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Nov 01
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Call Me Sasquatch

By BBBlog

What do you know about your carbon footprint? What is a carbon footprint? According to Carbon Earth ( http://www.carbonearth.co.uk/carbon-footprint-facts.htm). Your carbon footprint is a measure of how your home and social activities impact the earth/environment in relation to the greenhouse gases you produce each year (measured in tons of carbon dioxide). Do you know how you measure up? Neither did I until I used this handy-dandy footprint calculator. http://www.carbonearth.co.uk/CarbonEmission.asp#Your_personal_carbon_footprint_calculator. I’m not exactly Sasquatch in relation to my fellow Americans, but in terms of the rest of the world, I’m the Abominable Snowman. And so are you. The only bright spot: While the average American’s carbon footprint is still much larger than China’s average citizen, China did surpass the US in total carbon emissions by about 80 percent in 2011. Clearly, there’s some tarnish on that silver lining, but we’re grasping at positive straws here.

So, what to do? It’s a big world and you’re only one person, right? Yes, but we would argue that change starts with one person. It’s the whole pebble-in-the-water/ripple-effect thing. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint today—right now—where should you start? If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times, start with buying local and buying organic. If you bought it from the farmer right outside of town instead of flying it in from Peru, think about all the gas you’d save. And that’s just the beginning of the benefits! Just for the record, we would like to add “eat seasonal” to this rule, as well. It only makes sense.

What else? Keep the packaging to a minimum. Try to frequent stores that keep their packaging scarce, like offering loose tomatoes instead of ones wrapped in plastic. In general, regarding resources, choose plastic over paper, but the best choice is reusable shopping bags. Bring them yourself. You don’t have to worry so much about the packaging at Brown Bag because we did it for you. We use plant-based, petroleum-free packaging that is biodegradable and compostable. We buy post-consumer products and choose recycled products whenever possible, too. We enjoy doing our part.

Here’s something you can do right now that’s super-easy: Unplug electronics that you don’t use all that often and/or aren’t in use. Did you know that LCD TVs use about 43 percent more electricity than old-style picture-tube sets? Electronics, even in standby mode, continue to draw energy. Unplug it when you’re not watching! Easier still—use a power strip and flick everything off at once. Done! How about reduce/reuse/recycle? Still a great way to shrink that footprint!

Try holding onto your old car if it’s in good working order. Yes, hybrids are great and we’re grateful to have them, but if you don’t need a new car yet, don’t buy one. It takes a lot of energy to build a hybrid (or any car, for that matter). Speaking of transportation, why not try the bus, train or subway? Or schedule your flights into non-stop trips whenever possible. Do you really want to stop in Chicago on your way from New York to Miami? We think not. You’ll get to the beach faster and save some fuel if you just go direct. Think about paying a few dollars more to do your part.

Other easy ways to shrink your big foot are: bundle your errands, turn your water heater to vacation mode (or turn it off!) while you’re away, use native plants in your landscaping, use cold water for laundry, and ditch your bottled water! Try filtering your water at home and using a refillable water bottle instead.

You have more power than you think, Sasquatch. Power to create problems and power to fix them them. Try the carbon footprint calculator, think about your life and some easy ways you could change it daily. Here’s an easy way to start—come to The Brown Bag for breakfast and lunch where we’ve put a lot of thought into what we can do every day to trim our carbon footprint. Your one simple decision pays it forward and multiplies. Wasn’t that easy?

Oct 23
Love0

Better Than It Sounds: Pumpkin Gut Soup Stock

By BBBlog

You’ve found your pumpkin, scooped it out, carved it up and put a light in it. You have a pile of what can best be described as “pumpkin guts” leftover. What to do? Seems like a shame to waste all of that pumpkin, right? This year’s goal?  Use the whole pumpkin. The entire thing. No waste. But what to do?

