my suggestion: retire your bento box for the season, and make up with it in the spring.

Crack out your old plastic containers, make friends with them again, and clear your Sundays! It’s time to make large batches of your favourites! Ideally, you can have several individual portions of several different meals.

I have, within my possession, 49 plastic containers. Which is, realistically, more than anyone should have; but there are three people to my household, on three different working schedules, so meals rotate fast. I typically make rice and a combination of two things. I use a lot of spinach, because I find cooked spinach tends to freeze well. I split everything between 7 containers. That’s a choice of 7 different frozen vegan meals every day—and it makes my cold winter mornings a lot easier, because I am many things, but a morning person is not one of them.

The first couple weeks, you may find a little crazy, as you may need to make a meal Saturday and Sunday, or perhaps even two a day, until you have enough to rotate through, but in the long run, you'll marvel at how much less work it is.
At the end of the week, you'll have five or so clean containers again, and it's time to make a new meal! Ideally one you don't have yet.

Most, if not all, workplaces have microwaves, and your frozen meal can be ready in 4 minutes, at power 5, which is what most frozen meals require anyways. And while it may be true that frozen food contains less nutrients, at least you can enjoy a more nutritional alternative! No preservatives. Lots of taste. Exactly what you want, and in making large batches, you spend less than five dollars a meal!

With a little thought and planning, you can have quick, vegan, gourmet meals every day, all winter—without breaking the bank!

And who doesn’t want that?

Lavender Blackcurrant Teacakes

Makes 12 standard cupcakes

1 ½ cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup non-dairy milk
½ cup canola (or vegetable) oil
2 teaspoons food grade lavender
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ cup black currants

Preheat oven to 350 °.

Using a coffee bean grinder, or spice grinder, grind 2 teaspoons of lavender flowers. (Food grade lavender can be purchased at natural food stores. Often, it will be sold loose as tea lavender.)

In a bowl, sift or whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and lavender grinds. In a separate bowl, mix the non-dairy milk, oil and vinegar.

Combine wet and dry mixtures and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Distribute batter into lined cupcake baking pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy.

Get the Digits.

My most ungreen habit has got to be my nails. Like most things in my life, they've seen a lot of flip-flop on the matter.
Some days they're clean, some days they're coloured.
And although these days you can get some pretty green polishes for your nose, your toes, and everything in between, the fact remains that there's no real way to colour them, even semi-permanently.

If you're a little like me, the most important part--coloured or non--is a clean, well manicured hand. So, today's post is dediated to your digits.

Clean, well manicured hands visually start at the cuticle, but the fact of the matter is it starts long before you ever see them. About 6 months before, and it's all in what you eat.

Like all things, there are things to avoid and things to indulge in. Let's start with the things to avoid, because you'll find them to be recurring.

Avoid:
• smoking
• excess sugar
• excess caffeine
• saturated and hydrogenated fats
• processed foods
• never abuse your nails by using them in the place of tools such as screw drivers
• never tear or shew your nails
• never rip your cuticles

Do:
• eat good omega-3 fats (oily fish, walnuts, flaxseed)
• get enough protein (peas, beans, lentils)
• get lots of dark leafy greens (kelp, kale, nori, spinach, wakame)
• snack on seeds (linseed, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame)
• load up on whole grains (brown rice, oats)
• drink lots of still pure water

Your skin, your nails, your hair... essentially, they're all made up of the exact same thing, which makes the above list a good list to follow for everyday. But sometimes eveyday needs a boost. I like to make something over and above the standard about once a week.

A smoothie to indulge in:
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 1 cup ice cubes
• 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional:
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon liquid calcuim

The calcium and protein available in this smoothie do wonders to strengthen dry, brittle nails, as they are key components in their growth and production.

Chemical solvents in conventional nail polish can, ove time, weaken nails and make them brittle.
The 3 big ingredients in question are: toluene, formaldehyde, di-n-butyl phthalate.

Toluene is a neurotoxin and can potentially cause things like tiredness, confusion, weakness, drunken-type actions, memory loss, nausea, loss of appetite, hearing and colour vision--yet it's used to make up 50% of a nail polish.

Formaldehyde is a repratory irritant and has caused cancer in animal studies. It is considered a likely human carcinogen.

