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Zero-Waste Chef

  • ZWC Book

It’s a Book!

Posted on September 30, 2020October 14, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

I’ve been working on this for a while! My book is now available.

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44 Comments
  • Zero-Waste Basics

Passive Zero Waste: Doing Nothing Is the Best Solution

Posted on October 19, 2021October 19, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

If sustainable living seems hard, try passive zero-waste. In other words, do nothing (or very little). Here are 11 strategies.

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7 Comments
  • All Recipes

Pumpkin and Spice Sourdough Discard Quick Bread

Posted on October 14, 2021October 14, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

This pumpkin sourdough quick bread is like pumpkin pie in bread form and, if I slapped a label on it, it could honestly claim “Now BPA-Free!”

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7 Comments
  • All Recipes

5 Simple Zero-Waste Frugal Dinners Under $12

Posted on October 7, 2021October 7, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
A large pot of bean and vegetable soup, a very frugal dinner

Each $12 frugal dinner in this post serves four people, thus proving that a zero-waste or low-waste lifestyle need not cost a fortune.

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3 Comments
  • Sourdough

Sourdough-Potato Focaccia Made With Simple Ingredients and Tools

Posted on October 4, 2021October 5, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
slab of sourdough potato focaccia topped with garlic cloves and cooking on a silver cooling rack

Do you love sourdough bread? Do you love potatoes? This sourdough-potato focaccia is for you. It requires humble ingredients and simple tools.

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10 Comments
  • Food Waste

Stop Pouring These 7 Leftover Flavors Down the Drain

Posted on September 29, 2021September 29, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
Three glass jars on a marble background, containing bean broth. They are pinto bean broth, black bean broth and kidney bean broth.

You’ll want to save these leftover concoctions to cook with later because they add so much flavor to dishes. But you’ll also conserve water.

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  • Food Waste

Quick Cheap Good: Grateful-for-What-I-Have Fried Rice

Posted on September 23, 2021September 24, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
A pot of rice and various vegetables arranged on a tabletop. These will go into fried rice, a very frugal and versatile dish.

Cooking dishes like fried rice with food I have on hand never fails to make me feel grateful. It also reduces food waste and saves money.

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4 Comments
  • Zero-Waste Basics

How to Store and Keep Bread Fresh Without Single-Use Plastic

Posted on September 16, 2021October 19, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Readers often ask how to store bread without plastic, while keeping it fresh. It can be done! And if your bread does dry out, revive it.

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13 Comments
  • All Recipes

Simple Restaurant-Style Mexican Red Rice (Arroz Rojo)

Posted on September 9, 2021September 9, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

The simple, fresh ingredients that go into this Mexican red rice elevate it from home-cooked side to tastes-as-good-as-a-restaurant dish.

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4 Comments
  • All Recipes

9 More Simple Staples to Make not Buy

Posted on September 2, 2021September 7, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
two freshly baked pitas filled with air, stacked one on the other

Making any of the staples on this list is a rewarding, satisfying, fun experience. Many of them will save hands-on time. Most will save money.

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15 Comments
  • Rants

I Paid a Small Fortune to Recycle My Plastic Waste

Posted on August 31, 2021August 31, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

I paid to send plastic waste to Terracycle for recycling but producers should pick up the tab for cleaning up their pollution, not me.

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9 Comments
  • Climate Crisis

No Time to Waste: An Easy and Even Fun Way to Push Our Reps on Climate

Posted on August 17, 2021August 17, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
black rotary telephone beside ball pen on white printed paper

Please join me for an online action party on August 31st. We’ll contact our Members of Congress to urge them to take bold action on climate.

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1 Comment
  • Climate Crisis

Books and More for Coping With IPCC-Assessment-Induced Ecoanxiety

Posted on August 12, 2021September 14, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

If you feel overwhelmed or doomed in light of the IPCC climate assessment released this week, these books and media picks can help.

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2 Comments
  • All Recipes

Easy Roasted Salsa: Charlotte’s Non-Recipe Recipe Brings Out the Flavor

Posted on August 5, 2021August 4, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

In a hurry for a get-together with friends, my daughter Charlotte quickly made this flavorful roasted salsa, using fresh seasonal ingredients.

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1 Comment
  • Zero-Waste Basics

How to Launch a Bring-Your-Own-Container Program in Any Community

Posted on August 2, 2021October 10, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

One woman, out to reduce her family’s waste, launched a movement that quickly spread across Toronto. Learn how to start a similar program.

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4 Comments
  • Fermentation

How to Make Delectable Vinegar With Leftover Wine

Posted on July 22, 2021July 30, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau

My pineapple scrap vinegar grew a mother of vinegar, which I then used to brew wine vinegar with leftover wine to prevent all kinds of waste.

