Turkey Day is almost here and every year I post plenty of do it yourself decorations, crafts and activities to green up your Thanksgiving. There are some tips I mention over and over because they are that important. Thanksgiving has become a holiday of gluttony and not thanks for anything in my opinion. Try really being thankful this year and try to give back to the earth.

1. Save the seeds from your dinner and plant them when you can. You can also include the dried and cleaned seeds in a holiday gift for people who attended your Thanksgiving. Give them something to remind them how thankful they should be. You should be thankful for those seeds, they gave you a great meal.  Maybe if properly cared for you can serve those very veggies at your next holiday meal.

2. STAY LOCAL! Get your produce from local farm stands or local grocers. This season for fall harvesting didn’t do that well for some fruits and veggies. I know by me apples took a hard hit locally. You want to keep your neighborhood from becoming a ghost town? You want to make sure you have places to spend your money near you than purchase from around you. Not at the chain places at the Mom and Pop places. Helping your community helps you.

3. Compost all of your leftovers. If you can’t give things away,eat them all or reuse them in other recipes compost them for your yard. No need to throw food into the trash. Depending on what we have I make yummy meals for our pets. I know I am thankful for them so I share to make sure they know it.

4. Use as little packaging and throw away utensils as possible. I personally don’t appreciate disposable items. Not because of their wastefulness but because I feel like you are telling your guests you don’t have the time for real utensils or that they aren’t worth it. I understand disposing is easy but you can put that much more effort into a meal you have slaved all day over and make it look that much nicer. Again, remember show your guests you are Thankful for them!

5. Conserve Energy where you can. Your house is going to obviously get hot with all of the cooking, eating and people in the near vicinity. Turn your heat down or off (depending on the temp. outside) and open some windows. Let’s not forget to not turn every light and electrical gadget on in the house the entire time. While people are cooking try to get people to go outside and be active. Don’t have multiple tv’s, video games and lights on in the house. Force your friends and family to spend time with each other. You will be thankful you saved on your bill the month before the real spending begins.

6. Potluck? I know some people take pride in cooking the whole meal but think of the time and energy everyone saves if they are in charge of bringing one or two things. Everyone gets to actually sit, relax and enjoy time with their friends and family. Try it, you might be thankful that you did!

7. NO TURKEY PLEASE!!! I can read off a ton of statistics about how horribly turkeys are treated and the processes but that isn’t going to make most of you listen. I don’t expect all of you to listen but I hope some do. There are plenty of delicious options to having turkey on your plate. The photo is Tofurkey which looks delish! You can go with other less traditional and or vegan dishes. Get creative. Just because it is called Thanksgiving aka Turkey Day doesn’t mean we can’t change it to Tofurkey Day. If they called it Horse day would we have to eat horse????

Apple Pie Dip

Dip Ingredients:
2 cups peeled, cored, and diced organic apples
1 1/2 teaspoon organic fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 teaspoons organic brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons organic apricot preserves
1/4 teaspoon organic cinnamon
2 teaspoons organic raw honey

Chip Ingredients:
5 (6-inch) organic flour tortillas
2 tablespoons organic butter or vegan substitute, melted
1/2 teaspoon organic cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons organic brown sugar

Directions:
1.Combine all the dip ingredients in a bowl, then cover with foil and bake in oven until soft at 350 or 400 degrees. Check on them repeatedly to make sure the apples don’t get mushy. You can leave the foil off for a few minutes to toast the top.

2. Once the apples are finished cooking you can ether serve them warm or put the apples in the fridge to chill.

3.Brush the tortillas with butter, then cut them into wedges.

4.Arrange the wedges on a greased baking sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake at 350º F until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let them cool before serving.

You can add Different fruit preserves or some fresh sage or cloves to switch up the taste, even pecans! This is a simple, delicious and healthy alternative to desert dips. When you are already pigged out and over stuffed it is sometimes nice to add something healthy to the mix.

Apple Cider Tini

I can smell Halloween in the air which makes me soo excited. In honor of fall and my excited0ness I have found the perfect fall drink to perk up my spirits and hopefully yours as well.

Ingredients:
Prairie Organic Vodka
4 oz organic fresh apple cider or instant (fresh usually tastes better)
4 oz Prairie Vodka
1 oz organic lemon juice
1 tsp organic cinnamon
Organic Cinnamon Sticks
6 or 8 organic apples (any once you prefer)

Directions:

1. Take your apples and cut the tops off. You can use an apple corer or a melon baller to remove the middle of the apples. You can also save the inside to make fresh apple sauce with. Waste not want not. Put the finished apples in the fridge.

2. Mix the cider, cinnamon and vodka together and put in fridge.

3. When you are ready to serve you can pour the cider into the apple cups and garnish with a cinnamon stick in each cup. You can also use brown sugar and cinnamon to line the top of the apple for added taste.

