Solar Roadways: Driving Green

Testing the Solar Roadway Panels with a Tractor

Imagine driving down a road that is powering your car, your city, and itself all at the same time. No more paint lines, just use LEDs lights that can also tell you road speed or when someone is crossing the street. Snow? Ice? Not a problem, internal heaters keep snow and ice from forming on the road. What powers this amazing roadway? Light. Sun, headlamps, anything that produces light that the panels can transform into electricity.  Brilliant! (Pun intended)

Check them out! Solar Roadways

Guasacaca

Brought you from
My Own Kitchen

My husband's family is quite the mix. With Italian and German ancestry and born and raised in Venezuela, the meals that come out of our kitchen are both diverse and delicious. Today I have a recipe for Guasacaca - whose name is derived from the word Aguacate (Avocado).

Ingredients

1 medium onion
2 ripe avocados
1 large red pepper
2 cloves garlic
Fresh Parsley
Fresh Cilantro
3 tbsp Vinegar
1 Lime Juiced
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
1 cup olive oil

Optional:
Hot sauce or jalapeño

Directions

1. Peel and Pitt the avocados, then chop roughly.

2. De-seed the pepper and chop roughly.

3. Peel garlic cloves and onion and chop roughly.

4. Remove stems from Parsley and Cilantro leaves.

5. Put everything except the olive oil into a food processor and blend until mostly smooth. Then slowly start adding the olive oil until completely smooth.

6. Make about an hour before you plan to serve it.

Optional:
7. If you want a chunkier style Guasacaca, then have an extra avocado set aside, peeled, pitted, and cubed. Gently mash in the extra avocado chunks about 5-10 minutes before serving.

This sauce is great for putting on any kind of cooked meat or starchy side dish. 

Happy Birthday Green Earth Organics!

As we approach our Sweet Sixteen this Sunday June 1st, I thought it would be fun to sit down and interrogate, I mean interview, my boss. Company founder, Dan Henry, contrived the idea of an organic grocery delivery service back in 1998 after hearing of similar companies in England. He had already been looking to incorporate his experience working with an environmental group into a viable business and providing people with fresh organic produce while reducing the planet's carbon footprint was the winning combination.

"I wanted to start a business that I could make a living from and feel that I'm contributing to a better planet."

We have changed a lot since those first door-to-door promotions and telephone hot-line bin changes. Technology has made lives easier by providing a website for ordering and email newsletters, reducing paper waste. 100% of our office paper is reused and recycled, but we still look to reduce the need for it at all.

Our biggest change has been our siblings slowly spreading across Canada. "When I started Green Earth I was quite content having a small local company helping our members make healthier food choices for themselves and their families.  In the last couple years I felt I needed a new challenge..." In 2012 we welcomed three British Columbia cities to our banner; Victoria, Sea to Sky, and Fraser Valley. They were followed in late 2013 by our newest and fastest growing sibling in Calgary, Alberta.

"My goal was, and is, to partner with like-minded individuals, show them what I have learned over the past 16 years and support them along the way. So far this has been a great experience and I have met some great people that I now work with."

What can we expect to see from Green Earth Organics in the future? "I plan on improving our website and making it even more user friendly. I also want to expand our product lines. Hopefully, we will also see more Green Earth Organics locations in other cities in Western Canada this year."

Stay tuned next week to meet the rest of your Green Earth Organics team!

Garden Space Saver

Lettuce and Cucumber

Create some extra space in your garden and provide shade at the same time. Make a trellis with a large empty wooden frame and some chicken wire or nylon garden mesh. Attach "legs" to one side so it will lean. Underneath the trellis plant anything that would benefit from partial shade. These include lettuce, spinach, chard, greens, and cooking herbs among others. On the other side of the trellis, grow vine plants like green beans, snow peas, or cucumbers. The leaves from the vine plant will provide the shade for the plants under the trellis.

Make Your Own Organic Pet Food?

Making organic pet food may sound a bit farfetched, but when you think about it, they eat pretty much the same food that we do! So why are we buying food in bags for our pets? Well, convenience for one, there’s the dry food versus wet food preference, and sometimes… our pets are just plain picky eaters and won’t touch anything but “their” special food! Putting all that aside, it sounds fun to try making your own pet food and see how they react. Maybe they hate it, but maybe they love it so much that it will become their new favourite treat!

