A Reason to Bike from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.

photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

I recently found myself at the bottom of an appliance hand-me-down chain, not a bad place to be when you’ve been running a washer/dryer set that’s older than the Colorado Rockies (the baseball team, but perhaps also the geologic feature; they may have faux wood-grain panels, but no obvious signs of glaciation.) Actually, we’re keeping the old dryer because it still works fine, the “new” one reportedly doesn’t do such a hot job, and we hardly use the dryer anyway. The washer sprang a leak a while back, though, so we’ll take the opportunity to snag a free replacement.

Regardless of our reasoning, I found myself in possession of an unwanted and functionally compromised washer/dryer set. Read more…

Image: care2.com

From the files of Totally Mundane Things That are Secretly Kind of Amazing, let’s talk about soap. Soap is awesome, right? I like using it, and I appreciate it when others use it. The benefits of soap far outweigh the tiny cost of buying it. I am firmly pro-soap.

But seriously, soap saves lives, too. According to Clean the World, a charity that provides personal hygiene products to people in homeless shelters and developing countries, every 10 seconds a child dies from a disease that could have been prevented with — you guessed it — soap. And think about how much of the stuff we just throw away. Every time you stay in a hotel, you use only a tiny bit of the soap they provide you in your room. Instead of throwing it out, hotels donate this slightly used soap to Clean the World, where it’s put to good use. It’s a green cause to support because it keeps waste out of landfills in addition to helping people.

Sounds good, right? And you can contribute soap too, even if you don’t own a hotel. Here’s how:   Read more…

Before I get to my review of Newt Gingrich’s 2008 book A Contract With the Earth, let me first say that this post isn’t about politics. I’m not going to write about Gingrich’s presidential campaign or his personal life. While the environment is something that likely will come up for discussion in the months leading up to the election, Gingrich actually goes to great lengths to explain why something as important as our planet should transcend politics. Protecting our environment isn’t up to Democrats or Republicans, or even Americans — it’s up to everyone.   Read more…

We are thrilled to present today’s Meatless Mondays post courtesy of Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin! You undoubtedly remember Natalie from the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, as well as Dancing With the Stars. She’s also an organic gardener and proponent of healthy eating. Learn more about Natalie and her green lifestyle over at the California Dried Plum Board. We’ll have another recipe from Natalie next week as well!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped onion
1 serrano chile, chopped
2 tablespoons California dried plum purée
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon tomato paste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cups cooked brown basmati rice
8 ounces firm tofu, diced
1/2 cup diced California dried plums
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/4 cup chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup julienned carrot
1/4 cup peeled, seeded cucumber cut into thin half-moons

Directions:

1. In a food processor or blender, process onion and chile to make a paste.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together dried plum purée, soy sauce, sugar and tomato paste.

3. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over high heat. Add onion mixture and cook 1-2 minutes. Add dried plum mixture, rice and tofu; stir-fry about 5 minutes or until hot. Add diced dried plums, peas and scallions and stir-fry 2 minutes more.

4. Transfer to a serving bowl or individual plates and garnish with peanuts, carrot and cucumber.

Gold medalist swimmer Natalie Coughlin is the most decorated female athlete of both the 2008 Beijing and 2004 Athens Games. Coughlin has won a medal in every single Olympic event that she has ever entered, for a total of 11 Olympic medals. In 2008, she became the first American female athlete to win six medals in one Olympiad. She is also the most decorated female swimmer in World Championship history, with 16 medals. 

I love this kid! Such a great tutorial!

Image credit: madame.furie

When I signed up for my first yoga class over ten years ago, mat shopping didn’t offer nearly the variety it does today. Plenty of stores sold yoga mats, but I had exactly two choices: solid blue or solid purple. I chose blue, and I’ve tried to remain completely happy with it even as yoga exploded in popularity and the yoga mat industry exploded to match. Sure, I wanted something new and prettier, but I had a hard time justifying ditching my still-perfectly-usable old blue mat just because something fancier caught my eye.

The past few summers I’ve spent a lot of time in outdoor yoga classes, however—in parks, on bar rooftop patios, and even in parking lots—and as a result, my mat is looking legitimately worse for wear. I could probably try harder to clean it (Yoga Journal recommends adding a few drops of dish soap to two cups of water and rubbing that solution onto your mat with a rag or sponge), but that wouldn’t do anything for the nicks and cuts in the surface. So I went ahead and added a pretty pink flowered yoga mat to my Christmas list this year.

