So what’s the verdict? Well, like most fatty food substitutes it doesn’t taste exactly like the donuts you grew up on. In fact, if you are craving a donut…I can’t say that this hits that specific “donut spot.” But! Don’t misread the text. It is DELICIOUS. But maybe it’s best to approach this new food group, the same way I approached coconut water (which tastes nothing like water) for the first time, and just…see it, or rather taste it, for what it is! And what is that exactly? A delicious sugary doughy treat that comes in the following flavors: glazed, banana chocolate, chocolate hazelnut, peach, lemon, strawberry buttermilk, rosemary olive oil, peanut butter & jelly, maple bacon, hawaiian, chorizo cheddar, salted caramel, and cinnamon sugar.

I suggest ordering the mini versions for the first time! And a major plus! they serve Lamille coffee for all of you west hollywood kids afraid or too lazy to venture to silver lake.

8104 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Neighborhood: Mid-City West
(323) 592-3075
www.fonuts.com

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So how does a hot spot get hotter? Add a juice bar and takeout shop for those that don’t have the patience for the expected 40 minute wait. And how does a hot spot become the hottest, recruit the hottest! Any organic foodie in New York will tell you that the best fresh pressed juices are made by Melvin at Lifethyme market on 6th avenue and 8th street. Not only is Melvin the best of the best but he’ll put a smile on your face no matter what type of mood the NYC chill puts you in. And he knows just how to conjure up a juice filled with secrete ingredients to leave your energy levels boosted, and any lingering cold vanished. Naturally, this is exactly who Miss Lily’s is bringing in. Fresh fruits guru Melvin Major Jr. will finally get the attention he deserves! As he will head up the juicing portion under the name Melvin’s Juice Box.

Melvin will offer his signature green and protein-enhanced juices, as well as tropical concoctions made with Caribbean fruit juices such as soursop, june plum, Irish moss, and sorrel — which don’t appear on any other juice-bar menus around town. Look for an opening before the end of the year.

Man I could really go for some of their chicken and a ting right about now!

The post DOWNTOWN NYC JAMAICAN HOT SPOT MISS LILY’S TO OPEN ALL NATURAL JUICE BAR appeared first on Green Jar.

Given below is a list of seven best Eco resorts providing sustainable luxury.

1. Finca Rosa Blanca Inn

2. Ranweli Holiday Village

As the name suggests Ranweli Holiday Village gives the feel of spending magical moments in peaceful village. This resort is located 11 miles from Colombo International Airport in Sri Lanka. This aesthetic resort spreads over 22 acre peninsula of mangrove. The freshwater river nearby the Ranweli Holiday Village meeting the ocean makes the view mesmerizing. Coconut plantation all around the place gives freshness and serenity. The customary looking resort is fully equipped with all the modern facilities. It has an Ayurveda Center to provide pure and natural beauty therapies and herbal massages.

3. Lapa Rios Ecolodge

This place is referred as paradise for honeymoon by the couples who come here to spend lone time with their life partners. Located at Costa Rica, no person has ever returned dissatisfied from this beautiful resort. This place despite being a hotel has always given homely feeling to the tourists and that is why people who come to this place wish to come here again and again. This resort offers bungalows surrounded by dense rainforests. Hardwood staircase in the main lodge running over three stories looks beautiful. Various adventure sports can be performed in the forests as well as in the ocean. Hiking, birding, kayaking, horse riding are the most prevalent adventure sports performed hare.

4. Tiamo Resorts

Tiamo resorts are the Caribbean’s most environmentally friendly tourist place located on South Andros Island. Most of the functions in the resort are performed using natural sources of energy. The hotel is equipped with thermal hot water heaters and solar paneling systems. The toilets have low flush system which saves water and resort is based on low impact architecture. Many other Eco friendly amenities could be easily found in this environmentally sensitive resort. Resort serves private bungalows to the guests. People would love this place while taking nature hikes, swimming and various other adventure activities.

5. El Pescador Resorts

EI Pescador has remained famous for a long time for its world class fishing. But in 1997 the ownership of the resort got changed and so did the popularity theme. Under new ownership the whole focus shifted towards Eco friendliness. The resort located at Belize has gone fully green and commits to finish all carbon emissions produced by the guests of flying to it. The structure has been designed in mahogany style with large guest rooms. Some beachfront apartments are also offered to the guests from where they can gaze into deep Caribbean blue waters for hours and hours without any crumb of disturbance.