What are the benefits of making our pet’s food ourselves? Giving your pet organic food has all the same benefits of feeding yourself organic food. There’s nothing artificial in it, which reduces the probability of skin ailments and allergies. There are fewer digestive disorders, since the food is prepared with fresh, easily digestible ingredients and hasn’t been sitting on a shelf for weeks before you even purchased it. Since the ingredients are more easily digested, your pets also absorb more nutrients from them, improving their immune system and giving them more energy overall. You also can control their diet more specifically. If your pet is overweight, you can easily skip adding fat to your ingredients by removing excess fat from meat or using less oil.

Before we get into making the food itself, let’s divert to something more serious note. All pets are different. You wouldn’t feed birdseed to your cat, for example, so make sure that what you are putting into your pets’ food is suitable for their species. Cats can’t digest some grains and veggies properly, so while they’re great for your dog, you do not want them in your cat food. On the flip side of that, dogs like to chew on bones, especially to get the marrow inside, but you wouldn’t grind up bone into their regular food like you would a cat that is built to eat mice whole – bones and all.

Maxi Luna in 1920's Regalia

Dogs are omnivores just like we are, so their food should be comprised of meats, carbohydrates, and veggies. All you need for some great dog food is ground meat, carbs (barley, wheat, or whole grain rice recommended), some veggies, liver, and gizzards (chicken or turkey). Beef is traditional, but if your dog is overweight or exercising less, you might want to try turkey or chicken as leaner options. The liver and gizzards are something canines eat naturally in the wild and provide them with iron, an immune system boost, and enhanced joint mobility. As an added treat, add extra meat to the mixture.

My sister’s dog Maxi, for example, goes crazy over anything with turkey in it. So much so, that we can’t even say the word “turkey” without her going nuts! We have to be sneaky and use other languages to say turkey instead. “Pavo!” “Dinde!”

Basic Dog Food Recipe

1. Cook 1 lb of ground meat in a skillet
2. Use light cooking oil (safflower is a great example, since it is almost flavourless) only if necessary for browning meat and in small amounts
3. Mix the cooked meat with your carb and water in a large pot and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for about 15 minutes, or until your carb is soft and tender.
5. While it is cooking, dice your veggies.
6. Add the veggies to the pot once carb is finished cooking and cook veggies for about 5 to 10 minutes until tender.
7. Allow to cool before serving.
8. You can store extra food in glass jars or in repurposed containers for future meals.
9. Lasts up to 5 days in the fridge or can be frozen as necessary.

Check out more great homemade organic meals and treats:

Dogs: Treats & Meals
Cats: Cat Nutrition
Birds: Parrot Treats & Eats
Rabbits: Easy Homemade Treats & What can a Rabbit Eat? Breakdown
Hamsters: Basic Meal Mix

Infused Simple Syrup

We already add sugar to our lemonade and other drinks all summer, so why not just prepare some great flavours in advance too? I'll be using Mint for my example (great in lemonade and iced tea!) since we have Fresh Mint this week. You can use any herbs, spices or zests for infusing (orange zest & cinnamon). You can also switch it up with brown sugar instead! Have fun experimenting this summer! I found a list online to get you started. Infused Simple Syrup Recipes

Brought you from
My Own Kitchen

Ingredients

1 cup sugar or sweetener
1 cup water
1 cup fresh mint leaves

Funnel

Mesh-wire strainer

Airtight container for storing
-- one that pours easily


Directions

1. Add water to saucepan and put on medium high heat.

2. Stir in sugar/sweetener and mint leaves.

3. Bring to a boil and wait 1 minute or until all sugar is dissolved.

4. Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes.

5. Get container ready with your funnel. (I reuse olive oil bottles and label them with masking tape & sharpie)

6. Pour liquid through a wire-mesh strainer or cheese cloth into container to get rid of leaves.

7. Seal and Chill for 4 hours before adding to drinks.

Can be stored in refrigerator for up to one month.

Gardening with Cooking Waste!

Re-purpose used tea leaves

The next time you steam or boil some veggies, don't just dump the water down the drain! Let the water cool down and then use it to water your plants. The nutrients that have boiled off of your veggies provide great food for them and you'll be amazed at how much more lively they look without needing to buy nutrients or add fertilizers. As an added bonus, save the remains from coffee ground and tea bags to sprinkle across the top soil around azaleas, rhododendrons, camelias, gardenias, and blueberries. All these plants prefer slightly acidic soil, so by spreading the leaves and grounds (about 1/4 inch deep) you'll can adjust the pH of the soil to suit them. HGTV

Cleaning! versus... The KIDS!

Having trouble getting the younger members of the family to contribute to daily chores? Try making them more fun! Make cleaning their room into a timed race with fun prizes for how long it took and how well they did. Keep prizes healthy and fun by offering things like a new box of outdoor chalk or bubbles, camp-out movies on the lawn, swimming/beach trips, picking apples at an orchard in the fall, or ice skating or sledding in the winter.

