A Greener Dine-Out Vancouver

Back in the days when my husband and I had more free time, we used to take in one of Vancouver’s most awaited culinary affair. Now with 3 kids, unfortunately, finding some alone time for a date night every so often involves a lot of forethought and schedule juggling. So we’re not sure if we’ll be able to partake in this year’s Dine Out Vancouver before the February 1st deadline.

But for those who are able to, it’s a great opportunity to enjoy some fine dining at relatively reasonable prices. And better yet, I just found out that some of the participating places are part of Green Table, a network of restaurants and food services committed to sustainability and the earth. Here are the restaurants that are both part of Dine Out and also the Green Table: Bistro Pastis, C Restaurant, Elixir, Goldfish Pacific Kitchen, Hamilton Street Grill, O’Doul’s, Nu, Ouisi, Raincity Grill, Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co., Salt Tasting Room, West, Wild Rice, and Zin.

So if you haven’t made your reservations yet, and are planning to “dine out”, consider those restaurants that are part of this Green Table network. Or if you can’t make it for this year’s Dine Out, keep the list of Green Table restaurants in mind the next time you plan to eat out, there’s over 30 places to tempt your taste buds.

Bon Appétit! If you have a chance, tell us about your experience.

≡mar

Blue Bin Etiquette

Happy New Year! We hope you have managed to escape all our snow relatively unscathed!

With the arrival of the New Year also means the arrival of a new curbside garbage pick up schedule. There’s a permanent location on our fridge for the schedule. I periodically refer to it after a holiday or when I need to find out what can and cannot be thrown out and recycled. To tell you the truth, I am a little ignorant when it comes to putting stuff into the blue bin. I put things that I think should be recycled but don’t necessarily know if they are actually suppose to be there. My husband puts out the bin and I keep my fingers crossed that all the items are actually emptied out of it. I did a bit of research and have found out that there are actually quite a few resources out there to help you find out if you can recycle items or where you can recycle them. Did you know that you can bring your old cell phones to thINK Food who takes old cell phones as a fundraiser for local foodbanks?  The Recycling Council of BC offers a great resource for all things recyclable. They offer great tips, education, and services for recycling. There is even a materials exchange where you can buy and sell items that can be reused.

According to MetroVancouver.org, “currently, residents and business recycle just over half of the 3.5 million tonnes of garbage, or solid waste, created in the region each year”. So my goal this year is to work towards zero waste. The Zero Waste Challenge is part of the regions’ Solid Waste Management Plan. The 5R’s of the Zero Waste Challenge are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover and Residuals.  I have adopted some of the principles and hope to incorporate the rest of them.

§CC

Happy Snow Day

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone!

We were thrown a little off track with all the white stuff that kept coming down.  There was even a possibility that our Christmas gathering with our extended family would be cancelled — but  is wasn’t. And as the snow kept piling up, it felt like we were perpetually shoveling our driveway to no avail; our kids even picked up the shovel to help. However it wasn’t all work and no play, as we got to build the largest fort ever in our backyard and a snowmenpeople family. Hope you all got to enjoy the fun side of snow too.

We’ll be taking a little break over this Christmas season, but we’ll be back in January. We hope everyone had a warm and blessed Christmas with your family and friends. And with 2009 just around the corner, a safe and wonderful New Year!

≡mar

Stainless Steel Giveaway

Here’s a quick post to let you in on a giveaway from Stephanie of Keeper of the Home (btw: she’s got a great blog). You’ve got only until tomorrow, Friday, before 6pm to win yourself a product from the Tickle Trunk. More about the Tickle Trunk later……

All I Want for Christmas……

With a little over a week left before Christmas the clock is ticking for me to finish all my Christmas shopping. I still have a few important gifts that I need to get and those would be ones for my kids and my nieces and nephew. Typically, these ones are the first on my list to get completed because it’s always easy enough for me to go to the mall and pick up the latest toy or gadget. This year is a little different as I am trying to avoid all the mainstream toys that can potentially contain toxins. On top of that, I want to make sure that I pick up toys that I know my kids will genuinely be interested in and don’t want to get the first “eco-friendly” toy I can find.

I needed a little help this year and received this handy little tool from my sister. I love the Skin Deep Database for cosmetics and beauty products. The GoodGuide is its equivalent for household products including toys, household and personal care. Toys are rated out of 10 and contain information about chemical contamination levels as well as the products’ environmental and social impacts. They rate not only companies that are “green” but also mainstream toy companies as well, such as Fisher Price, Hasbro and others. I wish I could go to the store with a little handheld “eco-detector” to ensure that the things I pick and purchase for my home are safe but until there actually is such a thing, this online guide will do.