Let’s pretend you’ve already carved your jack-o-lantern and start with the guts. Our favorite way to enjoy at least part of the guts? Roast the seeds! Here’s how: Separate all of the seeds from the slimy, stringy stuff. When you’ve got them all in their separate piles, you can rinse the seeds and get any excess pumpkin off of them or you can leave it there—your decision. Next step—get ready to roast! It used to be that people just took the seeds, spread them out in a single layer and let them dry for a day or so. These days, we don’t have to wait. So, take 2 cups of your pumpkin seeds and toss them in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of melted butter or olive oil (we recommend the olive oil—you’re eating seeds, so keep it healthy!), and a teaspoon of salt. Put them on a baking sheet, spread them out into a single layer and roast them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until they are golden brown. Stir the seeds around every ten minutes so they roast evenly.

That’s our simplest recipe. Want to add a little spice? One way is to stick to the above recipe but also add ½ teaspoon of cumin and one teaspoon of cayenne pepper. How about a little spicy and sweet combo? Try this: Whisk together one egg white, ¼ cup natural can sugar, ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, and a ½ teaspoon of fine-grained sea salt, then add your pumpkin seeds and toss them around a bit. Put it all in a strainer and get rid of the excess egg white, then spread the seeds in a thin layer on your baking sheet and roast at 375 for about 12 minutes or until the seeds are golden. When you take them out of the oven, sprinkle with a little more sugar and cayenne, and season with more salt if you need to. For more recipes, try this link: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001524.html

Now that the seeds are taken care of, on to the rest of the guts! What you’ve got left after the seeds have been removed is basically strings and slime, as we mentioned before. Make sure that there’s no pumpkin rind mixed in with your goo. Take all of the sliminess and put it into a food processor and process until it looks and feels like baby food. It might be a little watery and yucky looking, but trust us—this is way better than canned. Your pumpkin pie never had it so good! At this point, it’s ready to use in breads, pies, etc. Two cups (or 16 oz) is equal to one can of pumpkin.

We promised Pumpkin Gut Soup Stock, didn’t we? If you want soup stock, don’t put your pumpkin guts in the food processor. Put all of your pumpkin goop (with or without seeds) in a stock pot full of water. Feel free to throw in any other veggie parts you may have around that you were going to toss out, like carrot and celery tops—they’ll add flavor. Boil this little witch’s brew for 30 minutes or so (or until it starts to change color), then strain all the veggie pieces out and—voila!—Pumpkin Gut Soup Stock! Use it in soups, casseroles or whatever. It freezes well, too!

Want a few more ways to get the most out of this year’s jack-o-lantern? Try these tips:

  1. Make a healthy facial mask. Take your pureed pumpkin (about 5 teaspoons) and add 3 teaspoons of brown sugar and a splash of milk. Mix it up, slather it on in a nice circular motion (exfoliation tip), and sit back for 20 minutes or so. Stay away from the eye area and beware: This concoction smells good, so be prepared for a slice of pumpkin pie after to satisfy your sure-fire craving.
  2. If pumpkin isn’t your thing, give it to someone who likes it—feed it to your backyard critters! Birds will love the seeds, and you can cut the pumpkin into fourths for the deer to munch.
  3. Make a pumpkin planter. After you’ve de-gutted your pumpkin, fill it with dirt, plant a flower of your choice, and let it decorate your front porch for a few days. When you’re finished, plant the entire pumpkin in the ground—the pumpkin will naturally decay and serve as fertilizer for the plant.
  4. Make pumpkin bowls for serving soup (remember that soup stock?).
  5. Compost! When your jack-o-lantern, pumpkin bowls, etc are kaput, throw that pumpkin in the compost bin or straight into the garden. It will naturally decay and you can till it into the soil in the spring. Happy summer veggies!

As if all of these things weren’t reason enough to use every part of your pumpkin this year, consider this:  Pumpkin is really good for you. Pumpkin is a low calorie vegetable that packs an antioxidant punch! It has loads of vitamin A, and flavonoid poly-phenolic antioxidants such as leutin, xanthin, and carotenes. Carve away, eat up, enrich the soil, help your skin! We don’t care just how you use all that your jack-o-lantern has to offer—just use it all!