March Against Monsanto: "This is our mess"

Join us this weekend - Saturday, May 24th!

Monsanto is a company often in the news for its controversial genetically modified crops. Genetic Modification uses enzymes to splice together desirable traits into a seed or plant that would not naturally occur. “March Against Monsanto” is a major international grass roots movement in over 50 countries. I reached out to Victoria, B.C. March organizer, Laura Weileby, to get her views on some of latest issues to hit the news.

"The point of any protest is always to raise awareness. In this instance it’s to bolster awareness of the evil corporation, Monsanto, and the dangers of genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”). The participants of March Against Monsanto want their right to know what’s in their food respected, and GMOs clearly labeled. The global [march] encompasses many objectives, including speaking on behalf of the environment, our bees and butterflies and all living beings unable to speak for themselves, severely at risk from Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide."

Corn, for example, has the highest production of any GMO crop and has been altered to resist both pests and herbicides. One modification causes the corn plant to produce a “dormant” insecticide that only reacts with an alkaline (the opposite of an acid) environment. The human stomach is naturally acidic, so it doesn’t activate the poison. This of course, doesn’t take into account people who have acid reflux and take alkaline medications on a regular basis to lower the acidity level in their stomach. Would taking these medications either before or after consuming GMO corn activate the poison and what effect would that have on the human body over a long period of time?

GMO corn also differs in nutritional value from organic corn. Organic corn has 7 times more manganese, which helps regulate blood sugar, protect against free radical damage, increase skin integrity, and prevents calcium loss from bones. It also has 437 times more calcium than GMO corn! If calcium is being removed from our food, no wonder we have to rely on supplements in our orange juice. GMO corn does contain one substance in greater quantities than organic corn; it contains 200 times the amount of formaldehyde. Yum.

So why aren’t products being labeled as GMO on our shelves? “Everyone has a right to know what they are eating and feeding their families. Health issues abound in the world today. GMO corporations fight labeling to make it difficult to trace these issues back to their product. The only reason acquiring labeling in Canada and the U.S. is such a struggle is because North America is home to the GMO corporate giants. Their roots are here, and they’re strong ones.”

In fact, there are over 64 countries around the world who require mandatory labeling of GMO products and it is up to grass roots organizations like March Against Monsanto to let the government know that we want it too! “Thanks to the internet, ignorance of this situation is weakening and the power of public awareness is slowly kicking in and killing these GMO giants who once thrived on the ignorance of all. This is our mess we let happen. It only makes sense we should have to put in the most effort yanking out the deepest, most prolific roots.”

Recently, Monsanto has also started their foray into more “traditional” methods of crop modification which have been used for thousands of years. Namely, crossbreeding – identifying plants with traits they want to cultivate, cross breeding them with each other, looking for those traits in the offspring, and re-planting from those offspring until those traits show up in 100% of plant offspring.So far they have introduced five new produce items to grocery stores, under unassociated company names of course, with at least two more getting closer to market. So far there are the: Beneforté, Bellafina, Melōränge, EverMild, and the Frescada.

“I don’t care what they sell. I, for one, will always be seeking ways to be more mindful of what my grocery money goes to support, and Monsanto will always remain a company I do not trust.”

Roasted Yam, Quinoa, and Mixed Greens Salad

Featured on Calgary's CTV morning show with our very own Brigitte
Check it out!

Adapted from Eat Yourself Skinny!

Ingredients:

2 medium Yams, peeled and cubed (can also use sweet potatoes)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
1/2 tsp. Oregano
1/2 tsp. Spice Sanctuary's Ground Red Chili Powder
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups mixed greens (Kale is also great for this salad)

Optional:
1/4 cup dried cranberries/raisins/sunflower seeds/whatever you feel like!

Salad Dressing:

2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp. minced shallots
1 1/2 Tbsp honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Rinse and peel yams, chopping them into 1/4 inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, garlic powder, oregano and chili powder until completely coated.

3. Spread out cubes evenly onto a baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes, flipping them once.

4. While the yams are baking, cook the quinoa in a rice cooker (quinoa has the same exact water ratio as rice, so just check your cooker's water requirements and go!). Once quinoa is done, stir to fluff it up and allow it to cool for about 5 minutes.

