How to Make a Strawberry Spinach Salad Your Family Will Love

With a tasty dressing and summer strawberries, you can make a strawberry and spinach salad that everyone in your family will love. If you are introducing this salad to children, chop the spinach into small pieces and mix them well into the other salad ingredients.

For 4 servings of Strawberry Spinach Salad you will need:
-One 10-ounce bag or bunch of fresh spinach
-2 cups sliced, fresh strawberries, washed and tops removed
-1 cup thinly sliced red onion
-1 cup pralines or candied pecans

Optional: chopped cooked chicken or sliced hard boiled egg

Place all ingredients except pecans in large salad bowl. Pour strawberry vinaigrette (recipe below) over salad to taste and toss to combine. Refrigerate any leftover vinaigrette. Sprinkle the whole salad or individual servings with pecans and serve.

Strawberry Vinaigrette
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup whole strawberries, washed and tops removed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (you can use apple cider vinegar, but balsamic vinegar does especially well with strawberries)
1/4 teaspoon salt – adjust to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon sugar – adjust to taste

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend or process until it becomes liquid.

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How to Reduce CO2 Emission While Driving

If you are concerned about CO2 emissions from your vehicle, there are some ways your can reduce your emissions without giving up driving. Here are some ideas.

1. Carpool
Consolidating passengers reduces the number of trips everyone makes. Carpooling goes beyond your work commute – consider carpooling to the grocery store and other errands.

2. Keep your tires at the right pressure.
Make sure that your tires are inflated according to your vehicle manufacturer’s instructions. This simple step saves fuel and gives you better gas mileage. Under-inflated tires drag on the surface of the road, causing your engine to work harder and use more gas.

3. Change your oil.
A well-lubricated engine does not expend as much fuel and energy. Make sure to change the oil as often as your vehicle requires (the standard recommendation is every 3000 miles or every 3 months, whichever comes first). See if you can have your oil changed at a garage where the old oil is recycled.

4. Get regular tune-ups.
In addition to extending the life of your car, getting regular tune-ups keeps your engine running at optimum efficiency, thus saving fuel and reducing emissions.

5. Air filters
When you take your car in for its oil change, ask the mechanics to check your air filter. If it is not clean, have it replaced. A dirty or clogged air filter forces the engine to use more energy to force air through.

6. Don’t idle if you can help it.
Idling for a moment or two while picking someone up is understandable; but waiting for someone for minutes at a time with the engine running is wasteful. Shut it off when your wait is going to be more than a minute or so.

7. Drive the speed limit.
It takes much more gasoline to drive fast than it does to drive moderately. You don’t need to maintain your speed when going uphill, either – slow down going uphill and speed up (not over the speed limit, of course) when going downhill.

8. Open the windows rather than run the air conditioning.
Running the air conditioning uses more fuel. It is especially hard on the engine to run the air conditioning when driving uphill.

9. Lighten the load.
Take any unnecessary items out of your trunk. The heavier your car, the more fuel you’re using, even during normal driving.

How to Raise Awareness of Recycling in your Community

Recycling is something you can do as an individual, but the more people you get on board the more effective your recycling efforts will be. Here are some tips and ideas for raising recycling awareness in your community.

1. Organize a neighborhood clean-up day. Provide food and clean-up supplies (such as bags and litter-grabbers), and arrange to have a recycling or garbage truck available. Look around and identify the areas with the greatest need, and assign individuals or groups to particular areas.

2. Get your message out by email or other eco-friendly means, such as flyers printed on recycled paper.

3. Set up a website or blog to which people can refer. You can post events and articles here and keep people updated.

4. Go into the public schools in your area and engage students and faculty with a presentation. Most schools are receptive to environmental causes. Maybe a field trip for students to tour the local recycling facility or clean up an area in the city could be arranged.

5. Elicit the help of local authorities. One good way to do this is to circulate a petition around your neighborhood and community, collecting signatures which you can then present to the local authorities.

6. See about getting recycling bins set up in convenient places. Again, this will require the cooperation of local officials, such as the solid waste authority, who will be needed to pick up the recycling and haul it to the recycling center.

7. Volunteer at a nearby organization that has recycling projects. Invite others to volunteer as well.

8. Attend environmentally-themed events in your community, and make connections with other like-minded people.

9. Organize neighborhood trips to the recycling center. You will save fuel this way, too, as neighbors consolidate their recyclables into a few vehicles.

10. Write your local newspaper about your concerns.

11. Attend your City Council meetings and present the need for recycling. Also present specific goals and ideas to the Council.

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