Paisley Vegan Kitchen

Great news local vegans - there is an awesome new restaurant in Cocoa Village - Paisley Vegan Kitchen!

Paisley opened earlier this month and the food is amazing! Paisley is located at 630 Brevard Ave Suite A in Cocoa Village and is the long term dream of the owner Alyssa. Both times I have eaten there the place has been packed with an eclectic mix of hipsters, families, tourists, and locals. The food is so fresh and tasty that it will please both vegans and omnivores.

We started with one of my favorites - buffalo cauliflower bites.

We followed these with Macaroni & Cheese, the Chicken Parmesan Sub, BBQ Pulled Pork, and Lasagna Rollatini.

I sampled everything and it was all delicious. We wisely saved half of our meals to take home so that we could indulge in some peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. We were hoping to snag a cupcake of the day but they sell out quickly - guess we will just have to return another day! The cheesecake was heavenly - rich and creamy.

I highly recommend checking out Paisley and bring some omni friends so they can discover how amazing vegan food is!

Check out the menu www.paisleyvegan.com/menu/

Why I love Pinterest

Pinterest is a wonderful place to find new recipes, crafts, green ideas, and so much more! It is also a great place to organize all those amazing ideas you come across on the internet. It can also unfortunately become a place of electronic hoarding. I have been pinning things for years and besides some great homeschooling ideas, I don't attempt most of the things I pin. This year I decided I was going to create a new board for things I am going to try each week. For this week I pinned recipes,things to try with my iPhone, organizing ideas and more. Some were hits others not so much, but at least I am doing something with all those pins :)

Here are the highlights from my week:

1. I downloaded three great apps for my iPhone - Project Noah, Red Stamp, and Closet +

2. I learned how to make ringtones out of songs at http://artoftheiphone.com/2009/01/19/how-to-create-an-iphone-ringtone-using-itunes/

3. I made some yummy new recipes from Skinnytaste.com

Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites from http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/01/spicy-buffalo-cauliflower-bites.html#_a5y_p=1149459

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/11/roasted-parmesan-green-beans.html

4. I prepared a cute bag to keep in my car with a bunch of essentials

I am looking forward to trying a bunch of new things this year!

Earth Hour 2013

Only 30 minutes until Earth Hour in my time zone. What is Earth Hour? It is a pledge to turn off the lights for one hour taken by over 7,000 cities in 152 countries. There is also challenges on the website to extend the pledge beyond the hour. Check it out at www.earthhour.org. Time to finish packing up for tomorrow's dive trip and to start lighting candles.

Spinach Lasagna Soup

I have to confess I love soup! It is quick to make, tastes yummy, and there are leftovers for weekday lunches. I have spotted some recipes on the web for lasagna soup but they all have sausage or ground beef in them which just won't do for this veggie girl. It was time to start experimenting in the kitchen!

Spinach Lasagna Soup

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
6 oz. tomato paste
2 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
28 oz. can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
1 cup frozen spinach
8 oz. fusilli pasta
Ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese
Black pepper


In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until golden. Stir in red pepper, Italian seasoning, and tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Add vegetable broth, water, tomatoes, and spinach and bring to a boil. * (I must confess my husband is a meat eater so to make it more filling for him I also through in 2 cans of dark red kidney beans.) Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. While the soup is simmering, cook the pasta. You can cook the pasta right in with the soup, but if you are anticipating leftovers it is better to cook it separately and add the pasta to the serving bowls otherwise the pasta will get mushy over time. To serve, ladle some soup into a bowl add some noodles, a few dollops of ricotta, a sprinkle of Parmesan, and a dash of pepper. Enjoy!

Snowflakes for Sandy Hook

I am hoping for a peaceful new year for my family, friends, and the world. Like all parents the tragic events of December 14th in Newtown brought me to tears and had me hugging my daughter a little tighter. My heart breaks for those families who lost loved ones and for the children, teachers, and first responders who experienced a nightmare no one should ever have to endure.

I am blessed to be able to homeschool my daughter, however these events still hit close to home as my husband is an assistant principal in our local high school. It was a struggle to reassure my daughter that her daddy was safe at school when I know that my husband would have reacted the same as the brave administrators in Sandy Hook, heading towards danger to protect the students.

Since we live in sunny Florida, we make paper snowflakes as part of our holiday activities as I miss the white Christmases of my youth. When I heard about the Snowflakes for Sandy Hook effort I thought it was a great way to show our love for Newtown while honoring our tradition and a way to give my daughter a chance to voice her feelings on the incident.

When the students of Sandy Hook return to their new school, hopefully the outpouring of love from across the world in the form of snowflakes makes their school day a little brighter.

