November 15, 2010

Dinner Tonight

 

Sweet Potato Black Bean Bake

Two months after moving in with Mr. Green the most common question I’m asked about our adventure in cohabitation relates to what we eat at home. I grew up in what might be described as a meat-centric home where meals were planned based on how the beef or pork, chicken or turkey was prepared. And though long-ago I began preparing and enjoying vegetarian meals, I still tended to eat meat the majority of days. Of course, my diet changed when I moved in with Mr. Green.

At home, I eat like a vegetarian.* I’ve come to know intimately the lentil and bean family, and now count tofu and tempeh as a food group. I seek out vegetarian recipes and get excited when I come across one that has a meatless take on an old favourite, like stew or bourguignon – even burgers. Mr. Green and I enjoy cooking together, and look forward to testing out recipes and new flavours in our kitchen.

Tonight was no exception. We modified a favourite black bean dip recipe a friend shared to come up with our very own Sweet Potato Black Bean bake.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Bake

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp oil of your choice

1 diced onion

½ diced red pepper (we used green, but would have preferred red)

2-ish tbsp chilli powder (to taste)

2-ish tsp cumin (to taste)

1-ish tsp dried chilli flakes (to taste)

1 large sweet potato quarter-inch diced

½ can diced tomatoes

1 cup corn (frozen or canned is fine)

1 can black beans

1 cup shredded cheese (we used goat cheese cheddar)

½ cup chopped cilantro Juice of half a lime

Method

Toss chopped sweet potato in oil with a dash each chilli powder, cumin, chilli flakes. Bake until soft but not mushy, about 20 minutes at 400F.

Sauté garlic in oil until fragrant, but not browned. Add onions and sauté until onions are soft and see-through.

Add pepper and chilli, cumin, and chilli flakes. Stir to coat onions. Continue to cook until spices release aroma.

Add tomatoes, corn, black beans and cilantro and cook until liquid from tomatoes is mostly absorbed. Simmer and adjust seasoning.

Add cooked sweet potatoes and combine. Layer bean mixture in casserole dish with cheese. Be sure cheese is evenly distributed throughout. Squeeze lime juice over the top to taste.

Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. Be careful not to overcook.

Serve with sour cream or plain yoghurt. Garnish with cilantro and remaining juice from lime.

Yield: Four generous servings

Eating like a vegetarian is easy and I enjoy it. I still eat meat – my girlfriends can attest to that – but I’ve come to learn that the amount of protein derived from meat can be easily made up with “meat alternatives.” Try searching out a new vegetarian recipe and see for yourself how delicious, healthy, and green (!!) a meatless meal can be.

Some of my recipe sources:

Lots of variety, organized by ingredient for easy searching: NY Times Recipes for Health 

New find: Smitten Kitchen

Yummy recipes from Toronto holistic nutritionist: Joyous Health

Old favourite and standby: LCBO Food & Drink

*I eat, mostly, like a vegetarian. Last week on my home from work I was looking for adventure, so tucked into Cumbrae’s, my neighbourhood butcher, and walked out with lamb and hot Italian sausages. (I also tucked some designer olives in my, reusable, bag for Mr. Green). That night for dinner we made squash and mushroom risotto and I enjoyed a lamb sausage on the side.

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November 7, 2010

Composting: the new recycling

Admittedly, it’s been forever since my last post and I’m sorry about that. I want to shout to all who are listening: I’m still here! It’s been a busy summer for me and Mr. Green that culminated in a huge move for both of us at the end of August. Yes, all, Mr. Green and I now share the same, greener, roof!

The guilt I’ve felt over the last several months for not posting has been mounting, but instead of pushing me to post, it’s been paralyzing. I’ve felt that the post of my return has to be epic, as if in its epic-ness it will make up for the last several months of radio silence.

Before you get your hopes up I’m afraid this isn’t the blockbuster blog post I’ve imagined, but, hopefully, it’ll do?