You can use warm cider as well if you want to spice up your party fun. I would still keep the apples either warm or room temperature. You can use this drink for a Thanksgiving or Halloween Party.

Gobble Gobble

Ingredients:
1 Organic Apple
1 Organic Clementine
1 Organic Pear
Organic Dried Apricots
Organic Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter
Handful of Organic Mini chocolate chips
Organic Unsalted Cashews
Organic Dried Cranberries

Directions:

1. Slice the clementine and apple into pieces but cut the pear in half. Make sure to remove all cores and seeds.

2. Arrange apple and clementine on a plate and lay a cored pear half on top.

3. Use scissors to cut the dried apricot in half. Cut small triangles from each half and stick them under the pear so it looks like feet.

4. Take the peanut butter to attach mini chocolate chip eyes, nut beak, and the dried cranberry snood.

This is a great after school snack. You can substitute the fruit for vegetables and cream cheese or dip!

Pumpkin-tini

Ingredients:
1 oz. Organic Vanilla Vodka,
½ oz. Orange Curacao,
1 oz. pumpkin liqueur,
½ oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream,
a splash butterscotch Schnapps
Ice

Directions:
Mix the ingredients in the above order. Shake in the ice, then pour and sprinkle with ¼ tsp. pumpkin pie spice. For added “pumpkin pie” effect, rim the glass with fresh lemon juice and crushed graham crackers or you could coat the rim with carmel and brown sugar or even butter scotch and a little whipped cream! As a final decoration put a small cinnamon stick in there to use as a stirrer. Try to make all of your ingredients as organic and green as possible. I know liquor wise it is sometimes difficult but sometimes you find wonderful variations if you look hard enough!

Green Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here and I know you might be wondering how you can make your holiday meal as green as possible so I have been doing my research! After reading many green articles these are the points I have seen the most:

1. Go Vegetarian! The clearest way to go green is to not buy a turkey and just have a complete vegetarian meal. Meat eating has a serious effect on our environment. However I feel most people either don’t believe how bad it is or would say our 1 turkey won’t make a difference so I have an alternative. Find a turkey as locally as possible. Even ones you can kill yourself. I think this may have enough of an impact on your family to not want to eat any animals again. If that option is also not available go as organic, hormone free and free range as possible. Convincing people to go green isn’t always as quick a process as we would like so try to compromise without ruining the fun of the holiday.

2. Go Organic!Buy all of your foods and ingredients organically. Most local grocery stores carry organic brands. Don’t be fooled by all natural that isn’t regulated by the government so any company can safely say all natural and technically mean it.

3. Go Packageless! Find items with as little packaging as possible. Usually if you are buying fresh fruits and vegetables no packing is necessary just pick the items out of the bins. If packaging is a must try to find items that are packaged in reusable ways so after Thanksgiving you can use the packaging to give out left overs or store other food.

4. Go Potluck!: At any event it is only good manners to never go any where empty handed. Take advantage of this for large holidays. Ask each guest to bring 1 item and let you know ahead of time so you can plan accordingly. The host can save on money, no one will be stuck with massive amounts of left overs and if you also ask your guests to bring their own tupperware they can take home any left overs they want!

5. Go Reusable!Since this is a huge meal and you want it to look nice don’t use paper utensils. Go all out! Use the good stuff. I know washing dishes is a pain but again if people bring their own items and bring something to carry left overs in that cuts the amount of dishes you will use down considerably. This will also help you save water. You won’t be able to avoid doing dishes at all but if you set up an assembly line of a washer, dryer and then someone to put the dishes away it won’t be so much of a chore.

6. Use less energy!You will be cooking in the kitchen which will keep some of the house warm. There will also be many people in one area so instead of putting the heat on full blast use small decorative sand bags around windows and doors to keep the heat in. If it is too hot no need for the a/c just open a few windows around the house! It is winter after all so take advantage of the natural air conditioning.

7. Decorate Creatively! Reuse old decorations from last year. No need to buy new ones. When shopping for decorations make sure you look for ones you know will withstand the test of time. Also look online for decorations you can make out of house hold items or even ones you can incorporate into the dinner.

8. Stay Local!Participate in the 100-Mile Thanksgiving challenge from Treehugger. If you haven’t heard of it yet click here. It is very important to keep all of your meals as local as possible. This is a great way to keep local economies afloat as well as creating much less waste and pollution.

9. Give Back!The reason for Thanksgiving is to give thanks sooooo, in doing so maybe make it a new family tradition to plant something in honor of the day. Plant Trees as a Gift.

10. Get Carbon Credits!If you cannot get out of staying local for your holiday event then you can purchase a carbon credit to make up for it. A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e).

11. Donate Your Fat! Many companies now use animal fats and oils to turn into bio fuel. This is a way businesses can save money. Check out your local businesses and see where you can make a donation.

