So I decided to take the veggie burger plunge and use my humble cooking “skills” to craft a mouth-watering black bean burger. But first, an eco-footnote…

It takes a LOT more resources to get a pound of hamburger meat than to make a vegetarian bean burger. GoVeg (a completely unbiased website) had this to say on the matter…

It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.

Gadzooks! Even if those numbers are skewed some, getting meat uses a heck of a lot of water.

Alright, enough with the eco-footprint lesson. Moving on to the…

Black Bean Burger Recipe

This simple veggie burger recipe (which makes 4 servings) calls for…

• 2 peppers (jalapeño, cayenne, or banana)
• About 8 teaspoons of olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 shallots
• 2 cups of cooked, drained black beans (a 29oz. can is a just about right)
• 2/3 cup quick-cooking oats
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Chop up the peppers (I used homegrown cayennes and banana peppers), shallots, and garlic. Use scissors for that extra manly touch.

Sauté the chopped-up peppers, garlic, and shallots in olive oil for about 5 minutes.

Put the fried vittles in a bowl, along with the black beans, mayonnaise, oregano, and salt n’ pepa.

Heck, while you’re at it, add the oats, as well.

Mash all the ingredients together with all your might. Take out your inner rage on that mashing. Make those ingredients pay.

Refrigerate the ingredients for about half an hour. Take this time to reflect on your day.

Alright, now form patties with this bean glop. Put some olive oil in a pan and gently place those veggie burger patties in said pan.

Fry them for about 5 minutes on each side. They should look a little something like this:

Congratulations, you’ve just made homemade black bean burgers! Put the veggie burger on a bun and move it toward your mouth.

Final Thoughts

The black bean burger was good, but didn’t taste anything close to a hamburger. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t have that special cow flavor.

If you have a better recipe for veggie burgers, feel free as a bird to let me know and I’ll try it out.

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Holy moly, it doesn’t seem that long ago that I last hosted the Carnival of the Green, but it’s been almost a year! Truly, time waits for no man. Just last week, Eco New Mexico hosted the Carnival, and next week it is moving on to good ol’ Enviroblog.

But enough talk of time and such; let’s take a look-see at this week’s Carnival of the Green submissions:

Health

Surbhi brings the ruckus with this in-depth look at natural ways to stay healthy.

The venerable Fake Plastic Fish continues her one-woman war against plastic with a shocking exposé on a nasty chewing gum ingredient: plastic. After reading that, I think I’ll steer clear of gum for awhile and maybe check out Glee gum, made from natural chicle.

Gracy Queen wins the award for best blog post title, with her piece on vegan food choices entitled, I Can’t Has Cheezburger. I, myself, am not a vegan, but if you’re gonna be, here’s some good tips on what to eat.

Jourdan asks if being “green” makes you feel stressed out, and breaks it down to the basics to show that you can make some small, simple changes to be greener.

Climate Change

Dr. Kneidel exposes the plight of the noble trees, brought about by recent climate change.

Green Linguistics

Colin Doyle is trying to export a linguistic gem from Australia; calling fossil fuel energy “black energy“. It might make it a lil’ easier to have talks about green vs. black energy.

Beverly decides to make a New Year’s resolution to “grab a tiger by the tail” and go green. However, she then delves into what exactly this mysterious saying means.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The aptly named Mrs. Green contributes 11 ideas on how to reuse coffee grounds. I’ll be using some of her tips, since I do enjoy the occasional coffee.

Stuff With A Purpose has some good tips on how to reuse plastic bags. The best thing to do is avoid them altogether, but barring that, he has some good ways to reuse them.

A shorty named Renee that I met one day has some good tips for how to compost during these frigid winter months. Since my current compost bin is overflowing, I plan on using some of her advice to figure out what to do.

Do It Yourself

Emily Moser, of the strangely named Becoming A Radiologist website, has listed some good resources for making some homemade soap.

Around the House

Brenda Pike got herself a Kill-A-Watt (I got one of these a year ago and it’s great!) and ran around her house measuring how much electricity various appliances used. Very interesting, and it convinced me to fully turn off my Wii instead of putting it into standby with the Wiimote.

Stacey Doyle decides to look at some easy ways to live in a more eco-friendly way.

Case examines the pros and cons of compact fluorescent light bulbs, including examining just how green these CFLs are.