Di-n-butyl phthalate accumulates in fat cells and has been linked to reduced sperm count in men, menstrual disorders in women, as well as miscarriages and premature births. (Another huge offender of this ingredient is hair spray.)

Some lacquers free of the BIG 3:

Priti Organic Spa
http://www.pritinyc.com/

Spa Ritual
http://www.sparitual.com/nail_lacquers/glow

So, you've done your healthy eating to keep your duds looking daper, you've decided to colour or not to colour, now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of the greenest manicure you can give yourself.

First, you must soak your nails to soften the cuticle. Gently massage the nail bed with olive oil and very gently push back the cuticle with an orange wood stick. Use a clean cloth or a cuticle brush to rub away the excess cuticle skin--never cut your cuticles, this can leave open wounds and leave you suseptible to infection.
Next, shape your nail. Always make the row equal to the shortest nail. Shaping nails slightly square will help them stand up to the daily wear and tear that they are subjected to.
Don't forget to give your hands a bit of a massage to get the blood flowing. Circulation is important for nail health.

Simple solutions:

Keep cuticles from drying out by using moisturizer every time you wash your hands.

Don't use nail polish remover more than once a week, it's far too harsh and drying.

Always wear cotton-lined rubber gloves when handling household cleaners, they can be a powerful irritant.

Laundry Service.

I read, on another blog, recently about the hidden toxicities of fabric softener. I came away feeling a little proud of myself, because I don’t use fabric softeners, but it didn’t take me long to think of the following:

If this is okay to put into fabric softeners, and sell to the public, what’s okay to put in fabric detergent?

So I looked at the back of the bottle—no ingredient list. I checked the company websites—no ingredient list.
Perhaps I’m distrusting, but typically, when people hide things from me, I figure it’s because me knowing is not in their best interest.

I spent the day on-line. Sadly, I found a whole lot of nothing, and wikipedia turned out to be the most generally informative.

According to wikipedia, all laundry detergents are made up of three main components: builders, bleaches, and enzymes.

Builders are basically water softeners. They make up close to 50% of any powder, and their main purpose is to combat calcium in the water.

Bleach, well, we all know what bleach is.

Enzymes occur naturally in the body. For example: protease is a broad category that encompasses five types of proteases that are essential to the every-day functioning of your body. Protease is added to your detergents to break down protein based stains—as is the job of most enzymes that have been artificially added into a circumstance they don’t naturally occur in.

Now days, most detergents promise whiter whites. This is achieved with something called optical brighteners. Optical brighteners are dyes that collect, and re-emit ultraviolet light in the “blue” region of the light spectrum. Because dried body oils often look “yellow” on your clothing, adding blue balances it out for your optical nerves, leaving you with the sensation of a cleaner object, because blue-white appears purer than yellow-white, to humans.

Other ingredients include perfumes, and we’ve already discussed the dangers of natural perfumes.

Now… perfumes, alone, creep me out. The reasoning is quite simple: if it all rinses away, how is it supposed to leave that smell?

The truth is: if it all rinsed away, it wouldn’t.

Now that we’ve determined, with a little common sense, that these chemicals don’t completely rinse away, let me scare you some more… you wash your clothes in this. You wash your sheets in this. You wash your towels in this. You literally never go more than five minutes without the residues of these chemicals on your skin!

Are you scared yet?

Consider the following: if someone tells you they have a rash or they’re itchy or uncomfortable, everyone always thinks to ask if they’ve recently changed their laundry soap—so, essentially, we all know it. We think about it first when something’s wrong with our skin--our largest organ.

What can you do to combat the bioaccumulation of these chemicals and excess enzymes? Hopefully, by now, you’ve had time to try out the organic soap recipe I gave you, because we’re going to use a bar today. Unfortunately, going green will mean that some stains will just be more stubborn, but the average adult doesn’t accumulate a whole lot of stains to begin with (at least we should hope not).

Simple Laundry Soap

• 2 gallons Water (hot)
• 1 bar of Basic Vegetable Soap (grated)
• 2 cups Baking soda

Step 1 Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until soap is melted.

Step 2 In a large pail, pour 2 gallons hot water. Add melted soap, stir well.

Step 3 Then add the baking soda, stir well again.

Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load.

