Can pizza boxes be recycled?

Yes, as long as there is absolutely no food or oil/grease on them.  Tear off the parts that have any food and/or grease on them and throw those parts away.  Recycle any clean parts.  This goes for all cardboard and paper recycling.  Food and grease stained cardboard can contaminate a whole batch of recycling, so seriously, don’t do it.  The details are in this article from Recycle Bank.

Alert: Goodies at Integral Yoga and Sale at Williams Sonoma

Goodies I brought home - notice the brownie and tart are almost gone!

I have really been in love with Integral Yoga Natural Foods these days.  I’ve gone there for years, but have recently switched to purchasing an even greater percentage of my food from there.  The change was mostly due to me going there for decadent desserts.  I adore Sweet Mama’s raw cheesecake, especially the drumstick and black and white flavors.  This week, I tried Vegan Divas Spelt Chocolate Brownie  and, on the advice of a very nice cashier, the Hail Merry Chocolate Mint Miracle Tart.  Warning: I did get way more of a blood sugar challenge from the brownie and the tart than I ever got from the raw cheesecake, so enjoy sparingly!

Also, I noticed Williams Sonoma was having a sale, so I stopped in and ended up buying Christmas pie cutters (which I will use for cookie and sandwich cutters) and cutters for 3-dimensional Christmas cookies, all at deep discount (2.99 each)!  Look out, Christmas 2012!  I will be kicking some serious cookie butt!

 

Where did you get your appliances?

I purchased my appliances from Andrew Roehrig at Gringer and Sons in Commack, NY (on Long Island).  His phone number is 631-813-2400.

Andrew at Gringer, with my new steam oven.

I was very happy with the service I got from Andrew, and the prices were very reasonable.  I went out to Gringer on Long Island to see what was in stock and to make my final purchase (refrigerator, oven, steam oven, dishwasher, washer and dryer).  I was pleased with the selection and it was one of the few areas of my life where everything went smoothly.  I highly recommend him, and I’m saying that because he did a good job.  I received no discounts or consideration of any kind based on this blog post or referrals.  I just know that some of my readers may need appliances someday, and I’d like them to have a good, efficient experience.  You’re welcome!

What timer do you have?

I have two timers and I LOVE both of them for different reasons.

The Oxo Timer - if it was a dude, it would kick your ass and steal your beer!

I just recently picked up the Oxo timer, and love it for these three reasons:

1. You can time three different things at once!  Plus, it has a clock!
2. It tells you how long each of the individual timers has been going off before you stop it from beeping!
3. It can be used as a stop watch (i.e., it can also count forward).

For timing how long a kid has to do something, I use the Time Timer because it shows them exactly how much time they have left in a way that is meaningful to them.

Are you paperless yet?

I put my hand in the picture of the Fujitsu Scansnap to show the size of the footprint. The top of it flips down for smaller storage.

No.  I’m totally late to the game.  However, it’s my goal to be (mostly) paperless in 2012, and I’ve started early.  I spent the last two days scanning in documents with my new Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M (M is for Mac), and let me tell you, I LOVE THIS THING!  Seriously.  It is amazing.  It’s a document scanner, so it’s not the kind of thing you would use for photos, but oh man, for taxes, receipts you have to keep, notes from grad school, all the crap that makes up the mountain on (and around) your desk, it’s amazing.  I would not be able to achieve my paperless dreams without this thing.  The task is just too daunting.  When the ScanSnap is closed up, the footprint on your desk is slightly less than 6″ x 12″.  And it’s fast — blazing fast — and accurate.  Really.  OMG!  I have to get back to scanning, but for realz, the Fujitsu ScanSnap is da bomb.

 

Alert: Cyber Monday at Raw Guru!

Rawtella

 

Folks, Rawtella is 10.49 a jar at Raw Guru right now (11/28/11)!  Maybe you’ve found some bargains, but this is the cheapest I’ve ever seen!  Bariani olive oil (my olive oil of choice) is $18.71 for 1000 ml bottle (again, cheapest I’ve seen).  Plus, free shipping on orders over $99 and free stuff for orders over $99, $150 and $250!  I got the free one pound of raw, organic oats for my order of over $150.  Yes, I did order 10 jars of rawtella.  It lasts a long time!  Don’t judge me!

Do you let your kid play shoot-em-up video games?

