GREEN EATS: Brown bag it baby!

Wanna know how to shed some pounds (or at least maintain), save money and time while at work? Go green and take a bag lunch. I can remember the times when I wasn't "brown bagging it" for lunch. During those times I spent $25-$30 per week on lunch and I probably wasn't eating as healthy as I should. First you buy the sandwich, or soup and a roll, then you want something sweet so now you're buying a muffin or a cookie or a candy bar (adding on fat and calories you don't need) and before you know it, your money is spent!

Preparing your lunch at home, either the night before or the morning of, saves calories and materials. Just think: when you make your own lunch you control the ingredients you are putting into your mouth. You can reuse sandwich bags, containers, and tin foil to wrap your food in. My favorite brown bag lunches to make include: veggies with pasta and an apple, hummus with pita bread and a bannana, Amy's organic meals with a piece of fruit, salad greens with avocado and a piece of fruit, and tuna/veggie sandwich with eggless/dairy free mayonnaise or mustard. I also like to add snacks such as almonds, raisins, baby carrots, rice cakes, organic fig bars, organic crackers and an assortment of fruits like pears, tangerines and mango. When I take my lunch and put thought into it, I know I'm on track with my health and saving money. Make your lunch colorful and fun! Add your favorite healthy snacks, jazz up your sandwiches and soups with seasonings and fresh produce, take some herb tea in a thermos, bring your water or juice in a reusable bottle.

Taking a brown bag lunch saves money and time. When lunch time comes you can take your full 30 minutes or 1 hour, instead of rushing to the deli or fast food joint, only to realize your time to eat has been cut short! Maybe you can actually get some reading done from your favorite book or magazine while you eat! You'll find over a period of time that you are saving more money, which will free you to invest in other things. We've heard about how people who start making their own coffee at home instead of going to the neighborhood cafe each morning, save tons of money per week and per month.

Go ahead and take your beautiful brown bag lunch, you just may inspire someone else to eat green as well.

Yours in a sea of green,

DuEwa Frazier

RECYCLE: Now you can get rid of all those magazines!

If you are like me, a lover of information, you have probably collected hundreds of magazines over the course of several months and years. A trip to the grocery store or Barnes & Noble for me, usually results in an unplanned purchase of several magazines (apart from the handful I actually have subscriptions to) and the actual necessities I had on my shopping list. So what's a mocha beauty to do with the magazines on her shelves and coffee tables after she has read them all? Recycle of course! Recyling magazines and catalogs is easy and one of the things we can do to help our environment. I started recycling my magazines two months ago. It was quite simple. All I had to do was bundle the magazines and catalogs together, then put them out along with my other recyclable waste for the city to pick up.

Here is some information I recently found on what New York City and several organizations are doing in 2008, to promote the awareness of magazine recycling to the public:

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on January 30 the New York City launch of ReMix – Recycling Magazines is Excellent! – a national public education campaign aimed at increasing residential recycling of magazines and catalogs. Joining the ReMix effort for the New York City campaign is the Hearst Corporation, Pratt Industries, Time Warner Cable, the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) and its Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) and the Department of Sanitation (DSNY)."

If you live in the New York City area, and you would like to find out more about how you can recycle your magazines and catalogs call 311 or visit http://www.nyc.gov/.

TIP FOR REUSING YOUR MAGAZINES:

Do you have children? Are you a child at heart who loves visually stimulating works of art or DIY crafts? Well why not create a beautiful, one of a kind, collage with your old magazines and catalogs?

• Step one: Gather your old magazines, glue sticks, glitter, medium and large size contruction paper in various colors, and markers.


• Step two: Review the pages of your magazines to decide upon which images and text you would like to use for yours or your childrens' collage.


• Step three: Have a theme or subject in mind. Let's say you want to make a collage that represents all the things you love about summer. You can look for pictures and words that describe summer, the activities you do in the summer and how you feel during the summer months. For example: pictures of people or children playing at the beach, words such as "fun", "sun", "joy", "hot", and "relax". You can also cut out letters to create your own words and paste them together on your construction paper.


• Step four: Cut out your images, letters and word phrases and decide how to place them in an overlapping, aesthetically pleasing structure on your construction paper. Note -- there should be no "empty" space on your collage. All the construction paper background should be covered by the beautiful words and images you paste on to it.


