French Bread Pizzas

I love to make and freeze french bread pizzas for a quick dinner or lunch. Around here most food is made from scratch and these are no different, but while it may take awhile to make these they are worth it!

First make your bread. I make an Italian loaf because I like it a bit better than French bread but if you have recipe you like you can use it in place of this recipe.

Italian Bread Dough

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water (
105° – 115° F)
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

1.

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Cloth Diapering

I am going to confess something. When my first child, Hannah, was a baby we used disposable diapers. We clad her little bottom cheap throwaway diapers that we bought in bulk, then we turned them into little sausages using our Diaper Genie. It was fast and easy – I’ll say that much. But I was not entirely happy with the choice. There was a lot of diaper garbage each week – diaper garbage that is still sitting in a landfill today, 5 1/2 years later. Diaper garbage that will likely still be sitting in that landfill 1000 years from now.

I did some research when I was pregnant with my second child, Jacob.

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A Tale of Two Farms

I’ve recently had the chance to visit two very different dairy farms in my area. And thinking about the two farms has made me consider my views on agriculture and dairy cows.

The first farm that I visited was Little Qualicum Cheeseworks. It’s a small farm that produces cheese on-site, using the milk from its own herd of cows. The cows spend most of their time outdoors, grazing in the pasture. Their diet is supplemented in the winter with hay and silage, during the time they can’t be outdoors. The farm has an SPCA certification that means its animals are well cared for.

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Travel Green to BlogHer ’10

In less than two weeks more than one-thousand bloggers of all ages, races and yes, sexes will descend on New York City. Ushered in on a cloud of anticipation, excitement and social media they will spend two days learning, connecting and yes, partying.

This year, as in years past, BlogHer is working to implement important green initiatives conference wide — an exciting development in and of itself — and paired with the cooperation of individual attendees and the coordinated efforts of every blogger who travels to the conference we can have an even greater impact on the environment for the better!

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Swaddle Those Bums!

Cloth diapering is one of my favorite ways to be green. For as many fears as people have about getting started with cloth, it is honestly much easier than you think it is. I always tell everyone that even my husband is a huge fan of them. (Seriously, isn’t it always the guys who are the most squeamish?!)

Well, for those of you who are ready to get going, or have a few and want to stock up on a few more, my favorite site has a huge clearance sale going on right now! Swaddlebees puts items in their clearance store a few times a year and I almost always grab up a good pile.

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Summer Green Isn’t Easy

Sandman on Flickr Commons

You know that old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”? It’s inspiring in theory, but let’s be honest here; sometimes, when the going gets tough, even the tough get overwhelmed, frustrated and feel at least a little bit guilty when their actions fall short of their ideals. Summer is one of those tough times for me. It’s a season that has been full to the brim with commitments from work to recreation since… well, since humans have had leisure time anyway.

In fact, I don’t know who coined the phrase “the lazy days of summer” but around here when the sun gets hot and the days long, they’re anything but lazy.

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Oil Spills and Oil Dependence

As you no doubt know, unless you have been living under a rock for the past several months, an oil rig called the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20. The explosion destroyed the rig, causing oil to spill from the wellhead into the Gulf. At this point oil has been spilling out for more than 2 months, defying all efforts at containment. The current plan is to drill two relief wells and then permanently close the existing well. The relief wells are expected to be completed in August.

Meanwhile, the largest offshore oil spill in US history continues.

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Both/And

Can I just say that I think it is both harder and easier to be green in the summer?!

I can hang my clothes outside on the line to dry, but I am taking more showers due to being outside and sticky/dirty. Also? My hair is not nearly as fabulous post-baby and needs more washes. Boo.

I can keep more lights off inside since the sun shines brighter for longer, but I have all the fans going to try to circulate as much cool air as possible.

I can keep the doors and windows closed on the hottest days to keep the hot out and the cool in, but I’ll be darned if I’m turning off the AC!

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Washing the Dishes

We all have that chore that we hate around the house, don’t we? The one that we leave until the last possible moment? The one that we would gladly never do again in this lifetime? I have such a chore, anyways. The household task that I loathe above all others is washing dishes.

When I was young and single and still in university I did not have a dishwasher. I often resorted to tactics such as washing a single bowl because I wanted some cereal and all of the other bowls were dirty. It was not pretty. So when I got married and moved in with my husband, one of the requirements that we had for our first apartment was that it must have a dishwasher.

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A Greener Vacation

Our family just returned from a vacation. We really enjoyed the chance to get away from home for a while. We traveled from our home in suburban Vancouver to Vancouver Island, which involved a 45-minute drive to the ferry terminal, just under 2 hours on the ferry, and then a 45-minute drive to our destination. While we were there, we stayed in a townhouse that had its own kitchen, and prepared most of our own meals.

We made most of our travel choices for economic and practical reasons. Staying closer to home, and avoiding restaurants, is cheaper and easier when you’re traveling with a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old.

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