Green & Clean

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Doctors often advise patients with cardiovascular problems, including high blood pressure, to take a daily aspirin to improve blood flow and prevent clots. However, aspirin tends to have a nasty side effect: over time, you may develop ulcers due to irritation to your stomach from taking it.

There is a healthy alternative to aspirin, one that delivers all of the bloodflow enhancing goodness of aspirin without the painful side effects. According to The Telegraph, scientists have recently concluded that the gel that surrounds tomato seedsimproves bloodflow, with improvements evident as soon as three hours after ingesting it. Being both colorless and flavorless, the gel can be added to foods and beverages without affecting the overall quality of the food. The gel has been patented, and is marketed under the brand name Fruitflow. It has already been added to a line of fruit juices, and we can expect it to be found in more foods as time goes on.

Traditionally, the high levels of Vitamin C, omega-3’s, and other antioxidants, as well as the prevalence of healthy fats and seafood, have been lauded as the reason the Mediterranean diet is such a heart-healthy one. It turns out that all of the tomatoes (and their seeds) have had a big role to play in that as well.

While I’m not in any hurry to start seeking out commercially-available tomato seed gel, you can bet that I’ll be less likely to dispose of the seeds and gel next time I make salsa. It’s not clear yet from what has been published how much tomato seed gel one would have to eat to reap these benefits, but I’m guessing that if you eat tomatoes on a regular basis, you’re in good shape.

Make a dent in holiday waste this year by “recycling” your fresh Christmas tree after you are done celebrating.

Instead of taking up valuable space in landfills, where decay is painfully slow because of a lack of oxygen, Christmas trees can be readily ground into wood chips or made into useful compost. Considering that nearly 29 million households opted for a real Christmas tree in 2006, that’s a lot of wood chips!

To make it easy, the industry group National Christmas Tree Association has teamed up with Scottsdale, Arizona-based conservation group Earth911 to point consumers in the right direction with their trees. On their Website, you can enter your zip code to find the nearest of 3,800-plus spots nationwide that accept old trees.

All those holiday cardboard boxes—the ones that your online orders came in, the shirt-boxes that your grandmother used to wrap your new sweater, the packaging from all those kids’ toys and new electronics—don’t have to end up in your recycling bin on December 26; instead, take your inspiration from Australian site Makedo and its ten ideas for reusing cardboard on Boxing Day.

Cardboard boxes become everything from drink coasters to Christmas tree ornaments with the suggestions on the site, though there aren’t step-by-step instructions, so novice DIYers might need to leave some time to complete the projects. Some of the simpler ones? Round ornaments made from flexible cardboard boxes, holiday angels with corrugated wings, and simple reindeer faces to brighten your winter decor. Intermediate crafters can add wrapping paper to make pretty fans, customize a picture frame (with its own stand), and create a cardboard train using bubble wrap as steam.

Have you made your own cardboard projects from leftover boxes? Leave other ideas and suggestions in the comments and help the entire community increase reuse and decrease waste.

Use a spritz or two of vodka to freshen up clothes in between laundry loads. You can reduce the amount of laundry you end up doing, saving time, energy, water and cleaning chemicals.

We all need clean clothes, but actually doing the laundry uses a lot of resources and cuts into our free time. Many times, an item worn once doesn’t really need a full washing. So instead of lugging it to a laundromat or down to your basement machines, spritz your duds with a little vodka, then hang to dry in a well-ventilated area. (Do a spot-test first to be safe.)

Vodka kills odor-causing bacteria, but doesn’t leave a scent when dry.

from The Daily Green

The much beloved bacon is one of those meats that can be used in tiny amounts to give a big smack of flavor. It probably explains why so many of us are hooked on bacon, and boy are there some bacon obsessives out there. Ari Weinzweig, author of Zingermann’s Guide to Better Bacon, even goes as far as to claim bacon as the “olive oil of America”. But all too often, even those of us who love our rashers, pour away one of the most beautiful elements—the fat. And as being green is about using resources to the maximum, this seems like a no-no. So I thought I’d put together a few suggestions for what to do with that yummy leftover fat after you make your BLT.

(Of course, waste minimization aside, from a nutritional standpoint you probably shouldn’t eat too much bacon fat. But I’d suggest you cut back on bacon in general, and when you eat it, eat it all.)

Bacon Fat Mayonnaise
This one comes straight out of the aforementioned Zingermann’s Guide to Better Bacon. Caroline Russock tested it out over at Cook the Book—describing it as a “spreadable BLT.”

Bacon-Infused Bourbon
This might sound weird, but I have it on very good authority that it is utterly delicious. In fact, I’m going to make it a project the next time I have a BLT. New York Magazine has a rundown of how to make bacon-infused bourbon, and even a cocktail recipe for what to do with it.

Bacon-flavored Veggies
This one always bothers my nutritionist wife, but cooking greens or peas in a little rendered bacon fat is a great way to add flavor. In North Carolina, sauteing collard greens in a little bacon or fat back is pretty much a staple.

Bacon-fat Cookies
So you thought bacon-flavored bourbon was weird. Many home-bakers swear by the addition of bacon fat to their sweet recipes too. Try these bacon-fat ginger cookies, for example.

Bacon for the Birds
If you’re watching your weight, and you just can’t bring yourself to ingest the fat, then give it to someone who needs it. Check out this posy I found over at Yahoo over bacon-fat suet treats for birds.

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