My new mat is great, and I’d like to keep it that way for a while, so I’m calling that one my indoor mat, and when the temperature consistently rises above 30 again and my yoga practice moves back outside next summer, I’ll still take my old blue mat, now dubbed my outdoor mat, with me.

What if you’re less of a pack rat and more of a free spirit about dirtying new stuff, however, and you just want to get rid of your old mat instead? Well, in that case, you actually have lots of options.

Read more…

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Edward.

A clean home is a healthy home. As common sense a statement as you’ll get — doubly so, when one remembers that much of the ill-health of the past came from dirty homes and unsanitary practices. But to get our homes clean these days seems to require rather a lot of specialized cleaning products — so much so that just opening the cleaning cupboard can be something of a health hazard.

And when you start thinking about all of the various chemicals being sprayed in your house daily, it does add up to quite a cocktail. Is all of that chemical soup, released in your own personal environment, really healthy for you?

The EPA certainly doesn’t think so. In its discussion on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), it noted that inside the average U.S. home are up to five times as many of these nasty compounds than are present outside. And one of the main sources of VOCs is manufactured cleaning products. With VOCs being fingered for problems relating to nausea, headaches, eye/respiratory tract irritation, and even cancer, maybe a healthy home should really start with natural cleaning.

And using natural cleaning products is a surprisingly easy, and refreshingly cheap, option — just check out this list of the top six natural cleaning tips for your home.  Read more…

If you live in the city like me, there are eco-friendly options for your safety better than this dog- although probably not as cute!

Wanting to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself from basics you need. You just have to find alternative means that accomplish what you need while still being sustainable for the environment. Some people spend a fortune on home security systems that use up a lot of energy and aren’t efficient at all. You can go to online resources like protectyourhome.com for eco-friendly information that are easily affordable options – and I have a few green options to share too!

Natural protection

I have family in the south that lives out in the country. Here in the city, our homes are separated from our neighbors by a few feet. In the country where my family lives, huge fields separate the neighbors. There is a lot of space and there aren’t many people who travel the country roads. They never owned a security system to protect their home, but they always kept a few dogs in the yard. These dogs were friendly with us—and the pigs and chickens my grandparents kept—but whenever a stranger pulled up they let us know. My grandfather liked dogs but he kept them more for protection than as pets. They stayed outside and kept stray dogs and strangers from entering the yard. When it comes to green security nothing is more eco-friendly than that! But I live in Chicago, and I understand that in certain areas you will need a lot more than a dog to provide security.

Harness the sun’s energy

Vivint is one company that has jumped on the green bandwagon and is attempting to create a new system that will save money and use less energy. Their idea is a bit more radical than others because it requires a drastic change that is definitely beneficial, although many people still don’t have the capabilities to do it yet. They are focusing on homes with solar powered panels that use the sun’s energy to power home appliances. They install panels into the home that allows users to track how much energy certain appliances are using. They are also extending that feature to smartphones so people can track their status while on the go.

Recycle when you upgrade

ADT security systems are a good choice for security systems because they reuse parts of outdated devices to produce the newer models. Each system has minerals inside of it that can be taken out and put to use along with metals that are difficult to break down and would only increase waste if they were thrown away. ADT has implemented smartphone usage into their system too. Users can turn lights off and on and save energy while they are away from home. The thermostat can be controlled via the phone too—giving users control of their home while on the move.

There are many ways to protect yourself and your family while still looking out for the environment and conserving energy. Each day people are working on new ways make these systems even more efficient and eco-friendly too. Do you have any tips or ideas to add that I didn’t mention?

It’s another soup recipe! What can I say? I love it in the wintertime. Plus, it’s super easy to go meat-free with soup.

Ingredients:

1 package (7 oz.) refrigerated 3-cheese ravioli
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups water
1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced
1 pkg (10 oz.) baby spinach

Directions:

1. Cook ravioli according to package directions. Drain; keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, and garlic; cook and stir about 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened.

3. Stir in water, chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add zucchini; cook 5 minutes. Stir in spinach; cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Stir in ravioli.

(Note: I like to add a good bit of salt and pepper after ladling the soup into my bowl. This dish is hearty, but it can be a tad bland without some extra spice. Some added salt and pepper make it extra delicious.)

Makes 8 servings. Bon appetit!