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Monday 28 June 2010

Burgers with mango-jalapeño salsa

This weekend has been lovely - summery warm and sunny. I've spent most of it relaxing and being a good girlfriend. This includes making some delicious burgers with a mango and jalapeño salsa.




Dinner for 2:

The burgers

400 g of good quality meat (beef or pork - whatever you prefer).
1 egg
1 tsp thyme (preferable fresh)
1-2 tbsps grated lime rind
A pinch of a equal amounts of nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves
1/2-2 tsp of finely chopped chillipepper

Mix it all together and shape the burgers. These can stay in the fridge for a day or so, or you can freeze them for later.

The bun
7 dl flour
1/2 pack of yeast
3 dl water
3 tbsps olive oil
Salt
Sesame seeds

Add the yeast to lukewarm water (appr. 37 degrees C).
Mix the liquid into the flour. I used my Kenwood for this.

Leave the dough for 40-60 mins.

Divide dough into equal pieces and shape into smooth balls. Leave them on a baking tray or sheet and let rise for 20-30 mins.

Bake at 225 degrees for 12-15 mins.


The salsa

1 ripe mango, pitted, peeled and chopped into little pieces
1-2 jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 red onion, finely chopped
Fresh lime juice (appr. 1/2 dl)
Mint, finely chopped (I used about 4 tbsps)
Salt

Mix it all together in a bowl

- - - - - -

Add some oil to a pan and cook the burgers until medium rare (if beef) or until cooked through (pork). (Stick a thermometer into the burger. It should be about 70 degrees C for the latter.)

Friday 18 June 2010

Green Tip of the Month 2

Get rid of junk mail that fills up your mailbox and your rubbish bin!

Eco-chic violations, exhaustion and writer's block


There have just been so many things going lately. There have been trips, social events and work-related events, and many eco-chic principes have been violated. This is very unfortunate indeed. I am terribly exhausted and this has now resulted in a bit of a writer's block as well, but let us look a bit at the eco-chic violations that have been committed these last few months.

I have been on a total of 8 flights. I found a site called Carbon Footprint, which is pretty handy because you can calculate your carbon footprints depending on what you do or even how you live your life. My total ended up on 1,27 tonnes for these 8 flights.








You can, after calculating how many tonnes of CO2 you have emitted, become "carbon neutral" buy carbon offsetting, which is basically paying a certain amount of money that is invested in a sustainability project or the like. One option is a Reforestation project in Kenya, another is a wind power project in Mongolia through Certified Emission Reduction (CER) Offset Credits.

Thursday 10 June 2010

Tip 1 | From SP

SoulPrincess was flicking through British Vogue, April Ed. She found a list og natural products that she left as a comment to one of my posts.

I have edited the list and added the links to some of the sights that I thought looked interesting. Some of the sights where very "alternative", but you can find the whole list on Maya's Bubble.

As far as I could see, there were not many of these products that have been organically certified. I have specified the ones that are certified. Please correct me if any of the other products are certified as well.

Here is my edited list:

Love to be natural - ORGANIC and FAIRTRADE Certified
Beyond Skincare - ORGANIC Certified

Maybel Maybanks - Natural skincare, and so one...NATorigin - natural eye-care and so one
Charlotte Naturals - Natural skin and body products...
The Alice Bethany Bath Time Co. - Bath treatments ...
Victoria Regia
Organic Botanics

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Summer Plans



Summer is finally here and that makes me very happy. I love summer in Norway! Correction: I love summer in Norway when it isn't raining like today. It never really gets dark - it feels like late afternoon until past midnight so I never want to go to bed. Nothing beats a nice summer evening on the terrace or in the garden with a glass of red wine and a soft. lovely blanket.

The summer is also the season when we take out most of our holiday.

I have some very eco-friendly plans for this summer's holiday. It isn't only eco-friendly but also wallet-friendly. It is actually free!



I have managed to reserve a week off at one of my company's cabins in the mountain. It is free and I dont have to fly anywhere, in other words reducing my personal CO2 emission.

There will be a whole week of enjoying nature, hiking, swimming, maybe canoeing and horse-back riding as well. I hope to bring people that I enjoy spending time with and of course lots of nice food and drinks.


From Rustad Hotel's website


My other plan for this summer is redecorating the living room and the entrance in our flat. We moved in here in February this year, but we still have not had the time to freshen it up. It is a relatively old building, however the bulding it self has been upgraded and refurbished and so has parts of our flat, but not everything. There are floors and walls that need to be painted. I have already started to look at "Project redecorating", and I am tying to find as eco-friendly products as possible. I do at least hope that I will find products that are labelled with the Nordic eco label.


Eco Friendly Eyewear



How about some stylish and sustainable sunglasses?




These eco-friendly bamboo shades are made by Kayu.

Bamboo is our planet's fastes growing wood with a growth rate of up to 60 cm per day.

For every pair of shades they sell, Kayu donates $ 50 to Unite for sight. This amount covers one sight-restoring surgery.

Unite for sight is a non-profit organisation that works with helping to "improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness in the developing world".
(Unite for sigh website)

36 million people are needlessly blind and 80% of blindness is curable or preventable.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Weleda Aloe Vera Body Lotion


I had ordered a few things from Only Organics closing down sale and I've tried them all out.

Let us start with the Weleda Aloe Vera Body Lotion. I had heard many good things about the Weleda products and thought I'd try one of them out.

My first experience with Weleda products ended up in the shower.

The body lotion is of a handy size, 200 ml, and I thought that Aloe Vera would be re-freshen and cool down my skin after a day in the sun. The lotion is nice and feels light when you pour it from the bottle. It would be a great body lotion for summer - a non-sticky, not-too-thick liquid. BUT! There is a big but here. It smells truly horrible! I noticed that it had quite a strong smell as I poured it out of the bottle, but as I started applying the lotion to my skin it was a lot worse than I anticipated at first. I actually had to re-shower in order to get the lotion off.

This lotion cannot be used. If anyone has used it before and likes it, please let me know and you can have it for free.

I will not even give this lotion any points.

0/6 points

Tuesday 1 June 2010

For the 15 of you who read this blog - my deep apologies

Ok guys, I am really sucky at this blog business. I have been away travelling (without my pc) and so have not updated my blog very much during the month of May.

I am honestly still struggeling a bit with this whole thing, but I promise you that I will stick around for a little bit longer.

My most recent trip was to Amsterdam where I saw this cute little thing. I know, it isn't very organic. I promise you that I will not budge from my principles and I will stick to public transportation and my own two little legs.

So this isn't the most green mode of transportation but it is pink and adorable!


Greenspirit Summer Sale


GREEN SPIRIT has started a summer sale!

The timing could not be better considering my last post.

10-20 percent off!

Organic skin and haircare!




Sunny greetings

Summer is finally here.  We've had a long and terribly cold winter. It's time to find skin and hair products that are more suited for sunny and warm weather.

The deodrant reviewed here earlier does not work when it is a little bit warmer than zero degrees celcius. Sorry, but Urtkram's Aloe Deodrant cannot be used anymore. Huge patches of sweat is not charming at all!

Has anyone got any tips of a good organic deodrant?

Sunlotion is another things I desperately need!

Time to go windowshopping on the web.

Have a nice day everyone.