Mark Donovan show us some easy yet effective ways to reduce your home’s ecological footprint while also saving money. Sounds like my kind of post, if you know what I mean.

Pure Natural Diva has some general tips on how to go green for today’s on-the-go diva.

Transportation

Vihar tells the world of how St. Louis has opted for a tiny tax increase to help fund its public transportation system. Kudos to Vihar for breaking this story.

Phew! Welp, that about does it for this week’s Carnival of the Green. Hopefully we all laughed a little, cried a little, and, just maybe, learned a little. I leave you with the Top 5 EcoJoes Posts of 2009:

• How to Make Homemade Cat Litter from Newspaper
• Homemade Granola Recipe
• How to Clean Up Litter in Under Five Minutes
• How to Make Homemade Paper
• Art from Litter: Glass Creatures

Happy Carnival!

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Each sticker is 3″x5″, and reminds you to feel your boobies. I guess it’s for breast cancer prevention, but there are other good reasons to do this regularly.

So click THIS LINK ROTCH HUR to get a free “Feel Your Boobies” sticker now! Offer only valid this week.

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Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Let us begin with the pumpkin pie recipe. Now I’m not talking about pumpkins from a can, or frozen pre-made pumpkin pies. No. I’m talkin’ ’bout some made-from-scratch, down-home, honest-to-goodness, homemade pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin Pie Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg
• one half teaspoon ground ginger
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups stewed pumpkin, mashed
• 12oz of evaporated milk

Here’s whatchu do:
* Find a pumpkin (a jack o’ lantern will do). After appropriately mourning its brutal death, collect all the parts that were cut out (eyes, nose, mouth, the works).
* Skin these pumpkin pieces, and cut them into “manageable chunk” size.
* Boil these in a microwave or on the stove until you can easily push a fork through them.

* Mash up the boiled pumpkin.
* Add condensed milk, sugar, eggs, and spices.
* Dump it all into a pie crust (filling to about 1/4″ below the top).
* Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes, then bake for about 50 minutes at 350. You can tell it’s done if you stick a knife in it and it comes out pretty clean.

* Let cool on rack
* Eat the delicious pie made from the flesh of the defenseless pumpkins, or you can wrap it up using some reused foil from a restaurant, like so:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

* When you clean out a pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern, save the seeds.
* Rinse the seeds, removing any of that orange, stringy mess.

* Add a wee bit o’ oil, some salt, and any other flavors you want (hot sauce, honey, curry).
* Bake at 275 degrees for 10-20 minutes (until they’re golden brown), stirring the seeds when they’re halfway done.

* Congratulations, you have now made a delicious and nutritious snack from the guts of a freshly killed pumpkin. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

These are great ways to use every part of the pumpkin, much like the Indians (these Indians, not these) used every part of the buffalo. Let me know if y’all know any other good pumpkin recipes. Thankee kindly.
Also, it is not too late to enter the free giveaway contest!! Click here for some details.

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Yes, and you don’t even have to pay a cent. For I bring to you a free sample of an ozone test kit. You can use it in your humble abode to test your air. If there’s a dangerous amount of ozone, you will see a lil’ pink circle, and you can hold your breath and sprint safely outside to the clean, outdoors air.

TO GET THE FREE SAMPLE CLICK HERE, OKAY?

I admit, this is not be the most exact test, but it’ll give you a basic idea of whether you should do further air quality testing or nay. It’s a free way to see if your air is ozone-free, so please, click the above link and get your very own free test today.

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Here’s the plethora of nutritious vittles that greeted me when I tore open the box. Please note the insulating lining that keeps the produce nice n’ cold.

• 3 big yellow peaches from NC
• Pint of grape tomatoes (NC)
• 2 slicing cucumbers (NC)
• 2 big eggplants (NC)
• 6 red dale potatoes (NC)
• and from California, a ginormous bag of red seedless grapes

Since I opened the box, I’ve tried all of the foods and have only an eggplant and some grape tomatoes left. It was dang good, with no messed up fruit or vegetables. The grapes and peaches were especially good. I’m about to finish up the eggplant and tomaters tomorrow.

Oh yeah, they reuse their insulated boxes. Each week, you put them outside on your doorstep, and they pick them up when they bring your new vegetables. A simple, efficient, non-wasteful system.

