My evolving diet

Through my adulthood my diet has slowly changed for various reasons. I more or less gave up on all pork after getting a bad case of food poisoning from a pork sandwich once. I have cut back on most dairy over the years as a result of my body having difficulty in processing milk and cheese products. I have slowly been eating less and less meat over time for many reasons - first because it was just expensive when I had little money, then because I was really afraid of getting salmonella or some other food born pathogen, after that I became more concerned over the environmental impact that eating meat has and the way the animals are treated, and now I am beginning to realize that when I have a reasonable amount of meat with any given meal I feel really heavy after I'm done (think about how you feel after Thanksgiving dinner or any other really big feast) and sometimes the next day I wake up feeling a little under the weather (as if I am coming down with a cold).

This is how my diet has slowly evolved to being primarily vegetarian and leaning towards vegan for the most part. I must say that this evolution of my diet has had some wonderful effect already. I get sick less often that I used to. I don't feel so heavy or uncomfortable after I eat. I have been losing weight without even trying. I have been eating more and more fresh foods and have even begun to buy more locally produced food. I have also grown to have a big interest in growing my own food. I have also begun to be far more willing to experiment in the kitchen, this has led us to find many new favorite foods. I am also very happy that our 2 and 1/2 year old son loves his fruits and veggies and other healthy foods so much, he will choose a good piece of fruit over a cookie any day.

Planning a garden

I have been starting to plan out our "garden" for a while now, but now that the house is painted and we are getting closer to fencing in our front yard the time to start the labor of planting things is quickly approaching me. I intend to transplant the vast majority of plants that were already on the property when we bought the house. We are hoping to go with an English cottage style garden in the front yard. Basically no grass, just flowers and herbs and things with paths going through the yard. I am still trying to decide on how I want to add a seating area to the front yard - do I want a small patio area in the middle of the yard or would it be better just to have a bench in front of one of the trees or a combination of the two (a patio area right off the tree with a bench and table and chairs).

While I looking up herbs (how tall they get, how far they need to be spaced out, what kind of environment they prefer, etc.) I stumbled upon this great webpage that discusses companion planting. This is of great interest to me because I prefer to keep as organic a gardening atmosphere as possible and knowing what to plant next to what to help control pests is very useful information. I was really excited to see that I can help deter aphids by planting garlic next to my roses. This was super exciting to me because last year I had a huge infestation of aphids in the rose garden at the house we were renting and the house we bought has several rose bushes as well. If you don't know what aphids are you are really lucky cause they are so disgusting to have all over your rose bushes. I saw them on pretty much every rose bush in town last year so I really hope that planting garlic with my rose bushes keeps those nasty aphids away.

Here is a link to the webpage I stumbled across on companion planting: http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/complant.htm

The house is painted

We are so happy with the results of having our house painted. The painters did an excellent job. We already had one neighbor request a business card from our painter and another one asked me what we paid for all the work. I know several other houses in the area could use a fresh coat of paint like our house just got. For us it was as much about maintenance as it was about aesthetics. Some of the wood trim on our house had no paint left on it and was beginning to warp due to exposure to all the elements. Hopefully we caught it early enough not to have any bigger problems where the wood had been so exposed.

Greener Laundry

We have a rather unique way of doing laundry in our house. We have a single unit that is a washer and a dryer in the same unit, no it is not a standard item in stores so we had to special order it. One of the great things about the washer dryer we got is that it also has a delay timer on it so we can set it to do our laundry while we sleep which then allows us to conveniently use off-peak electricity to do our laundry. Of course to further increase our savings I hang some of our things to air dry on racks in the house and in the summer I love to hang the clothes outside to dry.

One of the odd things with our washer is that if I am going to use the dryer to dry my clothes I can only put in a half load of laundry (luckily half of a huge load is still a very large load) and set my washing machine to do a wash and dry. Of course since we have both the washer and dryer in one unit it takes a while for the clothes to dry because it runs on 110-volts of electricity, but since we run it while we are asleep anyhow it really doesn't matter to us that it takes longer. Our washer is also very water and energy efficient so we qualified for rebates from our water and electric companies when we purchased it. The rebates helped to make the washer a little more affordable. I also love how clean our clothes get in our new washer. I only use about half of a portion of detergent (I then split that between the regular wash cycle and prewash cycle) about half a portion of softener and some OxyClean. That gets almost all of my very rambunctious two and a half year old's stains out of his clothes, no pre treating or stain sticks or anything.

Go Green Expo - L.A.

Business-to-Business Expo
Friday, January 22, 2010 • 10am - 5pm

Open to Public
Saturday, January 23, 2010 • 10am - 6pm
Sunday, January 24, 2010 • 10am - 5pm

The Los Angeles Convention Center
1201 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
www.lacclink.com

THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER IS THE FIRST CONVENTION CENTER IN THE U.S. OF ITS SIZE AND AGE AND THE FIRST L.A. CITY BUILDING TO BE AWARDED LEED® GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATION FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS BY THE USGBC

Tickets:
Friday: Complimentary to Business Buyers (please bring your business card for admission)
Saturday & Sunday: $10 for a full weekend pass / open to both business buyers & consumers.


for more information: http://www.gogreenexpo.com/events/index.php?evid=13

Vintage finds

Shopping vintage is one of the greenest ways to find some stylish clothes and accessories. It is also much kinder on the pocketbook than those big department stores and those cute boutique shops. At $14 for the red suede heels and $10 for the sequined and beaded blue flats you really can't do better, especially since the red heels are the most comfortable heels I have ever worn - even more comfortable than the Easy Spirit Spa's that I used to own. I really love the satisfaction I get from finding a great and stylish bargain that I will be able to love for sometime, I try to only buy items I truly love and enjoy.

DIY - tiered serving tray

With one dozen cupcakes for our little New Years get together last night I was left wondering how to serve them up in style. I decided on creating my own tiered serving tray to display them, I figured that adding a little height to my cupcake display would make them look more stylish. How did I make a tiered serving tray at the last minute you may wonder. It was actually very simple. I took one full sized dinner plate placed a coffee/tea cup in the center of the plate upside down, then I placed my dessert plate on top of the coffee/tea cup as to balance the plate. Then I just added the cupcakes to the plates. Next time I do this to display my cupcakes I may try adding some museum putty to help hold all the pieces together. Of course you could get some flea market finds or even use some chipped dishes and permanently bond them together to make a tiered serving tray.