Recently we had all carpet in our house removed and replaced with Marmoleum, an all-natural flooring product made from renewable materials that also happens to be anti-microbial and has anti-static properties.

We’re really happy with the finished product.

The library…

A guest bedroom (the other bedroom has the same color)…

The office…

The master bedroom…

Now onto having the house painted so that it doesn’t clash with the floors.

Technorati Tags: marmoleum, green living, renewable materials, home improvement, floors

I have never liked sweet potatoes or yams. I have tried them a variety of ways, including every year at Thanksgiving, but could never get into them.

Tonight I found a way to prepare them that matches my palette: It’s all in the toppings. Instead of going the sweet or bland route, we topped baked yams with hatch green chiles, a small amount of butter, sea salt, pepper, and chile powder.

This is a great way to spice up this super food, which also promotes heart health.

technorati tags: food, cooking, recipes, health, heart

Over the last several weeks I’ve become increasingly aware of the amount of stuff we throw away at lunch: plastic forks, paper bags, food wrappers — all which end up in a landfill. Also, how much of this is made with recycled goods? Probably not much at all.

I am also the lucky heiress of some hereditary cholesterol problems, meaning that almost anything I eat that is not salad will raise my cholesterol. So eating out often is really stupid, since I’m sure that cooking techniques sneak some saturated fat into things I think are healthy.

So even though I work downtown among some of the best restaurants in Austin, I value a long life in a healthy environment over doing what seems easiest. I went on the hunt for a cool lunchbox that would force me to do the right thing. What I found was Obentec, a company that makes bento-style lunchboxes that contain all reusable parts, including containers and silverware.

I opted for the Laptop Lunch System, which has everything I needed to get started. It even contains a book that speaks to eating healthy and buying products to minimize the impact of lunch on the environment, including getting away from single-serving containers. The book is geared largely to families with children but I still found it to contain information anyone can use.

Today was my first day using the new lunchbox. On today’s menu:

• Hummus, roasted eggplant, and roasted red peppers in a pita pocket;
• Organic lightly salted chips;
• Carrot sticks with garlic ranch dressing; and
• A valencia orange.

This took me all of 20 minutes to prepare. It was the perfect amount of food, as the system works to control portions by not allowing extra space to pack in junk.

technorati tags: food, environment, dining, working, health

The Soup Peddler, an awesome local business that makes wonderful soups and other goodies, is donating 5% of all sales to Greyhound Pets of America Central Texas if you order through through this link.

How does it work? It’s simple… you order your food, and the Soup Peddler delivers it to your door if you live in delivery areas, or you can easily pick it up. The food is tasty, healthy, and cheap.

This is a great and easy way to support a great local cause while supporting a great local business. Please check it out!

technorati tags: austin, texas, dining, food, greyhounds, charity

After three days of eating unhealthy and drinking too much at the 2006 ACL Festival, we decided that this week is about organic and light.

This evening I made a great pasta sauce from scratch and no recipe — totally by the seat of my pants with ingredients we had at home. It turned out really well, so I am sharing my newly created recipe with you.

The ingredients (all organic if possible):

• 1/2 large white onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 large squash, coarsely chopped
• 2 medium roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• handful of fresh basil, coarsely chopped
• 8-12 broccoli florets, whole
• Whole wheat spaghetti
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can tomato paste
• Herbs from Provence with Lavender
• Tone’s Rosemary Garlic Seasoning
• Whole wheat bread
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Pasta: Sautee onion, garlic, squash, broccoli, and 1/2 the basil in olive oil on medium-low heat until all ingredients are about halfway cooked. Add one can tomato sauce, Herbs from Province to taste, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer another 5 minutes or so. Add tomatoes, remaining basil, tomato paste to desired consistency (I used 1/2 the can). Cover and simmer on low until ready to eat, stirring occasionally. Serve over wheat pasta.

Bread: Brush bread with olive oil or butter. Sprinkle with Tone’s Rosemary Garlic Seasoning. Bake at 350 degrees until desired crispiness. For this I just used sliced bread because we didn’t have anything fancier.

Total preparation and cooking took about 30 minutes, so it’s a great weeknight meal. Serves about 3.

We served this meal with the Paringa 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, a nice wine that tastes much more expensive than the $12 range it actually costs.

The finished product:

technorati tags: cooking, recipes, pasta, wine, weeknight

CNN.com recently posted an article about how consumers often underestimate the calories contained in fast food. The point of the study is simple: portion are getting larger, and people don’t quite get the effect of larger portions on calorie intake.

Yes, that’s true. My unscientific observations of Americans point to value over quality. It seems like more Americans will go for the cheap and fast option for dining over the healthy and slow option, especially if you can add more fries for a couple of quarters. More for your money, right?

Dieticians claim that a single serving of meat should be no larger than a deck of cards. I implore you to find a serving of meat anywhere that is the size of a deck of cards… even child portions are at least the size of a jumbo deck these days.

But the real point here is… should we be more concerned with calories or fat? While it is true that calories can cut down fat and sugar levels in the bloodstream, what’s the fastest way to health?

• Cut out saturated fats
• Cut out cholesterol
• Exercise moderately each day
• Drink more water
• Laugh

This all reminds me of a story a friend once told me after a lunchtime trip to Subway, back when the chain was touting how you too could be like Jared if you just ate at Subway. Woman in front of my friend orders a sandwich:

• 12 inch meatball sub on white bread
• Cheese
• Ranch dressing
• Diet Coke

The woman tells the server, “I’m trying out the Subway diet to lose weight.”

The server politely says, “Honey, that’s not a diet sub.”

Case closed. Calories aren’t the problem; it’s our mindset. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, unmetaphorically speaking.

technorati tags: health, consumerism, obesity

This week I’ve been plagued with a sinus infection, which makes walking around in 100+ degree heat especially unpleasant. I bought some facial tissue with lotion from the local HEB, and I noticed something curious on the box. It’s covered with words like “timeless,” “beauty,” “serenity,” and “romance.”

What about being sick conjures up those words? Are they trying to make me feel better?

technorati tags: life, humor, illness

I’m back on the gym bandwagon. Despite a mostly organic and heart-healthy diet, my cholesterol even higher than before.

So, from here on out on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays you’lll find me on the threadmill at the neighborhood gym listening to my iPod and wishing I were back on the sofa with a glass of wine.

When I was in early elementary school my PE teacher went on an aerobics kick. It was the early 1980s and Olivia Newton-John had just made the scene with Physical. Everyone was wearing sweats and legwarmers everywhere they went.

Three days a week instead of the usual monkey bars, obstacle course, and kickball routine we had aerobics. Yes, even at Oates Elementary we were fashionable.

I don’t remember much from those days, but I do remember aerobics in PE. I remember lining up with the other kids into neat little rows, and then we’d do routines to:

You Can Do Magic by America
65 Love Affair by Paul Davis
Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

technorati tags: health, heart, cholesterol, exercise

About 18 months ago I read Fast Food Nation, which is as much about consumerism in the United States as it is about fast food. It started a chain of events that changed how I live.

I had seen Super Size Me when it was released and while I stopped eating fast food in my early twenties after finding out I had a genetic disposition to high cholesterol and heart disease, I was still thoroughly disgusted at the overall mainstream food industry. Only adding to this distate was the scene in Napoleon Dynamite when Napoleon gets the job moving chickens from one coup to another. While a lot of the audience was laughing, I leaned over to my husband and said, “I’m never eating chicken or eggs from a non-free range farm again.”

Needless to say, after reading Fast Food Nation I became an organic and earth-friendly convert and I began regularly bonding with Whole Foods Market.

With this change in lifestyle came an added bonus: It’s quite fashionable to be green in Austin, Texas. In Austin it’s hip to drive a hybrid, hang out on the patio of Central Market on a Friday evening sipping a microbrewed beer or glass of wine, ride your bike to work or happy hour, eat a healthy and low-fat diet (to make room for all the awesome Tex-Mex restaurants), or to jog on Town Lake with your dog.

We love our pets in Austin. We make house and car choices based on the needs of our pets. We have dog-friendly restaurants, such as BB Rovers, that will bring a bowl of water for your dog while you enjoy a beer and bar food on the patio. We even have several no-leash parks that let your dog frolic with other dogs in a closed area.

And, we pay attention to their health like our own. We have specialty hospitals for our pets that need some extra help. Hell, my cat has an internist who treats his diabetes and arthritis, and one of my greyhounds sees an allergist.

We started giving our dogs vegetables in their food to encourage them to eat at one sitting. Our veterinarian confirmed that veggies are actually quite good for dogs if you can get them to eat them, and our dogs love them.
Animal Wellness magazine recently published a list of superfoods for pets:

1. Carrots
2. Broccoli
3. Green beans
4. Pumpkin
5. Sweet Potatoes
6. Tomato
7. Apples
8. Blueberries & cranberries
9. Cantaloupe
10. Watermelon

Of all things, canatloupe has become quite the hot ticket item at our house, and we can even use it as a training treat. Go figure.

technorati tags: life, austin, pets, dogs, organic, green

On January 1, 2006 we promptly made New Year’s Resolutions, which were really more of priorities for this year. I only had four because I’m relatively happy with where I am and my life, and my resolutions were small and not really game-changing.

Of course, I haven’t looked at them since, until this morning when I found them in a notebook. They are (in no order of importance):

1. Get cholesterol under 200 total
2. Work on making our house the way we want it
3. Spend money more wisely
4. Reduce amount of dry cleaning

In reviewing them, those seem like good, noble goals. Here’s how I’m doing:

Cholesterol: I have been eating a lot more soy and tomato products, and will be going to the doctor later this month to see if that made a dent. I’ve still only used that gym membership a couple ot times, though…

Work on House: After almost putting the house on the market to upgrade to a larger one in the same neighborhood, we decided to instead actually try living here first (we’ve only been in this house 18 months). We’ve bought new bedroom furniture, turned our dining room into a library, and are about to have new flooring and paint work done.

Spend Money More Wisely: See above. Lots of money going out the door, but a good use of funds.

Dry Cleaning: This one is difficult because looking sharp is part of my career. However, I recently found a more environmentally friendly service that doesn’t make me feel so badly about having clothes dry cleaned called

Hangers. This service uses CO2 to clean your clothes instead of harsh chemicals.

So there you have it. Not bad for mid-May.

technorati tags: resolutions, life