Anyhoo, if you live close to Raleigh, you should go check them out. Their website explains how you can start getting local, organic food delivered to your house this week. The best thing about it is that it encourages you to try some new healthy foods, plus support yo’ local farmers, all without leaving the comforting womb of your own home.

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“Youch, my dry, scaly feet!” Have you said/thought this recently? Do you fancy that people make fun of your ashy, crackly, grotesquely dry feet? Dry your tears, for I am about to solve your problem…

Simply CLICK HERE to gechoself a completely free sample of organic foot cream from Gilden Tree! Here is what they have to say about their (apparently) wonderful cream:

Our Nourishing Foot Cream is an organic, aloe-based formula that’s intensely moisturizing and softening. It nurtures feet naturally and we think it’s the best foot cream made.

Well hot dang, if that didn’t convince you to try it, then nothing will. I’m looking forward to rubbing a whole bunch of free organic foot cream all over my feet, wahoo.

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Make Your Own Protein Bars

Thanks to Krista’s protein bar recipe, I was able to make some protein bars of my own. Follow along with this picture essay, and you will learn the secrets of how to make some cheap, homemade protein bars.Here are the ingredients. If you want to use some eco-friendly protein powder, or organic bananas, or what have you, then by all means do. I opted for the cheapest ingredients for this demonstration.

• Banana
• Whey protein
• Oats
• Peanut butter
• Raw Peanuts (optional)

The whey protein, oats, and peanut butter will be in a 1:1:1 ratio. As for the nanner, I just used one. Measure out your oats.Grind up them oats in a blender or food processor. Sadly, I have no food processor, so I was forced to use this blurry blender to make some oat flour.Voíla. You should now have some oat flour. Mix the oat flour with your whey protein powder, using a 1:1 ratio. Hopefully it’ll look like this:Plop some peanut butter down into the oat flour, and try your best to mix it in. Since I used a cup of oats, I’m using a cup of peanut butter also (remember the 1:1:1 ratio).Go ahead and blend up that nanner. If you want to save some electricity, you may mash the banana by hand or foot.Mix the mashed banana into the whey protein powder/oat flour/peanut butter mix. Here I had to use a fork AND spoon to mix this all together.Wash yo’ hands, because it’s about to get messy up in hur. Lay some wax paper down in a pan, like so, and begin spreading your mixture onto it:Pat it down, hit it with a fork, whatever it takes, until you have a good, (sort of) even layer:You can stop here if you want, or you can take it one step further if you dare. I dared, so I pushed some raw peanuts into the protein bar batter to give it some extra *crunch*.Put this bad boy into your freezer for a few hours. Wait ’til it gets nice and cold and firm, then take it out. It is now time for the FINAL PROCESSING. Slice your frozen square of mess into homemade protein bars. I used a pizza cutter and it worked like a charm.When you’re done, you can wrap the protein bars individually, using that same wax paper, or just put them in a tupperware container. Either way, put them in the freezer when you’re done.Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of some cheap, homemade protein bars. Remember, you can customize the taste (with cinnamon, honey, cocaine, etc.), so if they taste like crap, then change it up.EDIT:  Taste – My first bite was no good, but either they got better with time, or the taste grew on me.  It tastes like peanut butter, with some graininess.  Next time I might add in some other flavors…

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Bag Lunches Are Healthier

Many restaurants offer lunches with tons of meat and grease. There is nothing wrong with this occasionally. But when fast food starts becoming your normal lunch, your health will take a hurting. When you pack your own lunch, you can put in tons of vegetables, fruits, and other such healthy mess. Remember: packing your own lunch = getting your own six-pack.

Save Money

Unless you want to “take all of your money [and] give it up to charity”, you probably want more money. Packing your lunch is a great way to save money. Instead of spending $6-$10 on lunch, you can spend way less than that by packing yourself a sandwich and some fruit and vegetables. Plus, you will be saving money on gas, which brings means that you can also

Help the Environment

That’s right folks, by bringing a bag lunch, you will not only be getting healthier and saving money, you will be helping out Mother Earth. Less driving = less gas = less pollution. Plus, if you pack your lunch in a reusable bag, you’ll be cutting down on your waste.

So there you have it. If you want to save money, help Captain Planet, AND stay healthy, just pack yourself a bag lunch and bah-bam, you are achieving all three of those goals. So go home tonight and try it, and you’ll thank yourself tomorrow at lunchtime (unless you made a really bad lunch).

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