Last summer I found out that Chinet, purveyor of paper plates, is actually a green company.  If you are planning on using paper products for holiday parties or even (gasp!) Thanksgiving dinner, why not choose plates made from 100 percent recycled materials such as repurposed milk cartons and cardboard?  Chinet’s plates are not only chlorine-free, they’re compostable, making them an eco-friendly choice for large gatherings.  (Note: I swear I don’t work for Chinet!  I am just impressed by their environmental efforts.  Their recipes look pretty tempting, too.)

Set the table with recycled plates!

If you visit Chinet’s website, you’ll even find some holiday recipes.  Here are just a few:

Perfect Roast Turkey

1 whole 14 to 16 pound frozen young turkey

1 cup kosher salt

½ cup light brown sugar

1 gallon vegetable stock

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

½ tablespoon allspice berries

½ tablespoon candied ginger

1 gallon iced water

1 whole red apple, sliced

½ whole onion, sliced

1 whole cinnamon stick

1 cup water

4 sprigs rosemary

6 leaves sage

Canola oil

To make Brine, combine kosher salt, light brown sugar, vegetable stock, black peppercorns, allspice berries and candied ginger in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Early on the day of cooking (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in a cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining. A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and a cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add the apple mixture  to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 ½ hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Grand Cranberry Relish

2 lbs fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

¼ cup Grand Marnier liqueur

1 whole orange, zested and juiced

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, pulse several times to break down the cranberries and incorporate the ingredients; it should still be a bit chunky. Allow the cranberry relish to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, so the flavors can marry.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

8 ounces packaged cream cheese, softened

2 cup canned pumpkin, mashed

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 egg combined with

2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 cup half-and-half

¼ cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger, optional

1 piece pre-made pie dough

Whipped cream, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a 9-inch pie pan and press down along the bottom and sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is  beginning to color. For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger, and beat until incorporated. Pour the filling into the warm prepared piecrust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

Holiday Hot Toddy

2 whole tangerines

½ cup whole cloves

3 quarts pure, unsweetened cranberry juice

2 cups sugar

3 cups amber rum, if desired

Cut tangerines crosswise into ¼-inch-thick rounds and remove seeds. Stud rind of each tangerine round with 4 or 5 cloves. In a large saucepan simmer cranberry juice, tangerine rounds, and sugar, covered, 5 minutes and stir in rum. Serve toddies with clove-studded tangerine rounds in Chinet Comfort Cups.

For more information about Chinet’s commitment to the environment, go here.  Look here for more holiday recipes from our favorite paper plate company.

Biodegradable paper plates and wonderful holiday recipes work for me!  For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

Monkey Foot Designs wet bags are different from the other bags we’ve discussed here on the Green Baby Guide.  Joy used a plastic bag to haul her wet diapers from daycare until she switched to a Bumkins Dirty Duds bag.  I’d always used a bag from a sporting goods store.  What sets the Monkey Foot bags apart from these other options?  They are much, much more stylish and beautiful. 

These custom-made bags are so nice that I almost hesitated using mine for wet diapers, but in the spirit of an honest review, I did.  I have the small bag ($16) in the sea coriander pattern.  When we went on an overnight trip last weekend, I took it along.  My daughter is mostly potty trained but still wears a diaper at night, so I brought just two cloth diapers.  They both fit in the small bag.  I’d recommend the small bag if you need to store just one or two diapers at a time.  The larger bag ($22) will hold four to five diapers, so it would work perfectly for daycare.

The outer fabric is a nice, soft cotton, which is a pleasant change from my regular old nylon wet bag.  (It’s an even bigger step up if you are currently using plastic bags as Joy once did!)  The inside contains a nontoxic, waterproof lining.  Unlike other bags out there, the seams are sealed, so there are no leaks.  The best part is that this bag’s uses are not limited to diapers.  I envision using the bag to tote wet swimming suits or sunscreen to the beach years after my diapering days are over.

Would you like a Monkey Foot Designs bag of your own?  Just post a comment by next Friday and you’ll be eligible to win a small or large bag in the pattern of your choice.   Check out their website to see the array of patterns available.

Congratulations to Alison, the winner of our Natural Pod clothing giveaway!

