Homemade Yogurt – Easy as can be! July 14, 2011

A friend of mine shared this link for making homemade yogurt in a slow cooker. It couldn’t be easier and the yogurt is fantastic! Just keep in mind that the yogurt you’ll get from it won’t be like the store bought kind. It’ll actually be like a yogurt drink – just add your own fruit, a little honey, and you’re all set! I’ve just made my second batch. The first was with 2% milk and the second was with fat free. Both had the same consistency.

If you have a slow cooker, I urge you to give it a try!

Food, Inc. – Do you really know what you’re eating? April 9, 2010

Ok everyone, mark your calendars. This month, PBS is airing the documentary, Food, Inc. I’m told by friends who’ve seen it that you’ll want to start eating only food you’ve grown yourself in your backyard with heirloom seeds. Afterwards, a short documentary, Notes on Milk, will be shown.

“Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli — the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually.”

You can check your local listings for when it will be shown here. If you’re unable to catch it that day, you can watch it online from April 22 – 29, or read the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is just as interesting and scary.

Thanksgiving Dinner November 15, 2009

Stop over at Eco Women where I recently wrote posts on having a vegetarian Thanksgiving (or hosting a vegetarian for the holiday) and Baby’s First Thanksgiving.

Photo from Flickr by Paige Gabert

Great parent web sources July 10, 2009

Head on over to Eco Women today where I’ve written about some great sites for parents.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

A new resource for types of pesticides on our food. June 30, 2009

SAF Baby (Safe Alternatives For Baby and Child) and Eco Child’s Play have both reported on a new web site called What’s In My Food. This site has been created by the a non-profit group, Pesticide Action Network.

What’s In My Food is a searchable database that allows you to see residue data from pesticides on food and information about each of the chemicals. You can check a list of 89 foods or search by pesticide name.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

You’re kidding, Coca-Cola, right?! June 12, 2009

Go on over to Eco Women today where I’ve written about how Coca-Cola, Campbell’s, Del Monte, and other manufacturers of canned foods and drinks, met to come up with a public relations and lobbying strategy to stop the government from banning the use of Bisphenol-A, or BPA, from being used in the linings of metal lids and cans.

You really need to see what they came up with and what you can do about it.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

As if you needed another reason to limit your intake of processed foods May 21, 2009

The New York Times had an article last week explaining how some processed foods that have tested positive with salmonella have so many ingredients, as was the case with ConAgra’s Banquet labeled pot pies with 25, that finding the specific contaminated ingredient became impossible. Therefore, ConAgra and others are having the consumer do the final test to eliminate any microbes with instructions such as this:

“Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”

Other companies don’t even know who’s supplying  ingredients for their products and if these suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers.

Nestlé, which acquired the Swanson and Hungry-Man brands two years ago, said they cannot ensure the safety of their items from frozen vegetables to pizzas. General Mills now advises consumers to avoid microwaves and cook only with conventional ovens.

New York Times staff followed the directions on several brands of frozen meals, including ConAgra’s Banquet pot pies, and failed to achieve the required 165-degree temperature. Some spots in the pies were only able to be heated up to 140 degrees even as parts of the crust were burnt.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

I’m speechless…again. May 14, 2009

The other day I saw a commercial that made my jaw drop. Clorox Bleach ran a commercial saying to wash your baby’s bottles and toys in a mixture of water and Clorox to disinfect them. What?!!!

Now, I’m not a perfect “greenie”. It’s like the blog title says – I’m TRYING to be greener. I do my best to make “safer” choices but when the “natural” stuff like cleaners don’t work, sometimes I have to pull out the traditional stuff. I don’t like doing it, and it only happens occasionally, like when I’ve lost the battle with mold in the bathroom. I keep the bathroom window open to ventilate and do it only when I know my daughter will be out of the apartment with me for the afternoon. Many internet sites state that studies have shown the household bleach we use isn’t harmful to the environment or ourselves. Industrial bleach, however, is a different story. But who’s kidding who? If household bleach can irritate or burn skin, I don’t understand how it can’t be harmful.

So readers, I want to hear from you. Would you clean your child’s baby bottles, sippy cups, or toys with a bleach mixture? Do you use a vinegar mixture or soap and water, for example? What’s your choice of disinfectant?

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

Healthy Home Tips for Parents by the Environmental Working Group May 12, 2009

The Environmental Working Group has just announced that they will be releasing a once a month email on “Healthy Home Tips for Parents” for individuals who sign up with them. Each month’s tips will be on one page to make it easy to print out. The June’s issue will focus on personal care products.