6. Maho Bay

One of the world’s most distinguished Eco sensitive resorts has been located on scarcely populated island of USVI since 1976. Today almost 114 tents form Maho Bay Camps located inside Virgin Island National Park. Three more resorts have also been added. The resort uses solar power harvesting, rainwater collection and buildings made up of recycled materials as some of the environmentally friendly techniques to promote green architecture. Comfort has also been kept in mind along with Eco friendliness. They have domed ceilings and wraparound decks that give full ocean views without compromising with environment.

7. Avalon Coastal Retreat

Avalon Coastal Retreat is located on Great Oyster Bay, Australia. These are private Eco cottages that use rain water and recycled material in its working without compromising with comforts of the guests. It has three huge guest rooms and common areas. The architecture is made up of glass and timber that gives a modernist appearance to the place. Pleasant views offered by the Eco-lodge fascinate guests and forces them to come here again and again.

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Rich in iron and beta carotine, the Mango, Banana and Orange blend will appeal to smoothie lovers, while the Sweet Potato, Corn and Apple pouch serves as a satisfying on-the-go meal during long car trips. None of Peter Rabbit’s creations are diluted with water or contain any unwholesome ingredients, so you can rest assured that what you’re feeding your kids is 100% pure, 100% delicious, and, best of all, 100% palatable to even the fussiest of eaters. Even we found ourselves salivating at the prospect of snacking on the Strawberry and Banana pouch during midday work slumps.

HIT FROM: Ecofabulous.com

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Everything that the cafe offers is 100% organic. I personally go just for the iced soy lattes, the green boba tea (sans the boba balls), the fresh squeezed carrot juice (full of vitamin A and amazing for your skin), the salads, the pastries, the pumpkin pie and the multigrain waffles. It is a pricey cup of coffee, but once you go it’ll be hard going back to anything else. Trust me. I’ve made the 10 minute drive to Urth over the Starbucks on my block for no real logical reason at all other than for an iced latte.

And the best part – order right when you walk in, sit down where you please, and you’ll be enjoying your meal within fifteen minutes. The staff is beyond attentative and friendly. And whatever you don’t finish! Take it to go in their plastic compostable containers.

This place is a must. Whether you are going to pick up a drink on the go, meet a friend for a healthy meal outside, or study in a quiet corner inside. Coming from my mouth – this place is trendy for a reason. But don’t be deterred as I once was, and start your Urth experience at the downtown location.

Pictures below from a recent brunch

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But don’t call it a restaurant as I’ve been told: “The Pig,” despite an Italian-accented menu crafted by English expert April Bloomfield, belongs to that British subgenre called the “gastro-pub,” a bar serving simple, straightforward food. Now don’t get it twisted, “gastro pubs” are categorized as bars with food, but usually with chefs way too talented to be relegated to equal status. Similar to the upscale American diner, it is an Everyman cultural icon suddenly given a serious focus on good, fresh, often locally grown food.

While there have been many write ups on The Pig, it’s food, and it’s list of highly respected partners/owners that have succeeded in reproducing the comfortably decrepit vibe of old New York taverns, “now personalized with enough porcine paraphernalia to give Babe the willies.” All have failed to mention that for every carved, drawn, or painted pig that graces the brick walls, there’s a framed illustration of a slender bean pod, lettuce leaf, or some other presumably organic green matter. Thus The Pig contributes to the NYC borough and the wellness of its neighbors, beyond its functional role as a chic meeting ground upon which to be fueled with great food and great drinks. With a gifted English chef and a focus on fresh seasonal ingredients, feature stories have mentioned The Pig to be New York’s first gastro-pub that raises the bar on bar food. GreenJAR now informs you that the food is so fresh and so clean, that the majority of it is completely compostable. And done so right on site by (and initiated by) it’s very own employees. Not only a safe heaven for those that enjoy a good burger and nice glass of wine, but simultaneously and ironically for vegetarians and environmentalists as well. The Pig, A Restaurant of many firsts, is also the first green gastro pub in its aesthetics, production, and disposal of food as well.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the United States produces approximately 220 million tons of garbage each year. For all you sports junkies, this is equivalent to burying more than 82,000 football fields six feet deep in compacted garbage.Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 24% of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That’s a lot of waste to send to landfills when it could become useful and environmentally beneficial compost instead! The Pig is aware of this and is doing it’s part to decrease this annual amount by partaking in weekly composting.

Long used in subsistence farming and home gardening for creating garden-ready soil, composting is becoming increasingly important and better understood as a tool for reducing municipal solid waste, and reducing the amount of green waste going into landfills. (*The decomposition of organic material sent to landfills is a principal cause of methane, an important greenhouse gas, making reduction of organic waste being land filled a key element in the fight against climate change.)