We love to hear from you! If you have comments or questions about this blog, please ‘Like’ us on Facebook and tell us there!

Oct 17
Love0

Eat What’s Now

By BBBlog

Since the beginning of time, cultures all over the world have been eating seasonally and lots of them continue to do so.  Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Greek are good examples of cultures that serve up what’s fresh right now.  So, what do all of these cuisines have in common besides their habit of going from farm to table?  They are consistently held up as some of the healthiest (and tastiest!) cuisines in the world.  And they all eat seasonally.

If you go to your local Safeway, Whole Foods, etc., you can find just about any fresh fruit or veggie that you want at any time of the year, right?  And that’s a great convenience if you have a sudden craving for watermelon in January, but there are some compelling reasons to put your watermelon fixation on the back burner until July.  I have one right now:  As I’m writing this blog, I’m snacking on a watermelon that I just bought this morning.  I guess I’m not quite ready to give up on August even though it’s October, and I really wanted some nice, fresh watermelon.  But guess what?  It’s not good.  It’s so not good that I am seriously considering tossing it out.  This morning at the grocery store, I was faced with a decision between two equally pale pink quarters of melon.  They looked the same, so I grabbed one and brought it home.  Even though they looked the same, they didn’t look like the lovely watermelons that I ate this summer—red and ripe and full of deliciousness.  I can’t even pinpoint what this watermelon tastes like exactly, but I can say this:  It doesn’t taste like summer.  So much for a craving.  Watermelon is now marked on the calendar for July or so.  I’ll miss you watermelon, but your unequal fall counterpart just isn’t getting it.

Which brings me to my first point:  Fruits and veggies out of season just don’t taste as good.  You don’t like watermelon?  Go try a hot-house tomato in December.  It’s a pale substitute for fresh-from-the-garden or just-got-it-at-the-farmers-market, isn’t it?  What I can tell you will be really good this time of year is pumpkin!  Or squash!  How about them apples?  Want the full kale effect?  Go get some!  Not only will it taste better when it’s harvested in its natural season, but it will actually have more of the great vitamins and nutrients that it’s so famous for!  Many commercial fruits and veggies are picked before their peak ripeness (which also happens to be before they’ve reached their peak nutritional value) to avoid spoiling in transport and storage, so by the time they reach you, not only have they lost (or never fully matured to) some of their natural tastiness, they’ve lost some of the nutrients you were looking for in the first place. 

Still want your summer fruits in January?  Okay, how about this?  Hold to your eat local/eat seasonal creed by purchasing lots of good stuff that you love from local farmers in the summer and freeze it for winter use.  Wait a second, you say, aren’t I losing nutrients again?  Yes, a bit, BUT think about this:  Fruits and veggies that are intended for freezing are usually picked much closer to their peak ripeness time (so you avoid that pesky tasteless problem that comes from out-of-season veggies), and freezing depletes some nutrients but it locks in the rest for up to 12 months!  Here’s a tip:  To help your fruits and veggies pack the most vitamin C punch (which is so important to help fight off germs in the winter months), don’t thaw them before you cook them.  Studies show that veggies that are cooked from their frozen state hold onto their vitamin C much more effectively than those that are thawed first.

Need more reasons to eat seasonally?  Here are a few:

  1. It’s cheaper.  Supply and demand dictate that if you have a truckload of watermelons in August, and two in October, the price will be lower in August.  I can attest to this personally as I paid more than $2 more this morning for my melon slice than I did this summer for a the whole shebang.  Cravings are expensive.

  2. It’s Earth friendly.  We’ve said it before, but it can’t hurt to repeat it:  Eat local (therefore seasonal) and your carbon footprint shrinks.  Your “food mileage” decreases, less pesticides are likely used, and there is less need for genetic modification.

