April showers bring May flowers, as the old rhyme goes, but if the current warmer-than-usual temperatures that most of the country is experiencing are any indication, nature appears to be a bit ahead of schedule this season. Here in the South that means it’s time for me to finally start working on the flower beds in our front yard, which have mostly been empty in the two years we’ve lived in our house. Well, empty of decorative plants but full of weeds.

My first inclination was to clean out the beds and then raid Home Depot of some pretty shrubbery like azaleas, rose bushes and maybe even some hydrangeas. But in the back of my mind, I knew that native plants were the better option. Jacob has mentioned the benefits of native grasses and plants before, but here’s a bit of a refresher on why they’re so much better than your average plant from the local large-box hardware store.

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I’m a big fan of my slow cooker. It’s so versatile and it’s the perfect tool to use to whip up a hearty, yet meatless batch of Red Beans & Rice for Meatless Monday! This is a zesty, healthy twist on the classic Red Beans & Rice dish, leaving out the sausage all together. The beauty of this is you dump in the ingredients and walk away. What could be better than that? It’s easy, and easy is good, especially on a week night! So let’s dig in for Meatless Monday

What You’ll Need:
1 cup of long grain brown rice (Note: You could use white rice if you wanted to, but brown is much healthier.)
2 cups of dried red kidney beans that have been soaked overnight
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup of chives, chopped (Note: I used dried chives this go around, but you can use fresh as well.)
1-2 tablespoons Cajun or Creole Seasoning
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of sea salt (Note: Omit this if your seasoning contains salt.)
4 cups of water

In the bottom of your slow cooker spread the rice out in an even layer.

Next add the kidney beans on top of the rice.

After the kidney beans add the red onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic and chives.

Sprinkle the seasoning, smoked paprika and salt evenly over the vegetables and rice and then cover with the water. (Remember to omit the salt if your seasoning already has salt in it.)

Cook on high for 4-5 hours until rice is done and beans are tender, or 5-6 hours on low.

Serve with hot sauce if desired. A nice side dish for this is Spicy Baked Chard. A slice of sour dough bread might be nice as well.

Notes: This recipe is Vegan as written. The possibilities with this recipe are endless. You can substitute black or pinto beans in place of the red. Haven’t got time to soak the beans or simply forgot? If that’s the case you can add in two cans of red beans about 30 minutes before servings so that they heat through. Sometimes I like to add in other vegetables to up the nutritional punch. Zucchini, squash and/or carrots are really great in this mix. If you really want to spice things up add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper on top of the Cajun or Creole seasoning, which I do often. Also you could add a vegetarian sausage if you prefer, but I like to use the smoked paprika for that sausage taste as I’ve never been a fan of the sausages used in Red Beans and Rice.

Hella Wella says juice fasts aren’t worth it.

Umbra answers the question: Are coffee cups recyclable?

greenUPGRADER has instructions for a cute, simple air freshener.

Crafting a Green World has adorable reuse ideas for your garden.

INHABITAT says Venice is sinking a lot faster than previously thought.

I know what I’ll be doing: Playing board games, reading a book, or just talking with friends by candlelight. Anything that doesn’t involve electricity between 8:30 and 9:30. Why? It’s Earth Hour!

Since 2007, households all over the world have turned off their electricity for one hour in a show of support for climate change awareness. It began in Sydney, Australia, but soon spread to the rest of the world. Last year, Earth Hour grew to include hundreds of millions of people across 135 countries.

So how do you participate? It’s easy: When 8:30 p.m. rolls around, your local time, just turn off the lights and unplug most everything that uses electricity. TVs, computers, and alarm clocks are easy. Light some candles and entertain yourself however you see fit from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. And you’re done! Hopefully it’ll inspire you to try and save energy during other hours of your life, too.

(Word to the wise: You could be an overachiever and unplug your refrigerator, but think about how much juice it’s going to take to get it back to the correct temperature after an hour. My advice is to leave the fridge plugged in during Earth Hour, because all your energy savings will be negated when it has to work extra hard to get back to the correct temperature.)

The Earth Hour site has all sorts of inspiring stories, photos and videos of people all over the world showing their support for the environment. There are also many ways to get involved with the Earth Hour movement aside from turning off the lights for an hour. The movement has grown so big that many famous landmarks turn off their lights to show support, including the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Burj Khalifa,  the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Sydney Opera House.

