Specialized Green Gift Ideas for Your Valentine

Whether your valentine is a new flame or an old, four-legged friend, there are lots of sweet, eco-friendly and sustainable ideas for unique gifts to delight your love. 

Natural Nurturer: Carol's Daughter's aptly named Love Butter is a moisturizing mix of mango, cocoa and shea butters with a unisex scent inspired the blend of honey, cinnamon and brown sugar fragrances.  This formula is free of parabens, mineral oil, petroleum and artifical coloring but completely full of sensuality.   

Pamper Your Princess: Your modern sweetheart is probably not longing to be rescued but fabulous bath and body products can make her feel like she was whisked away for some well deserved rest and relaxation. Sabon's Organic Soap will wash away any stress she might have.  This natural soap is based on organic olive oil with palm oil, coconut oil and lavender extract and is suitable for a variety of skin types.  What better gift than a massage with Karen's Body Beautiful Bath & Massage Oil? The oil combination includes sweet almond, avocado, grapeseed, sunflower, and vitamin E. Her skin will refreshed as she melts in your soothing touch. 

Accessorize Your Fashionista: Matt and Nat are well known for their fashionable and trendy bags.  Their bags are great gifts for your eco-diva because they are made sustainably and without animal products.  She might fall head over her stylish heels for the Goldfrapp red vegan leather handbag with 100% recycled beige faux suede lining, tone on tone stitching and antique brass hardware.  Certainly, 23 recycled bottles never looked so sexy.  Bagged out? Drape her neck in the Andean Collection Acai Necklace.  This gorgeous necklace made from acai beads makes a sexy, unique statement.  

Feed Your Foodie: Many foods are considered aprodisiacs.  Eggs are included on this list.  Since Valentine's Day falls on a weekend this year, consider making a delicious brunch.  Check out this video link for an easy frittata recipe.  Instead of the bacon and scones they have as sides, you can pair the frittata with sauteed asparagus, another aphrodisiac, or a light salad.  For dessert, make cupcakes or pick them up from your favorite store (try Babycakes NYC -a vegan bakery in the Big Apple that delivers!) and dress them up with these beautiful recycled linen cupcake holders from Bella Cupcake Couture.

Vegan My Love: Besides cupcakes, you can delight your love with a delectable assortment of dairy-free truffles and rich chewy, vegan caramels.  

Forget-me-not Finishing Touches:  If you have everything squared away and just need to finalize your plans, consider giving your valentine a unique valentines card.  These Made By Girl cards range from romantic to satirical.  Check for those which are made on recycled paper and come with earth-friendly envelopes. 

Puppy Love: Reuters recently reported a study that shows one person out of every five would rather spend Valentine's Day with their favorite pet.  Make your pooch a cake with this organic cake mix.  Cat lover instead?Give your finicky feline organic wheat grass, a nutritious alternative to household or chemically treated plants.

What's Red, Pink and Green All Over? Eco-Valentines for Kids

Remember the joy of exchanging valentines with your classmates?  From heart-shaped candy to cartoon greetings, Valentine's day is a sweet opportunity to share your sentiments with your best friends or first crush. This year, help the little tots in your life learn how to share their affection for family and friends in an environmentally friendly way.  

Instead of focusing on buying dozens of disposable cards and plastic bags of rose-colored candy, think about creative crafts that you can do in the house together. Celebrate your children's creativity by creating homemade valentines with them using the paper and art supplies that you already have in the house.  Snowed in? Each family member could make a collage using newspaper and magazines of all the images that your valentine inspires and then recycle the rest of paper.  

Kids grow when they are affirmed. Show your children you value these homemade items by placing them in a special place in the house-on the fridge art gallery or in the hallway entrance. 

Homemade and homespun: One of the most powerful elements of comedian Dave Chappelle's stand up performance For What It's Worth comes in the end when he emotionally recalls that the most meaningful thing that happened to him at the height of his success was his son giving him a macaroni necklace.  If you want to create a macaroni necklace with your child, consider using natural food coloring.  You can buy organic natural food coloring or make your own.  Pomegranate juice may help you add a great, red color to your homemade creations.  

Edible expressions: If you have a little baker's assistant, you may prefer to bake sugar cookies with whole wheat flour and natural food color frosting. Try something different and make vegan sugar cookies. 

Share the love: If your child plans to distribute valentines at school, think about eco-art supplies and eco-friendly valentines cards.  Stubby pencil studio valentines cards have adorable, kid-appropriate messages printed on recycled stock paper.  Plus, they also sells soy crayons made from soybean oil and natural coloring so children can safely leave their creative imprint on their valentines cards.

Supergreen Superbowl Snacks

Throwing a superbowl party? Invited to one? Everyone loves eating comfort food while spending time with our friends and family.  This year, add a new tradition to the superbowl-veggie treats! Check out these delicious, flavorful vegan and vegetarian party snacks. 

• greek salad -This Mediterranean favorite is wonderful served with warm bread. Even the most ardent meat lover will melt over a great tasting greek salad. 

• vegan hot wings-Vegandad has a great recipe for vegan boneless hot wings.

• sweet potato fries with ginger-peanut dipping sauce-Renowned vegan chef Bryant Terry has a yummy recipe for baked or fried sweet potato fries. 

• spicy black bean dip -Chowhound foodies are a great source of inspiration. One posted this recipe for a smoked black bean dip and chips. 

• veggie chili-Tackle cold weather with this delicious multi-bean chili. 

• muffuletta-Instead of taking a hero, become a green hero and create a vegetarian muffuletta. It is sure to become a new family favorite. 

Still hungry? Click here for additional ideas for vegan and vegetarian superbowl snacks. Also check out Vegan Soul Kitchen by chef Bryant Terry.

Green Health, Fitness and Nutrition Solutions Contd.

Go Meatless! Make the most of your meals

Vegetarian diets are nutritious, energy efficient and planet-friendly.  For those of us who are already vegan or vegetarian, this may seem like preaching to the choir. In addition to being healthy and helping you lose weight, eating vegetarian food reduces your risk of a host of conditions including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Eating meatless meals also is an easy way to improve the environment significantly.

Livestock require a lot of resources and the meat industry generates substantially high amounts of harmful greenhouse gas emissions associated with global warming.  According to a report from the UN’s Food And Agriculture Organization, livestock account for 9% of carbon dioxide emissions and the equivalent of 18% of the world’s climate change associated with carbon dioxide.  Twenty-six percent of the world’s surface is set aside for grazing livestock and between 20-70% of grazed land is considered degraded.

Food for thought: There are approximately 864 million people worldwide suffering from under to malnourishment and 77 million tons of human edible protein are fed to livestock. 

One less bun: Researchers at the University of Chicago state that something as simple as cutting down on a few burgers a week would make “a substantial difference” in cutting the greenhouse gas emissions associated with global warming.  

Start the week off right: Meatless Mondays are a very popular, practical solution for incorporating vegetarian food into your regular routine.