Friday, February 5, 2010

Organically Gifted: Ottawa Eco Ideas

I was so excited to have stumbled upon this site that I had to share it with you. Organically Gifted is a local company with an online eco gift store. They create unique, toxin-free, organic gifts and baskets for every occasion! You can choose from their inventory of gift baskets or build your own!

They've got tons of great ideas for organic and eco-friendly wedding favours. And perhaps best of all, 1% of every purchase made goes straight to the David Suzuki Foundation!! It's definitely worth a look!

Happy Friday!

Sophie

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Eco Book of the Month: The Green Bride's Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget

Kate Harrison is the eco-bride turned author of the acclaimed book, The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget; a must-have for any eco-savvy couple working on their own wedding plans.

The research that went into this book is evident from the very first chapter. I think that couples will really appreciate that Kate offers hundreds of options with varying price tags. If you take even one thing away from this book to help green your own wedding it will be money well-spent.

Cheers,

Sophie
Coverall Event Coordination

Monday, February 1, 2010

Raw Cookie Recipe: Easy Healthy Cookies


I'll be blogging about eco-menus in many future posts but today I wanted to share a little personal recipe with you all.

Some people have heard the term "raw foodist", if you haven't then I'll quickly sum it up for you. A raw foodist is a person whose diet is made up of 75% to 100% raw food. That is, uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, etc. It's believed that the cooking process kills a food's enzymes and nutrients which makes it harder for our bodies to digest and not quite as nutritious for us as raw foods are.

I am not a raw foodist but I do try to eat as much raw foods as I can simply because it's good for me. This is tough when it comes to baking because I LOVE to bake! And I LOVE cookies and breads especially. What really gets me when I'm baking is the amount of (for a lack of a better word) crap that goes into the foods. I mean white flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda make up the brunt of most recipes.

After investigating raw food diets for some time (I ate 100% raw for one full week earlier this month) I found that there are actually TONS of raw recipes for cookies, breads, cakes, and all kinds up goodies. Many of these recipes called for a dehydrator (which I don't own) and most of them called for all kinds of wacky ingredients that only hard-core raw foodists would keep on hand. So after much more research I decided that I understood the basic concept of these recipes and decided to just go for it with some stuff that I had on hand. This is the recipe I came up with and the cookies are delicious and, not to mention, 100% raw and good for you!

Ingredients:

1 cup raw unsalted organic almonds
1 cup raw organic raisins
1 cup pitted organic honey dates

(Seriously, that's it!)

1. Put the almonds and raisins in a food processor and chop until fine (about 30 seconds).

2. Add the dates and blend another 30 seconds or until mixture become thick and doughy.

3. Roll dough into small balls about 1.5 inches in diameter. Flatten balls with your hands to make a cookie shape.

4. Place the cookies on a tray on place the tray in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Keep the cookies stored in the freezer.

Makes about 24 cookies.


These cookies are so rich that you'll only be able to eat one at a time. My husband can't stand dates so he won't eat them but my daughter loves them. I'd love to hear how yours turn out.

Bon Appetite!

Sophie