Green Christmas stocking pickings...

The Ultimate Eco-gift this season... The Kindle! Downloads 1000's of books and mags on this cool wireless reading device... super cool, and green :)

To Organic cook or NOT to Organic cook??

I asked one of SA's Eco-Babes to fill us in ...

Michelle Cory a Graphic designer and Miss Earth SA Finalist 2009 is working on her own organic cookbook. Here's what she has to say...

We think 'organic cooking' and the words raw veggie diets, earthy soiled lettuce and a big greenhouse in your backyard comes to mind…What is organic cooking, and do we need a big greenhouse?
"Organic cooking basically put, is cooking with organic food, which is produced without the use of sewer-sludge fertilizers, most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic engineering, growth hormones, irradiation and antibiotics. A variety of agricultural products can be produced organically, including produce, grains, meat, dairy, eggs, and processed food products… all of which are great for cooking:)

LOL You don't need a big greenhouse - but growing your own veggies is a great idea because it's healthier, cheaper and of course has a positive impact on the environment! Buy organic produce from your local supermarket."

Why should we be cooking organic?
"Organic food is full of flavour and tastes great, plus it’s healthier for you than processed foods full of pesticides and chemicals. AND as an added bonus organic agriculture helps to minimize the greenhouse effect and global warming through its ability to sequester carbon in the soil. It's better for us and the environment:)"

Where's your favourite green hangout for some good green food?:)

"Tash’s at Morningside Centre wins hands down. I love their separate organic menu, and would recommend the wild brown rice chicken salad to anyone any day. "

Got some Green Christmas recipes to share with our Eco-glam readers?
"I think food is the best Christmas gift. Every year my Austrian Gran and I do all our Christmas baking together, I always make sure there is extra Vanillekipferln (Vanilla Crescent) and Husarenkrapferln, which I wrap beautifully and give as gifts:)"

YUM! I love the idea of baking home-made cookies, wrapping them beautifully and giving them as gifts this Christmas.

Michelle's home-made cookie recipes:

Vanillekipferln

For Dough:
200g butter
250g flour
100g pelled grated almonds
1Tbs vanilla sugar
50g sugar
1 egg yolk

Sugar to roll in:
100g sugar 1 Tb vanilla sugar

Spread the flour on a board, cut butter in it, rub with fingers until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Mix in all dry ingredients with the yolk and quickly knead into a dough. Allow to set for ½ hour in the fridge. Once the dough has set, break off small pieces and shape into crescents (or whatever shape you fancy- I often shape mine into m’s:) ) Place on a baking tray and bake in a medium oven until light brown. Roll in sugar, mixed with vanilla sugar.

Huarenkrapferln

Dough:
175g butter
50g sugar
2 egg yolks
240g flour

Filling
Jam of choice

Mix ingredients together. Make sure butter is soft and creamed. Once dough is made, leave to set in fridge for ½ hour. Once dough has set break off small pieces and roll into small round balls. Place on baking tray and with the end of a wooden spoon pre-dipped in flour, create 1cm deep hole in the biscuit. This hole will later be filled with jam.
*Tip Dip wooden spoon into flour first, after every biscuit to avoid it sticking to the dough*
Glaze with egg yolk and milk (or just milk), and bake until golden. Whilst still warm fill with jam of your choice. (I usually use apricot, fig and strawberry... mmm)

Lastly, your favourite pair of heels ever bought?:)

"I would have to say my pair of cream no brand peep toe heels, which I wear when I want to feel sweet, cute and feminine."

Ok last last one... What's your favourite shoe label?

"Mmmm I actually don't have a favourite ... Yes i know!!! Shock Horror ha ha but if someone was holding a gun to my head i HAD to choose i'd probably pick Jenni BUTTON. I love their diamonte collection-super sexy!!"

Thanks for sharing Mich, eco-chef extraordinaire, we'll look out for your Organic cookbook!

xxx

Miss Earth Eco-Hottie of the week!

This week's Miss Earth Eco-Hottie of the week goes to.....

Diana Kubasova!

Miss Earth Latvia 2009, and FHM model

I caught up with Diana for a quick interview before she jetsetted off to London, heres what she had to say...

Whats your favourite colour? (Note this is a trick question...:)

"Well, I'd love to say green, but it would then be true only in terms of the meaning it holds. In that case most of my cosmetics, food and clothing is 'green' and so is my hybrid car. But unfortunately in terms of look, green is my least favorite color for clothing, accessories and interior.
My favorite colors are pink, red and white."