Composting offers the obvious benefits of resource efficiency and creating a useful product from organic waste that would otherwise have been land filled; it also saves the restaurant a considerable amount of money.

The Pig may have been conceptually created off of the idea of old taverns, but there is nothing old about this place. From the stand point of this article, it is arguably one of the most revolutionary restaurants (err..pub) in its diverse role that it plays within the environment. With a power team behind it that consists of Ken Friedman, Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and April Bloomfield, oh and a landlord named Shawn Carter, it is without a doubt the Future of the “Food” Business. Something tells me these guys have all known this for quite some time.

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The entire estate at Domaine Carneros, including the grapes grown for their sparkling wine and their pinot noir, are all certified organic. While the grapes have been grown organically for the last twenty years, they didn’t get official California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) label until 2008.

What Makes Their Sparkling Wine Organic?

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*My card from a recent stay at the CLIFT HOTEL

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When you hear the term ‘green restaurant’, greasy fast food chain McDonalds is pretty much the last thing that comes to mind. With a reputation for fostering obesity, bad health and environmental destruction by peddling rainforest grown meat, McDonald’s has been fighting a less-than-rosy public image for years. But now the country’s largest fast-food restaurant is hoping to change all that with the opening of their first ‘green’ restaurant in North Carolina — dubbed ‘green’ because the restaurant will offer electric vehicle charging.

The McDonald’s features an array of green technologies and is designed to use as much daylight as possible, comes equipped with highly efficient water and kitchen fixtures, and uses drought tolerant plants. The fitout makes use of materials like sunflower seed boards, wheat boards, bamboo and kirei boards. Recycled materials were used in the construction of the building, and an energy efficiency dashboard provides real time updates about the restaurant’s green stats to guests.

But what really caught our eye was the deployment of the electric vehicle charging stations in the restaurant. These stations are powered by Novacharge and are part of the Chargepoint charging stations that we have covered before. It seems like a great idea to put charging stations in as many places as possible, and fast food restaurants seem like a truly ideal place for them – why didn’t anyone think of that before?!!

Of course, at the end of the day this is McDonald’s. We must give them props for moving in the right direction, green-technology-wise, at least. It would be considerably better if we could also see progress towards sustainability in their food as well. We can dream, can’t we?

HIT FROM: INHABITAT.COM

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I’ll never learn quiet how to adapt to the winter. My Latin blood does not adjust well. However, I do enjoy any excuse I get to drink warm beverages, especially hot cocoa. When I learned that there existed such a thing as eco cocoa through Grist.org’s recent tasting, I could resist but to share. Check out some really insightful views on the following seven cocoa’s. Hopefully it’ll help you select your next brand of choice as it did me!

From Grist.org

Green & Black’s organic hot chocolate drink
Ingredients: Organic raw cane sugar, organic fat-reduced cocoa powder, organic dark chocolate powder (organic chocolate liquor, organic raw cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, soy lecithin, (emulsifier), organic vanilla extract).
Price: $4.29 (on sale), for 5.3 ounces
Special notes: Sports the USDA organic seal. Directions call for hot milk rather than hot water, which you’d think would make your beverage somehow better.

Who knew hot cocoa mix could taste tannic? This mix made our tasters pucker.  “That’s not right,” quipped one taster who sported a festive holiday sweater. She then reached for the whipped cream. Strangest comment: “Kind of vegetal.” Most passionate comment:  “What the hell are people thinking?” Kindest comment: “It’s not that bad,” said one taster, who, it should be disclosed, was jet-lagged to the point of stupor because he had just returned from an international trip wherein he ate cicada thoraxes and chicken feet, and whose opinion no one trusted.

Dagoba organic drinking chocolate
Ingredients: Organic cane sugar, organic coca, organic  chocolate, organic milk (less than 0.1%)
Price: $6.99 for 12 ounces
Special notes: Certified organic and fair trade certified. The directions for this mix included this line: “When the vapors of the milk rise the milk will be at its most receptive to accept the chocolate into its embrace.” Sorta sexy, in this way! This, um, sexyness, might be due to the fact that Dagoba’s eccentric founder, Frederick Schilling,  according to an inside source is “way hot.” Then again, Dagoba was bought by Hershey’s (see Big Chocolate, above.)

Again, tasters were freaked out by the smell: In this case, “like the inside of a tire.” Though the panel thought this drink was creamier than the others, some found it to have a bitter aftertaste.  The bug-eater thought it had a “more of a darker chocolate flavor.” To be fair though, this mix may have been more chocolatey because the directions called for four tablespoons of the stuff per your “favorite mug.”  (As opposed to the more common two-tablespoon-per-favorite-mug directive.)

