When my kids were really small, we had a lot of fun with the pronunciation (or mispronunciation) of these three foods.  Edamame was called “ate-a –mommy” for many years. Quinoa was pronounced “king-wop” and Tempeh was “that stuff”. We have come a long way and I think we finally have the pronunciations down pat. While working through the correct food speak, we also worked hard to incorporate these three foods into our eclectic and healthy diet.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah)

As much as quinoa looks like a grain, it isn’t actually a grain. It is a seed from a broad-leafed plant that is closely related to beets and spinach. Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain. It’s also perfect for those on a gluten free diet.  It’s high in iron, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc, and is a source of calcium, B vitamins and fiber. It can be prepared in many different ways. The most simple is preparing it in a similar fashion to rice.

Taste

The taste and texture of quinoa is a bit like brown rice crossed with oatmeal and a hint of nuts.

Tempeh

Tempeh is relatively new to those of us in the west, but it’s been a staple for hundreds of years for many living in Asia. Tempeh is made from cooked and slightly fermented soybeans and formed into a rectangular patty. The consistency is similar to that of a  veggie burger. Many use it as a meat substitute in dishes. I’ve used it in chili, stir-fry and on the grill. As with any soy product, it should be eaten in moderation.

Taste

Tempeh has a textured and nutty flavor. I like to add tempeh to my favorite marinade and stir fry them together.

Edamame

Edamame is by far one of my kid’s top side dishes-probably because they are so much fun to eat. Edamame is just a fancy name for boiled soybeans. They technically aren’t considered a vegetable, they’re a legume. The beans are boiled in their thick pods and a little coarse salt is sprinkled on top. After they are cooked the green edamame are popped out to eat. Sometimes they can fly pretty high-depending upon who’s doing the popping. Edamame are chock-full of protein, fiber and Vitamin A and C.

Taste

The soybeans are crunchy and delicious. Add a little coarse salt to taste and you won’t be able to stop eating them. As with any soy product, edamame should be eaten in moderation.

Have you tried edamame, tempeh or quinoa? What’s your favorite way to eat them?

Disclaimer: Before adding any soy to your diet please check with your physician to make sure it’s appropriate for you.

[Photos used under Creative Commons from Amina Elahi, Stacy and Sweeetonveg, The Unseasoned Wok/Flickr]

Happy Friday, my groovy green friends! Can you tell I’m already hoping for spring? This week was another busy one at Groovy Green Livin. Here are a few highlights:

Green Your Workout

Did you ever stop to think how your workout could have an impact on the environment? Well, it can. Thankfully there are several ways we can lessen our eco-impact, while keeping our workout routine intact. Click HERE to read more.

How to Treat a Cold the Natural Way

Colds and flu run rampant this time of year. Noses are dripping, throats are hurting and coughs and sneezes can be heard in homes around the world. Thankfully there are a few simple tips that will ease your symptoms and help strengthen your immune system the natural way. Click HERE to read more.

Mom Talk Radio Show

I had the honor of joining host Maria Bailey on her Mom Talk Radio show. During the show we talked about how to have an eco-friendly Valentine’s Day. We also hit some of my favorite topics: how to live a green and a non-toxic life.  Click HERE to listen to the February 12, 2012 show. My piece is called ‘Moms Roundtable” and can be found near the end of the segment.

Tide: Get Cancer-Causing Chemicals Out of Laundry Detergent

If you haven’t heard, it turns out that Tide Free & Gentle® isn’t so gentle. A report recently released by Women’s Voices for Earth, Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products? found high levels of the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in the detergent. 1,4-dioxane doesn’t appear on the product label or on the product website, so consumers have no way of knowing it’s even there.

With the help of Healthy Child Healthy World and  Women’s Voices for the Earth I put together a petition asking Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide) to strip this harmful cancer-causing chemical out of Tide Free & Gentle®!

Lisa from Retro Housewife Goes Green and Stephanie from Good Girl Gone Green both shared posts on this petition. Jenn Savedge from The Green Parent just shared a post on this too. Thank you Stephanie, Jenn and Lisa!

