A Hairy Situation

Since last I wrote, I have decided I am through with shampoo and conditioner. Those products shall not occupy my grocery list anymore. It just started to seem like a big waste. Bottles and the chemicals and transport and money and everything.

So I started to look up how to make one's own shampoo. I found lots of information. One of the more repeated recipes involved baking soda and apple cider vinegar. But some involved eggs or bananas or even mayonnaise.

When I finally got around to experimenting, I put in baking soda, oatmeal, vanilla and thyme (which is supposed to be good for dry or coarse hair and since I have thick, curly hair I figured I'd toss in a bit). It smelled like one of those Milk 'n Cereal bars. Everything was fine except that the oatmeal was not as fine ground as maybe it ought to have been.

Then I tried like a conditioner-type rinse with bananas and strawberries, which didn't turn out as well. The strawberry seeds didn't want to come out of my hair, so I ended up with little seeds in my hair afterward.

Overall though I liked the effect. It felt better than when I washed with store bought shampoo. I didn't have to wash my hair again for several days too. Then when I finally did I just used baking soda and vanilla. Smells good. I think my curls are better too, but that may be because I've started combing my hair with a wide toothed comb when it's wet.

So long Simply Orange

Plastic bottles. I think that will be my Earth Day Resolution. No more plastic bottles.

Well, sort of. If it winds up no more plastic bottles then so be it, but basically I plan to cut down the amount of plastic bottled products I buy. Which means, bye-bye to Simply Orange.

Even though I love the stuff I will distance myself from it. Instead I will trade the juice for actual oranges, preferably local, which reminds me the ASU Farmer's Market will be opening soon. Exciting!

For some reason though, my Earth Day resolution seems incomplete...

Maybe I will figure something out.

Earth Day Resolutions

Earth Day is coming up and I am super excited. April 22nd folks mark your calendars.

I think that this is a very under-appreciated holiday. Most people don't even bother to remember it and others recognize it with the blanket Plant-a-tree events.

Don't get me wrong, planting a tree is good, but why not go for something more radical, something longer lasting. Like a new year's resolution. I will update what my Earth Day promise will be soon. I hope it's a good one. :)

Handy and Dandy

So we survived the winter blast, ice storm 2009, whatever you want to call it.

It was crazy how many people were out and about Thursday after the roads had cleared up. I had to go out and get ice for the fridge since the power outage was causing the food in the fridge to thaw.

First stop: Kroger. It was closed.
Second stop: Wal-Mart. It was a mad house. Didn't even try to find a parking space.
Third stop: Target. Yay it was open and not that packed. So we went in to look for ice and flashlights. It's kind of hard to find stuff in the dark. Who knew?

No ice. Bummer. But we did find some flashlights. And neat ones too. There were solar powered flashlights, flashlights that floated, flashlights that floated and turned on when wet. We decided to get a little one that you had to crank on. No batteries! There were some other ones like the one we bought that also had a cell phone charger plug in like in cars. How nifty.

I feel liberated by my flashlight. I no longer have to find batteries! The light is powered by me. I have the power! Okay enough of that. Calming down.

I think for one thing that this is a great way to cut down on waste--batteries. Even with rechargeable batteries, you lose them or they somehow fail. Then you replace them and the cycle begins again. And batteries cost a lot, too. So you save money too.

I am happy with my flashlight.

Recycle, reduce, reuse and renew

It's a new year and time to begin a rejuvenation, a renewal if you will in how we see "the green movement."

In an article by another student journalist, she expressed her opinion that individual action is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things when it comes to pushing the green issue. She says that action on the part of government is where results will be seen.

She's right. In part.

It's true that how governments decide to handle the environmental issues and global warming will greatly affect the outcome. Without government support it would be hard to make lasting progress.

But on the other hand, individual people can make a difference too. By this I mean individuals as part of the whole of society. One person can influence another person who can influence two people who can...do you see where I am going with this? With a vast amount of people of a similar mindset changing from the old ways of thinking to the new, businesses will have to change to meet the demands of the public, government ruled by the people will have to listen to those people, people will have to listen to each other.

