Monday's recipe

It's getting easier to find waste free recipes as I'm getting better at spotting great recipes.  So last night we had salmon which I got in the fish mongers straight into my glass box, available from IKEA.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/cookware/food-storage-organising/f%C3%B6rtrolig-food-container-clear-glass-art-50233790/


With veggies and potatoes with homemade pesto a la Jamie Oliver:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/salmon-pesto-dressed-veg/

Delicious with no waste at all!

Nice!

Here's a great waste free recipe!

Last night we had :

http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/box-recipes/peruvian-jumping-beef

It was delicious! I left out the baby spinach as that comes in bags and we had a waste free meal!

First day of Spring!

My list for de-cluttering is perpetually growing. I went to the charity shop 4 times last week. I'm forever taking stuff out, sorting it into charity, recycle, bin keep....and somehow my home never looks clutter free or even tidy!

What I did do was write a shopping list for most of the week and managed to shop for everything today instead of making daily trips. So, that should free me up some time. I got meat in the butcher and he was fine about putting the meat straight into my boxes, saved some plastic there. I bought all of my fruit and veggies in the green grocer everything loose with no packaging at all. I did buy some crab in the fishmonger and that came in a polystyrene pot in a plastic bag, it's not on my regular list but I found a nice recipe....I bought some fennel seeds in the scoop shop by bringing in an empty jar and they only cost 47p. Finally, I went to the supermarket and bought a few bits in glass bottles, loo roll and cat food. The loo roll comes in recyclable plastic sadly, not all of the cat food is. 

I spent £55  which included loads of cat food and a huge loo roll. When I subtracted these and calculated the cost per head for 4 days at £2.44 not bad. Sometimes it feels more expensive shopping in the local shops but I don't impulse buy nearly as much as I do in a supermarket...


Here is a link to the meal we had tonight:

http://www.recipetineats.com/one-pot-italian-chicken-orzo-risoni-pasta/

Ingredients that produce waste of some kind- Plastic in red

Marinade

• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar glass/ metal 
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard glass/metal
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Risoni

• 1½ cups risoni / orzo pasta in a plastic bag 
• 400g/14oz can crushed tomato
• 3 cups chicken stock / broth in a card box with a plastic lid (but it lasts ages.)
• ¼ cup (3 tbsp) grated parmesan cheese wrapped in plastic. 

 Over all not waste free but not too bad.

• 
  

If you read this ....

Hi there,

If you read this blog, please leave a comment I'd love to know what you think.....

Waste free Breakfasts

I was surfing around the net and came across this lovely collection of overnight oat breakfast collection:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/stevia-what-is-it_n_5983772.html?slideshow=true#gallery/341349/0

So, last week I soaked oats in coconut water and or milk. I then added dried fruit, frozen fruit, seeds and cinnamon. No two days were the same and they were all delicious! There was very little waste, I bought the oats, dried fruits and cinnamon from my local scoop shop and filled my jars there. The milk is in a glass bottle from the milk man. The coconut water was in a tetra pack that can be recycled. The only real 'baddie' was the frozen fruit that comes in a none recyclable bag. However, this week fresh raspberries were on offer for 39p in my local green grocer so I bought them in a plastic punnet and shoved them in my freezer. At lest the punnets can be recycled...
This week I also bought some nuts and I filled paper bags and they are all in a jar waiting to be added to my breakfast bowl!
The wide variety means that breakfasts won't get boring and every now and then I can go back to the link and grab another idea or two...

Friday Nights

On A Friday night we will often eat in the TV room with dinner on our laps and watch a film as a family, a real treat. We often have curry or pizza and some naughty snacks! Last Friday we had chicken Chow Mein a la Jamie Oliver most of the ingredients were waste free. I even bought a dish to the butcher to get my chicken. 
Our naughty snack was an awesome fruit crumble that my daughter made with a little bit of custard! YUM
However,
The waste
Pak choi came in a plastic bag, (To be honest, it's not a favourite veg and next time I'd leave it out) 
Water chestnuts came in a tin.
An elastic band around the spring onions
The soy sauce is in a glass bottle
and or course, the noodles were in a plastic packet. 