5. In a large bowl, combine greens and quinoa.

6. Mince your shallots, then in a smaller bowl mix together dressing ingredients and toss with the greens and quinoa

7. Gently fold in the sweet potato cubes, then sprinkle your dried fruit or seeds on top for presentation.

Greenhouse Project

The Manhattan School for Children wanted to give their students a solid foundation in the environmental concerns about living in a big city. So they built a greenhouse science lab on their roof! The idea was that students “grow food, while learning hands-on about nutrition, water resource management, efficient land use, climate change, biodiversity, conservation, contamination, pollution, waste management, and sustainable development.” The project was so successful that there are now 25 labs at schools throughout New York City and their goal is 100 labs by 2020. NYSunWorks

Homemade Pizza by Katherine

Adapted from Katherine's Yummy Mummy recipes.

Ingredients

Dough:

2 tsp dried granulated yeast

3 cups all purpose flour

-- Katherine prefers 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 unbleached flour for a healthier dough

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup water

Plus

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp warm water

Toppings:

(based on one pizza)

1 can pizza sauce

1- 2 cups grated mozzarella and/ or cheddar (or your favourite!) depending how cheesy you like your pizza

Directions

To make the dough by hand, activate the yeast by mixing in a cup with warm water; let sit for a few minutes.

While yeast is activating, combine other ingredients in a bowl

Add yeast & combine well

Roll dough into a large ball; remove from bowl, coat bowl with olive oil & return dough to bowl; cover and allow dough to rise for an hour or so.If making dough in a bread maker, the allotted time allows for the dough to rise

While dough is rising/ in machine, prepare your toppings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

When dough is ready, turn onto a floured surface and roll to approx 1/2" thick; place rolled crust onto baking sheet/ pizza pan

Partially cook pizza crust for 10 minutes, or until just turning golden brown (you may need to pop a few bubbles)

Remove crust from oven; scoop & spread pizza sauce over crust, followed by toppings & cheese

Cook for another 10 minutes, or until crust & cheese is cooked & melted the way you like it!

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Here are some Pizza Topping suggestions to get you started!

  
Deluxe Pizza

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 white onion, diced

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

1 can sliced olives

100gr ham & pepperoni, sliced thin

Hawaiian/ Ham & Pineapple Pizza

100 gr ham, sliced thin

1 can pineapples, diced

BONUS: 100 gr bacon= my fave!!!

  
Vegetarian Pizza

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 white onion, diced

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

1 medium- large tomato, sliced thin

1 can sliced olives

Margherita Pizza

1 medium- large tomato, sliced thin

1 bunch fresh basil, chopped 

(approx 1 cup, unpacked)

Cooking with Your Kids: Make Healthy Food Fun

By Katherine Petrunia

Family life is busy. Making a meal that is convenient and quick is tempting but can sacrifice nutrition. And of course, putting a plate of greens in front of your little ones is often met with objection. So what’s a busy parent to do?

Kids learn by doing; they are also more likely to eat food that they have helped prepare. Healthy homemade meals don’t have to be time- consuming and difficult. A great option that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser is personal pizzas. You can buy pre- made crusts (perfect if you need a gluten- free option) or make your own dough a day ahead and store it in the fridge (use whole wheat flour for an added nutrition boost).

Have your kids help measure & mix ingredients. They will learn about how recipes work; bringing together different ingredients to create something and you can teach them about measuring as you portion out the flour, water, etc. Have your kids suggest toppings, but make sure you include veggies to ensure they don’t just load up on meet & cheese.

If your kids are old enough to help with the chopping, let them contribute; for smaller hands, give them the task of grating pieces of cheese. And everyone will probably enjoy the task of rolling out their own pizza crust (it might be too tempting to resist tossing the dough, just make sure the floor’s clean if they miss on the way down!).
 When the toppings are prepared, have everyone scoop and spread their own sauce and select their toppings. Make it a fun rule that at least one veggie has to be included for each ‘fun’ topping such as pepperoni, ham, or cheese. Have an older sibling or parent give final approval before popping in the oven.

When the pizzas are ready, everyone can enjoy their own or sample pieces made by other family members. This is a great way to make meal time a family event and encourage your youngsters to eat healthier, homemade foods. By starting with a favourite meal item such as pizza, your kids will hopefully be more receptive to trying other healthy options and have an interest in helping with meals.

Other ideas include salads (where everyone can select from a variety of toppings such as seeds, nuts, and diced fruits & veggies), pastas, stir- fry, and kebobs.  These ideas don’t have to be time-consuming and complicated to be healthy: serve up veggie- loaded meals with brown rice or quinoa for an added kick of nutrition and you’re good to go!

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 About the Author

Katherine Petrunia lives in Vancouver, BC and is a proud wife & mama. Some of her passions include healthy recipe creation, DIY projects, writing, and budget- friendly family activities.

