Green Plate "Green" Tips in Honor of Earth Day!

1. Buy Local! Buying seasonal, local food is great for the environment for a lot of reasons. Since most food travels many miles to reach your table (1,500 miles, on average), locally sourced food cuts back on the climate-change impacts of transportation. Local food also generally uses less packaging, is fresher and tastier, and comes in more varieties. Please visit the local Urban Harvest and Rice University Farmers Markets in Houston to support our local farmers and vendors.
2. Buy Organic - Organic vegetables, fruits, grains, juice, eggs, dairy and meat, are grown and processed in ways that support healthy people and a healthy planet. (While you may not be able to find or afford organic options for everything you should pay close attention to the Dirty Dozen.)
3. Feast on Fair Trade fare Fair trade certified food ensures a proper wage and working conditions for those who harvest and handle it. But fair trade is green for the environment as well. TransFair, the only fair trade certifier in the U.S., has strong environmental standards built into its certification process that protect watersheds and virgin forests, help prevent erosion, promote natural soil fertility and water conservation, and prohibit GMOs.
4. Watch out for packaging Instead of buying foods that come in extensive packaging (most of which is petroleum-based plastics) look for unpackaged/minimally packaged foods, experiment with bringing your own containers (and grocery bags) and buying in bulk, or pick brands that use bio-based plastic packing. And recycle/reuse any packaging you end up with. 
5. Grow your own veggies In the garden, in the greenhouse, in the window box, or something fancier. Even urbanites can get quite a bit of good eats from not much space. 
6. Eat less meat! Meat is the most resource-intensive food on the table and eating less of it can be the single greenest move a person makes. Producing meat requires huge amounts of water, grain, land, and other inputs including hormones and antibiotics. A pound of beef requires 12,000 gallons of water to produce. If you're a meat eater, for starters, try cutting out a serving of meat each week. 
7. Eat it raw! Eat more veggies and you will not only cut back on the energy it takes to cook food, but you will get a bigger nutritional punch in your meal! Good for you and the environment! Join a local Co-op and ensure your getting local and organic veggies for your whole family to enjoy new fruits and veggies every week. Great lessons for the kiddos on learning about how to prepare a variety of nature's bounty. My two favorite local co-ops: Central City Coop and Rawfully Organic. 
8. Green your space! You spend up to 1/3 of your life sleeping on your mattress and breathing off putting gases in your our home from paint, furniture, cabinets and materials in your home. Our Friends at New Living have you covered, they have amazing resources to help you with your family's health and Eco-conscious projects in your house or business. Plus absolutely gorgeous materials! Learn more about the most toxic health risks on your own home: Top Six Health “Intruders" in Your Home!

Green Plate Kids goes to Expo West Food show in CA!

Green Plate Kitchen went to Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA March 8-11th. Wow! What a natural foodie paradise! We met lots of wonderful companies making really great REAL food. I wanted to share with you some of our great product finds! I am always on the quest to find nutritious food that actually tastes great. I met most of the owners and learned more about the complexities of getting products on our grocery store shelves. We certainly take this convenience for granted! I knew about some of these companies and excited to see the launch of many of their new products at the show and learned about many new companies who are also making really great products. I define “really great products” as using high quality, organic, non-“processed” or artificial, non-GMO, non-hormone ingredients in their products. When I went shopping at Whole Foods last week it was a whole new experience to find most of these products there! Eureka!

And I met Tyler Florence! How cool is that?

Lisa Pounds and Tyler Florence

Prepared Foods for Children

Amy’s Kitchen of course has so many wonderful vegetarian meals. They had a HUGE representation at the show. I love their pizza and Indian frozen meals, great to have stocked in the freezer. You can find a lot of their products at Costco now.

Mom Made Foods also have frozen items for children, classic mac n’ cheese, etc. Peas of Mind, was there and just launched their new pizza with veggies in the crust! It tasted great. The owner was wonderful and very passionate about their products. I loved their puffets for when Chloe was a baby/toddler phase, you can get all your food groups covered in one little quiche like product. She loved the black bean and quinoa version. You can find their products at Whole Foods and Target, all of these items are Frozen.

Happy Family had a HUGE really neat booth with many amazing super foods for babies and toddlers. As did PlumOrganics, love the convenient pouches with mixed veggies and fruits and if you’re going to offer your little ones a special treat then the little “shreds” of fruit strips are fun and made with organic fruit juices. Plum is in almost all grocery stores and Happy Baby I have seen at Target, Whole Foods and Central Market.

Good Food Made Simple showcased their yummy burritos, oatmeal and ready to eat eggs, giving your family and healthy, portable and easy breakfast in the morning you can feel good about. No extra yucky ingredients included! Find their products in HEB and Whole Foods.

Blake’s All Natural Foods also is making REAL food more geared towards adults or older kiddos, but some really great tasting frozen entrees. And I really loved Saffron Road’s new products, Indian meals, chicken tenders, all non-hormone meats and great spices and flavors.

Healthy Snacks for the Whole Family

There seemed to be overall theme at the show on sprouted and raw products! I tasted some really interesting and creative bars and crackers. (And some not so great) Especially loved the Two Moms in the Raw, Mary’s Gone Crackers (Gluten Free and Vegan Products) and Go Raw brands (specialize in organic raw “living” foods). Love their raw bars, and lemon cookies with sprouted sesame seeds, dates and lemon (and so did my 3 ½ year old). I just picked up all of the items at Whole Foods. Bars and crackers you can feel good about eating and giving your children.

I also met the owners of Funley’s, based in CA, they make the cutest little super veggie infused crackers packaged in little single serve containers ready for the lunch box. I also saw these at Whole Foods. I loved the Cheddar N’ Stuff made with broccoli!

Awesome Veggie Pasta

Other great find: MagNoodles! This awesome Mom has made her own whole grain and veggie pasta, wow! It tastes wonderful and made with Spelt, KAMUT® brand khorasan wheat Flour, spinach, tomatoes, beets and carrots! Chloe especially loves the “pink” ones. It is in a Penne form, she is working on a medium shell and rotini with flaxseeds. You can order online directly from her and I am getting a big shipment this week and we are using in our catering and will be incorporating with our turkey meatballs and marinara, a perfect combo! Let me know if you are interested and we can source for you.

Interested in any comments or feedback you have! We are working hard on commercializing some of Green Plate Kitchen products and hope to be in grocery stores later this year!

Pictures from the show can be found on Green Plate Kitchen Facebook Page.

Please follow us on Twitter @greenplatekitchen and like us on Facebook for up to date info & tips!

And please follow my new blog, I intend to highlight healthy ideas for children, great products, education and tips for busy families who are equally as passionate and interested in health for their families and good food!

Healthy Regards,
Lisa

lisa@greenplatekitchen.com