Optional: Since we’ve determined that no detergent will ever completely rinse out, you can add between 10 to 15 drops of essential oil (per 2 gallons) to your homemade laundry detergent if you really desire a fresh scent. Add once the soap has cooled to room temperature. Stir well and cover.

Essential oil ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil

Butter Bean, Tomato and Pesto Soup

Serves 4

2 x 14 oz cans butter (lima) beans, drained and rinsed
3 3/4 cups vegetable stock
4 tbsp sundried tomato puree (paste)
5 tbsp fresh pesto (preferably home-made)

Put the rinsed and drained beans in a large pan with the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and stir in the tomato puree and pesto.

Cover, bring back to simmering point and cook gently for 5 minutes.

Transfer the beans into a blender or food processor in multiple batches, remembering to add a couple of ladlefuls of liquid for easy processing. Process until smooth, then return to the pan.

Heat gently, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Season if necessary with salt and pepper. Ladle into warm soup bowls and enjoy.

On the Soap Box.

Have you ever really stopped to think about what’s in the soap you wash with day in and day out?

Every time I grow curious and investigate these things, I find myself paramountly offended by the blatant lengths companies are willing to go to in the hopes of making a dollar—often at the expense of the common man.

It’s often been said that this is the most expensive time to live in, because the cost of everything is externalized. The real cost is never displayed—and really, it can’t be. Would you pick up anything, even if it was $4.99, if it also said Caution: use of this product supports poverty, and extended use of some of these ingredients is suspected to cause cancer and respiratory difficulties.

You’d cringe and pass it up, wouldn’t you?

As you should! Consumerism is the ultimate service industry (as in serve us). Now, most of the time, the industry tries to tell us what it is that we should want, so we have to show them that we already know! We will be given what we demand, so it’s time we start demanding some things.

Naturally, some soaps are better than others. Before you buy (because chances are you still have some at home), use your trust camera phone to snap a picture of the ingredient label, head home and fire up your computer. Check out everything on that label. If you cringe even once—next!

I live with some non-greeners, so I’ve taken over facilitating the purchases of a lot more of the household items—I’ve discovered they’ll go green if the stuff is readily available, but in general, they’re not that inclined to do the research themselves—recently, I found the not so eco-friendly packing of their last bulk-soap purchase, and I decided to try something:

Pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate is probably the biggest offender, as well as the one no one will even attempt to say. It’s an eco-toxin, and triggers broad systemic effects, at large doses, in forms of life. If you think the doses you’re getting aren’t large enough to be worried, I have one word for you: bioaccumulation.

Titanium dioxide is another offender. Studies have shown that it causes genetic damage in mice—leading scientists to classify it as a carcinogen.

I used an ingredient list from Irish Spring, so the following is a colourant:
Chromium oxide greens is, again, guilty of bioaccumulation. It’s an eco-toxin that is readily absorbed by the skin. It causes cancer and organ system failure.

A good rule of thumb is to avoid anything with a heavy colourant, and avoid things where all you get for the smell is “parfum”—lord knows what chemicals the smell comes from.

Basic Vegetable Soap

This is a simple soap without any additions, so you can practice this recipe a few times until you feel confident enough to add perfume, nutrients, and color. Be prepared for the odd failure; very few soap makers get it perfect on their first attempt. If your first batch or two don’t work and you have to throw them away, at least you haven’t wasted oils and nutrients, which can be expensive. This soap is also lovely to use and is especially suitable for people with sensitive skin, as there is no fragrance or color—and it will be an excellent thing to use for our next post!

• 16 oz (455gm) distilled water
• 6 oz (170gm) of caustic soda
• 12 oz (340gm) coconut oil
• 12 oz (340gm) light olive oil (not extra virgin)
• 20 oz (567 gm) soya bean oil

Step 1 Place the water in a lye- and heat-resistant container with a good pouring spout. Wearing rubber gloves and safety glasses or goggles, slowly pour the caustic soda into the water.

Step 2 Gently stir the mixture until all the soda has dissolved, being careful to avoid splashing. The temperature of the lye will soar to well over 100°F (38°C) , so leave to one side to cool.

Step 3 Place the coconut oil, olive oil, and soya bean oil in a lye-resistant saucepan and heat gently, stirring to mix thoroughly and to evenly distribute heat. When the temperature is approximately 99°F (37°C), remove from the heat.