12. Stay Green! Use the tips and ideas from this holiday and carry them over to every holiday or event you attend. The more often you incorporate greenness into your lifestyle the quicker it becomes second nature. You can also encourage others in your circle to do the same!

If you have any other tips or ideas let us know! We would love to hear them all!! Send in your pictures or tips and we will post them on the Beagle!

Turkey-tacular Placecards

Supplies:
Wiggle Eyes
Low Temp Glue Gun
Organic Almonds in Shell
Organic Small Apples
Organic Round Hard Candies
Organic Peanuts In-Shell
Ideal Home Sustainably Harvested Napkins
Recycled Paper Clips
Recycled Construction Paper

Instructions:

1. Glue your turkeys eyes to almond and let dry.
2. Glue the hard candy to front of apple and let dry.
3. Glue the almond to the hard candy and let dry.
4. Glue peanut below almond for turkey’s wattle.
5. Unfold napkin halfway, then fold back and forth like you would a fan.
6. Put a paper clip in the center of the folded napkin.
7. Pull ends of folded napkin together and then secure it with a paper clip at top .
8. Place the napkin behind the turkey or you can use a little hot glue to attach it.
9. Unbend one end of a paper clip and insert into apple. Use it to hold place card.
10. Cut placecard from colored paper.
11. Write the guests name on it
12. Decorate the name card any way you wish or leave it plain.

Tiny Turkey Snacks

Ingredients:

Cocktail Pumpernickel Bread
Organic Cream Cheese (any flavor you like)
Organic Peas
Organic Red, Yellow, Green or Orange sweet pepper
Organic Carrot Slivers
Organic Cheese Slices
Organic Whole Cashews
Organic Slivered Almonds
Organic Parsley or Dill sprigs

Directions:

1, For each sandwich, spread the cream cheese between 2 slices of the bread and then stick them together.

2. For a head, use a small round cookie cutter to cut circles from another slice of bread, then attach the circle to the top of the sandwich with a dab of cream cheese.

3. To add faces like pea eyes, a slice of pepper or carrot for a snood (the thing over the beak), then you can use a pepper, cheese, or cashew as a beak.

4. Then for the body you can stick some peppers, slivered-almonds, carrot slices or parsley or dill-sprigs for feathers in between the slices. You can attach veggies to any part of the turkey you want and stick it on with cream cheese or even honey.

This same snack can be used with different fruits and pb & j! I always say get as creative as you want! There are no limits to your tiny turkeys!

Urban Harvest Farmers Market vendors are gearing up for the upcoming holiday with turkey, vegetables galore, cheeses, prepared food and much more.
The market will host cooking and design demonstrations for visitors to the market. Chef Ryan Pera of The Grove Restaurant will be making a pumpkin flan with walnut and sage pesto, a perfect side dish for the Thanksgiving meal. Chef Hugo Ortega of Backstreet Cafe and Hugo’s Restaurant will be making either a sweet potato gratin or a spinach and pine nut dressing. Demos start at 9am.
Jessica Zapatero and Lauren Elizabeth Ballas of Green Lily Events will be at the market showing Houstonians how to design a show stopping, environmentally responsible Thanksgiving table, all under $30. They will be using products from our market, as well as recyclable, eco-friendly products. Stop by for some simple, beautiful tips!

The Consumer Advocacy Group Henderson NV

There are children in this city that will not be able to celebrate Christmas. One gift means everything to them.
There are people among us that do not have a kitchen table to sit at for a Thanksgiving Day meal.

Let us remember the simple things in life that we all take so much for granted and PAY IT FORWARD!!!

OUR OFFICE IS SPONSORING A CANNED FOOD DRIVE AND TOY DRIVE FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE SHADE TREE SHELTER
Please do your part and participate…make a difference in someone’s life today!
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!
Food and Toy Drive

Thanksgiving.

Please donate any non perishable food items for thanksgiving before November 20, 2009 to our office located at
2920 north green valley, build 3, suite 311, Henderson, NV 89014

We will also be sponsoring a bake sale
on November 17, 2009 all day long in the lobby of our building.

All proceeds will go to purchase turkey and ham for the shade tree shelters thanksgiving day meal.

Christmas.

Please drop off unwrapped gifts for children ages infant to 17 years old. Boy and girls alike! The toy drive will end on December 18, 2009.

*Many of our clients show their gratitude and appreciate for our dedication and work by dropping off cakes, cookies, pizza’s and a variety of gift baskets. It always appreciated by my staff. However, it is far more important to us that you show your gratitude during the holiday season by joining our PAY IT FORWARD program and donating to the Shade Tree Shelter. They are housing the families that have been displaced from their homes.
A simple gift can change a life.

Early-Bird Thanksgiving Sale, Friday – Saturday, Online Only. Valid 11/13-11/14

25% Off Site Wide Sale from Organic Bouquet (sale items, gift cards & gift club excluded) Ends 11/20