What was your advocacy during the Miss Earth pageant?

"I believe that most of environmental ignorance is caused by lack of knowledge. Therefore let's increase the knowledge of what enormous harm everyday waste and carbon emissions are doing to our Mother Earth!"

What’s your TOP green tip for our Eco-nistas?

"GREEN IS SEXY!
We all know, that you cannot go twice to a high-end party in the same dress. But buying a new dress for each party is such a waste, right?
The best solution is to make clothing swap parties with a bunch of girls - you will have so much fun when trying on each others clothing!
Another tip is to make new clothes out of the old ones - just cut two dresses into halves and switch the tops - put on a belt or sew them back together or combine with other clothes - and you have two completely new hot and original outfits!"

Ok let's talk Eco-fashion... Favorite Fashion label/designer?
"I have SO many designers I like and they depend a lot from the time of the year, occasion and mood - if I want to feel rebellious, classy or romantic!:)

Actually most of the clothes I have bought in the past months are from Latvian designers. They are very original and usually every is different, which I really appreciate. "

Your top best-kept beauty secret? (tell tell)
I love taking milk bath once a week. I just add 1-2 liters of whole milk to my bath and my skin is soft as baby's! :)
And I know it might sound weird, but when I'm cooking I put pieces of food on my face, for example cucumber, berries or sour cream, which are actually great masks for the face, but I'm so used to this I sometimes even when I'm not alone! And then it becomes funny!

Lastly… what's your ALL time Favourite shoe brand/label? (this is "Greening in Stilettos" after all:)
Definitely Christian Louboutin. I adore those extremely high heels, sexy and confident designs & playful red soles!

There you have it Eco-nista's, and you heard it first on "Greening in Stilettos"...

GREEN IS SEXY!

We love u LONG time Diana! xxx

This week's Eco-hottie

And this week's "Greening In Stilettos" Eco-Hottie of the week is.... drum roll please.......

Hayden Penettiere!!

Thanks to Hayden Panettiere and efforts from other celebs like Miranda Kerr — as well as several animal rights organizations and documentary filmmakers — Japan’s deadly “Dolphin Slaughter Cove” is restored to a peaceful environment again - poacher free.

I HEART Green celebs

"Been there, done that, got the Green t-shirt:)"

Global Warming and Climate Change is real. I really believe that Celebrities can do a lot to create environmental awareness and encourage their audiences to Go GREEN.

I commend the celebs that are earning their stripes... Heres eco-celebs that get the Green t/shirt from "Greening in Stilettos"...

Though Mary-Kate doesn't have the best Eco-Babe rep (sporting crazy furs - a NO NO), she's seen the light and redeeming herself with a good green cause. Olsen's part of the Environmental Media Association, which invented the "green carpet." What does that mean? It means they've got celebs taking hybrid and electric cars to award shows and parties! Now that's cool.

"Greening in Stilettos" gives Mary-Kate the GREEN light for seeing the light:)

Eco-hottie Josh Hartnett is active in Global Cool, a charity that's trying to get 1 billion people to reduce their carbon footprints over the next 10 years. If you're gonna learn about CO2, having a cutie like Josh teach you is the best way to learn!

Our planet is a wonderland! John Mayer has joined forces with Reverb, an enviro org, to totally Green-out his summer tour. What's more, a percentage of the concert proceeds go to his very own charity fund, "Back to You," which helps fund art programs, food banks, homeless shelters, and lots of other great causes.

Actor Brad Pitt is helping to rebuild the homes of victims to hurricane Katrina in New Orleans — and donating $5 million of his own money — to Make It Right (makeitrightnola.org), an adopt-a-green-home campaign that he hopes will help restore the still storm-ravaged Lower 9th Ward. For every $150,000 that comes in, a family will get a home. And not just any house... Get this — These homes will be SO Green and disaster-proof that they'll even float, Literally!

The house designed and developed by Morphosis architects and graduate students at UCLA’s School of Architecture and Urban Design is the first floating house permitted in the United States. The house can sustain its own water and power needs, survive floodwaters as high as 12 feet and its affordable!