• Step five: You can create your own "picture frame" or border around your collage, by cutting out images or background color from magazine pages and pasting it around the edges of your collage.


• Step six: After you have pasted all of the words and images on your construction paper, you can finish it by sprinkling a little craft glitter on the areas that may still be wet from your gluestick. This gives your collage a little shimmer!


• Step seven: If there is room, somewhere on the collage, cut out the letters of your first name or your child's first name and glue it in the center of the collage. Or you can write your name on the back of it with a marker that will not bleed through.


• The final product will be a one of a kind piece of artwork that is fun for you or your children to look at. You can have it framed or laminated if you like!

Here is an article on magazine collage which you may find helpful!

Yours in a sea of green,

DuEwa Frazier

RECYCLE & REUSE: Here's How

I live in New York City and here it is the law to recycle. Like most major cities across the country, there is a recycling regime put into place for all residents. Whether you live in a house, a privately owned building, apartment, condo or co-op, it is mandatory to recycle. When I first moved into my apartment a few years ago, my landlord had containers and large cans clearly marked: 'TRASH', 'CARDBOARD', and 'BOTTLES/CANS.' When I dropped my bags or bundles of trash in the large cans in front of my building, I assumed that my landlord and/or building superintendent was recycling. Just a year ago I found out that he didn't always separate the recyclable bottles and related waste for the recycling pick-up. This bothered me. I took the time to separate my trash (only the bottles and cardboard) accordingly, and so I wondered why each week he didn't seem to be putting the recycling out. That's when I called NYC information at 311 and asked them what are a tenants duties to recycle. The representative informed me that landlords/building owners are required to recycle and that they would receive a hefty fine for not doing so. I was like, "Wow!" I knew my landlord wouldn't want to be fined. Just to help along the process, I started religiously gathering up all of my recyclable trash waste each week (not forgetting to do it at times, as I had in the past). My landlord started to see me putting my own recycle bags out on the curb for the city to pick up on Fridays. It didn't bother him, he probably figured I was making it easier on him. I decided I wanted to be more conscious of this process. Of all the things I've accumulated through the years, I thought surely I could be doing more to recycle my waste besides separating cardboard and bottles. That's when I decided to go online and look at the entire list of items that should be recycled here in New York City if you live in an apartment, home, etc.

What I found is that I could separate into a clear blue bag (here in my apt.) the following items and more: printer paper, newspaper, boxes from food product (like the boxes of rice, veggie burgers, cereal boxes), aluminum foil, junk mail, used envelopes, etc. After becoming aware of this and beginning to be more conscious on a daily basis to recycle, I realized I could recycle in other ways too. After I print something from my computer, if I'm not mailing it or giving it to someone, I reuse the other side and print on the same paper again!

How happy that made me to be able to do that. I now include the .99cent little box of clear blue recycling bags in my weekly grocery list. And I even try to use my own tote or reusable grocery bag, If I know in advance that I'm going to stop at the grocery store and shop (provided that I'm not buying too much). Another thing I do is when I'm finished with a cleaning product, hand soap pump, room mist spray bottle or lotion bottle, I figure out another way to reuse it before recycling it. Don't get me wrong, I really don't like to have a bunch of unused bottles. I only have but so much closet and dresser space to store them, but it's worth it to find multiple uses.

USES FOR EMPTY PRODUCT BOTTLES:

• Spray bottles: try filling it up with water and a fragrant oil to naturally scent your place


• Lotion bottles: if you have a bunch of product samples such as conditioner, shampoo or travel size lotion try combining the same type of product into a larger bottle and then get rid of the small ones (or only use them if you're traveling)


• Other small/medium size bottles or jars: If you're going to your buildings laundry mat downstairs or the neighborhood laundry, use one of your empty product containers to put 2 or more cups of detergent in. Now you won't have to lug your gallon of detergent with you

Go online or call your City's information number to find out how you can become more aware of how to recycle and grow more conscious about your home's waste.

Here's what your city may be doing to RECYCLE!

Philadelphia Recycle NOW

Washington, DC Recycling

Atlanta Recycling

St. Louis Recycling Program

Detroit Recycle

Los Angeles Recycle

Miami Recycle

Cleveland Recycle

Yours in a sea of green,

DuEwa Frazier