Yummy Teething Relief

Being a baby is hard. I know it's hard taking care of said baby too, but consider the changes for the little one, a la producing teeth! Here's an organic teething treat to soothe even the fiercest snaggle tooth babes.

Satsuma Designs Tasty Teething Pops:
You'll need:
- 1 soft banana
- 1/4 c organic blueberries, washed
- 1/2 c plain yogurt (we go full fat FAGE for my beanpole - working to fatten her up)
- food mill/grinder (KidCo's is great. $15.99 at Happy Baby Products)
- small bowl
- spoon
- small sized ice cube trays - holes should measure <1" Munchkin mesh teether - $7.59 for a pair at Amazon. Available with PRIME too - free shipping with annual fee)

Please:
Send banana and blueberries through foodgrinder, mix with yogurt. It should be juicy enough to then spread out in ice tray (do that). Freeze until hard (couple of hours). Pop out fruity cubes and insert into mesh teething/snack pouch.

Enjoy the gummy bliss!

No Labor Day: Easy Peasy Back to School Prep

Summer is setting as school and work schedules loom ahead. Take the next few days to relax and rejuvenate by planning favorite family outings. Whether fun means hitting the backyard or park with the kids, cooking a new and sustainably sourced meal, or soaking up the last few chapters of the summer read don't sacrifice the lull before the proverbial storm.

And if planning for the transition to fall gives some satisfaction plan to sketch out goals for greening up your lifestyle. September is a great time to tackle a checklist to sort, purge, donate, recycle and organize space and attitudes.

Consider tackling the following Back to School Green Family Checklist:

- Sort, clean and recycle outdoor toys that may have seen intense use these last few months. Get the kids help sort into three categories: Active, Store, Donate. Clean up all three categories with a good scrub down (watch water usage!) and box into totes or bag up for the recycling center. Be sure to Sharpie mark the Store bins for easy retrieval next Memorial Day.

- Compile school supplies at the Home Store by hitting the family junk drawer and mom/dad's office first. Challenge the family to fulfill teacher's supply list with items you already have to save cash and consumption. Highlighters, pencils, erasers, ruler, calculator, notebooks, loose leaf paper, folders, binders, crayons, markers (washable), and more could be just a drawer away.

- Fall into fashion by sorting closets. Add some flare to old combinations with new accessories instead of all new apparel. Check out FamilyFun Magazine's great way to re purpose old sweaters by felting them into updated cuffs, bracelets, headbands and more.

- Make a Green lunch routine. Cut out waste during school lunch by getting kids involved in menu planning and packing. Take the chance to talk about recycling and cutting back on waste. Discuss ways to conserve. Consider a bento-style lunch box instead of baggies. Talk about menus to ensure that what gets packed, gets eaten.

And when you've sorted, cleaned, organized and purged let your trash become some one's treasure. For donation and recycling options take your bounty to your local charity or consider a recycle/free-cycle option in your area such as Swap Mamas, a nifty exchange for all kinds of bartering.

Ideal Bite Shares How to Eat Your Greens

I'm a huge fan of Ideal Bite. I appreciate a website whose mantra is A Sassier Shade of Green and sends daily tips on green living backed by facts, figures and a great editorial voice that's not preachy, but peppy.

Today's Bite is all about genetically modified produce and how to figure out what you're buying at your market in a nano-second. Turns out those tacky (I mean sticky) little stickers are really useful. Ideal Bite shares:

Look for the PLU codes on the labels stuck on your fruits and veggies.

A four-digit number means it's conventionally grown.
A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it's organic.
A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it's genetically modified.

Neat!

Go Back to School with a Green Goodbyn

I think there could be entire blogs dedicated to greening up lunchtime. Perhaps there are, but I'm too lazy to Google it right now. Enter, Seattle-based Goodbyn, a company that has created an incredibly stylish (kid-stylish) bento-style lunch box that's very eco-responsible. It's the first product from byndoo, a design braintrust developing healthy kid products.

According to the Goodbyn site, they've spent over a year researching best practices for design, production and more and have launched a lunchbox to meet needs the of kids and care givers alike.

For $34.95 you get a high quality lunch box with trays and top for any lunch combo imaginable. What's more is the cool custom art that each Goodbyn Kid can create with three sheets of stickers. And the whole thing is dishwasher safe (remember to only run full loads).

They also have a school fund raising program that gives almost 15% of the purchase price to your school. Consider looking into customizing stickers for your own school.

Neat (and tidy)!

Photo from Goodbyn

Recycling Storage from Storables

I'm in love with Storables. I can always find a solution to my organizing needs; this time it was their Medium Frosted Tote Storage Basket . I needed a handsome way to stage my daily recycling and yard waste in an open kitchen shelf next to the sink/diswasher area. These handy little baskets are $3.95 each and come in a few sizes. You don't need to buy new baskets (better if you don't), but finding a pair of attractive baskets/boxes that will hold juicy food scraps and drippy recycled glass/tin items is key to any easy, green kitchen.

Plan to empty these each night to fend off fruit fly infestions (currently battling one) and you're grinning and green!

No More Mobby (Mom/Job) Guilt with Flexjobs.com

I'm lucky or as I prefer, I worked hard to get lucky. I run a business part-time - Satsuma Designs - and get to take care of my kids the other 20 hours a day. My work background is varied and so I get to pull from a lot of different experience to run my business. But when I think about my next life/career phase I think about what I could do part-time, ideally from home. It's a totally green work solution: no commute, low overhead, less consumption (fewer lattes and trips to Anne Taylor). I know I'm not alone in dreaming about this Utopia. And today I took one more step up that ladder and discovered Flexjobs.com.

If you have an email account, then you've received nasty spam offering $700/week to become a mystery shopper or thousands a month to work at home - doing what I know not. And so the concept of finding a nicely compensated part-time, work from home gig seems impossible. Until Flexjobs.com. They're a great resource/recruiter that vets thousands of flex-time, work from home jobs in dozens of categories (sales, writing, tech, transcription...) and takes the fear out of this new work model.

There is a fee. They're running a special for their monthly service and looks like it's $49.95 for the year. They claim a 100% guarantee, which I like. The testimonial (if they're legit) are inspiring and I'm half considering a test drive.

Everyone likes options, right?

Leftover Mexican Magic: Quesadilla Redux

Enjoying leftovers is a great way to 'green' your eating. Whether it's repurposing Monday night's dinner into Tuesday's lunch or doggie bagging it out of your favorite neighborhood haunt, having tasty vittles ready to reheat and eat is easy and yes, renewable.

But what to do with those delicacies that taste MUCH better than they look after a day in the fridge, a la quesadillas or pizza. It may be hard to imagine leftover quesadillas making it into the rotation, but if you're like me, you love a BIG veggie, meat and cheese filled tortilla that may be too much for one meal.

So wrap it up and refrigerate and when you're ready to nibble it again, simply pan fry it without any oil or butter for 5 to 10 minutes and you're back on the beaches of Baja!

Muy delicioso!