The frozen fruits came in a plastic bag
The custard came in a card box with a plastic lid.

So plastic- All in all 3 plastic bags, one plastic lid and a rubber band - not great :(

Sometimes it's too challenging!

Yesterday and today I've been in bed! Full of a horrid cold- usual symptoms! So, lasts night meal was far from waste free! My other half came home with breaded fish in plastic packaging and two plastic bags of oven chips! I wasn't going to share but in truth, anyone trying to reduce waste will be confronted with days like these! I find some of the professional bloggers a bit intimidating at times as they are further along in the journey than I am. Additionally, many live in America where, in the places they blog from, there seems to be a better infrastructure to support them in their journey. Check this place in San Francisco out:

https://www.rainbow.coop/


I could do with a shop like that, and to be fair, I am reading a lot about shops in London too. However, Bristol which is better than most places in the UK is still lacking..

While in bed I've been surfing the net and came across this TED talk that I thought I'd share, about human waste!

http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_winter_the_taboo_secret_to_healthier_plants_and_people?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=science

Enjoy!

No more milk bottles, what a difference a year makes!

A year ago I ditched milk bottles for a milkman! Three times a week we get two bottles delivered before we get up! Awesome!

What IS incredible, is that by now we would have bought around 100 plastic bottles! I am never sure about the lids, some places recycle them and others do not. However, this is what they look like:

NOT good right? if you want to switch, here is a link to Milk and More who deliver all over the U.K

http://www.milkandmore.co.uk/home

Zero ish waste free evening meal

Clearly food is a cause of much of our waste, so I am scouring the internet and books I have for waste free meals. I have the book Deliciously Ella and in it are some great recipes. I originally bought it when we cut out sugar from our diet.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deliciously-Ella-Awesome-ingredients-incredible/dp/1444795007/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476954805&sr=1-4&keywords=deliciously+ella

In this book there is a recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh

Ingredients
Quinoa
Fresh Coriander
Tomatoes
Pine nuts
2 tablespoons of Tahini
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt and Pepper

Recipe

Cook the quinoa as instructed (then allow to cool)

Chop the coriander and tomatoes

Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan

Mix the rest of the ingredients together to make a sauce

Mix together

It was very east to make and all but my son loved it. He reached for the jar of peanut butter and ate a loaf of bread complaining a lot!!!! ho hum that's 11 year olds for you!

But was it waste free?

Well there are 9 ingredients, actually I added an avocado so that makes 10!

The Quinoa and Pine nuts I bought my own jars into a local scoop shop so no waste there.

The coriander I got loose in the greengrocer, but it came with an elastic band which I have kept for reusing.

The tomatoes, lemons and the avocado I got loose from the greengrocer, straight into my cloth bag.

The Tahini is in a glass jar which I will be able to reuse.

The Olive oil was the baddie, we had a large plastic bottle of olive oil left over from our time 'camping' whilst the builders were renovating our house. It finished with this recipe and I will replace it with a glass bottle!

We have a wooden pepper grinder which we fill with pepper corns from the scoop shop. And we have salt in a glass grinder which we can refill.

I'm back!

Well, I've had a lot of building work done in my house and that meant that firstly life was in chaos and secondly my kitchen was reduced to a table and 2 electric hobs. Our waste became horrible. We even bought a microwave and ready meals at times. 😧

However, things seem to be settling down. I have been doing a lot of reading and have come across some interesting blogs:

This one is by one of the leading Zero waste people- Bea Johnson a French lady who lives in California:

http://www.zerowastehome.com/

A British one:

http://myzerowaste.com/2010/01/buying-from-bulk-bins-reduces-waste/?replytocom=11920#respond

And another American one: Kathryn K she has lots of recipes for bathroom things and tips wide and varied...

https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/

Enjoy