Articles Written by Julie Hancher

Call me a tainted woman, but I wasn’t too optimistic anticipating the State of the Union address. After reviewing my 2011 environmental summary of the State of the Union, I realized Obama made promises to put pressure back on big oil, get 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years (remember that one?), 80% of electricity sourced by clean energy in 2035, and break foreign dependence on oil. Hmm…. Where are we today?  (Luckily Treehugger had some Cliff Notes for me…)

In response to the youtube sensation Shit Girls Say, we've created our own meme take on those eco-friendly freaks. Shit Green People Say. Go ahead... point fingers at the greenies in your life... (or in our case, yourself!) Readers, what shit are you sick of eco-friendly people saying?

Hey Green Philly Blog Readers, Fans & Friends, Thanks for reading, commenting, and inspiring us to help Philly become a shade greener. We still have a long way to go, but we're very thankful for our readers - veteran and new! We started this blog over 3 years ago... as two women who wanted to make a difference.  Carpooling & complaining about our former company's lack of recycling bins, we realized our passion could develop into something bigger.  Something that can educate others.  Something that could help make our city a little bit greener. Since Green Philly Blog's infancy, we've... (click through to read the rest of our 500 post reflections!)

The Philadelphia Flower Show gained some street cred on SNL. In the clip, Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais (played by Jason Sudeikis) hassles a plant. See the clip on the Flower Show Website here. (Clearly we don't care, but there's disclaimers. So we'll repeat. Please note: this video contains content that may not be suitable for all audiences.) Don't worry, Philly's not the only target - "Gervais" also insults Kids’ Choice Awards, The Westminster Dog Show, & the BET Music Awards.

Disclaimer: I'm not a food blogger nor a food expert. But I do have a newfound love for vegetarian cooking. And promise to relay this recipe as I created it, errors and all.) So I knew I officially turned old/domesticated/boring at the ripe ol' age of 28 when my parents gave me 2 casserole dishes for my birthday... And for Christmas I received (after asking for) a 9-cup, Kitchen Aid Food Processor.  I was so excited to use it, I processed all 4 veggies in my house on Christmas day! The rest of my recipe was impromptu, so feel free to experiment on your own for the veggies, cheese & portions. Enjoy! Gluten-Free, Vegetarian Quiche: (The recipe & specifics, after the jump!)

There's nothing I dread more than receiving those damn credit card offers in the mail. Such lies and false promises - Free airline tickets, magazines, chateaus, daschunds...  They'll give me ANYTHING to sign up for another express ticket on the gateway to debt. Good news for you - You can opt out of Credit Card offers with OptOutPrescreen.com.  Because of a "Fair Credit Reporting Act", companies are allowed to give your name to credit agencies.  Which results in a  LOT of paper in your mailbox. Just take a minute, visit the site, and opt out of junk mail.

Want the best of the tropics with a twist of mad-artist-cutting-off-his-ear? The Philadelphia Flower Show's escape to "Hawaii: Islands of Aloha" is far off (March 4-11), but tempting us with early sales combined with the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Van Gogh Up Close collaboration. Depending on your price range and what you want, the packages differ. Here's a breakdown of how you can get the most bang for your buck:

6 Baby Steps to Eat Vegetarian:  (Helping a Reader's New Years Resolution) One of our readers asked: "I'm trying to eat less meat in the New Year and want to go vegetarian. Do you have advice?" Here are 6 lessons I learned along the meat-free way:

Now that you've hauled out the holly and looted the gifts from Santa, it's time to figure out how you're handling those dead Christmas Trees - in an environmentally friendly fashion, of course. The Streets Department has announced the 2012 Christmas Tree Recycling Program is running Tuesday, January 3 (aka today) - Saturday, January 14th. There is NO curbside collection, so here's the Sanitation Convenience Centers where to take your trees: