Just Bag It

At lunchtime, I've been brown-bagging lunch (in a reusable bag, of course!) for most of my professional career. There's so much environmental waste with takeout food (think food container, plastic utensils wrapped in more plastic, then put in a paper bag often inside a plastic bag). Bring your own reusable silverware, plate, glass and mug to work, and prove Kermit wrong: it is easy being green.

What's equally as wasteful: our hard-earned money. Check out the AARP's Lunch Savings Calculator. If you spend, for instance, $6.50 daily for a lunch and drink, and a bagged lunch is $3, you could save $70 a month. After four years, that's nearly $4,000!

The key to bringing lunch: variety, variety, variety. For cookbooks, I head to the library, but mainly, I take to the web.

VegCooking's Two-Week Sample Vegan Menus is filled with ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
*Just in time for Thanksgving, try a Tofurky Sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and Vegenaise, pretzels, and an apple. Why should you skip turkey? Here's why.
*Why have a meat chili, when you can have a healthier and humane alternative? Try ready-made vegan chili (i.e., Boca frozen chili; Yves and Lightlife refrigerated chili; or Hormel canned chili), tortilla chips, and fresh avocado drizzled with lime juice.
*Creamy pasta salad with artichoke hearts, crusty Italian bread and fresh fruit sound like perfect picnic fare.
*No mercury in this lunch. Try a Veggie "Tuna" Salad, pita bread or crackers, and fresh-cut vegetables. Check out 10 Reasons Not to Eat Tuna.

Thanks VegCooking!

Explore out ChooseVeg's vegan lunch recipes. No vegan show on the Food Network? No problem. Watch videos for eggless egg salad, carrot soup, ratatouille, and much more. Don't forget an occasional treat: chocolate chip cookies, the perfect lunchbox edition.

Soup's on! But not at $5 for a bowl. Make an entire pot for about the same price or less. Visit out About.com's Vegetarian Soups and Vegetarian Chili Recipes.

Wraps=rip-off when you buy them at the deli. I've seen them for as high as $7. I start with a whole wheat wrap, add hummus, organic lettuce, and avocado or roasted red peppers. Ditto for salad. Who wants to pay $8 for some lettuce and toppings?

Feel like a 2nd grader again. Who doesn't love PB&J? There's even a restaurant, Peanut Butter & Co. Sandwich Shop, in New York City devoted to the timely classic. Pack your pb&J of choice (I prefer grape). Serve with carrots, potato chips, and non-dairy milk, like you get at the shop.

Now I wonder what people would say if I showed up to work with this?

Break Out Your Datebook...

Aside from the official celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, which we all know is really every day, there will be animal and eco-events galore next month. Mark your calendars for one, a few, or all of these groovy events!

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month and what better way to celebrate than by rocking out at Union Square in New York City with the ASPCA and the 4-legged set on Tuesday, April 7th. Between 4-8 pm, enjoy refreshments, live music, and socialize with doggies up for adoption. Don't forget to get decked out in orange - the official color of the ASPCA - even the Empire State Building will be doing it! Impress your coworkers with this free ASPCA wallpaper. But what to pick...the cat, dog or horse?

Be thrifty, green and an animal activist all in one by signing up for a library card and celebrating National Library Week (April 12-18th). Of course I own some things, but communal sharing is the way to go. Netflix? No thank you. I get new DVD releases for $1 and older releases for free at my library; get my reading fix on ("I cannot live without books," Thomas Jefferson to John Adams in 1815); peruse magazines, vegan cookbooks and sample music. The library can also be a great resource to advocate for animals. Learn how using the Farm Sanctuary library outreach page.

Celebrate the Cherry Blossom festival at Branch Book Park in Newark, NJ. Or, just pamper yourself with some Cherry Blossom beauty products from The Body Shop. Or just eat soy cherry chip ice cream from Trader Joe's. It's delicious!

April 24 is Arbor Day, a national observance that encourages tree planting and care. Become a member of the Arbor Day Foundation for as little as $10, and they will plant 10 trees in our national forests.

Don't forget the Hackensack Riverkeeper clean-ups, the first of which is on Sunday, April 26, in Overpeck Park, Leonia, NJ. But you don't have to wait for an official clean-up. Trash is everywhere.

April 9th is the first day of Passover. PETA's VegCooking offers recipes including Carrot Tzimmes, Chopped 'Liver' Spread and Sweet Potato Kugel. For more, click here. For Easter, April 12th, doesn't a Mustard and Apricot Glazed 'Ham', Creamy Mashed Potatoes With Chives, and Apple Walnut Cake sound tempting? Click here. Not a cook? Try the vegan vegetable ravioli salad ($8.99/lb) off of Whole Foods Market's Easter catering menu or how about the vegetarian chopped "liver" ($6.99/lb.) on the Passover menu. Don't forget the campy chocolate in the form of an Easter Bunny. Check out Rose City Chocolatier.

St. Patrick's Day Greetings

If there was ever a time when our country needed a festive parade, merry spirits and the luck of the Irish, it's now. The Irish eyes smiled on the NYC parade today, providing beautiful, mild temperatures...a sign of spring, and happier, more positive times to come.

Our friends at PETA's VegCooking site always provide great ideas for a cruelty-free holiday. You can enjoy an Irish feast today or any day of the year, including 'Steak' and Stout Pie, Colcannon, Brown Bread and Chocolate-Stout Cupcakes
Mock Corned Beef and Cabbage, Sage Potatoes, and Vegan Irish Soda Bread, and more. Or how about Irish Whiskey Cake and Irish Coffee?

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.

Return From Fingal - The Corrs

Cruelty-free Thanksgiving Recipes

As much as I enjoy perusing cookbooks for inspiration, I love browsing the web even more for recipes. Much like my thrift store hobby, it's creative, fun, and better yet, doesn't cost $20 and collect dust on the top of my refrigerator. The animals rights groups score an "A" for publishing mouth-watering, comfort holiday food recipes online. And you need not be Emeril to pull them off. Here are some easy-breezy recipe sites. You'll wonder why turkey was ever on the table at all.

*PETA's VegCooking Holiday Recipe Guide. Includes hot artichoke dip, broccoli and cauliflower bisque, sweet potato biscuits, and pumpkin patch cheesecake.

*The Humane Society's Favorite Recipes list. Includes cranberry hot punch, butternut squash soup, faux turkey casserole, and miniature apple pies.
*Farm Sanctuary's Compassionate Thanksgiving Recipes. Includes holiday portabella with vegan gravy, millet-cauliflower mash, green beans almondine, and pumpkin pie with glazed pecans and tofu whipped cream.

I attended a cooking demonstration of these Farm Sanctuary recipes at The Loft Salon in NYC that was led by Christine Waltermyer of the Natural Kitchen Cooking School located in Princeton, NJ. You and your guests will love any and all of these cruelty-free and heart-healthy recipes.