Alternative Toys!

It's Wednesday and with that we'd like to showcase a product that you probably haven't heard of up to this point, but your children will thank you for reading on!  We've all heard and, for most of us, played with Play-doh at some point in our lives, but did you know what's actually in the stuff?  Here's just a short recap:

 

Play-Doh contains water, salt, and wheat flour, a starch-based binder, a retrogradation inhibitor, salt, lubricant, surfactant, preservative, hardener, humectant, fragrance, and color.  A petroleum additive gives the compound a smooth feel, and borax prevents mold from developing.

Exactly what I want my children playing with and yes, on occasion putting in their mouth (let's be real, we all did it!)! So, today we'd like to give you a great alternative for that creative time with your kids! 

A winner of Dr. Toy’s Best Classic Toys in 2009, Happy Fun Dough is a natural alternative to popular Play-Doh products. The dough is made by For My Kids from flour, water, salt, vegetable oil, cream of tartar and citric acid, and each individual jar of dough gets its color (brown, green, natural, orange, pink or yellow) from plant extracts. There’s even a gluten-free variety. What’s more, Happy Fun Dough packaging is completely recyclable, and discarded dough can be safely composted.

A sample pack—2-oz. tins of each of the colors in a reusable cotton drawstring bag—costs $23.49.

The Super Mega Fun Pack—4-oz. tins of each of the colors—is $35.99.

Let us know what you think of it! 

Summer Grilling and Staying Green!

I recently ran across a product that I wanted to tell you all about, especially since it is the grilling time of year! Spring weather, Father’s Day (don’t forget June 20th!!) and lots of outside pool parties! Most of us are use to grabbing the charcoal and lighter fluid, pumping up the grill and not thinking twice, but if you only knew what was in those products that are smoking into your meats!

So we wanted to take a second tell you about it and give you a great green alternative!

Lighting your barbecue is one of the most eco-unfriendly aspects of the whole outdoor grilling process. Lighter-fluid contributes to ground-level ozone pollution by releasing toxic fumes, also known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. The problem occurs when the VOCs mix with other air pollutants and are exposed to sunlight. The resulting ground-level ozone can be detrimental to the health of particular individuals such as those with lung and heart disease, active children and the outdoor athletic type. Even if you don't fall into one of those categories you could still be a victim, as the fluid may leave a toxic chemical residue on your food!

So here’s a product we suggest you take a look at and try out this summer! It’s made by Frontier Brand. (They also have all natural charcoal as well)

Below is a testimonial by a couple who tried it out and were quite honest on the difference and their love for grilling!

I heard some mind-blowing statistic about how much beef is grilled annually on Father's Day. I don't remember what the number was, but you get the point: We love to grill.
We were OK with our grilling rituals. We use the old-standby, tried-and-true brands.
Or we did, until we were walking through Meijer in Plainfield and saw something new. Eco-Start Natural Lighter Fluid.
It's a clearish, green gel and it works differently than standard lighter fluid. That's because it's not petroleum-based. Petroleum is the nonrenewable resource used to make gas. You can see two major red flags in that sentence that signal why it's bad that we use so, so many petroleum-based products.
Want to help cut our oil dependence? Ride your bike over to Meijer for some Eco-Start for your Father's Day cookout.
You're going to need to actually read the packaging because this really does work differently. It may take a little practice, as we found out.
My husband: This stuff doesn't work at all.
Me: Oh crap.
5 minutes later
My husband: I take it back. It works great. It's just different.
Think about it in a similar way to the learning curve for driving a hybrid car. The first couple trips, you're going to be a little confused, then ... zen.
My husband, my grill guru, has found he needs to almost make an Eco-Start sandwich, with briquettes on the top and bottom and the gel in the middle. He also said it took a few tries to figure out the right amount for our grill. It didn't affect the taste of our steaks one bit.
It was also cheaper than regular lighter fluid and boasts more starts per bottle. Win, win, win!.

How Green Have We Come?

Here's a snapshot of those green measures tha have been embraced and those that still have a ways to go.