One adorable organic maternity tee (or more!) three I LOVE include the tees shown above, all are 100% organic cotton and printed with non-toxic inks. Available at Euphoria Maternity:

• Seeded Organics Boy Sprout Maternity Tee
• Seeded Organics “Green Mama” Maternity Tee
• Pure T Buy a Tee, Plant a Tree Organic Top

You know you want to keep primping during your pregnancy, but nail polish with all its toxic ingredients is a big no no. Nail Paint by PeaceKeeper allows you to paint your nails all sorts of lovely shades without having so many toxic chemicals pass through your skin to your baby. Skin Deep rates them a 3 -  really good for nail polish BTW.

Morning sickness is no fun at all. On the flip side, at least now you have a great excuse to munch organic candy treats – for breakfast! Organic Preggie Pop Drops are made with all natural and organic ingredients, with a blend of essential oils to soothe your tummy, alleviate dry mouth, and give you a quick energy boost – Preggie Pop Drops – Organic.

BONUS: Of course anything from Earth Mama Angel Baby is swell too!

Are you pregnant right now? How are you managing your green pregnancy?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Still, the point now is that these events fall on the same day. If you’re interested in celebrating both events, I’d snag some eco-friendly beans. Such as…

Surf Sweets Jelly Beans: Made with organic fruit juice and sweeteners, 100% Vitamin C per serving, no corn syrup or GMO’s, gluten free, made in a nut-free facility.

Green Beans Natural Jelly Beans: Green Beans are new and all-natural; the colors are bright and shiny – not muted like some organic candies. Flavors include: Black Cherry, Orange Punch, Strawberry, Vanilla Bean, Grape, Lemon, Pomegranate, Blueberry, Peach, Apple, and Root Beer.

Lotus Organic Jelly Beans: Made with natural colors and flavors, plus packed in an oxygen barrier pack, with special consideration of organic products’ natural susceptibility to infestation and mold, and discoloration caused by oxidation.

Vegan Jelly Beans: Made without beeswax, gelatin, insect-derived “confectioner`s glaze,” or any other animal-derived ingredients commonly found in jelly beans. Also made with non-bone-char processed sugar, corn syrup, corn starch, vegan natural and artificial colors and flavors, carnauba wax.

Organic Jelly Beans, 3-pack: Organic, gluten-free, and allergen free. Lemon, Grapefruit, Orange, Cherry and Grape flavors.

Sadly, I’m not a jelly bean fan. I’m more a chocolate kind of girl. Too bad national chocolate day doesn’t coincide with Earth Day. BUT if you are a fan, the above choices are pretty darn good.

[top jelly bean image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

In the last post we looked at Ingredients for Organic & Natural Homemade Chocolate Covered Cherries. Now let’s make some!

The night before: Place a cookie cooling rack on top of a regular cookie sheet. Place your cherries single file onto the cooling rack and let them sit in the fridge overnight. This helps to drain excess juice, which helps during the rolling and dipping process.

Rolling your cherries: The following day, grab a large mixing bowl and combine your butter, inverted sugar, condensed milk, extract, and powdered sugar. Mix and then knead this combo. It should be thick, and it may feel a little crumbly. Next grab a cherry, and surround it with the mixture.

The point is to make little cherry balls. Actually, these will be sort of big cherry balls – about walnut size, although, if you use smaller cherries make the balls smaller too. Put all your covered cherries single file onto a baking sheet covered in parchment, and place it in the freezer.

Make your chocolate: While your cherry balls are chilling, make your chocolate. Now, if you’re using chocolate chips, simply melt them with your shortening in a double boiler. If you’re making chocolate with bakers chocolate it’s a lot more work. Frankly, I suggest going with the chocolate chips.

However if you are using baking chocolate, you’ll need to temper and sweeten it. Place 6-8 oz chocolate in a double boiler and add a drop or two of vanilla extract. Add a bit of honey (I never measure, sorry). And then read the following article about tempering chocolate. Melt your chocolate slowly. Then, for dipping, keep it semi warm and mixable on the stove top.