“EWG’s scientists and public health researchers created a list of the most important steps you can take at home to promote your family’s environmental health.”

You can sign up for the monthly email here. Just be sure to check off the “Greening the Planet for Kids Health” group so you’ll get the Healthy Home Tips for Parents series.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.

National Healthy Schools Day April 22, 2009

Today, I’m pleased to have Janelle Sorensen, the the Senior Writer and Health Consultant from Healthy Child Healthy World, guest post at Trying To Be Greener. Healthy Child Healthy World works to broaden awareness of environmental hazards and its impact on children’s health, advocates for governmental legislation that will protect children from environmental hazards, and so much more.

National Healthy Schools Day
What you can do to make sure no child’s health is left behind

Janelle Sorensen

When my husband and I first toured schools to find the one we wanted to enroll our daughter in, I’m sure I was silently voted one of the strangest parents ever. Why do I feel I was secretly endowed with this title? Because every room and hallway we were taken through, I sniffed. A lot. And, according to my husband, I wasn’t terribly discreet.

I didn’t have a cold or postnasal drip. And, I’m not part bloodhound. I was simply concerned about the indoor air quality. My daughter was (and still is) prone to respiratory illnesses and I wanted to be sure the school she would be attending would support and protect her growing lungs (in addition to her brain). For many air quality issues, your nose knows, so I was using the easiest tool I had to gauge how healthy the environment was.

While air quality is a significant issue in schools (the EPA estimates that at least half of our nation’s 120,000 schools have problems), parents are also increasingly concerned about other school health issues like nutrition and the use of toxic pesticides. Many schools are making the switch to healthier and more sustainable practices like green cleaning, least toxic pest management, and even school gardening. What they’re finding is that greening their school improves the health and performance of students and personnel, saves money (from using less energy, buying fewer products, and having fewer worker injuries among other things), and also helps protect the planet. It’s truly win, win, win.

To highlight the issue, the Healthy Schools Network coordinates National Healthy Schools Day. This year, over three dozen events will be held across the country (and more in Canada) on April 27th to promote and celebrate healthy school environments.

What can you do? Healthy Schools Network recommends simple activities such as:

• Adopting Guiding Principles of School Environmental Quality as a policy for your School;
• Distributing information related to Green Cleaning or Indoor Air Quality (IAQ);
• Writing a letter or visiting your Principal or Facility Director to ask about cleaning products or pest control products;
• Walking around your school: looking for water stains, cracks in outside walls, broken windows or steps, and overflowing dumpsters that are health & safety problems that need attention. Use this checklist.
• Writing a Letter to the Editor of your local paper on the importance of a healthy school to all children and personnel.

You can also help support the efforts of states trying to pass policies requiring schools to use safer cleaners. (Or, initiate your own effort!) There are good bills pending in Connecticut, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, and Oregon. According to Claire Barnett, Executive Director of the Healthy Schools Network, the key pieces to promote on green cleaning in schools are:

• Not being fooled by ‘green washing’ claims—commercial products must be third-party certified as green (to verify claims);
• Understanding that green products are cost-neutral and they work; and,
• Learning that “Clean doesn’t have an odor.”

She encourages parents and personnel to tune into one of the archived webinars on green cleaning (like the first module for general audiences) at www.cleaningforhealthyschools.org.

The fact of the matter is that whether you’re concerned about the quality of food, cleaning chemicals, recycling, or energy use – schools need our help and support.  Instead of complaining about what’s wrong, it’s time to help do what’s right – for our children, our schools, and our planet.

What are you going to do? There are so many ideas and resources. Find your passion and get active on April 27th – National Healthy Schools Day.

Additional Resources:

• Creating Healthy Environments for Children (DVD): A short video with easy tips for schools and a variety of handouts to download and print.
• Getting Your Child’s School to Clean Green: A blog I wrote last year with advice based on my experience working with schools.
• Healthy Community Toolkit: Healthy Child Healthy World’s tips and tools for being a successful community advocate and some of our favorite organizations working on improving child care and school environments and beyond.
• The Everything Green Classroom Book: The ultimate guide to teaching and living green and healthy.

Janelle Sorensen is the Senior Writer and Health Consultant for Healthy Child Healthy World . You can also find her on Twitter as @greenandhealthy.

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.