Last count we had over 600 signatures. If you haven’t already done so, please join in and SIGN THE PETITION. Better yet, sign the petition and then share it with your friends!

Pin of the week on Pinterest

This pin got a lot of action. It received likes and repins, too many to count. It just confirms my suspicion that we all have a new obsession with coconut oil. The pin originated from Delicious Obsessions and is called “52 Uses for Coconut Oil-The Simple, The Strange, and The Downright Odd!

This coming is a school vacation week for us so I will be spending more time with my family and writing less. I hope to get a few posts out, but we shall see!

Have a groovy green weekend. Do you have President’s Day off?

[Photo used under Creative Commons from D. Sharon Pruitt/Flickr]

Over the past 6 months I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Sarah Pinneo through our online connections. Sarah is articulate, passionate about the health of her family and undeniably funny. I was honored when she reached out and asked me to participate in the Julia’s Child  blog tour.  Sarah is an established food journalist, blogger and  co-author of The Ski House Cookbook.

Her new book, Julia’s Child, tells the tale of Julia Bailey, a mompreneur who struggles with many of the same issues working parents are confronted with. Julia is desperately trying to balance her home life and the life of a start up food company specializing in making organic toddler meals. Her two small children and husband are longing for her to be home and the company is luring her in with the potential of turning a profit. Julia’s strife is real and easy to identify with. I found myself laughing out loud, nodding in agreement and wanting Julia to make the ‘right’ decisions.

One of my favorite moments in the book was when Julia was describing how her focus changed when her first child was born:

The impulse to be green and clean hit me like a ton of bricks…. Clearly more care and attention to foodstuffs would be necessary…. I learned that the first organic purchase many women ever make is a jar of baby food.

Throughout her fictional debut Sarah weaves credible foodie advice and healthy recipes that even the novice chef could create. I asked Sarah if she would share one of her famous recipes with us. Here’s what she had to say:

Thank you, Lori, for having me on Groovy Green Livin. I love this site, and when I was contemplating what recipe to share her today, one in particular seemed the obvious choice: Not-Too-Sweet Maple Pecan Granola!

Julia’s Child is the story of a self-described granola mom. The tag line of the book is: “a delectable comedy for every woman who’s ever wondered if buying that $6 box of organic crackers makes her a hero or a sucker.” Balancing the desire to do good with the limits of time and money is a central theme of the story.

Readers often ask me whether I’m as “green” as Julia, and my answer is: nearly. But Julia must learn, between pages 1 and 279, how to reconcile her pristine goals with living in the real world.

Yet it should come as no surprise that at my house, we often make our own granola! I find that many commercial granolas have a lot more sugar than I’d like, and they also tend to taste stale. This recipe makes a big batch, but at our house it only lasts a few days. Enjoy!

Not-Too-Sweet Maple Pecan Granola

Ingredients

5 cups of rolled oats

1 cup of chopped pecans

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/8 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 300.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, pecans, coconut, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, and salt. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter with the syrup and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Spread the granola evenly over a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 23 minutes. Turn off the oven, but allow the granola to remain inside for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Then remove from oven and place on a rack. With a spatula, gently loosen the granola, pushing it from the edges inward. (This will prevent it from sticking.) Cool thoroughly before storing in an airtight container.

Julia’s Child could be the next book I suggest for my book club to tackle. It is a worthwhile read, touching upon issues that many of us are confronted with at some point during our tenure as parents.

For more information on Sarah Pinneo stop by her site, Twitter, or find her on Facebook.

I’m looking forward to trying the granola recipe. Do you make your own granola?

Disclosure: There are a few Amazon links in this post. Any purchase of Sarah’s books will put a few pennies in my pocket. Thanks!

It’s very rare these days to find a morning when we have no plans. This past Sunday was one of those mornings when we were all home with nothing to do. We decided it would be the perfect time for our much anticipated eggsperiment.

What’s an eggsperiment?

We have been part of a CSA for many years and recently opted in to receive half a dozen organic fresh eggs each week directly from the farm. Prior to our CSA we were buying organic eggs mainly from our local Whole Foods Market. We have quite a few friends and family members who have chickens and have been raving about their delicious farm fresh eggs. Chickens are not in our future so our CSA was the way to go if we wanted fresh eggs. It was time to put the eggs to the test and have a family taste off.