Step 4 Keep measuring the temperature of both solutions, and adjust if necessary by using a water bath. When both solutions are exactly the same temperature, ideally 97°F (36°C) Although anything between 95°F and 100°F [35°C-38°C] should work), slowly pour the lye into the oils. You should pour slowly but steadily stirring gently and often.

Step 5 Once all the lye is combined with the oils, continue to stir constantly but slowly; avoid creating air bubbles. Be sure to mix thoroughly enough to incorporate the two solutions.

Step 6 Watch carefully for signs of tracing--when the mixture turns opaque and thickens. As soon as this happens, pour the soap into greased molds. Seal the mold with plastic wrap, cover with blankets, and place in a warm, dry spot for 48 hours.

Step 7 After 48 hours, remove the plastic wrap. You now must assess the soap. Remember to wear rubber gloves as the soap is not yet cured and is still caustic.

Step 8 Gently touch the surface of the soap. If it is still quite soft, leave it to sit unwrapped for another 48 hours. If the soap is firm to the touch, but still soft enough to leave an imprint, then unmold the soap carefully.

Step 9 If you used one large mold trim off any rough or uneven edges, and place on waxed paper to cure. When the soap is quite firm to the touch and pressing on it no longer leaves any imprints, it’s time to cut it into individual bars. Start checking after a week.

Step 10 If you used individual molds, once the bars are removed from the molds, place on wax paper to finish curing.

Step 11 In both cases, you need to leave the bars of soap to finish curing in a dry, draft-free place for two to three weeks. After the final curing period, the soap should be hard, just like a commercially bought bar of soap.

Step 12 Scrape off any surface ash that may have come out and trim the bars of soap to make them neat. The soap is now ready to use.



Time for some chemistry:
Measure carefully! Measurements need to be as close to exact as possible or you won’t get the desired chemical reaction and the recipe won’t work.
You need to be careful what you use as the vessel to make the soap in because you are combining an acid (oils) and base (lye). The two must be the same temperature when you mix them, or they will cool at different rates and partially separate, causing uneven tracing and often, a soap that just won’t set--use a thermometer if at all possible. Both the oils and the lye can be harmful on their own, so please, please, please do not use an everyday cooking pot/bowl! Invest in two pots/bowls to be used exclusively for soap making. They can be really cheap, it doesn’t matter, because they don’t have to withstand high temperatures.
Note for step 6: when making soap, make sure you have all day. Tracing can take between 15 minutes and a couple hours, depending on the oil to lye balance. They say tracing can take up to 48 hours, but as a rule of thumb, I use the 5 hour mark, just because any longer starts to get to the point where it’s really not feasible to stand and mix. (Family is starting to prepare dinner, you have to go to bed, whatever the inconvenience may be.) After five hours, the chances it’s going to trace are slim, so don’t waste with a mixture that has decided not to work. Wrapping the mold in blankets slows the cooling process and stops the oils and lye for cooling at different rates and separating. (Your lye heats fast and it also wants to cool fast, causing it to fall from the mixture and leave sediment. This is also the reason for the ash described in step 12.)
Water bath: an basin of room temperature water that you can lower the lye or oil vessel in to cool them, drawing the temperature down to the desired 97°F so that they can be mixed.
Also: when you feel confident enough to use additives: warm your additives, cold additives can shock the soap mixture, and fall out, or even ruin the entire batch.

Asparagus Soup

Serves 4

1 ½ cups filtered water
2 cups chopped asparagus
½ avocado, peeled and chopped
¼ cup chopped celery
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp nama shoyu
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp minced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
Leaves from 1 thyme sprig
1 ½ tsp fresh tarragon leaves
Pinch of freshly ground cayenne pepper
Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

4 asparagus tops, sliced lengthwise
A dollop of natural yogurt

In a high speed blender, combine the water, asparagus, avocado, celery, olive oil, shoyu, lemon juice, onion, garlic, thyme, tarragon, and cayenne and purée until smooth.

Pass through a fine-mesh sieve and season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Once ladled into soup plates, garnish with a dollop of yogurt. If you want an artistic design, run a knife tip through the top a few times to send white veins through the soup and top off with the lengthwise-sliced asparagus.