To me, ‘green’ means being aware and more mindful — of our health, the food we eat and how everything we do is not in a vacuum but deeply interconnected, that the way we live our individual lives directly impacts animals, plants, the planet and our relationships with family, community and the world at large. One mindful action a day is indeed being green.
Continue reading... →The busiest election season of the year is coming up… how will you vote?
Yes, I know that the political mid-term elections are already behind us. However, that’s just one type of election: a political one. Every day, you vote many more times with your dollars. You may choose to support large corporations that focus on maximizing shareholder profits; small, independent businesses that are active in their local communities; or any number of other businesses in between. But with each purchase, you are casting a vote in support of that company’s practices.
Continue reading... →This is a souped-up version of the recipe that sparked the idea for my recent book project. One night, a few years ago, my mom (Susan) called me up, asking for advice on what to do with the eggplant and tomato she had picked up from the local farm stand earlier that day. She was hoping to cook something low-fat and yet satisfying for her longtime companion, the original Mister Sausage, who was recovering from a recent heart attack.
Continue reading... →CHICKPEA “CRAB CAKES”
True story: Less than two weeks before the manuscript for my book, The Meatlover’s Meatless Cookbook was due, with most recipes edited and determined fit for public consumption, I pan-fried a batch of my falafel patties for me and my husband, Russ. He took one bite into his falafel-on-a-bun and looked at me with all seriousness. “This falafel looks and eats likes a crab cake.”
He was right. With thirty combined years of living in Washington, D.C.—crab cake central—we could both see that this chickpea patty had Chesapeake potential.
With the wild eyes of a mad scientist, I immediately went to work, replacing Middle Eastern falafel spices with Old Bay, the iconic Maryland seafood seasoning that’s had a cult following for three generations. Out with the tahini, in with a yogurt remoulade and horseradishy cocktail sauce that transport you from the Mid-East to the Mid-Atlantic.
The result: Downright crab-shacky.
Continue reading... →This post is the first in a series which will be followed for the next three weeks with recipes posted every Saturday from Kim’s new book The Meatlover’s Meatless Cookbook. If you have any questions for Kim about green cooking, recipes, or the Meatless Monday campaign please add them below and we’ll include them in a follow-up interview to be posted at the end of the series. Let’s get cooking!
Kim O’Donnel is a pioneer, one of first writers to regularly feature vegetarian dishes when she began her career as a writer for the Washington Post years ago. She embraced the Meatless Mondays movement begun in 2003 and has been promoting the movement through her writing ever since. Kim has given talks everywhere from Politics and Prose to The American Culinary Institute. She’s even helping launch the first Meatless Mondays program in Seattle (where she currently resides) on November 29th of this year. Most recently, Kim has been tapped to write a new bimonthly health column for USA Today.
What exactly is the Meatless Monday Campaign?
Meatless Monday is a New York-based nonprofit initiative in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It started back in 2003 as a way to encourage Americans to reduce their saturated fat intake by 15 percent. The gist: Take one day off from meat for your health – and more recently, for the environment.
Seven years later, this fledgling nonprofit has become a movement of major proportions, with supporters that include Mario Batali, Baltimore City Public Schools, Gwyneth Paltrow and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Continue reading... →Is this India? Mexico? No, it’s Long Beach, California after a rain. It’s what happens when the 51 miles of LA river channel washes whatever is in it into the Queensway Bay in Long Beach. We don’t have to travel to one of the five ocean gyres where plastic swirls and chokes the life out of our marine animals; we can walk on water right here and spend millions cleaning it up. It gives new meaning to, “What a waste…” The screen shot above came via the live stream of the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch conference held in Long Beach, CA organized by the Plastic Pollution Coalition. The actual event had limited seating but anyone could attend virtually via house parties. Hopefully they’ll post the presentations for later replay. As shocking as the above is to look at, the statistics on what we are doing to our oceans and LAND by using single use plastics and then throwing it away are scary. You don’t have to believe in climate change to see that we drastically need to change the way we relate to this pervasive pollutant. A few of the not-so-fun facts from the conference: • Over 2.4 million pounds of plastic are being dumped into our […]
Continue reading... →With the economy in upheaval, Congress reeling, and the environment under continuing assault from Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Agro, it’s sometimes tempting to question – how much good can living green really do The luxuries of enviro-heedless daily American living surround us on all sides…high-tech petro-based cosmetics…sweatshop-manufactured designer clothing…toxin-emitting furniture, carpets, cabinets… mountaintops being exploded into rubble to keep our lights on and our computers running. Even if you’re committed to a green lifestyle, the relentless din of this consumerist world view can get wearing. In the midst of a hectic day, does it really matter that much to the planet if you drive to the 7-11 to pick up a pack of Clorox wipes instead of cycling to the health food store for white vinegar to use with your reusable cloth towels? But there’s a deeper question here – it’s not a matter of harshly enforcing green discipline. Somewhere over the last sixty years or so, our culture has lost the skills…and joy…and value…of living simply, lightly, in balance with the natural world. I took my 86-year-old father to a local Fair Trade coffeehouse and housewares shop awhile back. He browsed through the reclaimed-wood furniture, clay-based paints, […]
Continue reading... →When you start asking moms to promote products that other moms and organizations find troubling and maybe even toxic, you can expect a backlash of conversation. That’s what happened when Johnson and Johnson launched a contest called Big Bubblin Stars, in which the winning video of kids having fun in a bubble bath garners $10,000 in prize money. You didn’t have to buy the J&J products and yet, wouldn’t you? It’s $10,000 after all, and it seems fun and safe enough. But is it? The troubling part for many moms was that the contest promoted the use of products that contained dubious chemistry, shown over time to build up in the little bodies soaking in it. The launch of Bubblin Stars also coincided with a report from the Safe Cosmetics Organization titled No More Toxic Tub. In the bubble bath case, the moms were specifically questioning the use of products containing 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, included in some J&J products. What’s the big deal? Well, according to areport on a site focused on reducing breast cancer, it’s not just in J&J products. As stated in the report: Laboratory tests released today revealed the presence of 1,4-Dioxane in products such as Hello Kitty Bubble Bath, Huggies Baby Wash, Johnson’s Baby Wash, Scooby-Doo Bubble Bath […]
Continue reading... →Sister Courage Wears the Shirt of Action • What makes you angry enough to take action? • What makes you inspired enough to take action? “I love your T-shirt,” chuckled Jenny, my twentysomething personal trainer, as she stretched my aching legs. “I never saw that before.” I hadn’t noticed which of my many message T-shirts I had thrown on when I rolled out of bed before sunrise. Most of the folks who populate New York’s Columbus Circle Equinox gym sport workout clothes that bear designer labels, but seldom do I see any that pack a message punch. I figure my chest is valuable real estate — why not use it to communicate my convictions? I looked down and saw that I’d grabbed one of my favorites: Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History. Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s wry observation became one of the guiding principles of the women’s movement during the 1970s, and living it seems as natural to me now as balance ball crunches do to my lithe trainer. Perhaps because of their delicious candor laced with felicity of expression, these words have become a slogan for boundary-breaking women everywhere. But just because it’s proudly emblazoned on mugs and bumper stickers […]
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