Green Holiday: Easter

I really like Green Holidays - it's a great opportunity for me to stretch my planning and culinary preferences and see how sustainable, organic, local and ethical I can make it. This year was particularly special, since our local family farm was able to offer us a whole lamb that was bottle-fed goat's milk and humanely slaughtered.

We also made our plans to enjoy our Easter feast in the park instead of inside our homes, using up electicity and breathing recycled air. The day was beautiful, with a little breeze and mid-70s, all of us got a wonderful dose of Vitamin Daylight! We conserved energy enjoying all that beautiful sunlight and we used cloth napkins and plastic beach plates so we didn't have any waste!

Though I played with family favorites last year, this year our menu was Mediterranean:

Stuffed Grapeleaves:

• organic California Basmati rice
• all-natural brined grapeleaves
• locally raised, all-natural lamb
• organic tomato paste
• organic lemons

Tabouli

• organic tabouli mix (I have to admit this is cheating: I usually make it fresh with cracked wheat bulgur)
• organic American cucumbers
• organic tomatoes
• local, organic parsley
• organic lemons

Falafels

• falafel mix (this is my favorite: we bought fresh pressed garbanzo mix from our favorite Mediterranean cafe - Baladi's)
• peanut oil

Hummus

• organic garbanzo beans
• organic tahini paste
• organic olive oil
• organic lemons
• organic garlic
• white pepper

Pita Bread

• local fresh whole wheat pita (these we purchased fresh from Baladi's - who makes them in his store each morning)