Happy Friday! We have put together another fantastic From Our Friends roundup this week from awesome writers across the web. This one includes stories about BPA-free water bottles, graphic new cigarette packages, marine protecting photo contests, electric truck fleets and where some of the happiest people in the world live. Sneak away for an afternoon break today and start the weekend right with these entertaining and enlightening articles. We'll see you next week!

There’s a very beautiful thing about Mother Nature that happens when we don’t stuff her with too much gunk: Plants grow and animals live in harmony. Yes, it sounds like a children’s book written in the 1970s, but it’s also a notion that many an organic gardener are getting wise to these days.

Companion planting, a practice used by organic and biodynamic gardeners, is the term given when one plants certain types of plants near each other because they are mutually beneficial. In the case of growing food in a garden plot, there are a number of flowers you can plant for natural pest control. Toss out the pesticides (or wait, maybe you should contact the EPA to find out how to properly dispose of that toxic waste) and instead plant some attractive and aromatic flowers. Ah, that’s biodynamic gardening for you.

Are you eating three to five servings of fruit each day? If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably not hitting that goal, at all. According to recent research, only eight percent of individuals reach their recommended target of fruit for any given day.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’d never been much of a fruit fan in my adult years. I was always going out of my way to remind myself to eat a banana randomly, or to remind myself to pick up a few apples at the market. But lately, I’ve been finding new ways to sneak fruit into the meals I’m already eating. Genius! Now, I don’t have to go out of my way to eat fruit. I just pull it out of the fridge with the rest of the ingredients I’m using (greens, chicken, milk, what have you), and voila!—I’m suddenly reaching my three-to-five goal. Interested in how to sneak fruits into your meals? Read on

Do you smell that enticing aroma coming from the organic meal you have simmering in a skillet on the stove? Mmm good. While you’re anxiously waiting for your scrumptious dinner to cook, you might also be getting a big whiff of toxic fumes. The coating on oh-so convenient nonstick cookware can leach a nasty recipe of chemicals into your food and the air.

You can always take preventative measures like not preheating nonstick cookware or not placing nonstick cookware in the oven, but why risk it? Better alternatives exist for safer cooking. Check out these four safer options.

Squash blossoms stem from, you guessed it, squashes. The flowers from either summer or winter squash are edible and delicious, known as squash blossoms and available in varying shades of yellow and orange. Their flavor is light and airy - as the blossoms are themselves - and hint of the squash from whence it came. Squash blossoms can be used for much more than pretty garnish; they are large enough for all manner of cooking, including stuffing!

You are what you eat. It's cliche, it's trite and it's true... or is it? Actually, it's not what we eat, but what we digest and assimilate, that determines the nourishment our bodies receive. So, in actuality, you are what you absorb from what you eat... right?

If you can still see the outline of that Christmas fruit cake when you try and squeeze into your bathing suit—you're not alone. As we get older, our metabolic rate slows, making it easier to put on weight over the winter and more difficult to lose it in the summer. Herbs can help to slim down, but not all are safe. Here are six to choose, and three to lose.

This is a tough one. Why? Because it's hard to argue with the convenience of canned beans. When it's late and you're tired, opening a can of beans - whether they be black (spiced too!), garbanzo, pinto, kidney or a melange - heating them up and adding some fixing's makes for some seriously fast and easy dinner making... and pretty tasty, too.

I'm a self-professed hippie: I buy organic foods for myself and my family. My kids rarely eat junk food. I get acupuncture. Go to yoga. But since I've turned 40, and since that deep crease between my eyebrows is no longer a cute crinkle, like the kind of crinkle I used to make when looking at someone like they’re nuts, I must say... I’ve thought about getting Botox.

Savoring a delicious morsel of chocolatey goodness can bestow the bod with a rush of endorphins capable of reviving a less-than-perky attention span – plus let’s not forget that modern science has officially praised the cacao bean’s nutritional profile, meaning that we all deserve to throw caution to the wind and finally get down with it! (Okay, maybe a steady diet of chocolate isn’t exactly what the doctor ordered, but nibbling on a little here and there certainly has its benefits.)

Our humble yellow friend the banana is one of nature’s most handy and healthful snacks that packs a hefty dose of vitamins and nutrients in a convenient mobile package. One of the first foods that many babies eat in this country, bananas are so omnipresent that they can be overlooked in favor of trendier fruits like lychees or pomegranates.

But look again - there are many uses for the banana that you could be missing! Most of these ideas work best with bananas that are ripe but not too ripe, with very little green and a few brown spots. And of course, buy organic bananas whenever possible.