Happy Shopping, Everyone!

§CC

Squeaky, Clean Locks

I’ve been slowly changing the products that my family uses on their body, face, and hair; trying to replace them with ones that are safer for us and for the environment. It hasn’t been easy since it’s hard to decipher what is really “good” out there versus what appears good but is still full of chemicals and junk.

In the process, I stumbled upon a brochure about Curelle at my local organic grocer. It was about the toxic stuff found in our regular shampoos and conditioners. Then it went on to claim that the ingredients used in their hair products are “plant derived, solvent-free, and contains no toxins”. I was skeptical and took the brochure home to look more into it. I punched the ingredients into EWG’s Skin Deep Database and it came up with ratings of 2 and less. Then I did a bit of online searching and found that it was one of the better shampoos in Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia’s Guide to Less Toxic Products. In addition, Curelle is a local company based in Vancouver. These were all good enough reasons for me to give it a try.

I picked up the Hydra Shampoo, Riche Conditioner and Build-Up Remover Treatment and it was all reasonably priced. $13.99 for 500ml bottles and $8.99 for 250ml bottles, and the 70ml bottle of the Build-Up Remover set me back $3.99. There is also the Energe Shampoo (for volume) and the Treslite Conditioner (for lighter conditioning). They also have some styling products and a moisturizing body lotion in their product line.

I’ve been using it for awhile now and I am satisfied with the results. It seems to give the umph that my thick, curly hair needs and tame the frizz. In addition, the conditioner can be used as a leave-in, so sometimes I smooth a dime-size amount into my hair to calm the fly-aways. The downsides, I’m a bit addicted to scented shampoos and conditioners so I am still getting use to the fact that the products are scent-free and also it lathers differently (less bubbles) so I probably end up using more than I need.

If you want more information about the Curelle products you can check out this link, because unfortunately, their website is still under construction.

What products do you use? Any suggestions for ones to try or advices for ones to stay away from?

≡mar

Goodies Made With Love

December is always a busy time of the year with parties, family gatherings and all the holiday festivities.  This time of year is made that much more special for my family as we get to celebrate birthdays for both my kids.  My mind is always thinking about their birthdays months leading into them because without planning ahead we would be lucky if I got my act together to bake a cake.  Aside from planning all the food and activities, I am constantly in search of goody bag items.  I want to give our guests something useful and practical but don’t want to spend a whole lot of money.  Typically, I end up at the dollar store to fill up the bags.  This year, with some planning ahead I decided to make the loot items myself.  It started with a simple search on the Internet and before I knew it, I had a project list of things that I wanted to make for my kid-lets.  I am so easily distracted!

There are many talented moms out there that have wonderful imaginations and amazing creativity that offer great help in making items.  I can only aspire to be like them so for the time being I use their resources for helping me out with my projects.  I decided to make felt crowns and super hero capes.   It was a pretty big undertaking because of the number of kids that are coming to our party but more so because I am definitely not a great seamstress.  I know how to use the straight stitch and the zigzag on my sewing machine and that’s about it.  I managed to make my way through it and they came out surprisingly great.  I can’t wait to give them to the kids.  There are also a lot of no-sew projects out there as well.  You just need to spend a little time looking for them.  I also have been using the library as a resource for ideas.  One book that I was given is the Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions that has great formulas from anything from scented water colors made with drink crystals to apple sauce and cinnamon dough.

Anyway, I am hoping to be able to find more time to do this for my kids and myself.  It gets me away from the TV and computer and lets me employ my creative side.

§CC

Homemade Lip Goodness

This past week, my sisters and I got together to make some lip balm. We don’t get together often to do things like this. But when we do, it’s always a treat because I would not have made lip balm on my own. We followed a simple recipe found on Green Bee’s blog to make the base and then had fun creating our own lip balm concoctions using different extracts and essential oils.

In lieu of jojoba oil we used sweet almond oil, but I found that some other recipes say you can use olive oil too. Instead of using just peppermint oil (which we got at London Drugs), we bought some different extracts to play with: lemon, coconut, orange and almond (we found these at Superstore). We decided to use the microwave instead because it seemed more convenient, allowing us to have more control over the melting process. As for the containers we found cute ones at Daiso, but you could probably reuse empty containers or lip balm tubes too.