Yes I do.  In fact, I encourage him to play Pemdas Blaster from MangaHigh.  It’s a first person shooter game that only allows the player to shoot once he or she solves an equation.  The equations start out very easy, but can get VERY hard on higher levels.  I love to play it as well.  Check out the games on this site.  You’ll be glad you did.

Pemdas Blaster by Manga High

Alert: Down Comforter Sale!

This beautifully cooked chicken has absolutely nothing to do with this post.

Loyal readers, do you remember me going on and on about how much I loved my Down Factory comforters?  Well, October is sale month at Down Factory (I just got an email about it), so if you’ve been dying to get a down comforter, this is your excuse.  You’re welcome!

 

 

When should I start my cold and flu season regimen?

If you haven’t already, start right now!  Today, September 19!  Build up your immunity now, so you’re ready for the onslaught!  I think the most important things you can do now are get your Vitamin D levels up, get the bacteria in your gut in good shape and get into the habit of washing your hands (all these are explained, and more — see below).

Home made ginger and turmeric root tea is a cold and flu season favorite!

Get proactive about cold and flu season this year:

• Get some sun on your entire body to maximize your Vitamin D! (Sandy Hook, NJ has a clothing-optional beach, btw, and the last ferry of the year is this Sunday!)  By “some sun,” I mean 10-12 minutes each side, around noon, no sunscreen, and don’t shower for as long as you can manage after exposure.  Any more sun than that per day, and you risk getting sunburned, which will inhibit your ability to get Vitamin D from the sun.  If you can’t make it to a beach, then lay out in the skimpiest attire you can manage.  You want maximum surface area exposed — your face and arms are not enough.  You’ll get a LOT more Vitamin D from safe exposure to the sun than you will from a supplement, but if you have to go the supplement route, take Vitamin D3 (not D2) with a meal that has fat in it.  I take 2500 units a day – talk to your health professional about your own dosing.  In New York, you only have until the end of September to get a good amount of Vitamin D from the sun.  So, get your ass in the sun!
• You need good bacteria in your gut.  Just google gut bacteria and any health condition you can think of, and you’ll see that it pretty much helps with everything, especially immunity.  I like New Chapter probiotics in general.  they’re expensive, but I feel like they do things right.  Also, I like it because there are either 9 or 10 different strains of beneficial bacteria and you need diversity in your gut as well as quantity of bacteria.  They put the additional things in there, too, like a pre-biotic (basically food for the good bacteria).  I have taken this product for a year (when I need it – not daily, but I’d say I average a spoonful every week), and I feel it has worked for me.  After I had bacterial pneumonia a few years ago, I built up my bacteria after very heavy antibiotic use and I took almost a half bottle of probiotics a DAY and had no ill effects.  Reminder: I am not a doctor or even someone who does this professionally, so you should totally run all this past your doctor or nutritionist or whoever it is that you trust in this area.
• If you are not already, get into the habit of washing your hands!  Make sure you wash them well before all meals and before you touch your mouth, nose, ears or eyes.  Keep a packet of wipes in your bag or pocket.  I like CleanWell wipes because they are natural, don’t use alcohol (so they are not drying) and the smell is not offensive.  Teach your kids to wash or wipe their hands before all meals and snacks.
• Get your sick kit together.  Here are my recommendations from last year.
• Get a good humidifier.  Here are my recommendations on what to look for in a humidifier.
• Note: Vitamin C is a great thing to take for colds, especially when you feel one coming on.  If you’re going to buy some, try to get any whole-food version of it, such as Tru-C or Truly Natural Vitamin C.  Also, crazy blood sugar swings mess up your immunity (and pretty much everything in your body), so go easy on the sugar and alcohol, and while you’re at it, get some sleep.  All that helps, too.

If you like raw sauerkraut, eating it can be a great way to get Vitamin C and beneficial bacteria all winter long!

Alert: Avoid cash register receipts whenever possible

I take and store every receipt I am offered, even optional ones (which isn’t very “green” of me, I know… sorry) because I check all the charges on my credit card every month.  However, aside from saving paper, there is a new, very compelling reason to avoid cash register receipts whenever possible.  They contain BPA, which is a dangerous toxin we should all try to avoid, and it has been shown that BPA rubs off on your hands very easily.  Here is a recent article and another that discuss the issues.  If you’re not going to read the articles, at least do this, as the second article recommends:

At least pregnant women would know to wash their hands after picking up a BPA-laced receipt. And we’d all know to keep such paper out of hands of kids. We might also want to store those receipts in some zip-it-closed plastic baggie, not our wallets.