Which eggs were better: CSA or organic store bought eggs?

We whipped up two batches of scrambled eggs-each in a separate stainless steel pan. One was chock-full of organic eggs from the farm and the other filled with organic store bought eggs.

Our three boys eagerly sat down at the table to begin the taste test. We suggested blindfolds-that didn’t go over too well.  They promised to close their eyes with no peaking.

The oldest

We started with the oldest.  The first scoop of egg went into his mouth with his eyes shut tight. His two brothers watched him begin to chew-waiting for a comment. He methodically chewed, savoring every bite. Nothing-no comments, no nothing.  He rinsed his mouth with a little water (we decided ahead of time this would make it very official).  Then he took his next bite.  Again, chewing slowly and swallowing.  He opened his big brown eyes and out came a few words in his deceptively deep voice: “These are the farm share eggs” as he pointed to one side of the plate.  He was right.  We decided to pry a little to see if he had made an educated guess or just a plain old guess. He reasoned that they tasted “fresher and juicier”.  Juicier: an interesting choice of words to describe scrambled eggs. He also noted the farm share eggs were brighter in color, had more white specks and were smaller.

The youngest

Our youngest son repeated the process and made many of the same comments. We probably should have put them in separate rooms to keep the eggsperiment official, but that wouldn’t have been any fun.

The middle

The middle guy had no interest in closing his eyes at all.  He just wanted to eat the eggs-and he did. No comment.

The verdict

• We all voted and the farm share eggs won.
• The farm share eggs were quite a bit smaller than store bought eggs.
• The farm eggs were a bit brighter in color than the store bought eggs.
• The farm share eggs tasted fresher-I’m not sure how to describe this.  I think you will have to have a taste test yourself.

Overall it was a fun and different way to eat eggs together on a Sunday morning.

Why buy organic eggs? To learn more about the non-toxic and great green reasons to buy organic eggs head on over to Practically Green.

Have you done an eggsperiment? Do you buy organic eggs?

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. Valentine’s Day is sneaking up on us and I’m predicting lots of sugary treats in my kid’s futures next week.

There have been a lot of good green happenings on the web this week. Here are a few headlines that caught my attention:

Petition asking Tide to remove a cancer causing chemical from its detergent

A report recently released by Women’s Voices for Earth, Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products? found high levels of the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in the detergent.

With the help of Healthy Child Healthy World, MomsRising and  Women’s Voices for the Earth I put together a petition asking Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide) to strip this harmful cancer-causing chemical out of Tide Free & Gentle®!

Please join me by signing the petition asking Procter & Gamble to take immediate action to remove 1,4-dioxane from Tide Free & Gentle® and any other Procter & Gamble products.

Lead in your lipstick

In 2007 the FDA began testing various lipsticks sold in the United States for lead. After testing over 400 brands, FDA scientists concluded that none of them contained unsafe levels of lead. In December 2011, the FDA updated its tests and posted the results on its website rather quietly. There are now two brands (Maybelline and L’Oreal) with lipsticks above California’s safe standard. These manufactures don’t actually use lead as an ingredient, the lead is considered an impurity. There are safe, non-toxic lipsticks out there. Make sure yours is one of them!

Too much Sodium

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 9 out of 10 Americans eat too much sodium. Surprisingly, they found that bread and rolls were the top culprits rather than salty snacks.

Dandelions

Have you ever cooked with dandelions? When the weather warms up there is usually a field of dandelions on my front lawn. Jeff over at Sustainablog shares 7 Recipes for Dandelions. I might have to try a few when the sea of yellow weeds reappears.

A day in the life of an activist

Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of an activist mom fighting for climate change might be like? Harriet from Climate Mama shares a day in her life. I have to admit, I was exhausted just from reading her post.

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out my new addiction (maybe yours too?), Pinterest. Come on over and find me!

Have a groovy and green weekend! Any big plans?

[Photos used under creative commons from D. Sharon Pruitt and Vincent van der Heijden/Flickr]