A Happy Green Life Book Club

Our August book for A Happy Green Life Book Club is...

How to Grow Your Own Food: A guide for beginers

If you havent noticed yet, we here at A Happy Green Life like food, and we love it to be fresh from the garden. We have had fans in the past ask us where the best place is to start when you plan on making a garden. I asked myself this same question when we started our mini urban farm, and I turned to this months book How to Grow Your Own Food: A Guide for Beginers  by John Clift and Amanda Cuthbert.

This great book will give you all the information you need to start your own garden, reagrdless of your location.

"Taking into account the limited space available to the urban gardener, Clift and Cuthbert have produced a tome that's perfect for the inner city horticulturalist. Growing fruit and vegetables is a big subject, and squeezing even a small selection of plants into such a small volume is no easy task. Happily the authors have done a good job of deciding what should go in, and what really had to be left out. For complete novices, this book is a helpful, unthreatening guide to their first few seasons as a gardener, whether they have a balcony, bare concrete, a patio or a larger patch of ground. It's not for committed gardeners but if you're looking for some measure of self-sustainability and aren't quite sure how to go about it, How to Grow Your Food: A Guide for Complete Beginners is an invaluable resource."

I am very excited to share this book with you, so excited in fact, A Happy Green Life has gotten an extra copy to share with one of our lucky readers! Enter today to win a copy of this amazing book!



a Rafflecopter giveaway -Amanda

Air Purifying Plants

1. Bamboo Palm: According to NASA, it removes formaldahyde and is also said to act as a natural humidifier.

2. Snake Plant: Found by NASA to absorb nitrogen oxides and formaldahyde.
 3. Areca Palm: One of the best air purifying plants for general air cleanliness.

4. Spider Plant: Great indoor plant for removing carbon monoxide and other toxins or impurities. Spider plants are one of three plants NASA deems best at removing formaldahyde from the air.

5. Peace Lily: Peace lilies could be called the “clean-all.” They’re often placed in bathrooms or laundry rooms because they’re known for removing mold spores. Also know to remove formaldahyde and trichloroethylene.

6. Gerbera Daisy: Not only do these gorgeous flowers remove benzene from the air, they’re known to improve sleep by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off more oxygen over night.

-Amanda

By using A Happy Green Life Laundry Wash you are..

Revolution

Lights Out

Alright I will admit it, we here at A Happy Green Life are dorks. There is at least one weekly conversation about the zombie apocalypse.  Alright, I will come totally clean, it is usually my family talking about it and the Wards are just playing devil’s advocate to add to the conversation (Let me just say, so that you don’t all stop reading our blog because you think we are insane, that none of us really think that we are facing a zombie apocalypse).  We have created our plan, in case we ever have to face this horrendous event, I will first mutter “I told you so,” under my breath and then we will all ban together and create an off grid, sustainable community. We all laugh about how the green skills we have acquired in the last few years will aid us in our survival.

One day Kristin came over to do some work and showed me (bum bum bum) REVOLUTIONS!!!! Oh my goodness, talk about a green eco show. No electricity, living sustainably, now that is our kind of show. I guess the militias, crossbows, and swords are kind of a downer, but hey at least there aren’t any zombies!

The show will be premiering Monday, September 17 at 10 pm on NBC. Check out the above link to watch the preview!
-Amanda

Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday

Its Meatless Monday! Tonight we have cheer practice so we need something quick and easy so we can all head out the door. Tonight we will be having Vegetarian Chili!

If you are living anywhere near us you are probably thinking to yourself, “Chili in this 105 degree weather?!?!” I know it might be crazy but we would eat this recipe in a million degrees, it is one of our favorites!

Vegetarian Chili

• 1 (12 ounce) package frozen burger-style crumbles


• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained


• 2 (15 ounce) cans dark red kidney beans


• 1 (15 ounce) can light red kidney beans


•  


• 1 (29 ounce) can diced tomatoes


• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can tomato juice


• 5 onions, chopped


• 3 tablespoons chili powder


• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin


• 1 tablespoon garlic powder


• 2 bay leaves


• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1.     In a large pot, combine meat substitute, black beans, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato juice, onions, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cover. Let the chili simmer for at least 1 hour before serving.

That is it!! I told you it was easy! We like to pair it with some cornbread muffins and a nice crisp green salad! I hope you all enjoy. We are off to practice, go team Green!!

-Amanda