Green laptop/ notebook computer

My trusty HP was dying so I did a lot of research into which laptop to buy next; I wanted a green machine. It was very difficult to find information on how environmentally friendly a company and a laptop was. Actually laptops are now called notebooks what a nube I am still calling it a laptop! After much searching I found the EPEAT website which gives you a bronze, silver or gold rating on a product with regards to a 51 point environmental criteria. Greenpeace also has a Guide to Greener Electronics which has a clear break down on a company’s environmental impact (though Apple was not involved in these test I wonder how different the result would be if they had been?).

Before buying my new laptop Mr Ecochick tried really hard to fix my old much loved HP and spent the whole afternoon pulling it apart but sadly it’s all over. We’re going to break it up and sell bits off so that it isn’t wasted and can live again. Think Johnny 5!

I looked long and hard into which company to buy from. After reading Apple’s website I believe they may be the most environmentally responsible company but I didn’t really want a Mac. Was happy to see that HP was ranked  4th by Greenpeace (I do have a thing for HPs).

So the new green enviro machine that I’ve bought is an HP Envy Beats Edition. It hasn’t arrived yet so really can’t wait to play with it. It has a gold EPEAT and a 5 star energy rating. Some specs for you fellow geeks out there. The Envy beats has I7-720QM quad-core processor, 4GB ram, 640GB 7200RPM hard drive and 1GB DDR3 ATI Mobility Radeon (TM) HD 5650 graphics. If that was a different language to you all you really need out of it is that it’s super fast and super powerful!!

I even bought my new Envy off trade me from a guy who has used it for one month so  that  adds to my environmental impact by buying second hand. Buying refurbished computers can help reduce your laptop's environmental impact.

Other options of green machines are:

HP 4720s and 4530s – gold EPEAT and 5 energy star rating also these models are PVC and BFR free. Both are good solid decently priced machines.

Most Mac laptops have gold EPEAT and a 5 energy star rating. Great machines though a little pricey if you are not a designer or a diehard Mac fan. I do love that they have aluminium chassis! Why don’t other companies do this? I was very close to buying a Macbook Pro 13 inch.

So happy green laptop hunting. 

Update: I LOVE my new computer. It does EVERYTHING I want it to and more. It has handled everything I’ve thrown at it. Though Mr Ecochick is still going to game on my machine so until then we won’t know how well it does on the gaming front but on every other front it’s awesome. The machine looks sexy, is FAST, easy to use, has a cool backlit keyboard in hot red, has loads of hard disk space (haven’t had to delete or move anything yet) and has a great sound system (being the beats edition I should hope so). All in all beats and I are going to be happy for a long time!

Home grown boerenkool

When I was growing up we often ate traditional Dutch food though I didn’t know this was traditional food to me this was just normal food. It wasn’t until I was about 25 that I realised that we ate differently from other kiwi families. I mean I know we are Dutch and they are kiwis but it never really crossed my mind that we ate different food. Isn’t it funny how our whole world is at home when we are kids and don’t really know any different.

In our home we like to eat a huge range of food from different cultures; often in one week we can have Italian, Mexican, Thai, Japanese or Indian. Great we live in such a multi-cultural society. I still love to eat traditional Dutch food and while we were in Holland last year we ate loads of traditional foods. Yummy.

When mum was in Holland a few years ago she bought us three kids Dutch cook books called “de Hollandse keuken” it’s fantastic as not only does it have all the traditional Dutch recipes; it has Dutch one side of the page and English on the other! Just great!

So last night we made boerenkool with fresh kool (kale) just picked from the garden. So fresh that Mr Ecochick had to pull two big fat caterpillars off the kool!

So here’s how you make it:

600g finely diced kale

1 kg potatoes

Salt

150 ml milk (or as much as is needed - we put in much less last night)

35g butter

1 tbsp “Zaanse” mustard (old English mustard with seeds in it works as well)

Precook the kale for 10 minutes with a little water.

Peel the potatoes and add them to the kale.

Cook for approximately 30 minutes (kale takes ages to cook!!!)

Mash the kale and potatoes with milk, butter, mustard and season with salt.

Normally boerenkool is eaten with rookworst but being vegetarians we ate it with vegetarian sausage (hotdogs in this case). We made a huge pot so we can have leftovers for lunch and now that John is 10 months old he can have some for his lunch too. Yummy.

We have a veggie garden over flowing with fresh veggies so today we’re going to make spanakopita, silverbeet and cottage cheese lasagne and I think some kale and bean soup. Yummy. I love cooking from my own garden!! 
Linked to nourishing treasures,

Easter chick muffins

Actually they are all round muffins but I made them in chick moulds for Easter so now they are Easter muffins. I’ve made these muffins many times they are a great recipe that I got from kid spot. I love that it’s so easy and only has ¾ cup of brown sugar in it. This time I made them with bananas but they can be made with any fruit. I think I’ve made them with apples and blueberries before. Feijoas might be next?