 Have you observed Earth Hour before? What did you do to entertain yourself in the dark?

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Karen Ho Fatt.

I admit it. I love to travel. But I know that the farther I travel from home, the more fossil fuels I’m likely consuming to get there. And once I get there, I’ll probably stay in a hotel that expends ridiculous amounts of energy on lighting, heating, and even laundry. In recent years, my guilt over the environmental toll of travel has put a damper on my adventures. I’ve wondered if I should just give up traveling altogether and take up knitting instead.

I did a bit of research and I’ve stumbled on a few solutions that allow me to indulge my wanderer’s itch without trashing the planet and reducing my share of carbon footprints. Eureka! Traveling that doesn’t harm the environment? That’s a win-win for everyone, right? Here are a few of the “green” travel ideas I’ve stumbled upon:   Read more…

My wife’s family love card games. Me, not so much. I lack the attention span for most games, so much so that I never even really got too into video games because I’d get bored by the second level. When I was offered a chance to review Spot It!, a game by Blue Orange, I knew I’d be a pretty tough judge. If I approved, it was going to be a good game. Just to make sure I gave it a fair shake, I asked my card-game-loving wife and my 4-year-old son to help me test it out. Read more…

Image credit: Colin Erricson/www.robertrose.ca

Today’s recipe comes courtesy of Camilla Saulsbury’s 5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking, a new cookbook containing 500 recipes that are healthy, natural, and don’t take too much time and fuss to create. The five steps are:

• Choose fresh, whole foods

• Eat mostly vegetable- and fruit-based foods

• Opt for healthy fats and proteins

• Select superfoods (nutrient-dense foods)

• Eat more whole grains

Here, the bright flavors of lemon, basil and asparagus play against the earthiness of barley and onions.  Read more…

It’s very simple.

via 13 Wham News This Morning.

Image source: The Nature Conservancy

Do you know how much water you use every day?

I’m not just talking about the water you use to drink, take showers, wash dishes, and do laundry. I’m talking about the amount of water it takes to produce the things you buy. For example, did you know that it takes more than 30 gallons of water to produce just one cup of coffee? 49 gallons for one bag of chips? 400 gallons for a cotton T-shirt?

751,777 gallons. That’s how much water you, I, and every American goes through every year. That’s not a collective number — that’s how much water we each use. Is your mind boggling? Mine is. Just take a look at this infographic presented by The Nature Conservancy — many of these stats may surprise you!

The Nature Conservancy is partnering with the Water Footprint Network to bring awareness to World Water Day, which is today. It’s no secret that there’s a shortage of fresh water for the people and animals that need it worldwide, and something needs to be done about it. The health and well-being of our planet is fundamentally rooted in the availability of fresh water.

So what can you do to celebrate World Water Day? Take some tips from The Nature Conservancy and learn how you can curb your own water usage. It may seem like a drop in the bucket — pun intended — but collectively, it can make a real difference. Here are some tips I learned:

• It takes more water to manufacture processed foods, so stick to fresh food whenever possible. There are so many reasons to do this, water conservation being just one of them.

• Avoid plastic utensils. It takes 24 gallons of water to create 1 pound of plastic, not to mention the environmental cost of disposing of something after just one use.

• Water your lawn or garden in the morning or evening. Water evaporates slower during these times of the day, which means it takes less water to keep your plants hydrated.

• Even electricity uses water. Unplug your chargers and other electronics when not in use; a day of typical electronic use in an American household uses 4-5 gallons of water.

I made it to the top of the rope in gym class. I’ve struck out the side. I drive a pickup. I drink beer.

I’m a man.

And yet, I can’t help but take offense whenever someone tries to paint environmentalists as somehow weak and “unmanly.” I don’t think it helped our case when the hippies all grew their hair long and danced around to pan flutes and bongos. Then again, the hippies also dug Jimi Hendrix and slept in the mud. That’s pretty manly.

At the risk of alienating the ladies, who get a free pass from the establishment when it comes to hair length and interpretive dancing, here are some things that might be even manlier than climbing the rope in gym class, and also happen to be green: Read more…