 She is focused on living a clean & natural lifestyle by eating as healthy as possible and going chemical free. She combines & writes about these passions in her blog, The Pampered Baby, where she posts recipes & articles focused on families.

Sage and Onion Tear & Share Bread

Adapted from bbc.co.uk
Ingredients

5 oz whole milk, plus extra for glazing
14 oz flour
7g / 1/2 sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 oz butter
1 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
15-20 sage leave, chopped, plus extra for garnish
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat 5 ounces of water and the milk in a saucepan over low heat until lukewarm.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the yeast, sugar, and salt.

Make a well in the centre and stir in the water and milk with a large wooden spoon. Gather into a ball and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover loosely with oiled clingfilm. Leave to ride in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until double in size.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and oil in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the onion and garlic over a very low heat for 10 minutes, or until softened.

Scatter the chopped sage over the onions and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with lots of freshly ground black pepper and set aside to cool.

When the dough has doubled in size, tip it back onto a floured surface and flatten with your hands. Spoon the onion mixtures on top and knead for a couple minutes until evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a little extra flour if it becomes sticky.

Divide the dough into eight balls and shape by pulling the dough from the outside and pushing into the centre. Turn over with the ends underneath. Place the rolls in a circle on a large baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, making sure the dough balls are touching. Cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to proof in a warm place for 45 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Brush the top of each roll lightly with milk and place a small sage leaf on top. Brush with more milk and bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool before serving.

What is Sourdough bread and how is it made?

If you have ever mentioned wanting to visit San Francisco, California, the number one thing people always put on their top 10 list (besides visiting Alcatraz and riding the cable cars) is trying the sourdough bread. Sourdough has been around since at least 1500BCE in Ancient Egypt, when we find the first archaeological evidence and written records, but it is likely much older than that. The true origin story of sourdough has long been lost, but it was likely the first form of leavened bread discovered by pre-historic humans.

Sourdough gets its "sour" flavour from wild yeast, which has a symbiotic relationship with the lactobacilli who produce the lactic acid that gives the bread its unique flavour. Cultivated yeast is used in most other breads. To make sourdough is fairly simple, if time consuming. First you have to create a starter dough, though if you're lucky a neighbour already has some starter and you can just ask for about 4 ounces.

Otherwise, It takes about one week to create a starter dough or “mother dough.” After that, only a couple minutes each day to maintain your starter for baking. In fact, some batches of starter dough are hundreds and hundreds of years old! For some reason, the environmental factors around San Francisco work together to make some of the best tasting sourdough in the world.

People have paid upwards of $600 for batches of sourdough starter from San Francisco and the Klondike areas of Alaska for the “authentic flavor.” Unfortunately, the flavor from any starter dough begins changing the moment you move it to a new location. Climate, altitude, types of wild yeast available, different bacteria, etc… all factor in to the flavour of your sourdough. The longer it spends in a new region, the more it tastes like any other sourdough from that region. It can change flavour as quickly as just a few weeks!

If you’re interested in creating your own starter or “Mother Dough” at home, be aware that it takes at least a week to get to the right state to bake with. Depending on how much humidity or temperature variation there is in your kitchen, it may also take longer. Also, there are three things to always remember when creating sourdough starter:

Use Whole grain flour – the yeasts that create the unique flavor live mostly in the cereal hulls, which are discarded to make refined flour. After your starter is made, you can use any flour you want for the actual bread making.

Acidify the flour medium – by using apple cider or pineapple juice instead of water, the yeast has more food and can grown more quickly. Beer also works well and was one of the original ways to make starter.

Maintain the temperature at approximately 24°C (75°F) – this is the ideal thriving temperature for yeast. If you aren’t able to keep it at this temperature, don’t worry, just get it as close as you can (not too warm or too cold). It may just take a bit longer to get your starter to the baking stage.

I found an Instructable that looks to have some fairly good pictures of the process, but there are tons of sourdough starter recipes and methods online so feel free to experiment with your own methods. My husband prefers using half an onion, but others have used pineapple juice, honey, or even beer to get their starter going.

Hypothyroidism, Salt, and Iodine

Periodic Table - Iodine

The government began adding iodine to salt to prevent Iodine deficiencies over a century ago. This worked great until we started moving towards Sea Salt and other gourmet options for cooking. 

So, suddenly we have iodine deficiency conditions on the rise again, especially for infants whose mothers were already iodine deficient. To combat this, try consuming natural sources of iodine like eggs, navy beans, pinto beans, lima beans, corn, and seaweed or kelp on a more regular basis.