 

Ingredients:

125g butter, room temperature,

¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 Eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 cup mashed banana

¾ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 12-hole muffin pans with paper cases or lightly grease silicon moulds.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (I use a Kenwood mixer so much quicker!)

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift flour and spice together. Fold into butter mixture with banana, sour cream and milk.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin pan until each case is 2/3 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until cakes are cooked when tested. I poke a kebab stick in them and when no mixture sticks to the stick I then know they are ready.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Enjoy.

Natural teething remedies

May article for the Parents centre newsletter 

Teething seems to be a horrible time for babies. It must not only hurt but also be scary having something growing in their mouths. With so many products on the market it is hard to know which products to use, below are some natural remedies. Distraction with toys, cuddles or going for a walk can often work wonders as some-times this is all they need as children are not always in pain, some-times they are just uncomfortable. Some cheap home remedies are a wet facecloth that has been in the freezer or some frozen fruit such as bananas or celery (if your baby already has teeth these can be put in mesh nets so not to be a choking risk). Almost any household item can be a great for teething; your fingers, large solid plastic pegs and wooden spoons are fantastic. There are loads of teething rusks you can buy from the supermarket, or you can make your own, these are a great distraction and seem to be yummy as well.

If these don’t always work there are other natural options that can be bought. There are lots of great teething rings; these are especially good if kept in the fridge but not the freezer as this can make the plastic fragile. Amber necklaces are very popular; so many people swear buy them. John wears one, it seems to be working as he doesn’t dribble as much, his checks aren’t as red and he is not as crabby. Chamomilla tablets (or Weleda teething powder) are great at helping calm and soothe an upset baby and the tablets also help with the clinginess that comes with teething. Hyland's Teething Gel is great to help a sore baby go to sleep and it appears to be the only homeopathic teething gel on the market. Though John’s all time favourite toy and teething remedy is Sophie the giraffe; she is super cute and is a great distraction for an upset baby or any time really.

Hiring vs buying

I’ve wanted to lose weight ever since John was born but haven’t been very successful. I’ve lost a little; I’ve been doing some workouts and have been doing long walks so that helps but I feel it’s time to step things up a bit. Before we got married I used a vibration machine to help tone my body a bit before the big day. The time I spent on the machine was really great. So I’ve been meaning to go down to the vibration training place in Petone but it’s been too much of a hassle to go. I looked at a buying a machine but the cheaper ones on the market are just rubbish. So after a bit of research I decided I didn’t really need to buy a machine so I hired one. To hire one costs about the same as going to the clinic but I thought it would be a better idea to have a machine at home then I would use it more. Think of all the petrol I'll save too.

Therefore why do we always feel we need to rush out and buy new things that we may or may not end up using as much as we think? So why not borrow or hire things that we might only use a little while. I read online that you can hire everything from power tools to cell phone; it is a much better idea to hire an item for that one project rather than have the item sit in the garage never to see the light of day again.

Hiring items I guess is the ultimate in environmentalism. More people can use the item and it doesn’t get thrown away when it’s no longer wanted. I like free cycle/ Craig’s list too as we can pass on unwanted items and there’s always trade me for buying second hand and reselling of course. So at times it may not always be cheaper to hire but it’s definitely better for the environment.  

New lounge for $100

I decided I wanted to change our lounge and was thinking of moving furniture around then decided that just wouldn’t work. So I went out and bought some couch covers. I’d been thinking about it for a while and thought enough was enough so new covers it was. Amazing how different a room can look with just a quick change. So now I have a whole new lounge suit for only $100 pretty good really considering the lounge suit didn’t even cost us anything and now they have a whole new life! I think it looks rather fancy now too.

John's birth

 A few minutes old

Thought it was about time I wrote about John’s birth. I had the most amazing pregnancy and I just loved it. Though I was in complete denial about the birth and wouldn’t talk about a birth plan or anything to do with the birth. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted my child’s birth to be as natural as possible. I didn’t want any drugs and I wanted to have a water birth.

Even when my labour started I thought it might be false labour and so didn’t wake Mr Ecochick until my waters broke 3 hours later. So I spent the first few hours by myself on a chair in the lounge, in the shower and on the toilet. Water is your friend when you’re in labour. I woke Mr Ecochick at about 4 and told him that my waters had broken and that he should ring the midwife. Which he did and we thought I was still a way away so the midwife said to ring back when the contractions changed (I have no memory of her telling me to call back). So at about 6 my midwife turned up to check on me. I was 8 cm dilated already! So a rush to the hospital. That was a very, very long 20 minutes drive.

Once we got to the hospital I jumped in the large spa bath. Felt nice being in the water. Mr Ecochick was in the pool with me was really wonderful to have him there and also my mum  there to support us. So after 2 hours at the hospital and only 39 minutes of pushing (felt more like two hours of pushing) little John Christopher Booth was born via ventouse delivery at 9.09 am on 29 June 2010. He was 7 lb 3 oz. Was all pretty surreal really sometimes I still  can’t believe that I actual did it and created this little person.