**As an update to this post, I wrote this before the holidays and sent our snowflakes however I just checked the website and they are overflowing with snowflakes. If you would still like to support Newtown please visit their website at www.ctpta.org/SANDY-HOOK-FUND

Magazine Recycling

I was so excited to see this magazine recycling cart in the lobby of my local library last week. In an effort to reduce our paper clutter I have canceled all our magazine subscriptions, but until our current subscriptions run out we have a lot of magazines around the house. I have donated all our read magazines and have also picked up a few magazines to browse. I know, that doesn't help with my clutter, but once read the magazines get donated back. Judging from the constantly changing stock of magazines, I am not the only patron that loves this great idea.

Homemade Peanut Butter

We eat a ton of peanut butter at our house. The problem we have is my daughter prefers the smooth creamy texture of brand name peanut butter and we would prefer she eats a healthier version without the added sugar. How do you make both sides happy? I decided to try my hand at making my own peanut butter, it turned out delicious and couldn't be easier! I put a pound of lightly sea salted dry roasted peanuts in my Ninja, turned it on and hoped for the best. At first the peanuts turned into peanut dust, then a chunky and dry paste. I was a little concerned that my experiment would fail. I soon discovered the key to creamy peanut butter is patience, after several minutes my peanuts had been transformed into creamy peanut butter! It is delicious and contains only peanuts so everyone is happy.

Canning Tomatoes

About a year and a half ago my friend and I got the crazy idea to start canning stuff. It was quite an adventure! We were armed with all our canning supplies, lots of berries, a video of this canning goddess who could can with both hands while shooting the video, and a good sense of humor. We had lots of fun, made some delicious jams & syrups, suffered a few minor burns, started a business, and created a life long friendship in that sticky kitchen. We went on to create many more messes in the kitchen as we made soup mixes, pumpkin butter, and more. I was also bit by the canning bug, it was much easier than I imagined. Fast forward to this week, my neighbor went on a cruise for two weeks and left me in charge of his tomato plants. I wish I could say I was a gardener, but so far I have a black thumb. The afternoon storms helped keep his plants alive since I am horrible about remembering to water and I was able to get some yummy tomatoes to can. I searched the Internet for info on canning tomatoes and came across the Growing a Greener World website which had great advice on canning tomatoes. A lot of the soups I make use crushed tomatoes and now I have some delicious sun-ripened tomatoes ready to add to my soup pot. Canning tomatoes was a little messy, but very easy. I can't wait to stock up on tomatoes this summer at the farmer's market and can them to enjoy all winter long.

Spinach & Artichoke Hummus

Okay to be honest I thought I hated hummus. It was a texture thing, most store bought hummus has the texture of wallpaper paste. This year when studying Ancient Greece we made some homemade hummus and what a difference! The flavors and consistency were amazing. When I was at Whole Foods one day they were sampling a spinach and artichoke hummus and it was delicious so I happily bought some. After devouring a few containers of the gourmet hummus, I decided it was time to save some money and to come up with my own recipe.


Spinach & Artichoke Hummus

1 can chick peas, drained
1/3 cup tahini
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 Tbsp. lemon juice
10 dashes garlic hot sauce ( I used Texas Pete)
2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup artichoke hearts
1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry


I just tossed this all in my Ninja and blended it up. As you can tell we like garlic in this house, if you are not a huge fan of garlic, feel free to reduce the number of cloves you use. This recipe makes a ton of hummus for way less than you would spend on store bought. I also have leftover spinach to throw in my soup this week and leftover artichoke hearts to roast for sandwiches.

Happy Earth Day!

Today in honor of Earth Day my daughter and I cleaned up our road which we adopted through our city's Adopt-A-Road Program. Since we adopted our road 4 years ago we have noticed that our road has gotten much cleaner. The program coordinator mentioned that this often happens, when neighbors see others cleaning up the road it makes them more likely to pick up trash themselves.

We also did some spring cleaning of our closets and have many great items to donate to our local Goodwill store. I love Goodwill! They are great for helping people strive to reduce and reuse items. According to their website, Goodwill diverts more than two billion pounds of clothing and household goods every year from landfills. When you donate unwanted items to Goodwill you allow others to reduce their impact on the planet by purchasing used goods. When you shop at Goodwill you can not only reduce the amount of money you spend on items, you can reuse and recycle items that may otherwise end up in the landfill.

How did you celebrate Mother Earth today?

Stove Top Cleaner

I have been experimenting with homemade cleaners for my glass stove top and have finally found a winner! The best part about this cleaner is it uses supplies I already had in my pantry. Here's the recipe:

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds
20 drops of tea tree oil

Combine the ingredients into a paste. Store in an airtight jar.

You can't beat how easy it is to make and it works great! A note about Sal Suds - it is a cruelty-free biodegradable cleaner and is super concentrated so it lasts forever. I buy mine locally at a herb store, but it is also available on Amazon (is there anything you can't get on Amazon?)

