Meat-Free Friday–a winter Smorgasbord!

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This week, I’m sending you to another locale for your meat-free Friday recipes.  Treehugger just posted 10 recipes for eating vegetarian in the winter – perfect!  Enjoy! 

Palm Oil Update

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There’s a fascinating article in Conservation about palm oil, orangutans, and the Melbourne zoo.  Here’s the video they’ve created to encourage Australians to push for food labeling:

This zoo is trying to not only entertain visitors, but also educate them about important conservation issues.  Want to help in the fight against the use of palm oil in popular food products?  (here’s a refresher if you’ve forgotten what it’s about).  The Union of Concerned Scientists is asking folks to share the graphic below to explain the issue to encourage eco-friendly purchasing: 

Share away!

The Winter River Dance

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About a week ago, we had over a foot of snow; then it warmed up and rained.  The temperatures were supposed to hit 60 degrees this weekend, so you can bet our family took advantage of the nice weather to survey our stream – Difficult Run in Great Falls VA.  The water was relatively (but not dangerously) high and running pretty quickly.  It definitely looked muddy, too, so we weren’t really sure what we would find.  We did our “river dance” four times for 60 seconds each.  We danced near the riffles (places where the water is not still and the invertebrates get lots of oxygen).  We danced deep and we danced shallow Unfortunately, all that dancing yielded lots of algae and only 29 invertebrates – we should have seen at least 200!  Our stream earned a score of 8, which means the health of the stream is a bit uncertain at this point -- at least it's not a 4 or 5, like some stretches of the stream we surveyed have been!  The good news is, we saw some creatures that generally like pretty clean water – caddisflies and stoneflies.  Despite dancing into the stream bed nearly 1 foot, we couldn’t find any of the many clams we found last count.  We’re looking forward to counting in warmer weather – who knows what spring will bring!

Remember that you too can “adopt” a stream and monitor for invertebrates.  If you live in Fairfax County VA, contact the Northern VA Soil and Water Conservation District.   Somewhere else in VA?  Contact Virginia Save Our Streams (VASOS).  Not in VA?  Check out the information from the Izaak Walton League of America.  It’s fun and you’ll learn a lot about the health of your local streams!

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Vegetarian Hoppin’ John!

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Here’s what’s for dinner at greenmomster house tonight!

Vegetarian Hoppin’ John

Ingredients
2 15 oz. cans of blackeyed peas, drained
1 small red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 small green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 package vegetarian ham (I like Litelife Smart Deli Baked Ham, but there are many other available brands), chopped into small squares
1 tsp salt (to taste)
2 tblsp olive oil
3 cups cooked brown rice
sour cream
salsa verde

Instructions
1)  Heat olive oil in a pan.  Add green and red pepper and onion; saute until onion is almost translucent.  Add vegetarian ham and saute for about 2 more minutes.
2)  Add blackeyed peas and salt to the vegetable/ham mixture.  Cook for another 10 minutes on low heat.
3)  Serve over rice with sour cream and salsa.

The children are our future–NOT!

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When it comes to environmental issues, I don’t believe “the children are our future.”  We are our children’s future – the decisions we make today determine the environment they’re going to inherit.  Thus, if we’re looking for catch-phrases, I think the one from the Great Law of the Iriquois Confederacy makes more sense, “"In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."  So how’re we doing?

The National Environmental Education Foundation(NAEEF) recently released preliminary results of a national survey on environmental attitudes.  NAEEF plans to use the results of this survey to guide their work in achieving their goal of having 300 million Americans actively using environmental knowledge to ensure the well-being of the Earth and its people by 2022.  Although NAEEF managed to put a positive spin on the preliminary results, I found some of the numbers a bit concerning:

• 77% of adults surveyed turn off a light when leaving a room….
• 54% of adults surveyed look for the energy seal on products….
• 60% of adults surveyed keep up with news about how the environment impacts health…
• 61% of adults visited a park or nature center…

Which means

• 23% of adults surveyed don’t turn off lights when leaving a room.
• 46% of adults surveyed don’t look for the energy seal on products.
• 40% of adults surveyed don’t keep up with news about how the environment impacts health.
• 39% of adults surveyed haven’t visited a park or nature center.