Since moving in with Mr. Green, I’ve picked up a new habit: composting.

Mr. Green and I live in a building that was one of the 30 multi-unit buildings selected for the City’s organics collection pilot. We’re joining the thousands of other Toronto families that separate their fruits skins and egg shells in an effort to reduce their impact on the environment.

But I’ve learned that composting in an apartment building isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires commitment, space and some days, a strong stomach. And for us, the challenge of separating our coffee grinds from the non-recyclables also requires a little patience and a sense of humour.

When I first moved in, Mr. Green insisted on keeping the bag of food waste in the sink. He claimed that leaving the food entrails in the sink was convenient, much more so than storing them in the organics container under the sink. He  also claimed that bending down to retrieve the bag either during food preparation or when it was time to dispose of it, was just too much for him to handle – the energy requirement too great for him to consider putting the compost bag in its “home” under the sink. And then he’d wonder why we had a persistent cloud of fruit flies or a funky smelling apartment.

Despite several conversations, Mr. Green and I are still a little at odds when it comes to where our bag of food scraps should be stored, but, most days, you can find it tucked away neatly under the sink where the offensive odour of rotting rinds is contained. And on the mornings when it’s time to carry our food waste down to our building’s green container, I try to be the one who bends down, opens the cupboard door, and lifts our compost bag from its home, saving Mr. Green the extra effort, before handing the bag over to him for disposal. I’m very lucky that he recognizes the danger of carrying our compost down the hall, into the elevator, and outside to the green bin when you’re dressed for work. Our building’s green bin is pretty filthy, so the likelihood of a food scrap ending up on your shoe is high.

But is all this effort really doing the planet any good? In a word, yes.

In Toronto, organic waste accounts for 30 per cent of trash going to landfill. The City has an ambitious plan to divert 70 per cent of its garbage away from landfill, so among many other initiatives runs the largest organic waste diversion program on the continent. Last year, 2,500 fewer trucks hit the road to Michigan which meant 85,000 tonnes of organic waste were diverted thanks to the 87 per cent of Toronto homes that support the City’s plan.   

This is very good news because organic waste that ends up in landfills decompose without oxygen, producing methane – a greenhouse gas known to contribute to global warming.

At the moment, only 30 multi-unit buildings can compost, but the pilot program was so successful that it is being rolled out to all the remaining buildings over the next 18 months. Soon every Toronto home will be able to participate in the City’s Green Bin organics program.  

We all remember the recycling revolution; I think it’s time now for the composting revolution.
 

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June 22, 2010

Confessions of an incandescent light bulb lover

Photo credit: Joshua Bright for the NY Times

Ok. It’s just a light fixture, right? The modern design of the six globe metal light fixture is attractive and I know Mr. Green did a lot of research before settling on this model to light his apartment. And I like the lamp; I really do. I just loathe the glow of the energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs he’s installed in the fixture.   

When we’re not sitting in the dark to save energy and enjoy the sharpest picture from Mr. Green’s HD TV, we’re swathed in the offensive “glow” of these energy efficient bulbs. The twisty white bulbs cast a blue-green light that reminds me of waiting anxiously for my name to be called in the dentist’s office. Not to mention how I look sickly and yellow under the lamp’s light. I know that incandescent bulbs are energy-suckers, but there’s something so comforting about their soft warm glow.

Last week, in a desperate attempt to appeal to my design sensibility, Mr. Green e-mailed me an article from the NY Times that claims energy-guzzling bulbs modelled after Thomas Edison’s first light bulb just aren’t hip anymore. I think Mr. Green’s afraid that one night while he’s sleeping peacefully, I’ll sneak low efficiency bulbs into his fixture! According to the story, restaurant designers in NY believe the retro cool of the filament light bulb has played out.  

Maybe they’re right? It seems to me that every restaurant to make Toronto Life’s “Best New Restaurant List” is lit using vintage looking, exposed light bulbs. Consider the last restaurant you went to, did you notice antique-looking light bulbs hanging from the ceiling? Perhaps the industrial look really is beginning to feel a little common?