Full Circle Organic Milk Chocolate Flavor Hot Cocoa Mix
Ingredients: Organic dehydrated can juice solids, organic whey, organic non-fat dry milk, organic cocoa (processed with alkalai), sea salt, calcium carbonate, natural vanilla flavor, xanthan gum (a natural vegetable product).
Price: $3.49 for 10 1-ounce packets
Special notes: Certified organic. This is my conventional grocery store’s bargain brand of organic products. Slogan: “Return to a natural way of living.”

For those prone of nostalgia, this is the most Swiss-Missy of the cocoa mixes—or, as one taster put it, it’s “the cocoa of my youth.” Like all of the add-water mixes, its texture is depressingly thin. Overall, tasters found it to be “synthetic” and “overly sweet.” Strangest comment: “It tastes like Playdoh!” Most damning: “You can get way better stuff at the ski lodge.” Ouch.

Equal Exchange Organic and Fairly Traded Hot Cocoa
Ingredients: Fair trade certified organic evaporated sugar cane juice, organic nonfat dry milk powder, fair trade certified organic cocoa-processed with alkali, organic guar gum, sea salt, organic carob bean gum, organic vanilla powder (organic vanilla extract, organic maltodextrin, organic gum Arabic).
Price: $9.29 for 12 ounces
Special notes: Equal Exchange is a worker-owned Fair Trade organization; this mix is certified organic and fair-trade certified. Container is made from recycled cardboard.

Q: “What’s that terrible smell?”
A: “I dunno, something weird.”

All in all, this product was slightly more chocolatey than the others, but also “cardboardy.” Most disaffected comment. “It has an underlying whatever.”

Pierce Brothers Hot Cocoa
Price: $7.99 for 8 ounces
Ingredients: Organic evaporated cane juice, organic nonfat dry milk, fair trade certified organic cocoa, salt, natural flavor, guar gum.
Special notes: Fair trade and certified organic. Directions warn that “due to all natural organic ingredients, some setting (sic) may occur.”

The entire panel winced at the smell of this cocoa, which one taster said was “like ammonia.” The adjective “burned” was used most often to describe its flavor, as in “burned milk” and “burned rubber.” This un-chocolately mix actually made the tasters angry. “Who decided that this was okay?” demanded festive holiday sweater lady.  “I can’t understand how anyone would bring this to market,” scowled another taster. (Hey you kids, get off of my lawn!)

Ah!Laska Certified Organic Cocoa Chocolatey Chocolate Mix
Ingredients: Organic cane sugar, organic non-fat milk, organic cocoa powder (non-alkaline), organic rice syrup solids, xanthan gum (a natural thickener), carrageenan (a natural seaweed extract emulsifier), maltodextrin, organic vanilla powder.
Price: $7.99 for 12 ounces
Special notes: Certified organic. Cartoon mascot: AH! Bear.

Tasting results. “It’s got that smell again,” someone wailed.  Overall, the panel thought this mix was watery and without chocolate flavor.  One found it “vaguely soap-like.” The grub-eater, who evidently was taking a hatecation,  said it was “not offensive.”

Patric Fine Hot Chocolate Disks
Ingredients: cocoa beans, cocoa powder
Price: $13.95, for 3. 5 ounces (!)
Special notes: This product is hot chocolate, not hot cocoa. We’re talking solid form here, not powder. As you might have guessed from the price, this is super-duper premium micro-batch, bean-to-bar artisinal stuff. And although it doesn’t tout its organic ingredients, its cacao from Madagascar is certified organic. (Even though organic chocolate is no tastier than conventional, according to Patric’s founder). Note also that there is no sugar in this stuff—you are trusted to add your own “to taste.” Further, the directions call for you to use an actual whisk and to serve this beverage in “small tea cups.” I’m not sure what happens if you add mini marshmallows—I think someone rings your doorbell and slaps your face with leather gloves. In other words, this is not a hot beverage for the kiddies to swill.

“No comparison!” hooted one taster. Another said, “This is the only one I’d drink regularly.” In general this non-mix, which was added to milk, yielded very rich, very creamy results. Once the giddy gratitude died down a bit, the descriptions started to sound like wine-speak: “It’s got legs!” and “lots of complexity.” Then someone mentioned the price tag. The group got quiet and a glum as we collectively realized that we had just fallen in love above our social rank. Not even the Christmas Westie could cheer us.

ENJOY!

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