Green Food & Drink

How to Make Your Own Fairtrade Mango Chutney

Mango chutney is a tangy condiment that goes well with Indian curries and other dishes.  Making your own can be very satisfying as well as tasty, and if you use fairtrade ingredients, it can be even more satisfying.  You can give this as a Christmas or housewarming gift, too. For 4 cups of fairtrade mango chutney, you will need the following ingredients, fairtrade certified: -4 pounds fresh, ripe mangoes (about 4) -1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped (use fresh, peeled ginger if you can't find fairtrade candied ginger) -1 small, sweet onion, chopped -1/4 cup raisins (use golden raisins if you want to make the chutney more uniform in color) -1 clove garlic, minced -1/2 cup apple cider vinegar -1 cup pineapple juice -1/2 cup evaporated cane juice or Sucanat (these are usually fairtrade certified sugars; fairtrade white or brown sugar can be used as well) -1/4 teaspoon ground cloves -1/4 teaspoon nutmeg -3 teaspoons curry powder -1/4 teaspoon kosher salt Put the sugar, pineapple juice, and vinegar into a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and add the rest of the ingredients except the mangoes.  Cook at a low simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. While it's cooking, peel the mangoes.  This is best accomplished with a thin paring knife.  Run the knife carefully down the ...

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Eat Greener Meat

The consumption and the production of meat in general actually has an effect on our planet.  Livestock centers around the world are the cause of around 18% of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the planet so when you think about it, that is a very large number.  This will also affect the quality of water around the world as well as biodiversity.  Therefore, we should all consider a few things about the animals that provide us with food to eat and the environment that we live and breathe in. One of the best things you can do is avoid buying any processed food that takeout is usually made from.  That is why it is important for a person to know how to cook and more importantly, how to cook meat.  There are a number of different books that you can purchase to help make you a better cook or you can graze some ideas off of cooking channels on your television.  Even this small step can help lower the number of livestock in centers where they are contained before they get made into processed food. Another way that someone can help out with the problem we face with very large livestock centers is ...

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How to Make Delicious 4th of July Vegan Desserts

Make this 4th of July memorable with vegan desserts that are new yet traditional.  While vegans do not typically eat white cane sugar due to the animal remains used in the refining process, there are many other sweeteners vegans can use to make yummy desserts.  Many vegans will eat beet sugar since its manufacturing process does not involve animal remains.  Some other alternative sweeteners for vegans include brown rice syrup, yacon syrup, agave nectar, maple syrup, stevia, Sucanat, and evaporated cane juice. For delicious 4th of July vegan desserts, try some of these ideas. 1. Patriotic Parfait In parfait cups, wine glasses, or other clear cups, layer blueberries, strawberries, and unsweetened flaked coconut for a red, white and blue dessert.  Drizzle agave nectar over each layer if you like.  As a variation, try using sliced bananas instead of coconut, blackberries instead of blueberries, and cherries instead of strawberries. 2. Cocoa-nut Balls Grind 1 cup of raw, unsalted almonds in a blender or food processor until fine.  To the ground almonds, add: 1/4 cup safflower oil 1/4 cup coconut oil Blend well. Then add: 2 cups of cocoa powder 1/3 cup agave nectar (adjust to taste) 1/4 tsp. salt Blend these ingredients until a stiff dough forms.  Form into balls and roll in ...

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Vegetarian Fourth of July Party Ideas

The great American Fourth of July picnic, with its traditional foods like grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, and fried chicken, is something vegetarians can enjoy participating in, too.  Here are some ideas for making your Fourth of July very vegetarian. The Grill The outdoor grill is actually very conducive to preparing vegetarian fare.  There is quite an array of pre-prepared, frozen burgers made from vegetable protein available in grocery stores.  There are also hot dogs made from soy protein.  Perhaps even more satisfying is making your own veggie burger patties and grilling them outside.  There are many recipes online and in vegetarian (and conventional) cookbooks.  Home-made black bean burgers are especially good on the grill. Grilled vegetables are versatile and tasty.  Corn, zucchini, summer squash, onions, and bell peppers are all in season around July 4th, so use them liberally.  You can prepare the vegetables simply by brushing them with olive oil as they grill and sprinkling on salt and pepper to taste, or get more elaborate and marinate sliced vegetables for a few hours before grilling. Sandwiches Some vegetarians eat eggs.  If that describes you, why not make egg salad sandwiches for your party?  If you don't eat eggs, consider substituting firm tofu, chopped, for ...

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Why you Must Buy Organic Meat and Dairy: The Organic Meat and Dairy Advantage

Purchasing organic meat and dairy products is definitely a great move.  It is great for your diet and your health.  It is also great for the environment as well.  Here is a look at some of the best reasons for the environment to start choosing meat and dairy products that are organic. First, you'll find that there are no synthetic growth hormones and drugs used on organic animals.  This means you won't end up ingesting these dangerous drugs, which is definitely a great reason to make this choice. Another reason to go with organic meat and dairy is because the feed mills don't have chemicals in them.  These mills are inspected to make sure that there are no chemicals in them at all.  Feed cannot be contaminated, which is important to the environment and your health. There is no genetic modification of these animal products that are organic.  They also do not eat any feed that has been genetically modified either. A sustainable agriculture is supported when animals are raised organically.  There are no fertilizers or pesticides used on this land and the manure from the cattle on these farms are used for other techniques or for farming purposes. Animals organically raised are not cannibals ...

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