Green Recipes

Green Meals… You don’t have to be vegan to eat sustainably! When people think of eating ‘green’ they usually think of eating only vegetables such as broccoli and brussel sprouts, which are not necessarily tasteless, but turn a large majority of the population off from eating healthier and greener. What most people do not realize is that you do not need to become vegan or even vegetarian! There are many different methods that you can use to eat more sustainably.

BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: By eating more healthily and responsibly you are reducing your negative impact on the planet and on your own personal health. Lowering your consumption of prepackaged food that has traveled from far helps you reduce your food miles as well as your contribution to our landfills.

BENEFITS FOR YOUR HEALTH: Imagine all the foods that are eaten on a daily basis. Prepackaged foods with either an ambiguous ingredients list or a list of chemical compounds many have no idea about. All the synthetic compounds genetically engineered to make the food look good and taste good may be bad for you. No one knows the long term consequences of consuming these compounds and ongoing research is still continuing. For the benefit of your health and your environment consider eating more fresh and local foods—and no, you do not have to give up meat or tastiness to do so!

Cost: Variable… Depends on whether or not you have the various ingredients on hand! Generally low.

Time and Effort: Easy to Moderate ☺

Game Plan: Select your food based on freshness. Locally grown vegetables and fruits can be purchased from your farmers market. Even when purchasing from a supermarket you can choose to purchase those with less/no packaging and that has traveled as little as possible. If you cannot buy organic it’s okay. However choose to prepare your food fresh for yourself! If convenience is a factor and you do not have time to cook every day, cook all the dishes you would like to eat over the weekend and freeze it! It will still be much healthier than the prepackaged products.

Here are some delicious recipes to get you started:

For a Main Dish try whole wheat pizza!¹

Ingredients:

• – 1 tsp of locally bought honey (honey can often be found at your local farmers market!)
• – 1 cup of tap or filtered tap water
• – 1tbsp of yeast
• – 1 tbsp olive oil
• – 1 tsp salt
• – 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• – 1 cup all-purpose flour
• – Your favorite pizza toppings (organically grown, locally bought, can be just veggies, cheese from your local farmers, or sausage from your local meat producers, which can all be found at your local farmers markets!)

Instructions:

1. In a bowl dissolve the honey in the water. Then add the yeast and allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes until the solution appears a bit foamy.
2. Add in the salt and olive oil. Mix.
3. Add the flour in one cup at a time until the mixture starts to overcome the edge of the bowl while mixing.
4. Sprinkle a bit of flour on a flat surface area then pour out the dough. Continue to knead the dough while adding more flour until it becomes smooth and no longer sticky. This should take about 10 minutes.
5. Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and all the dough to rise until its volume doubles which is roughly an hour.
6. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
7. Roll out your dough in your desired shape onto the pan that you will use. You can make two small pizzas or one large pizza with the amount of dough you currently have.
8. Now for the toppings! Use your favorite sauce such as tomato or pesto. Add various fresh vegetables! Anything such as onions, garlic, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, olives, cheese, etc.
9. Bake the pizza for about 20 minutes until your cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

For a yummy drink try a Smoothie!
Smoothies are healthy and delicious. If you are running low on time to prepare a full meal turn to a well balanced smoothie to tide you over! Be creative with your smoothies. You can blend a mixture of a dairy or soy base, nuts/nut butters, fruits, vegetables, extra healthy things like flax seeds… bananas and avocados make for especially creamy and delicious smoothies ☺ Berries and oranges together make a great mix as well. Find whatever is being sold at your farmers market or what’s hiding in your fridge and freezer. Smoothies are a great way to utilize fruit that has become overly ripened and would otherwise be tossed away. Here is the recipe for my favorite blend!

Ingredients:

• – 1 avocado
• – 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• – ¾ cup ice
• – 1 tbsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Scoop out the avocado and add to a blender.
2. Add the milk, ice, and sugar.
3. Blend until the avocado is thoroughly blended in with the ice and milk.

When you get the munchies, try Banana Chips for a healthy snack!⁴

Ingredients:

• – Bananas—make sure they still have some green to their color
• – Food dehydrator
• – Salt, sugar syrup, or honey for flavoring (optional)
• – Egg Slicer (or just a knife!)
• – Bowl
• – Water
• – A bottle of Fruit Fresh, which you can buy at your grocery store; it provides Vitamin C to keep your banana chips yellow in color, so if you don’t care about your chips being darker you can leave this off your list…

Instructions:

1. Peel the bananas and use the egg slicer (or your fancy knife skills) to slice the bananas into uniform pieces, aiming for about 1/8 of an inch a slice.
2. Pour a quart of water with 2 tsp of Fruit Fresh (optional) into your bowl. Dip the banana slices in the bowl and then lay them on the dehydrator tray without overlapping any of the slices.
3. Set the dehydrator machine based on the device’s instructions.
4. After 3-4 hours the chips should be leathery and slightly darkened.
5. Wait until the chips cool and they will be crisp and crunchy… A perfect snack!