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Egg salad is in my list of top 10 favourite foods, easily. But I have it so often that sometimes it needs just a little extra… something, you know? Next time you’re craving egg salad, give this recipe a try! It adds some ingredients that you may never have thought of using like tomatoes, avocado, and cabbage! Afraid? You’ll never know how good it is until you try it, right? Just trust me!

• 3 hard boiled eggs, sliced and chopped with an egg slicer
• 2 tablespoons organic mayonnaise
• 1/2 small shallot minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh basil
• 6-8 cherry tomatoes, sliced into quarters
• 1/2 of an avocado, seeded and sliced thin
• 1 cup thinly sliced red and or green cabbage
• Salt (preferably kosher or sea salt)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Combine eggs, mayonnaise, shallot and basil in a bowl and salt and pepper to taste. Add sliced tomatoes and stir to combine.
2. Place 1/2 cup of cabbage in the center of two plates. Lay avocado slices across the top of the cabbage. Top with egg salad and serve.

I’m a blender addict. I’ll admit it, I’m not ashamed. If it can fit into my blender, I will puree it and pour it over ice. Okay, so maybe not, like, turkey and stuffing and potatoes (wait… maybe) but more like fresh fruit and veggies, ice cream, sherbet, or – like yesterday – pink lemonade and fresh red strawberries. Mmmm.

Here’s a drink that I personally love. I know so many people that don’t share my love of apple juice, but I tell ya – they’re missing out!

• 1/2 orange peeled, leave on white bitter parts. Trust me.
• 2 green apples, seeded
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 tablespoon brewers yeast
• orange slice for garnish Juice the orange and apple.

Place juice, banana, and yeast in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. Garnish with orange slice. Drink on a warm, sunny balcony (preferred).

This recipe has been provided by Hillary (Ottawa, On) who says:

“Hi Bambi, Love your site! Here’s a recipe for delicious carrot/ginger soup that you can use for your organic recipe day. Making fresh, delicious food at home is so much better than store bought/packaged dinners. This soup has always been a favourite of my guests and I’m sure that your readers will love it. I know I do!! Thank you for sharing your recipes. It helps to let people know that making food at home is not as much work ast they think it will be. And so much better for you when you know what’s going into your food! PS – Be sure to emphasize the lime zest, it’s just not the same without it.”

Thanks so much Hillary! You are absolutely right — I have always preferred to make my food at home. I love to cook! And with my allergies/intolerance of so many ingredients, I’m much happier to make things myself. That way I know what’s in the food I’m putting into my body!

Hillary’s Carrot Ginger Soup

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After writing about The Smoggies last week, I started looking for ways to watch a couple episodes online as I don’t think I’ve even seen an episode of The Smoggies in 20 years. Turns out YouTube has most of the episodes!

In seeing it again, there are a few things that I’ve noticed:

1. Whoa… The Smurfs? The Carebears? Sooo similar. I guess, when you find an efficient model for reaching children, why not!
2. Every episode seems to have the same style of eco moment “What will you do with the rest?” “Dump it in the sea!” “Those walruses are in mortal danger!” It’s great – very straightforward but the voices are so kid-friendly and the images used are so to-the-point that they’re sure to understand the message.
3. Those Suntots are some cheerful, helpful little dudes.

Growing up, my family wasn’t too concerned with the environment — I mean, it’s not that we had a hate for it or anything, we were just… indifferent, I suppose.

In talking to my mom about it yesterday, she said that the reason we weren’t a more eco-friendly family was because of financial reasons rather than moral ones. We lived in a very small town. The grocery store was accordingly small — the type where broccoli only came in one variety — broccoli… nevermind organic. We were lucky to have a choice between 2 or maybe 3 varieties of apples, though still no organic ones.

Thinking about this kind of amazes me though, as the town was a farming town.

Now here’s what Gwyneth Paltrow’s upbringing was like — nearly the opposite of mine (not that I thought my childhood would be at all similar to Gwyneth Paltrow’s, heh).

“My mom has always been conscious of the environment and health issues. When I was growing up, we would go to farmers’ markets and even had wheatgrass in the kitchen. She started a curbside recycling program in Santa Monica, CA, in the seventies, and each week I drove with her to the recycling center.

Keep reading Gwyneth Paltrow on her super-eco-friendly childhood:

This was just too cute and funny not to post.