According to restaurant designers, conventional incandescent bulbs are so popular because they emulate candlelight and make both you and your food look good. I’m all in favour of that! Except, something smarty Natural Resources Defense Council scientist Noah Horowitz pointed out gave me pause:

“You can’t on the one hand brag how green you are by serving organic beer and locally grown produce while you are lighting your business with the least efficient light bulbs available in the world.”

Oh … I’m afraid dear Noah might have a point.

Consider this: energy efficient lighting uses 75 per cent less electricity than conventional incandescent lights, which reduces the overall demand for electricity. This means you save on your energy bill and you reduce the demand for electricity and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil-fuel power plants that supply the power.  

And with Canada introducing an efficiency standard in 2012 that will end the sale of inefficient bulbs, I think I’d better get over my love of incandescent lights and leave behind the raw industrial look for home and restaurant decor. Who’s with me?!

As the NY Times article points out … there’s nothing more retro than the soft glow of candles. Imagine the energy savings!

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June 14, 2010

Are you a green commuter?

Photo Credit: treehugger.com

I follow a very strict rule when it comes to taking cabs in the city: only on special occasions. Times like when I’m running late for an appointment or I’m off to a friend’s birthday party in high heels. It would also be a special occasion when I’m carrying dry cleaning, groceries, and a gym bag after a long day at work and it’s pouring rain. I think I find this rule so easy to follow because I get to decide if the occasion is “special” or not, except when I’m with Mr. Green …

Certainly we compromise all the time when it comes to getting around the city and I love exploring Toronto with him on foot, but I get the feeling that despite agreeing to cab to dinner if I’m dressed up and in heels, he’d much rather we walk or even take the subway.

Mr. Green walks everywhere. It seems no distance is too great or the weather too nasty for him to get around the city in his New Balances. Just the other weekend we walked to Leslieville from downtown. No biggy. And if we hadn’t scored a fabulous Kinetics 1970s era stool on the cheap, we would have walked home (we took the TTC instead).

Mr. Green walks for a few reasons:

  1. Because he loves seeing Toronto on foot; you can discover so much about a city or town by walking its streets. Just this weekend, Mr. Green showed me the Cloud Garden. It’s a great garden complete with a waterfall that’s tucked between office towers just east of Yonge, south of Adelaide. Despite working around the corner, I had no idea this garden oasis existed!
  2. The exercise.
  3. It’s a lot greener than driving!

With being greener in mind, Mr. Green’s workplace signed up to participate in this year’s “Clean Air Commute,” an initiative of Pollution Probe happening this week. The Clean Air Commute hopes to encourage more people to walk, cycle, take public transit, carpool, telecommute or drive a hybrid car to work. The environmental damage a lone driver can cause commuting daily is significant. But that same lone commuter can make a serious difference when it comes to air quality, without making huge sacrifices. And that’s what I’ve learned since dating Mr. Green. I might grumble about walking places when I’d prefer to cab, but I know we’re doing good things for the planet.

Check out the Clean Air Commute and consider committing to making our air cleaner by making small changes to your daily commute to work or everyday life.

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June 7, 2010

Cursed are those who ask for plastic

Not exactly ground breaking ideas, but good suggestions for reuse all the same!

The war on the ubiquitous plastic bag began some time ago, but it was just over a year ago that Toronto joined the fight on the frontlines. Armed with a check-out charge of 5 cents per plastic bag, the city hopes the controversial bylaw will reduce the volume of flimsy one-time use shopping bags in the city’s landfills. But has it?

I can say anecdotally that I have noticed that there are fewer shoppers carrying their groceries home in plastic. And it seems that people from all walks of life are now schlepping reusable bags emblazoned with grocery store logos with them to the store.