Leonardo DiCaprio has definitely earned his title as the ultimate Eco-hottie. If you haven't seen The 11th hour, run to that dvd store, this is a must see Eco-nistas. It's a powerful eco-documentary that he co-produced, wrote, and narrated — about the human impact on the environment. He also partnered with the upcoming Discovery Networks' Planet Green to produce Eco-Town, a 13-part reality series documenting the green rebuilding of a Kansas town that was torn apart by a tornado.

Woop woop Leo!

This Hero, best known for her "Save the whales" campaigns, Hayden Panettiere tops my list of Eco-Babes...

"Loves it..."

VAUTE COUTURE (VEGAN/ECO-CONSCIOUS/FAIR/CHICAGO)

"V" as for Vegan and said like "VOTE", this fashion house believes that each purchase is a direct ballot to the business practices behind them- Eco-friendly practices of course. 

Eco-conscious, artist inspired and made on a living-wage locally (Chicago)... "Loves it!"

Eco-Glam your Room ... GREEN Style;)

Give your fave old pieces of furniture a new lease on life with these fab GIY (green it yourself) tips.

a bit of sanding, great choice of fabric from the Lou Harvey range and studded embellishments made my old stool stand proud again

This dresser of mine had seen better days, from coffee cup stains to burn marks from my hair iron to scratch marks from my teething puppy ... a RE-INVENTION was needed desperately.

so i "GIY'd" it -

sanding the top back to the original wood, added a touch of varnish and french-techniqued the drawers and legs using eco-friendly water based paint ..... and Voila!

......a Gorgeous Green Room!

Now that's what I call UP-cycling!

Building a Greener World

Did you know that buildings are responsible for 40% of the world's total carbon emission?? That's ALOT! Now can you imagine the postive impact we could have on our environment if we build the "green way", according to green principles and make our buildings completely energy efficient? What a wonderful world that would be:)

Here's some of the green building projects that have absolutely blown my mind!

Nuvali Evo-living, an Eco-Village in the Philippines that we visited as Miss Earth delegates

It reminded me of the world that the Teletubbies live in - almost TOO green and TOO perfect to be real. But delightfully, it was completely GREEN and very REAL! I seriously expected "Lala" or "Po" to jump up over the rolling hills at any second...:)

...here I am trying to figure out some of the latest eco-technology

"...mm what does this button do?" If only we could press a button and make

the entire world green...now there's a thought...

Miss Earth contestants feeding the fish...

seriously, look at all those fish, UNBELIEVABLE!

Greening young minds...

my young audience were keen and eager to hear the green word

"Armed in Stilettos, we were ready to GO GREEN!"

"It all begins with a revolution in our way of thinking, a vision not just for today but for the years to come. A forward-looking mindset that embraces sustainability as key towards shaping our future. Nurturing the welfare of our environment is steadfastly linked to assuring a solid future for generations to come. Ultimately, it’s about what really matters to us—clean, fresh air, abundant greenery, safety and security, education, a good job, sound health. NUVALI seamlessly integrates family, work, and leisure, generating a diversity of spaces, activities, and communities—allowing people the means to live their full potential. A vibrant landscape springs forth, freely shared by all."

(Nuvalievoliving.com)

Cycling for the Planet... literally!

Just a few days back in SA and I've hit the road "cycling" with a full and exciting schedule.

Robert Zipplies, a well known sustainability expert in South Africa initiated a Climate Change Challenge cycling from Cape Town (via Johannesburg and Pretoria) all the way to Durban on an electric bicycle to raise awareness on climate change, and he did it! I was there cheering him on. The Final destination was UShaka Marine World (Durban) where I was MC of the event.

Kudos to Robert!

Rumour has it there's another climate challenge next year - count me in! I don't know about you guys but I would love one of those electric bicycles to zip around, uba cool:) Green is definitely the new cool.

yep, that's the burning question - what is your carbon footprint?

Well it's our mission is create awareness on environmental threats and educate on how we can stiletto-size our carbon footprints;)!

Robert, myself and Logie Naidoo (Deputy Mayor of Durban)

Robert and his team stopped off at 13 cities on route his epic journey giving presentations on climate change and promoting sustainable living. The Royal Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg was one of these stops...

Sbu Khuswayo (Municipal Manager), myself, Yusuf Bhamjee (District Mayor of PMB) and Brenda Martin (Project 90 Director).

Robert is also the editor of the book "Bending the Curve" the ultimate guide to tackling climate change particularly in South Africa - a must read.