40 Bags in 40 Days

A week ago I had a moment of feeling totally overwhelmed by all the stuff in my house and decided it was time to clear out the excess. I had read about the 40 bags in 40 days project online and decided to give it a shot. The idea is simple - clear out 40 bags of stuff in 40 days. Although the 40 days are typically associated with Lent, I think this is the perfect time to clean out in preparation for the holidays.

I started today when I packed up our Halloween decorations. I weeded out the excess decorations that we did not use this year. I also went through our fall decorations to prepare for Thanksgiving decorating and kept only what I love and use. So I now have 3 bags of holiday goodies to take to our local Goodwill!

I was feeling motivated so I moved on to our utensil drawer in the kitchen and cleaned out another bag of duplicate and unneeded items. Day one and I already have 4 bags to donate!

Anyone up for joining me in the 40 bags in 40 days challenge?

I'm back

After too long of a break, I am coming back to blogging! I have spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of "green" things I want to blog about and how my family really lives greener. What I've come to realize is that most of the time being greener doesn't mean buying the latest eco-friendly trend, but by making do with what you have. Of course sometimes you need to purchase new items as gifts or to replace things that can't be fixed, so I will still share with you some of the latest green trends. However most of the time I am going to focus on ways to follow the wise advice from our grandmothers' time "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

Stay tuned for some exciting green ideas!

Is BP Burning Endangered Sea Turtles?

The Gulf of Mexico is home to the critically endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. Sea turtles have been seen swimming through the toxic oil-filled waters of the Gulf and rescue attempts are now being called off. According to Mike Ellis, BP has been keeping rescue teams from getting to the turtles and has even been burning them alive, along with other animals. View biologist Catherine Craig's interview with boat captain Mike Ellis on you tube for more info:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjw3_bMk8o

A Simply Delicious Bouquet

I had some friends over the other night and one brought the most unique green bouquet for me! She had cut celery and zinnias from her garden and arranged them together. The bright green celery made the vibrant zinnias just pop and the celery's fresh scent greeted every time I entered my kitchen. The best part of the beautiful gift is, as the flowers fade I will compost the flowers and eat the celery. My creative friend shows a perfect example of how being green sometimes means just thinking outside the box.

2010 Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen

The Environmental Working Group has released its 2010 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides lists of fruits and vegetables.

Dirty Dozen - buy organic

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes

Clean Fifteen - lowest in pesticides

1. Onions
2. Avocado
3. Sweet Corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Sweet Peas
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Cantaloupe
12. Watermelon
13. Grapefruit
14. Sweet Potato
15. Honeydew Melon

The Story of Bottled Water

Today is World Water Day and in honor of that I am sharing this fantastic website with you - www.storyofbottledwater.org This 7-minute animated film discusses the myths about tap and bottled water.

Fortunately for our planet, more people are becoming aware about how ridiculous it is to buy plastic bottled water. A Harris Poll found that 29% of the people surveyed switched back to tap water this year. "Bottled water usage is in decline in the United States for the first time in three decades, thanks in part to the hard work of our partners on this film. We hope this film helps to drive the final nail in this huge rip off," said Annie Leonard.

Olympic Medals are Green

No they didn't change the traditional medals of Gold, Silver and Bronze to green, but they did use reclaimed metal for the first time in this year's Olympic and Paralympic medals. Vancouver-based Teck Resources extracted gold, silver, and copper from old electronics using a smelting process on cathode ray tube glass, circuit boards, and other computer parts. A total of 2.05 kg of gold, 1,950 kg of silver, and 903 kg of copper were reclaimed and used. Even though this is just a small percentage of recycled material in each of the 1,000 medals awarded, it is a start. The mining of gold and other metals is harmful to the planet, so reducing the amount of mined metals to any degree helps the planet. Hopefully future host cities will be inspired to build on this effort and increase the amount of reclaimed metals in future Olympic medals.

Green Buying & Selling

Reduce your impact on the planet by choosing to shop greener.

1. Buy used if possible.

2. Remember your trash can be someone else's treasure - sell unwanted items on ebay or craigslist or donate them to the local thrift shop.

3. When making purchases ask yourself whether you really need to upgrade something that works just fine.

4. Rent seldom used items instead of purchasing them.

5. Shop locally and support small businesses.

Yummy Organic Tea

I just discovered a delicious new organic tea - Tazo's Organic Apple Red. It is an African red tea with a touch of apple, cinnamon, and caramel. It is caffeine free, so it is perfect for the cold nights we've been experiencing lately.

Tazo tea boxes are made from 55% post consumer recycled materials and are recyclable. For more information on Tazo's organic teas check out www.Tazo.com.