And I can say very honestly that I feel like a real jerk if ever I have to request plastic at the check-out. I want to tell the people behind me in line that I will reuse the bag as a garbage can liner in my kitchen. I want to assure the cashier that I am trying my best to reduce my plastic bag consumption and that no, I don’t want the bag I just bought to end up in some sweet duck’s innards. I want to scream I care about the environment, but dammit the other day a pear smushed in my reusable bag and now it’s in the laundry, and I forgot to take it out of the dryer before I went to the store!

Perhaps it’s just me, but it seems as though in just a year, plastic bags in Toronto have gone from convenient to cursed. But I wonder if this is just a phase, a small blip on the behavioural change radar that won’t last?

I certainly hope not.

Because when Ontario set up a voluntary program with industry to reduce the consumption of bags by 50 per cent in 2007,  data available at the time revealed that Ontarians use 7 million plastic bags a day. That works out to roughly 4 plastic bags per person each week! The issue is that these polyethylene (a solid form of oil) bags will not biodegrade, they consume energy and natural resources to manufacture and they threaten marine life if ever they were to end up in our lakes or rivers.

I hope over this past year we’ve sent fewer plastic bags to our landfills, but even if the numbers don’t blow us out of the water just yet, I think one of the biggest successes of the plastic bag charge in Toronto is that it’s increased our awareness of how important individual actions can be when it comes to preserving our planet.

The good news: we’re not the only ones with incentive policies or bans. The desire to reduce or eliminate our reliance on plastic bags is global!

And on the days we forget our reusable bags, we can find new life for them by getting a little creative. I thought the plastic bag pictured above from a small shoppe in Burlington offered some good suggestions …

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May 18, 2010

Love local food

Mr. Green about to enjoy his Libretto pizza

The other day, Mr. Green came home aghast at the distance the asparagus had traveled to land on the local grocery store shelf: “It was from Peru!” he exclaimed. Knowing the vitamin-packed and anti-oxidant-rich veggie is in season here in Ontario, I was shocked too.

Long before I met Mr. Green, I did what I could to support local farmers and bought fresh-from-the-farm produce and meats when possible. Now, knowing how damaging shipping strawberries from California is to the environment, I try even harder to buy local, in-season foods. I’ll be the first to admit, however; that sometimes I just want a strawberry in January and I will indulge.

So, when Mr. Green and I head out for dinner together (we’re still a take-out free couple), we try to eat at one of the many Toronto restaurants that serves local, in-season food. It is hard to find locally sourced ethnic food though …

Enter the best pizza place in town: Pizzeria Libretto.

Libretto is awesome for so many reasons. Nowhere else in the city will you find pizza this tasty or legit. They are the only restaurant in Toronto serving certified Vera Pizza Napoletana, using guidelines by the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association and enforced by the Italian Government and European Union. That means they are respecting the pizza-making culture and tradition established in 18th century Naples. Now that’s serious and it means you’ll enjoy some seriously yummy pizza at the restaurant.

Mr. Green and I think Libretto is also awesome because they are doing many things to ensure they’re as “green” as possible, like sourcing ingredients locally. Taken from their website, here’s what else they’re up to:

  1. We use locally grown ingredients, whenever possible, while still maintaining the integrity of the Neapolitan Pizza experience. All of our specials are based around local fresh ingredients in season.
  2. We do not serve bottled water, in order to reduce the carbon foot print and other environmental ramifications of this trend. We instead serve purified Toronto water and carbonated filtered water.
  3. We serve only fair trade organic espresso.
  4. Our used kitchen grease is converted into biodiesel fuel.
  5. We use green electricity, a mixture of emission-free wind power and low-impact water power provided by Bullfrog Power.

I’ve come to realize that as consumers we have a lot of influence. Each time we go to the check-out counter or to our local restaurant we’re effectively voting through the choices we’re making. Deciding where and how we spend our money is one of the most powerful things we can do to effect social change.