Back when I wrote my Fattening Baby, Naturally post, I was searching for alternatives to Pediasure.   Although Audrey’s pediatrician wanted her to drink Pediasure in order to gain some weight, I hesitated giving her something with non-organic dairy products, artificial flavors, sugar, and maltodextrin.  I ended up doing all sorts of things to boost the calories and fat in her diet, and I also made a discovery: MLO brown rice protein powder.

A 24-oz container of the powder costs about $10.  I found it in the health food section of my local grocery store.  It’s gluten-free, vegan, and contains two simple ingredients: rice protein concentrate and rice bran.  As rice is often a first food for babies, it seemed like the perfect thing to add to her food without bombarding her with unnatural or unhealthful ingredients.  

Two rounded tablespoons contain 110 calories, 1 gram of fat, and 15 grams of protein, as well as some calcium, iron, phosphorus, and magnesium.  Back when I spoon-fed Audrey, I usually just put a tablespoon in her daily allotment of oatmeal.  Recently I added some to some popsicles I made out of oranges and bananas.  The back of the box has a smoothie recipe, but I find it too gritty for smoothies.

Now, I’ll issue the standard disclaimer that I am not a doctor or a nutritionist.  I’m just a mother who wanted to find some natural ways to plump my baby up–and this brown rice powder ended up being a great little discovery.  For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

Not Quite Crunchy Parent writes It’s Not Christmas Time–It’s Recall Time!  Whether you buy new or used toys for the holidays, it’s good to know what’s safe and what’s not.

Along similar lines, Mindful Momma has a list of books and websites that will help you find safer children’s products.  One of her recommendations is Healthy Child, Healthy World, which is both a book and a blog.  While the Healthy Child, Healthy World blog does have what in my opinion is an overabundance of warnings on harmful toxins lurking all around us, there are also many read-worthy posts such as The Making of a Green Mom and a discussion of sustainable design.

Eco Child’s Play has a recipe for homemade cranberry sauce.  Homemade cranberry sauce is vegan, doesn’t contain BPA like its canned cousin, and has a much zingier taste than store bought sauce.  Her post made me wonder: am I the only one who actually likes jellied cranberry sauce from a can?  I love that stuff!

Don’t forget to post a comment on our latest Natural Pod review.  You’ll then be eligible to win an organic, plant-dyed onesie or shirt of your choice!

Our last Natural Pod giveaway was so successful that we’re doing another one!  Last time we oohed and awed over the wooden play kitchen, gnome family kit, and wooden cups and plates–and our lucky reader won the natural stacking rings.

Natural Pod also sells organic clothing.  Here’s what they have to say about it:

Natural Pod has a great range of unique organic clothing for babies, toddlers and children up to 8 years. We have worked hard to find pieces that are comfortable, soft and hand-made. Our current selection includes pieces that have been plant-dyed, just using items from the garden.

Roscoe is now the proud owner of this yellow crew neck shirt, and Audrey has the orange kimono.  Neither Joy nor I have had much experience with new, organic clothing.  We even wrote a post in which we wondered if used clothing was “greener” than organic duds.  I always thought something like an organic onesie or baby shirt would cost an exorbitant amount, but all of Natural Pod’s clothes are just around $20.00–that’s just a few dollars more than new, conventional baby garments. 

If you like the idea of new clothes for your baby, consider ones made from organically grown cotton and dyed with plant dyes.  Not only will these clothes be better for the environment than conventional ones, they’ll potentially be better for your baby’s health.

We love the soft cotton and earthy colors of these clothes.  My only criticism is that they run large.  The size two kimono is much too big for her to fit in now, but she looks forward to wearing it in a year or so when she’ll be closer to four years old.  Of course, Audrey can still fit in some of her six month clothing, so she may not be the best sizing model.  Roscoe (age two) fits in his 2T crew neck just fine!  The dye in his shirt has become a bit splotchy with a  few washings, but it now looks like that was just a part of the fabric pattern so it’s quite unnoticeable.

Would you like to try one of Natural Pod’s shirts or onesies for your baby or child?  Just post a comment by the 21st and you’ll be entered to win the clothing item of your choice!  There are twenty-three wonderful options to choose from.