Finally!!!!

In an attempt to eat foods that were not grown with pesticides, that are natural and have real flavor I wanted to try to grow some of my own vegetables this year. I think I originally received my first tomato plant as a gift back in March. The information that came along with it said I would have tomatoes in 45 days. Here we are a "few" months later and I FINALLY have some tomatoes from my own backyard. :) I will admit that I started to think it just wasn't meant to be. The Texas heat seems to be a little bit much. I guess the cooler weather in October and November is just what my little plant needed and just enough time for the bugs to take a hike.

I still plan on figuring out composting soon so that I can have some rich soil to plant a real garden this next year. For the time being I am just pleased I finally have something that I can eat. :) I actually still have about five more tomatoes and a few bell peppers in the works as well. Hopefully, the weather will still stay decent long enough for them to become ripe.

Making the switch to Renewable Energy

I was excited to change my electric company recently to Green Mountain Energy. This electric company uses renewable energy which is an energy generated from natural sources like the sun, wind or rain. In this case, Green Mountain uses wind from local wind farms. This form of energy helps to offset our carbon footprint and produces no greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide or methane. For my first month the carbon footprint reduced is equivalent to 130 miles NOT driven. Not too bad when all I did was make a phone call to switch. :)

Eating Organic

One of the main things that I keep reading about lately is eating organic. What qualifies a product as organic? I went to the National Organic Program's (NOP) website to see if there was anything to clarify what is considered organic. Depending on the product there are different guidelines that must be met for a product to be considered organic. For the details on how a product earns the label USDA Organic, click here.

This was one of the reasons why I started going to the farmer's markets to look for produce that was grown without the use of pesticides. There is definitely a difference in price (higher!) as well when you are trying to eat organic products. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised this weekend when I finally joined Costco. I couldn't believe all the organic products that were available in bulk. Being able to buy more for the same price as what I was getting at the grocery store is great, but I still can't believe the variety of organic foods that were there.

I have noticed that while I am trying to eat more organic foods I have been eating less meat. I love a good veggie burger and found a great recipe on Everyday Food. I am going to try to find some different variations but the Veggie Burger with Tahini Mayonnaise was a great start.

Disney!!!

I had the opportunity to go to Disney World for a week and was excited to see recycling bins at every park! The bins are near every trash can and you are able to recycle all bottles and cans.

There was also a line of recycled paper products available from their "Choose to Reuse" campaign; all with the cute Mickey logo pictured above. A variety of t-shirts made from organic cotton were also available.

It is great to think about all the trash that Disney is having recycled instead of adding it to our landfills. Thank you!