If you’re like me, you’d rather use a reusable cloth bag for grocery shopping instead of them flimsy plastic bags. You can fit a lot more in a cloth bag, it helps the environment, PLUS some stores reward you for using cloth tote bags. But who can afford to buy a reusable bag these days, what with the economy and hard times and all?

Fret not, for THIS LINK will lead you to a free reusable cloth bag. That’s right, just click it, fill in some form, and bah-bam, you’ll be well on your way to living a greener life, all for the low cost of zero. Act now, supplies are limited!

Halloween. The very name sends tears streaming down any Eco-Hero‘s face as they contemplate the mass murder of millions of innocent pumpkins. But fret not. Out of this pumpkin massacre, some good can come. And that good is known as roasted pumpkin seeds and homemade pumpkin pie.

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.

Please email your entries to ecojoe ecojoes . com

My stupid abacus broke again! AARRGH!!

How often have you been frustrated when performing rudimentary calculations on your abacus? Do you often want to calculate your energy savings, but you don’t know your maths? What about writing “80085” on a calculator and showing it to a friend to get a good chuckle? Do you ever want to do that, but you have no calculator?

Take heart, because I am hereby announcing the EcoJoes Incredible Calculator Contest! I have in my hands TWO brand-spankin’ new calculators, and they are ready to help you calculate your way to a greener, thriftier life. But how can you win one of these calculators, you might ask? Here’s how:

Calculator Contest Rules

• Get a blog or website
• Write an article or page about a time when you saved money by being all green and mess
• Put a link in the article back to EcoJoes.com (so I can find your article)
• Wait for me to announce the winners, then sit back and enjoy your very own calculator

That’s it. So good luck everybody, and may the best man/woman/transgendered person win.

Dang, I found a pretty cool site that lets you choose what to rank different countries by (armed forces spending, CO2 emissions, eco-footprint, nuclear power produced, etc.), and it’ll generate a map that changes the size of the countries depending on where they rank in the different categories.

If that last paragraph didn’t make no sense, you’ll see what I’m trying to explain if you just go to their site. Forilla, even if you aren’t interested in environmental mess, you’ll still think this map-generator is pretty dang cool, if I do say so myself.

Halloween (All Hallows’ Eve for you traditionalists) is rotch around the corner, and everyone is getting pumped about it. But before we get all carried away with this great holiday, let us take a moment to reflect on ways to make this Halloween the “greenest” Halloween yet.

Green Halloween Candy

Forget about all that plastic-wrapped, cavity-causing, diabetic-killin’ sugary candy. Instead, give out these delicious treats to the lil’ ones who come trick-or-treating to your door:

• Raisins – long known as “nature’s candy”, these all-natural treats will keep trick-or-treaters coming back for more!
• Apples – there was a time when, if someone gave me an apple when I was trick-or-treating, I’d angrily chuck it at their house the second they closed the door. I’d probably still do that, but still, this fruit is healthy and natural and mess.
• Homemade Strawberry Jam – fill dozens of used (and maybe even cleaned) baby food jars with jam. Tell the kids that it’s a jar of guts, and watch their eyes boggle at that spooktacular thought.

Green Halloween Costumes

Instead of going with disposable, plastic costumes, here are some more eco-friendly costume alternatives:

• Adam and/or Eve – just get some leaves and glue, and bah-bam, you have the ultimate Earth-friendly Halloween costume.
• Hobo – I actually did this one year. Just find your oldest, dirtiest clothes, smudge some dirt on your face, and presto, a bum is you.
• Shoeless Joe Jackson – take off your shoes. Hey, great costume!
• A Giant – wear your old clothes that are too small for you. You’ll look like a giant who can’t find clothes that fit!

Green Halloween Decorations

• Acorn Pumpkins – Sadly, I used to do this. Find acorns and draw jack-o-lantern faces on them. Be prepared for a ghoulish good time!
• Booby Traps – dig a hole in your yard and cover it with sticks and leaves and such. Watch as trick-or-treaters fall into it. *BONUS* Take their candy and reuse it by giving it to any trick-or-treaters who somehow manage to make it to your door.
• Easy Scarecrow – sit in a chair or stand in your yard and don’t move. Congratulations on the greenest Halloween decoration of them all!

I hope these green Halloween tips have helped you. I know they’ve helped me. The main thing is to just use your imagination and some ingenuity, and you can have a great green (and cheap) Halloween.

Welp, nowadays everyone is talking about “going green”, to the point where people (including me) just start ignoring them. How about we pause for a moment and forget about buying expensive hybrids or carbon credits (dubious if those work) and focus on how to save money by going green.

Go Green and Save Money in the Bathroom

• Navy shower – conserve water, use less electricity for hot water, and save money
• Turn off the water when you brush your teeth – You’ll save gallons of water each day if you follow this easy tip, assuming you brush your teeth.
• Clean and dry off your razor – This makes your razor stay sharp for many moons, and saves money by not having to buy new razors.

Go Green and Save Money on Your House

• Insulate your home – This will let you use your air conditioning less in the summer, and your heater less in the winter. Saves money and helps the environment.
• Turn off air conditioner, and open windows – If you do this on nice days, you can lower your energy use AND save some money
• Reuse construction materials for projects – You’ll save money by reusing old materials, and be “going green” by finding new uses for old mess instead of throwing it away.

Go Green and Save Money on Special Events

• Throw a green Super Bowl party – online invitations save money and paper, use reusable decorations, etc.
• Go vegetarian – I admit, I don’t do this step. But if I did, I’d be saving money and lowering my eco-footprint at the same time.
• Have event outside – this should save you money on lighting and air conditioning, plus you’ll be using less energy. Huzzah!

That about wraps it up. There are many other ways to go green and save money, but really, all the things I mentioned just involve small changes that will help the environment and your wallet. So next time you want to save some money, por favor, go green.

Clean air. We all want it, many of us even need it. But sometimes the air inside your own house can be slowly killing you, without you even knowing it! Is there any way to detect harmful ozone in your air before it is too late?

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.