NOTE: Some die-hard cooks I know, flip about me adding honey to the chocolate. It’s always worked for me though, so oh well. But if you like (I’m no candy expert) you can jaunt around the web and find a no-honey way to do this.

Dipping: Grab your chilled cherries, dip them in your chocolate mix and place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. As noted before, I suck at the dipping part. My only tip is to work fast. The faster I went, the better my cherries looked.

Chill them. Munch away or give away to happy friends and family.

Extras:

You can also dip your cherries in nuts or cover them with pretty natural sparkles. Kids like the sparkles. You can add different extracts like mint or orange. If you’re a crafty cook, I bet you could even figure out a chocolate mold situation so that your cherries look lovely. I won’t advise on pretty food though, other than to say, best of luck. You can also pop your cherries on top of cakes, cupcakes, or cookies.

To give as a gift:

I found some cute reusable boxes and tins, lined them with parchment paper, and stuffed them full of cherries. I added another sheet of parchment over the top before securing the lid. You can use little paper cups I suppose (see above image), but why waste paper? Another option is to save the candy containers people give you, the ones that already have compartments, and use them. Most are sturdy enough to wash gently.

For different chocolate covered cherry recipes check out cdkitchens. I looked around, and some of the recipes do not call for corn syrup.

[chocolate covered cherry image via teain.mycup via Flickr]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

One year I got all ambitious and made homemade chocolate covered cherries as gifts for folks for the holidays. It was nuts. Mainly, I was upset because my cherries looked funky. It’s harder than it looks to dip them and have them turn out all pretty. My cherries looked nothing like this image above. Plus, I don’t even like eating them.

Still my family and friends thought they were a huge success. I guess they tasted great, in spite of their bizarre look.

If you need something to do this weekend, you can make your own organic chocolate covered cherries. I’m going to write this up in two parts, because making organic and natural chocolate cherries is way more involved ingredient wise. Since we have a lot to discuss, I’m breaking it up.

You’ll need to gather up:

Around three 10-12 oz jars of decent natural Maraschino Cherries with stems: You don’t want conventional, they’re no good. The FDA notes, “”Maraschino Cherries” is regarded as the common or usual name of an article consisting of cherries which have been dyed red, impregnated with sugar and packed in a sugar syrup flavored with oil of bitter almonds or a similar flavor.” Yikes.

Natural maraschino cherries are often dyed with beets, not artificial colors and don’t have preservatives. Many still have corn syrup, which is not cool, but what are you gonna do? Locate natural cherries at:

• Whole Foods Market
• Trader Joe’s
• A local co-op or natural food market
• Princess Maraschino Cherries
• Make your own homemade maraschino cherries – takes over a day
• Check with a local cherry grower; for example, I know of at least one Oregon cherry grower who sells natural cherries.

You’ll also need:

The corn syrup issue:

For the recipe above you need 6 tablespoons of corn syrup. However, corn syrup is not necessarily safe or healthy. You can make your own sugar syrup instead. This is technically called inverted sugar. While pounds of sugar is no picnic for your body, it’s better IMO to use the real thing vs. processed corn syrup.

Take one 1 cup organic sugar and add it to 1 cup water in a small pot. Bring to a boil. Stir frequently as sugar dissolves. Keep stirring until sugar reaches the consistency you want. I’ve heard you can replace the corn syrup with organic honey as well but I myself, haven’t tried this. It seem feasible though.

Your chocolate choices:

You can use 2 cups of natural chocolate chips – white, semisweet, whatever you like, OR you can make a chocolate mix. To make your own chocolate you’ll need some unsweetened chocolate like 100% Dagoba Cacao Organic Unsweetened 6 Oz Baking Bar. There are other kinds or organic baking chocolate available at the same sort of shops you’d find natural cherries at. If you’re making your own chocolate mix, you’ll be adding a little more sweetener (sugar) during the actual recipe process – we’ll talk about that later.

