The LAZY Environmentalist

I am totally hooked on the new show "The Lazy Environmentalist". We no longer have cable but we do have Netflix. I have been able to watch season one on Netflix. This show gives very tangible ways that are easy to change to green practices.

Check it out!

Anna Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large farm fresh eggs
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Bake 45 minutes to one hour.

Shrink your grocery bill...

http://groceryshrink.com/

This is a new fantastic link my cousin shared with me. It gives a great foundation on how to reduce your grocery bill, meal plan and cook from scratch. 

Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chips Cookies

3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup nuts chopped (optional)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 to 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cooking sheets. Combine wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients. They mix together. Bake for 7-10 minutes .

Grocery Shopping

I have recently had the time to sit down and watch a few documentaries about where our food is coming from and what is put into our food....

I highly recommend --
The King of Corn
The Garden
Food Matters
Tapped

The King of Corn has taught me that corn is in about everything we eat and it is making us sick and fat. Corn is fed to most of the animals that we eat as meat, high fructose corn syrup is the #1 sweetener out there and is in just about everything and corn starch is also high on our ingredient lists. SO, I am trying something out... 30 days with NO corn!!

The Garden was about a movement to keep a 13 acre community garden in south central Los Angeles. Very moving to see people fight for freedoms to grow.

Food Matters was about the medical industry and how pharmaceutical companies are keeping us sick and dependent on medications. This movie taught me more about the concept we all already know, "You are what you eat" and what that means to me.

Tapped-- This was just a scary and eye opening documentary about the business of bottled water, the byproducts of the industry and the devastation on our environment. So I also vow not to use bottled water any longer and be more diligent about bringing my own reusable bottle with me everywhere. This also taught me to be more careful about the types of plastics I use and how I am using them for myself and my family.

Above is a picture of my grocery shopping from yesterday. No corn. Mostly Organic. No GMO's (Genetically Modified Organism) but still lots of packaging! I am not sure how to get away from that entirely?! I wrote down where each food item was shipped from or grown and will tally up how many miles my food traveled to my table. I will keep you posted on that data as soon as I calculate that out.

Margarita Pizza

Basil Pesto as the sauce-- purchased from Costco
Mozterella Cheese
Sliced Tomatoes
Added -- bits of chicken
Homeade dough from the bread maker --used dough setting (essentially flour, water, salt and yeast)
Cook at 375 degrees for 15 minutes

YUMMMM!!!

Rolled Omelette

Rolled Omelette

Ingredients 

8 eggs

4 tbsp sugar

4 tsp Japanese soy sauce (I used oyster sauce)

6 tbsp sake or dry white wine

Vegetable oil

Wasabi and pickled ginger, to garnish

1. Put the eggs in a large bowl and stir them together, using a pair of chopsticks in a cutting action

2. Mix the sugar, with the soy sauce and sake in a small bowl. Lightly stir this mixture into the egg. Pour half the mixture into another bowl. 

3. Heat a little oil in a frying pan, then wipe off excess. Pour a quarter of the mixture from one bowl into the pan, tilting the pan to coat it thinly. When the edge has set but the middle is moist roll up omelette towards you.

4. Mositen some kitchen paper with oil and grease the empty side of the pan. Pour one third of the remaining egg into the pan. Lift the rolled egg up with yoru chopsticks (I used a thick spatula) and let raw egg run under it. When the edge has set roll up the opposite directions, tilting the pan away from you. 

5. Slide the roll towards you, grease the pan and pour in half of the remaining mixture, letting egg run under. When set interest chopsticks in the side of the rolled omelette, then flip over towards the opposite side. Cook the remainderin the same way. Slide the roll so that its join is underneath. Cook for 10 seconds. 

6. Slide the roll out on the bamboo mat and roll up tightly, then press neatly into rectangular shape. Leave to cool. Cook the second batch in the same way. Slice the cold (we ate this warm) omelettes into 1-2 inch pieces. Serve with soy sauce. 

I modified this recipe due to the fact that we were out of soy sauce. I got everything mixed up and ready to go.. went to the fridge to get out the soy sauce and we did not have any. I was thinking about Worcestershire sauce but then thought about Oyster sauce. I am thinking that it was "okay" with oyster sauce but would love to try this recipe again with the intended ingredients. Kurt rated this a 6 stars as is but is willing to attempt this again with the soy sauce. Kurt added Feta cheese to the top of his and I add no cheese.  I cooked this in a Wok because that is what my recipe book shows. However, this made it very hard to roll over and the middle cooked far faster than the outsides. I think I will try this next time on my flat stove top griddle. I recommend covering your bamboo mat with saran wrap first. It keeps the mat very clean (they can be bugger to wash) and then you can wrap up roll with it to place in the fridge. My eggs fell apart rather easily and did not stay in a pretty roll like the picture in my cook book shows. All goes down the hatch the same way. Kurt and I ate ours warm and the recipe calls for it to be cold. I think I would be okay with cold eggs any other time of day besides breakfast.