We can also talk to the owners of our favourite restaurants and encourage them to buy local, in-season ingredients. You can suggest they check out 100km Food Inc. It’s run by a Toronto duo who have partnered with some 40 area chefs to bring locally grown food direct from the farm to the restaurant table.

I know there are those who criticize the local food movement because of how it affects our trading partners to the south, but no matter how complex global trade is I have to wonder: when food is in season here in Ontario, does it make any sense to ship the same food 5,000 miles to reach our tables?

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April 22, 2010

Earth Day is Awesome.

AWESOME. (Photo credit: whytraveltofrance.com)

Not long ago I stumbled upon a great blog: 1,000 Awesome Things. It’s a blog that chronicles those every day things that are truly awesome. Things like snow days, dancing when you’re home alone, and broccoflower. I’d like to propose something that I find awesome: Earth Day.

Earth Day started as a way to inspire awareness for the issues affecting the planet and strengthen our connection to the Earth. On September 29, 1969 there was a front-page story in the New York Times that, in conjunction with the efforts of a handful of forward-thinking U.S. senators and college students, helped start the environmental movement:

“Rising concern about the “environmental crisis” is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam…a national day of observance of environmental problems, analogous to the mass demonstrations on Vietnam, is being planned for next spring, when a nationwide environmental ‘teach-in’…coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned….”[*]

The following spring, the first Earth Day was observed by nearly 20-million people across the U.S. Since then, Earth Day has steadily grown and it was expected that today, at least 1.5-billion people participated in global events designed to inspire us to take greener action. 1.5-billion people! Awesome? I’d say so.

This blog is about observations from my lower carbon emission relationship with Mr. Green and, without question, the most remarkable thing I’ve observed is the number of people out there who truly care about the planet – not just on Earth Day, but every day.

These are ordinary folks and not the stereotypical granola crunching extremist hippies I used to equate with greener living. These are people you bump into on the subway who have packed their lunch in reusable containers or the girls in yoga class who are practicing on mats made from recycled material by companies who will plant a tree in recognition of your purchase or chefs committed to sourcing their menus locally or even companies committed to printing their materials on 100 per cent post consumer paper.

The level of awareness out there about the challenges facing our planet and our future on it is astonishingly high – truly awesome, but, as a global community, we can do more to make sure our Earth remains a safe, flourishing place.

So today, if you haven’t yet considered how you might be able to show you care for the Earth, consider making a change. Start small. Walk to the store. Wash your clothes on the cold cycle. Dine by candlelight. Buy local food and make dinner using seasonal ingredients. We’re learning that small individual actions do make a difference.

What have you done lately for the planet?

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April 16, 2010

Top job Starbucks

Yesterday, Starbucks offered a free brewed coffee to anyone with a reusable coffee mug. And every day they offer a 10 cent discount to those who choose not to carry their java in paper cups. Their thinking? “One person can save trees, but together we can save forests.” Bravo.

Starbucks, as a corporation, isn’t alone in their desire to promote products or start movements for the good of the planet. But their effort to encourage individuals to make small changes to their every day routine is something very important and it’s something Mr. Green believes can have a profound impact on the health of our planet.

One individual cutting back on their coffee cup waste will help reduce the number of trees cut-down, but imagine how many trees would be spared if we all tried to drink from reusable mugs? Or chose to walk or bike more often to work? Or recycled or composted as much as we could? Or turned the lights out in rooms we’re not sitting in (a favourite of Mr. Green’s even if we are sitting in the room). These small, individual acts when you add them all up mean big things in terms of the long-term health of the planet.

Know of any other corporations out there that deserve a gold star for their green efforts?

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April 11, 2010

Forgive us, we flew to Cuba

As a little girl I was fascinated with airplanes. There was a time when my parents would bundle me into the car and take me to the airport Saturday afternoons to see the “a-ppies.” Since then, not much has changed except the obvious outgrowing of my childhood word for “airplane” and until very recently, little could overshadow the excitement I felt after booking a flight to a far off place. I think it’s safe to say that when it came to understanding the environmental impact of flying, I was blissfully ignorant.