Travelocity (from whom I get regular emails that I usually have to dig out of my spam folder – grr!) are using these EcoBunnies to spread the word about the effects of carbon emissions on the environment and encourage people to offset those emissions whenever they can.

Check out the video — I love the voice acting. I’ve always been a fan of taking fuzzy and adorable cartoon characters and giving them non-cartoon voices. And hey, you might just learn something too.

Want more? There’s also this one — all about becoming an EcoBunny yourself: “Bring it!”

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild their entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Unbelievable!

Recycling anything is good for the planet, but recycling aluminum is great for the planet. Why? Because aluminum is one resource that can be recycled again and again without wearing out.

Remember — recycle those cans! But first, make sure to follow these handy steps:

• Rinse and place aluminum/tin cans, caps, lids and foil in the same recycle bin.
• Avoid recycling spray cans or cans containing paint or hazardous materials. Contact your local recycling program or city hall to learn where these can be recycled.
• Get in touch with the local buy-back center if you live in an area with bottle/can deposits and plan to drop off a large number of aluminum cans for cash.

Why don’t we have compost bins alongside our blue and black boxes in Ottawa? I’ve wondered this for the last few months or so as I’d heard that places like Toronto, Montreal, Durham, and Markham all have Green Bin programs.  Much of the household waste that is presently going into the landfill is a resource that is compostable and can be converted into a soil-enriching product. These organic wastes include meat, fish, bones, fruits, vegetables, greasy pizza boxes, and more.

Markham, I learned, began its Green Bin collection program as part of its “Mission Green” in the fall of 2004 with implementation to 12,500 single-family residences. “Mission Green” is Markham’s plan to divert 70% of its waste from landfill.  Sounds amazing — so why doesn’t Ottawa do any of this? I decided to investigate a bit.

It turns out that in October 2001, the City of Ottawa did in fact launch a curbside organic collection pilot program called “Compost Plus” – in four city wards. These wards include nine neighbourhoods, each comprised of approximately 550 residents, allowing the City to receive feedback from more than 5,000 residents.

But what happened to the program? This is what the City of Ottawa website has to say on the matter:

During the pilot program, participants are being asked to test different containers and collection frequencies to help the City assess public acceptance, costs, diversion rates and operational concerns, as part of a study to determine if and how a permanent Compost Plus program could be implemented in the City of Ottawa.

Wait, wasn’t that 2001? So… will it be implemented? That was 8 years ago already! Well, after some digging around on the City’s site, I found this:

Starting in late 2009 over 240,000 homes in the City of Ottawa will begin to receive a new Green Bin. Residents will place kitchen scraps such as vegetable, fruits, meat, fish, bones, dairy products, coffee grounds and filters as well as other organic household materials in the bin to be collected. The material will be processed into a nutrient-rich compost. With your help we will be feeding the land and not the landfill.

Excellent! Finally! So tell me, Ottawa, what are your thoughts on this? I, for one, am excited. Who would have ever thought I’d be this excited about compost?

[via]

“These ideas were all inspiring to read and it was difficult to choose between them. I was particularly glad to see that so many focused on how to educate and engage young people in changing our basic approach to how we live and on training people to think sustainably so they will carry the lessons and come up with their own ideas. This was my main criteria in selecting the winners. Simple individual actions are important and inspiring, but clearly we need a radical re-education of our society to effect change at the speed we need it.”

– Edward Norton

Hunky and adorable Ed (okay, okay — that’s not his official title) is talking about the winners of The Green Effect, which is a contest where 5 winning green ideas received a whopping $20K in funding!

To see the winners of The Green Effect, please jump here.

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Okay, so maybe this isn’t exactly a DIY — but this site is definitely worth promoting in my Ottawa spotlight!

DIY Ottawa has a mission:

The objectives of this group is to provide real citizen input into planning and management of our city by letting smart people solve problems.

It’s as simple as that. What makes them fit into my Ottawa eco spotlight? Well, it may be a bit of a stretch, but I think the potential fit is one worth noting: Their entire goal is to inspire citizens to fix the city around them! That’s a very good start.

They encourage change of all kinds. The site itself posts regularly about initiatives in the Ottawa area, such as FixMyStreet.ca – a site that allows people to file problem reports on things in their neighbourhood they’d like to see fixed: potholes, bad lighting, or unsafe pathways.

Kudos to DIY Ottawa! Check out their website for more information.