Additionally, the press release reports that

• 21% of the adults surveyed were aware that batteries are recyclable, but found it too difficult to recycle them properly.
• 59% of the adults surveyed considered an environmentally conscious lifestyle to be too much work.
• 61% of the adults surveyed consider an environmentally conscious lifestyle too expensive.

We’ve got some work to do, greenmomsters.  As we well know, kids don’t listen to what we say; they watch what we do.  Time to show them that we’re willing to protect their future!

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Source:
NAEEF Press Release:  New National Survey Findings are Good News for the Environment.  Accessed 2/9/2014 at http://www.neefusa.org/assets/files/Benchmark-Survey-launch.pdf

Still Protecting those Precious Pangolins!

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February 15, 2014 was World Pangolin Day!  This endangered species (photo fromwww.savepangolins.org) is a small (species range from 3 1/2 to 70 lbs), scaly mammal found in southeast Asia and parts of Africa.  Also known as scaly anteaters, pangolins use their thick, strong claws and incredible sense of smell to find their primary food of ants and termites.  They are nocturnal and secretive.   The eight species of pangolins live in many different habitats including forests, thick brush, grasslands, and even cultivated areas.  All eight species of pangolin are protected under national and international law, and two of the species are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.  It’s unclear how long pangolins live in the wild, but they’ve been known to live up to 20 years in captivity.  The major threats to pangolins are habitat loss and illegal hunting for their meat and scales (used in Asian medicine). 

So pangolins live on the other side of the world and we’ve never even seen one – why should greenmomsters give a flying flit about these animals?  Well, other than the fact that they’re incredibly cute, particularly when the young ride around on their mother’s backs near the base of their tails (photo fromwww.savepangolins.org), these species play a vital role in the balance of nature in their ecosystems.  As stated inWildlife Heroes (Scardina and Flocken, 2011), “Pangolins play a critical role in natural insect control, especially ants and termites, saving humans millions of dollars to pest damage and reducing the need for harmful chemical pesticides.  Additionally, pangolin burrows provide shelter for many species, such as rodents and reptiles.”
Want to help with pangolin conservation?  Learn more by joining the Pangolin SSC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/IUCN-SSC-Pangolin-Specialist-Group/279294488845768, or make a donation toward conservation at http://www.pangolinsg.org/.  For more information on pangolins, check out www.savepangolins.org.

Be sure to check out this video from ARKive.org: http://www.arkive.org/ground-pangolin/smutsia-temminckii/video-00.html
Sources:
Pangolin Conservation Support Initiative. 2012. Save Pangolins website. Accessed 10/7/12.www.savepangolins.org.
Pangolin Species Survival Commission. 2012. Pangolin SSC website. Accessed 10/7/12. http://www.pangolinsg.org/
Scardina, J. and J. Flocken. 2011. Wildlife Heroes. Running Press Book Publishers, Philadelphia PA. 264 pp.

Feta and Spinach Frittata

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Here’s another great recipe from Michael Symon’s 5 in 5 – if you haven’t picked up this cookbook yet, you should!  Very easy and very tasty!


Ingredients
2 tblsp butter
4 cups fresh (1 frozen package – be sure to squeeze out excess water) spinach
salt and pepper to taste
8 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat broiler to 450 degrees
2. Heat a large, non-stick, oven-proof skillet on the stove and melt the butter.  Add spinach and salt, stirring until the spinach is wilted.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Add egg mixture to spinach and cook, stirring, until eggs are still a little runny, but starting to firm up.
5. Top with feta (I did half with feta and half without, for our non-feta eaters) and put under broiler for about 2 minutes (allow feta to soften).

Enjoy!