It's Easy Being Green

If you’re like me, your ears perk up anytime you hear that a company is offering you to try their product for free.  That’s why I’ve been impressed with Kashi, every few months rolling out a new product that people can try for free.  I think it’s a great marketing ploy, especially in our current economic troubles.  Just a few weeks ago, Kashi was advertising a coupon to try one of their new frozen dinners for free so I decided to give it a shot.

I haven’t been impressed with the other two Kashi products I’ve tried with their free coupon system.  First it was one of their breakfast/energy bars which I thought was terrible and have never bought another one since.  Second it was their line of granola-like breakfast cereals.  Once again, I thougth I was eating a bowl of nuts, twigs and leaves from the forest floor and couldn’t stand the taste or texture.  So, I was a little hesitant as I popped my Kashi frozen dinner and in the microwave and watched it cook.

I really wanted to try the Lemongrass Chicken dinner but my local grocery store didn’t carry it.  So I ended up going with the all-natural Southwest Style Chicken.  Pulling the dinner out of the microwave left a pleasant southwestern smell which got my mouth watering and excited to try the meal.

The grilled chicken breast was seasoned with lime, cumin and a hint of chipotle and diced into small pieces.  The flavorings were definitely present but not even throughout the chicken.  The chicken was on a bed of fire roasted onions, corn, red and green peppers and Kashi’s 7 whole grains and sesame pilaf.  The mixed in vegetables were very tasty and the whole grain pilaf was actually very good.  I didn sprinkle some salt and pepper over the top of the dish and that made it even better and allowed the flavors to really pop.

The frozen dinner is a bit small and didn’t fill up my “growing boy’s stomach” but was so tasty I scraped the dish it was in to get every last little bit.  Kashi says they use only high quality, natural ingredients with no preservatives or artificial anythings, ever.  The Southwest Style Chicken contained 16 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber.  When I have the money, I will probably give Kashi’s other frozen dinners a try.  I’m always looking for something to spice up the humdrum of my leftovers I usually take to work but get tired of running to the corner fast food joint to eat something totally horrible for me.

If you’ve tried the other dinners in Kashi’s new frozen line, let us know what your thought were!

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So one of my favorite bloggers, Hot Belly Mama, is hosting a great giveaway right now.  Since I’m getting ready to have a baby, my wife and I have been searching for an eco-friendly alternative to all the plastic diaper waste we could possibly contribute to the local landfill.  The Bumgenius diaper is one alternative we’ve looked at since we’re “eco-freaks” and have thought about giving them a try.  If you’re in the same boat, head over to her blog for a chance to win.  Here’s the details:

Good luck!

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By now you might be booting extra family out the door or finally getting to see loved ones who didn’t make it that far before the grips of old man winter trapped them at the airport.  Either way, this weekend you might begin to get antsy and wonder what to do with all the aftermath of Christmas (hopefully it was a good one to you and your family).

Last year, I discovered some creative ways to recycle your Christmas tree.  You can check them out by reading this post called Christmas Tree-cycling.

We’ve been receiving a lot of gifts by mail this year and thus have dealt with an overload of packing materials.  Most people think you can only throw all that stuff out but luckily you don’t have to.  You can donate those packing materials back to shipping stores.  They’ll gladly re-use them and keep them from just a one-time use before going into the landfill.  You can also call the “Peanut Hotline” at (800) 828-2214.  For more about packing materials read The Joy (and horror) of Packing Peanuts.

For electronic items or toys, hopefully you opted to power those items with some rechargeable batteries.  That’s really the best option.  But once those batteries lose their charge and aren’t useful anymore you can still recycle them instead of throwing them out.  Visit the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation for more details on where to send them.

I’m not a parent yet but I think purging old toys and donating them is a wonderful idea, especially after the holidays when the kids are overrun with new things to play with.  There are several ways parents run this but the most popular seems to be when the parent sits down with their child and asks them to pick out a toy they don’t use anymore (one for each new toy received) and then donate them to charitable thrift stores.

Did you get a new cell phone for Christmas?  How about donating the old one if you don’t want to keep it around as a backup!  A group called CollectiveGood will take your old cell phone and you can write it off as a tax-deductible donation.  If you live near one of 1500 UPS stores spread across the U.S., you can head over to their location.  Each store has a free envelope so you can drop off items like cell phones, ink cartridges, digital cameras and MP3 players and send them in for recycling.  The shipment is also free.  Thanks UPS!

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If you’re having trouble coming up with an idea for a Christmas gift that either won’t cost you very much or is for the person that already has everything, think about non-materialistic gift ideas.  This could save you a lot of money this holiday season and provide the recipient with something they normally wouldn’t expect.  So how can you turn your time and talent into gift?

Think about offering a service like baby sitting to somone who really needs it.  If you know an avid traveller, offer up some pet sitting time.  You could grant special favors like cleaning the house from top to bottom.  Or you could present a spa at home day where you provide a meal, massage, pedicure and a drawn bath with candles.  A popular thing to do is create a coupon booklet with several different favors so the recipient can “cash them in” whenever they want.  Maybe you have a special skill or hobby that someone close to you has admired.  You could spend a day teaching them everything you know about that skill or hobby so they can get involved themselves and maybe make a special project together.

Non-material gifts will save you money and save the environment too.  Have you ever put together a non-materialistic gift?  What did you give?  Share your stories!

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Now that it’s getting colder outside, we’ve had an influx of fruit flies inside our house.  We’ve always got fresh product around so the little buggers who hitched a ride home constantly find the nourishment they need to reproduce.  We’ve prevented some of the madness by putting produce away in dark cupboards that the flies don’t have access to instead of keeping things in a fruit basket on the counter.  But there are still a pesky few that can breed into dozens of fruit flies and just drive you nuts.

A quick and eco-friendly way to get rid of the fruit flies is to pour red wine into a small container like a bowl or a cup.  Cover the top of the container with saran wrap and then poke a few small holes into the top.  The idea is that the flies will be attracted to the fruity scent of the wine, crawl through the holes in the middle of the saran wrap and not be able to get back out.  My fiance discovered this trick and put it into play and sure enough it works like a charm.  We keep our fruit fly trap by the kitchen sink. So everytime I go to the sink and see some inside, I give the bowl a good swish.  That knocks the fruit flies into the wine where they eventually drown and don’t reproduce.  Also, pour boiling hot water down your drains.  Apparently fruit flies like to lay their eggs and reproduce in the sludge that can buildup in your sink drains.

Do you have a natural and chemical-free way to get rid of pests in your home or garden?

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