Through the process we learned a few things:

• it’s somewhat messy. You end up getting wax everywhere. You should probably use a grater, bowls, utensils, etc. that you don’t really care for because it’s hard to get the wax and the greasiness off of them afterwards. You may also want to line your work area with newspaper to make cleaning up spillage easier because pouring the melted base into a small tube or container requires steady hands and good coordination.
• you need to work fast. The base sets pretty quick. Have your flavouring oils and extract combos ready to add to the base, eye droppers worked well here.
• as for getting the melted base into the containers, we used a chopstick. But a straight stick of any sort (like a stir stick) would work too. We used the stick as a guide, pouring the melted base down it into the container.
• though you can use extracts, we would probably stick with essential oils next time. (Just be sure the ones you choose are safe for your lips). Compared to oils, you need to use more extract. The larger volume of extract to base ratio resulted in the extract separating from the base in some of our batches when it set.
• we added a bit of honey to some of the batches for flavour and sweetness. You need to melt the honey well into the base (watch that you don’t end up burning it) or else it will separate too.
• write down your recipes, so that you know what and how much you added for future batches.
• in some batches, we also shaved some cocoa butter into the beeswax mix for the base. The cocoa butter made for a softer, creamier lip balm and added a nice cocoa smell.

Here’s some of the concoctions we came up with: almond-cocoa, honey-lemon, coconut-orange, and cocoa-mint.

Let us know if you’ve tried this yourself and what you’ve come up with.

It’s All In the Box

With the majority of the farmer’s markets closed for the winter I have been looking for places to pick up local and organic produce. There is a winter market but I haven’t had a chance to get out to it. I have also checked out a few Saturday Markets but sometimes my Saturdays don’t lend me time to get out before they close. For those of you who haven’t gone before, the Saturday markets are wholesalers of organic products that will open their warehouses once a week to the public, typically Saturday. I know that the local supermarkets are also picking up their lines of organic produce and products but sometimes they can get a bit pricey or their produce isn’t typically local. I have been meaning to check out some boxed deliveries for a while but keep putting it off. But with the weather so wet it’s hard to motivate myself to get out to run errands.  So then what better way to shop than to shop online from the comfort of home, and then have it delivered right to our door!  How nice!  It feels a bit nostalgic. I remember when I was little, my mom got our milk delivered to our door. For my research I am trying to find a company that carries produce that is local and in season and suits our family’s needs and requirements. I am looking for something that doesn’t require a commitment and is flexible with what I can choose to be delivered and when it can be delivered. I am also a bargain hunter so I want to make sure that I am not spending an insane amount of money for some fresh produce and organic products. Here are some of the companies I am looking into:

• Green Earth Organics
• SPUD
• Organics At Home
• Ladybug Organics (this one doesn’t service our area!)

Let me know if you have tried a company that you like or dislike. I would love to hear about others’ experiences. What better testimony about a company than from it’s clients.

By the way, we ate out only once this past week! Off to a good start!

§CC

Home Sick for Homemade

I have been feeling sick to my stomach hearing about all the recent recalls regarding food. The spinach – E.Coli, deli meats – listeria, and the milk - melamine scandals have got me all confused about what food is safe for my family to eat. I no longer trust the bubble tea that I drink or the deli meat in my sandwiches. I look on every package to see the “Made in…” labels and even that isn’t necessarily a tell-tale sign of the “safeness” of the product that I am going to be ingesting.

I have resorted to analyzing everything that I put into my body and those of my family. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t banned every single processed food from my diet but I am definitely on a mission to rid those that I know I can definitely live without or at least those I can perhaps make at home. I just need to convince the hubby that instant noodles, although, tasty at times are not the best midnight snacks.

My biggest accomplishment so far is making fresh bread. I guess it’s not a huge feat if you have ever made it with a bread machine but I feel great when I can smell homemade bread coming from the kitchen. I am working on a Chinese Steamed Bun recipe because my girls love eating them, especially when they are fresh from the steamer. We are on recipe version number 3 and I will post the perfected recipe once we reach it. I am also vowing to eat out less since home cooked meals are always tastier and more comforting anyway.

On average, we eat out at least four times a week. We eat out not necessarily because we crave it but more so because it’s convenient and we are too lazy to cook. So my pledge for now is to eat out less than four times a week and make more homemade meals. I will keep you posted to see how long this lasts.

§CC