What to do now:

Gather up your supplies, because next up, I’ll post how to make your own organic and natural chocolate covered cherries.

[chocolate cherry image via mourgefile]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Here’s what you said:

42% Not celebrating at all

25% Making costumes or buying used

17% Composting pumpkins after the 31st

13% Natural decorations (like mums)

4% Organic candy and treats

It’s good so many of you are making your own costumes or buying used. Hope you have a great time.

If you need tips on composting pumpkins, visit Earth 911.

Do you have a way you’re greening your Halloween that’s not mentioned above?

Image via MorgueFile.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Please take our poll in the sidebar. If you don’t see an answer you like, add your own. We’ll take the poll down and discuss on Halloween.

Have you missed any Halloween-related posts? Here they are, just in case:

Organic Etsy Halloween Treats

Buy Nothing New Halloween

My Little Green Ghost & Green Halloween Costume Ideas

Non-toxic face paints for Halloween

Oodles of Free Recycled Halloween Craft Ideas

Green Your Halloween Party

Should you buy an organic pumpkin for Halloween?

Fair Trade Halloween: Reverse Trick or Treat!

Start Planning A Green Halloween

Fair Trade Treats for Halloween

Image via stock.xchng.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008 – that includes Blogtoberfest, (we’re giving away over $7,000 in prizes)!

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Green Halloween is a Washington based website but the tools and ideas offered can be used anywhere to green up your Halloween. Halloween is a pretty trash filled holiday and that’s a good place to start thinking when planning your green Halloween. What can you do to lesson the waste that occurs this Halloween and still keep it fun for kids (and adults). Last year at my house we had a huge adult-kid party and because of that we were able to keep the excess waste to a minimum.

Having a green Halloween party vs. trick-or-treating can be an excellent way to control the amount of garbage produced. You can bake and make food items and serve loose candy in bowls and more. Still, we all know that for some kids NOT trick-or-treating just won’t fly. In that case here are some trick-or-treat ideas and more from Green Halloween (and a few from me):

What to hand out to trick-or-treaters:

What to hand out that’s edible for Halloween can get tricky if you’re green-minded because you have to give wrapped items. Unless you have a super close-knit neighborhood (you likely don’t) than items need to be wrapped or they’ll just be tossed. Try to find items in small boxes or packaging that can be recycled. You can go healthy or less so — kids need candy sometimes. Green Halloween has some excellent ideas for edibles including…

• “Individually wrapped organic Tea for kids
• Organic juice boxes
• Organic apple sauce snack packs
• Organic fruit leather
• Boxes of organic raisins and, where available, other organic dried fruits.
• 100% honey sticks“

NOTE: if you hand out honey sticks make sure to have something else for the tiniest critters because babes under one years of age can’t have honey (ever). Other ideas I have for food items include…

• Organic bananas
• Animal crackers in cardboard boxes (recyclable)
• Natural granola bars

If you’re looking for organic Halloween candy here are some links:

• Natural Candy Store
• Equal Exchange
• Endangered Species Chocolate

It’s easier to control waste when you consider handing out non-edible items such as…

• Marbles (like the Earth marbles from Moon Marble Company)
• Seashells (from the beach — not bought)
• Tattoos! Green Halloween has a great link to recycle tattoos.
• Art supplies (crayons, markers, etc)
• Modeling clay
• Playing cards (you can buy bulk decks fairly cheap at party supply stores).

NOTE: If you’re going to give out non-edibles just make sure to have one bowl for the littlest kids and one for older. For instance every mama and dad in the neighborhood will be on your doorstep if you hand out marbles to their three year old.
Green Halloween has a HUGE list of ideas for non-edible items.

What else can you find at Green Halloween? Well… oodles of Halloween fun for parents, kids, and ideas on the way for schools.

• Costumes
• Save some green
• Games
• My Green Halloween Treasures, a FREE Green Halloween e-book
  
• And so much more.
  

Pay Green Halloween a visit and make this Halloween fun for both families and the earth.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family