“I’m bringing a salad Rob! It doesn’t have dairy.” Is that the usual response when someone invites you over for a birthday party? A normal person would say, “Awesome! Thanks for inviting me. Can I bring anything?”

Last time when I was home, I copied a bunch of recipes from my mom’s cookbook and I’ve been waiting to make this Crunchy Salad.

So, when I called on Saturday to make sure we were still on. I got a message back:

That’s great Kee, but the party is next Saturday.

CRUNCHY SALAD

1 bag cole slaw

1 cup sunflower seeds

2 packages Oriental Ramen noodles

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Wesson oil

1 cup white vinegar

Dump everything in a bowl, crunch one package of the Ramen, mix in two of the seasoning packets and chill for a bit.

Mmmm. Ummmm. These are so good. Like so good you’ll want to look at them and say, “Thank you little muffin for being so darn tasty.”

It’s great to find local, in season food. When you shop this way you can cut down on the carbon emissions trucks produce to get food to you, support local farmers and the food just tastes better. I’ve got a link in my blogroll to the Arizona Farmer’s Market Web site. Find the one in your neighborhood.

Here’s the recipe for Blueberry Muffins.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 4 large muffins.

• 1 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, cubed
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

(this post is a little late, but this is how my Green Week ended)

I’ve learned so much this week and become aware of so many other things I can incorporate into my everyday life. This week has given way to so many great conversations.

At work, I have people asking me how we can incorporate recycling in our office. How great is that?! If people want to know how we can do it there, I hope that means they’re looking to see how they can do it at home.

Personally, I’ve had friends share some things they’re incorporating into their everyday lives. Molly is working in a more corporate environment and she’s recycling her hangers. Another friend, put a recycling bin in the kitchen and a third is composting. How awesome is that?

Thank you to everyone who shared some tip or words of encouragement, this week has been really fulfilling for me.

Now, there was one piece of unfinished business. My office trash can. If you’ll remember, I confessed that I was guilty of filling it up multiple times a day. My office mate on the other hand, hardly tossed anything out.

Here’s where I was on Friday. One small plastic bag, a tissue, a string cheese wrapper and 2 pieces of chewed gum. How about that!

Chicken.

That’s what I am. I was at a wine party on Wednesday night when I noticed that the hostess was tossing all the wine bottles in the trash. I saw it happen, I thought, “Just ask her if you can take the bottles home.”

I didn’t. I chickened out. I feel bad.

Geeks can be greenies too. Before AfricanKelli’s challenge, I was very envious of my office mate’s trash can. Now hear me out before you think I’m over the top strange.

I noticed that there was never anything in his trash can. I on the other hand had to have the crew clean mine out by mid day to make room for more crap.

As part of my challenge this week, I also wanted to see how little I could toss out this week. I’m doing really good so far.

There’s a tie into geeks…just wait for it.

So, we (he and I) have been talking about different eco things we do. He mentioned that he had read about the energy used for white screens (ie, the white search engine screen on Google).

I’ll let you be the judge on if you want to make the switch or not. Read up on it for yourself here.

Which has less impact powder or liquid laundry detergent? I haven’t given it much thought until this week. I’ve found a few different forums discussing the pros and cons of each.

I decided to go with the powdered on this trip because of the information point I found on the ClintonFoundation.org web site. 

I also found a homemade laundry soap recipe, sounds interesting. I’ll let you know if I’m able to try it.

Homemade Laundry Soap

3 pints water
1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup washing soda
1 quart hot water
cold water
Mix fels naptha soap in a saucepan with 3 pints of [w]ater. Heat on low until barely dissolved. Stir in borax and washing soda. Stir until thickened, then remove from heat. Add l quart hot water to 2 gallon bucket. Add soap mixture to bucket and mix well. Pour soap mixture into the bucket, mix well. Fill bucket with cold water and mix again. Let set for 24 hrs. If too thick or separated, stir before use. Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry.
I can make this in the US for about 75 cents a gallon. It works great. There are no sudsing fillers so your clothes won’t get stiff and need fabric softeners. I use it as a pretreat on stains, too. It has saved me a lot of money. If you’d like to put this on the money saving tips forum I’d be flattered and it might be helpful to somebody on a tight budget.

That’s the challenge AfricanKelli.com gave to her readers last week. I’ve been doing small things, but like a lot of us I could do better. I took those words to heart and this week, I’m going to see if I can break some habits. Check out the Flickr group to see what other ideas people had.

Iced tea got a lot of discussion this past week on Andrea’s Recipes. I can see how it is one of those things where everybody has their own secret or technique for brewing tea.

I found this Blueberry Iced Tea recipe in a Southern Living magazine. It was very refreshing. I used less blueberries and half the sugar and the result was a milder blueberry taste.

Have you heard the advertisements on Food Network for Ingrid Hoffmann’s new show Simply Delicioso. I hope her show in English is a success.

I used the basic tamale casserole recipe and added and subtracted a few things to get what you see below. It’s yummy.

Dance as if no one is watching. Yesterday on my flight home, some very interesting people sat around me and the thought of dancing as if no one is watching went through my mind.

The person to my left across the isle, a heavy metal kind of guy, black steal toe boots, HD t-shirt and listening to music loud enough where I could hear it. Let me tell you, he was playing every air instrument you could think of; Guitar, drums, keyboards. Sometimes all three at once.

The person sitting to my right was a quiet crossword puzzle guy. Button up short sleeved shirt, brown belt and khaki pants. Every so often, I spotted him conducting to an invisible orchestra.

The couple behind me were on their way to a cruise. They were having a discussion about what birds they were going to see in Alaska. If the lady knew the bird sound, she would start imitating bird sounds and he would either confirm or deny the accuracy of it.

Dance as if no one is watching. I was so moved by these people all engaged in something I hope they were passionate about.

My mom is really proud of her tomato plant.