Ideal Bite

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Don't know when you'll be back again? Even if you do, we want to clue you in on our best eco air travel tips before you take off. Your green taxi's waiting and blowing his horn.

1. It's in the bag.

Skip luggage that comes with its own baggage - like chromium and PVC (from conventional leather and plastics), which release cancer-causing chems during production – in favor of greener alts made of materials like vegetable-tanned leather (no chromium), recycled materials, and sustainable crops like hemp. Better yet, opt for a used bag at a secondhand shop. Get the full Bite. Read the full post... 

Every time another wedding, birthday party, cocktail fete, etc. rolls around, I always think how much I'd love to buy a new dress for it. But, of course, these days I'm pretty much just shopping in my own closet. But brand-new website Rent the Runway may have found a cost- and fashion-conscious solution to such conundrums. The mail-service is kinda like Netflix, but instead of DVDs, you get to pick a beautiful frock (delivered in two different sizes, just to be on the safe side) from high-end designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Catherine Malandrino, and Proenza Schouler. You can keep it for four nights, and the rental cost is about a tenth of the dress's retail price, running you about $50-$200. The only catch is the service is invitation-only, so sign up for the wait list on RtR's website ASAP.

-City Read the full post... 

I have my own personal chef. Her name is Amy. She always has a variety of tasty, organic, vegetarian meals - free of additives, preservatives, and GMOs - for me to choose from. OK, fine. I'm talking about Amy's Kitchen. I'm nuts about Amy's Black Bean Enchilada and Roasted Vegetable Pizza (surprisingly, I don't even miss the cheese). Well, Amy's is turning 22 this year, and it still doesn't have an official slogan. Wanna help 'em out? You could win $500 in Amy's products. All you have to do is head to Amy's site to submit an entry - a phrase, word, jingle, or rhyme in 15 words or less that encapsulates Amy's Kitchen for you. Now get cracking!

- City Editor Read the full post... 

I just got back from a trip to the Southeast, during which Seattle's gray season moved in with full force. So instead of dwelling on how bummed I am about not seeing the sun for several months, I'm trying to focus on what I love about fall in the PNW:

•  Cupcake Royale's Annual Cupcake Harvest Festival, chock full of moist and tasty fall cupcakes like Caramel Apple (with honey crisp apples from Tiny's Organic Farm, caramel frosting, and a little stick in the top just like the real deal), my fave Pumpkin Maple (with organic pumpkin from Stahlbush Island Farms), and Carrot Cake (with local carrots from Ralph's Organics).
•  Read the full post... 

(Plas)tic-Tac-Toe

Plotting your plastic recyclables' next move? O, well, let us help you plan their X-it with our walk-through of the different kinds (check the Plastic Identification Code - the number in the little arrow symbol on the bottom of the container), which ones are safer for you in the first place, which are usually recyclable, and which ones aren't so much. Then check with your local recycling facility to see what types of plastics it accepts. Game on.

1. We're #1.

Plastics labeled #1 are PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) and fall into the safer plastics category, since they're not known to leach any toxic by-products (such as Read the full post... 

I got on this kick last week of deciding I needed to eat more veggies (oddly, a diet of cereal and cheese does not equal a well-balanced diet) and thought salads might be just the ticket. So armed with a shopping basket of organic greens, red peppers, carrots, and tomatoes, I headed to the salad dressing aisle for the pièce de résistance. I knew I'd never stick to the salad idea if I didn't have some tasty dressing to keep me motivated. As a Southern gal, I beelined straight for Annie's Naturals Organic Buttermilk Dressing - creamy, tangy, buttermilky goodness.

Wanna get your own? We're giving away three prize packages of Annie's Naturals and Annie's Homegrown (love Annie's mac & cheese) products to the first three Read the full post... 

Got your attention? Sweet...or perhaps I should say Tart. We're talking pomegranates, peeps. We all know they're good for your insides (can help combat the risk of heart disease), but they're great for your outsides too: The high level of antioxidants may help protect your skin from cell-aging free radicals.

We're gonna hook up one lucky reader with an anti-aging arsenal in the form of Weleda's Pomegranate Regenerating Body Care Gift Kit, which includes its Pomegranate Creamy Body Wash and Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil, with organic pomegranate seed oil, plus an exfoliating loofah and a reusable tote. Just be the first person to email the correct answer to this question - What Greek goddess did Read the full post... 

In high school, I always avoided carrying a purse by just stuffing my cash, keys, license, etc. into my pockets - I still do the same thing now (which makes my handbag obsession especially vexing). Anyway, one of my pocket necessities was always Softlips (if you don't believe me, just ask my best friend, Jessica; seriously, give her a call - you'll have a nice chat). As a lip balm devotee, I'm superpicky about the stuff, but Softlips won me over as a teen. It comes in a slender tube (i.e., easy to stuff in a pocket) and actually does what the name says - makes my lips soft, thanks to beeswax, shea butter, and vitamin E. So imagine my level of stokedness (totally a word) when I found out my teenage lip balm crush had gone green last year with its PURE line (no Read the full post... 

I am not sporty. I have poor depth perception and a general lack of coordination. And after trying and failing at tee ball (I was hardly able to make contact with the immobile ball, and when I did, I'd let the bat go flying into the stands), basketball (I usually only had an H by the time my brother had spelled horse), and Red Rover (yes, I'm counting Red Rover as a sport, primarily because I ended up having to get head X-rays after a particularly rousing round) as a kid, I think I'm ready to try once more. And I think I've found my game: golf.

Now it's not just because of the cute outfits or fun of driving a golf cart or the Bloody Marys from the beverage cart (technically, I'm still working up to those things as I'm currently only trying my Read the full post... 

"Did you watch the MTV Video Music Awards?" No, this wasn't office water cooler chat from Monday morning (being that I work from home, it's just me and the dogs - who are never much for good gossip), it was from a phone call with my dad on Monday. And I wasn't the one doing the asking.

"No, Dad, but I've seen all the headlines," I said, referring to the Kanye West/Taylor Swift smackdown, though, it wasn't so much a smackdown as it being like Kanye "stepped on a kitten" (in the words of the eloquent Miss Katy Perry, who was great at Bumbershoot, by the way).

"Isn't that terrible what he Read the full post...