So while merchandising the green movement so that you can buy a "green" shirt made in China of materials grown using nasty pesticides and child labor that is then shipped overseas all because it says "I recycle" is not progressive. Alternatives that endeavor to be more responsible and renewable are.

So in this new year I will endeavor to be more responsible with the way I live, choosing renewable and recyclable instead of disposable, opting for goods made in good and accountable manner, and by reducing my consumption of those goods.

"Carbon dioxide levels already a danger"

So here is a link to a CNN article I read earlier today about global warming and the current dangerous levels of CO2:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/21/climate.danger.zone/index.html?iref=newssearch

Basically a group of international scientists, from the United States, United Kingdom, and France got together and put together a report, "Target Atmospheric CO₂: Where Should Humanity Aim?," which appears in the latest edition of the Open Atmosphere Science Journal.

These scientists say that in order to prevent "catastrophic changes," we must push to reduce CO2 emissions and not just stop them from increasing.

As the situation currently stands, with concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere increasing about 2 parts per million per year, we could see an expansion of desertification, food shortages, increased storm intensities, loss of coral reefs, and the disappearance of mountain glaciers.

This means that with more deserts there is less area to grow food, worsening the food shortage we currently face. Seriously, in the last edition of The Herald the Fast Feed included an article, "NABSW students ask for support for displaced Haitian people," and in the article it was stated that they eat mud cookies because they have no food or means to get food. Essentially they are eating flat "cookies" made from flour, water and mud. And they are probably not the only ones.

These people have been affected by four hurricanes in the time between May and October. If the scientists hypothesis about CO2 levels and their repercussions are right then these storms are only going to get worse.

Not only all of that but hundreds of millions of people could see their water supply diminish in a time when water is already short.

So what can be done to change this?

For one thing, the article states that by instituting reforestation programs on degraded land and widespread use of natural fertilizers could help bring CO2 levels by about 50 parts per million.

I think that other measures are called for as well.

For one thing we need to get off the oil addiction. We also need to raise the standards of fuel economy. When we can have cars that get 40 miles to the gallon and better, why not make it the standard?

We need to reduce the amount of meat we eat as well as just reduce the overall amount we eat. Many of us in the United States are overweight and out of shape. We can do with trimming a little food from our diet.

We also need to look into rooftop gardens and other programs like it to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the amount of cooling that buildings must do in the summer.

There is so much that can be done we just have to do it. We need to stop letting the bottom line cross the line of how we should live.

Vegetarian dish

Matt and I added a new vegetarian dish to our cuisine repertoire.

The other night we decided to be adventurous and try something new with a vegetable we had previously not cooked with, eggplant. I know that some people would turn up their nose at eggplant or not even know what it is. Frankly, I like it and think the dish turned out delicious.

We looked up recipes on allrecipes.com and found one for Awesome Egglplant Rollatine submitted by DEBNJAMES. We tweaked the recipe a bit to make it our own, instead of rolling it we layered it like lasagna.

I copied it below if you are interested.

INGREDIENTS

4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons garlic powder, divided
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable oil for frying
2 large eggplant, peeled and sliced
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 (28 ounce) jar tomato pasta sauce, divided

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  
• In a shallow mixing bowl combine 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. In a separate, shallow dish or plate, pour the flour.
• Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Dredge eggplant slices in flour, then in egg mixture and fry slices 2 or 3 at a time in hot oil. Place fried slices on a paper towel lined plate to drain.
• In a large bowl combine ricotta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, remaining 1 cup Parmesan, remaining 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 egg, parsley and spinach; mix well.
• Spread about 1/3 of the pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Place about 2 tablespoons of spinach mixture in the center of each eggplant slice and roll securely; place in prepared pan. Pour remaining pasta sauce over eggplant rolls and top with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.