Now I’m dating Mr. Green and, of course, everything is illuminated in a greener light. I’ve come to realize that air travel isn’t so hot for the planet, but there’s hope in the form of carbon offsets for those of us who both care about the planet and want to visit its every corner.

Like many things related to living greener, truly understanding what carbon offsets are required a little homework on my part.

At first, the concept of buying offsets was a little beyond me. Like a little kid challenging their parents about the existence of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, I had an awful lot of questions. How do offsets work? Who sells them? Can planting trees really erase the sins of things like air travel?

With a little help from my pal David Suzuki, I’ve come to learn that buying offsets is like a get out of jail free card. Put simply: you commit some sort of environmental offence, in our case flying to Cuba for a recent vacation, and then by purchasing offsets your environmental infraction magically disappears!

Here’s a little carbon offset 101:

A carbon offset is a credit you buy from an organization or project that contributes to emission reduction, which means their efforts result in less carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

An example from David S – Wind energy companies sell carbon offsets. The wind energy company does this because selling offsets helps pay for their projects, which are producing greener energy. The people who buy offsets can then claim that their purchase resulted in new non-polluting energy, which mitigates or forgives their own greenhouse gas emissions like those generated by air travel.

There are several types of greener activity that can generate carbon offsets by displacing fossil fuels like renewable energy production – wind farms, solar installations, geothermal and biomass energy.

Other types of offsets for sale include those resulting from energy efficiency projects that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Reforestation and agriculture are familiar examples of this type of offset, but they can also include methane gas capture from landfills or livestock, which is 25 times more potent the carbon dioxide.

Mr. Green was telling me though that the problem with offsets is that they can create a false sense of redemption. It’s kind of like sitting in the penalty box for high-sticking. Instead of just not raising your stick in the first place (or: frequently travelling by air) sitting in the penalty box (or: buying carbon offsets) makes your egregious behaviour okay. You kind of miss the point that you’re not supposed to high stick in the first place!

Obviously, best case scenario, we all try and reduce how much we fly, but it’s not always possible. And that’s where offsets come in.

Stay tuned for a “how to” on buying carbon offsets once Mr. Green and I purchase ours in order to “offset” our beach holiday.

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April 4, 2010

How green is this?

Considering buying the new iPad or e-reader? A great story in the NY Times today tries to answer the question: what is the most environmentally friendly way to read? The article is a good example of a “life-cycle assessment,” which evaluates the ecological impact of a product or activity, at every stage of its existence or experience. For example, this comparison considers the impact of a good old fashioned book from the first tree cut down for paper to the day that book decomposes in a dump.

Mr. Green always reminds me of this sort of thinking when we’re determining how green a product or activity may be. Take the time when we were planning our vacations for the year. I thought it might be fun to do a weekend up north – stay at a nice lodge, cross country ski, enjoy nice meals together etc. And since a girlfriend had had such a great time dog sledding, I thought that might be a perfect green activity for us! Mr. Green didn’t disagree on the green merits of “mushing” per say, but he reminded me that careening through the forest on a dog sled, potentially, still carried a decent sized carbon footprint. For one, we would have to travel quite a distance, by car, to get to the dog sledding site in the first place. Secondly, taking care of the sweet snow dogs is no small feat when it comes to energy consumption. According to one study, feeding a medium-sized dog for a year has twice the environmental impact of driving a luxury SUV for 10,000 kilometres! (Note: beacuse I’m such a dog lover, I choose to turn a blind eye to these sorts of studies).

The lesson here is to consider the full life of a product or activity before deciding whether or not it’s eco-friendly. However, in many cases though the entire life cycle may not be the greenest, it is often far better than the alternative. For that reason, in case you’re wondering, dog sledding will always be a greener way to see the wintery sights than snowmobiling. (You’ll have to read the Times story to find out if reading a paperback will become the equivalent evil to carrying a plastic bag).

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