  3. You’ll be forced to vary your diet and get creative in the kitchen. 

  4. The natural produce cycle supports our health.  Apples in fall are great for transitioning to cooler weather because they help the body shed excess heat and cool down for the winter.  Spring’s leafy greens help us detox and shed a few pounds after a winter of heavy eating; and in summer, the abundance of berries and melons help us cool off and stay hydrated.

  5. Need another reason?  How about this:  When summer rolls back around again, and you creep out of your house blinking at the sun, won’t that fresh from the garden tomato be mind-blowingly delicious on your first tomato sandwich of the season?  Absence makes the heart grown fonder, indeed.  If nothing else, when you’re freezing in February, you’ll have something to look forward to.

I’m going to finish this watermelon even though it doesn’t taste so great, and then I’m going to hit my local apple orchard and replace my craving because this time of year those apples are going to taste more like apples than they ever did in March.  Here’s hoping you do the same.  Happy curry potato and kale soup!  Happy pumpkin bisque! Happy seasonal eating!

Oct 08
Love0

Meatless Mondays, Anyone?

By BBBlog

Maybe you’ve heard of a movement called “Meatless Mondays” that’s trying to get people to give up meat one day a week, and you’re wondering why.  Why should you give up meat for a day?  What’s the pay-off?  Maybe you’re thinking that if you want to do something good for your health, you’ll make sure to eat fish once a week.  Isn’t that enough?

Maybe it is for you, but Meatless Monday isn’t just about you and improving your eating habits or making you a healthier person.  Certainly, that’s a goal, but there’s a bigger picture at work here and it’s one that’s close to The Brown Bag’s heart. Giving up meat one day a week is really good for the Earth, too.

The United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that roughly one-fifth of the world’s man-made greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the meat industry. Take this statistic from the Environmental Working Group’s Meat-Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health: “If your four-person family skips steak 1 day a week [for a year], it’s like taking your car off the road for almost 3 months.”   Did you know that beef produces twice the emissions of pork, four times as much as chicken, and 13 times as much as vegetable proteins like beans, lentils, and tofu?  What’s even more eye opening:  Americans throw away roughly 20% of what we produce, so all of those emissions are really for nothing after all.  That’s kind of sad.

And what about water?  Do you know how much water livestock consumes everyday?  We didn’t either, but according to www.meatlessmonday.com, 1800 to 2500 gallons of water are used for one pound of beef.  A large portion of the country has been in a drought this summer; maybe this Monday you could help out by saying no to that cheese burger and eating a salad or other vegetarian option instead.

What else can you do?  Look for meat from grass-fed or pasture-raised animals from farmers who raise their livestock humanely and sustainably.  Eat fruits and vegetables that are in season where you live, and eat local food that doesn’t have to be shipped to you from across the world but just from across town or right outside the city.  That’s what Brown Bag does.  Whenever we can, we choose locally sourced products for our restaurants.  We also use wind power to run our stores and we always purchase Energy Star equipment.  We have recycling stations in all of our locations, and we use packaging that is biodegradable and compostable.  At The Brown Bag, we’re trying to do our part; it’s important to us and we hope it’s important to you.

The most immediate effects of going meatless once a week are really on you, your health, your life on Earth.  We’re not going to go into all the reasons you should limit your intake of red meat, eat more veggies, etc.  You know that already.  Our point is that we can all do a little something to help the world and ourselves.  Maybe it’s just one day a week.  Maybe you’ll like your new veggie dishes so much, you’ll decide to have your own Meatless Wednesdays and Fridays, too.  Or maybe you’ll feel a little better about walking into a restaurant or grocery store and knowing that your mindfulness has added a little more green to the world.  Whatever the reason, think about giving Meatless Mondays a try.  We’ll help.  Come into The Brown Bag and ask about vegetarian options; we’ll steer you in delicious directions—promise.

Consider bringing healthy options for you and the Earth to your community.  The Brown Bag is franchising!  Check out our franchising pages at https://brownbagonline.com/franchise/ for more information.