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7 Comments

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Top Posts & Pages

Pre-Existing Plastic Conditions: What Is the Cure?
Pumpkin and Spice Sourdough Discard Quick Bread
Sourdough Discard Pizza: How to Sourdough-ize a Recipe
Make-a-Dent-in-Your-Discard Sourdough Pita Bread
Pumpkin Dal
Recipe Index
Homemade Fresh Pumpkin Pasta
Sourdough Discard Vegan Pumpkin (or Squash) Ginger Cake
15 Creative Uses for Food Scraps
Passive Zero Waste: Doing Nothing Is the Best Solution

Recent Posts

  • Passive Zero Waste: Doing Nothing Is the Best Solution
  • Pumpkin and Spice Sourdough Discard Quick Bread
  • 5 Simple Zero-Waste Frugal Dinners Under $12
  • Sourdough-Potato Focaccia Made With Simple Ingredients and Tools
  • Stop Pouring These 7 Leftover Flavors Down the Drain
  • Quick Cheap Good: Grateful-for-What-I-Have Fried Rice
  • How to Store and Keep Bread Fresh Without Single-Use Plastic
  • Simple Restaurant-Style Mexican Red Rice (Arroz Rojo)
  • 9 More Simple Staples to Make not Buy
  • I Paid a Small Fortune to Recycle My Plastic Waste

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Woot woot! A wonderful testimonial for Silicon Val Woot woot! A wonderful testimonial for Silicon Valley Reduces, a new BYO initiative a small group of us are launching here to normalize reusables. A simple sign in the window of BYO-friendly businesses lets customers know they can bring their own containers for filling their orders. "Thanks to both of you, our family enjoyed a wonderful takeout dinner this evening from China Wok—in our own containers!! During the pandemic we wanted to support local restaurants but hated the idea of single use containers. With your new program we were encouraged to order from China Wok, conveniently located in our neighborhood. Great food, great service and no qualms at all about our containers. Win win! Thank you SO, SO much! This is a wonderful resource." — Kim J I also tested the new program out last week and ordered (and devoured) samosas—all in the name of research!—using my own containers, from The Gurkha Kitchen in Sunnyvale. The staff even used my small round containers for accompanying sauces, no questions asked. If you own or work for a BYO-friendly restaurant/café/bulk store/refillery in Silicon Valley and would like to participate, please let me know. More about Silicon Valley Reduces in my profile @zerowastechef
Plastic has never been only about straws. Plastic Plastic has never been only about straws. Plastic contributes the climate crisis. According to a recent report from Beyond Plastics, in the US, emissions generated from plastic all along 10 stages of its lifecycle—extraction of fossil fuels, transportation, production, chemical recycling, waste incineration and so on—will exceed the emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2030. Big Oil is losing money on coal and electric vehicles, so it's ramping up plastic production. Swipe for actions to take!
Chat with Habits of Waste founder Sheila Morovati. Chat with Habits of Waste founder Sheila Morovati. Thank you very much for chatting with me today, Sheila @howchangers! @howchangers launched the #CutOutCutlery campaign in 2019 which convinced UberEats, Doordash, Postmates and Grubhub to change their default settings to opt-in instead of opt-out for plastic cutlery. In just one year, Postmates alone prevented over 122 million packs of cutlery from being delivered 🤯🙌 Habits of Waste then worked with a coalition of partners to push the state of California to adopt legislation (AB1276) that would make single-use food accessories—utensils and condiment packets—available upon request only. Governor Newsom signed AB1276 into law earlier this month 🙌 You’ll find Sheila incredibly inspiring! She exemplifies how one person can create change. Each of us can create ripples and those ripples become waves 🌊
This Saturday, we'll give away these cloth produce This Saturday, we'll give away these cloth produce bags (and many others) at the Sunnyvale Farmers' Market. We haven't been able to do this for 18 months! Come grab a bag or two to shop with less plastic. Our sewing bees stopped during the pandemic. Many of our sewists pivoted to making masks and a few moved away 😢 But we have slowly restarted the production line. We make these reusable produce bags out of donated fabric and gently used sheets that might otherwise go to landfill. So the researchers behind those studies that state you have to use a cloth bag a gazillion times in order to make cloth sustainable need to have a little chat with my group of sewists/upcyclers. But I digress... My daughter MK and I sewed our first produce bags in 2011 and I still use them! I'll be conservative and say I've used 6 reusable produce bags per week since then. (In reality, I use at least that many at the farmers' market alone every week and more at the bulk bins but let's stick with 6.) 6 bags per week x 52 weeks x 10 years = 3,120 fewer plastic bags in the waste stream. For one family. Plus, food simply more appetizing in cloth 😋 I hope to see some of you in person on Saturday. And thank you to the Sunnyvale Environmental Services Department for allowing us to share your booth!
Happy World Food Day! Today also happens to be my Happy World Food Day! Today also happens to be my birthday and because it is better to give than to receive, I'm giving away two signed copies of my book. The winners can choose which version of my book they'd like—the US illustrated cover or the Canadian photographed cover. To enter the giveaway, please tell me your favorite food waste reducing trick—saving vegetable bits for broth, feeding scraps to your animals, drinking beer made from stale bread and so on. The giveaway is open to residents in the US and Canada and closes on Tuesday, October 19th at 12am PDT. I'll choose the random winners next week and notify them by DM.
Tomorrow, October 16th, is World Food Day! In the Tomorrow, October 16th, is World Food Day! In the run-up to World Food Day, the UN's @worldfoodprogramme, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 for its efforts to combat hunger, has launched its #StopTheWaste campaign to highlight the role food waste plays in hunger—and how reducing that waste can help end it. We actually produce more than enough food to feed the world—and then some—but worldwide, about 1/3 of that food goes uneaten. Meanwhile, 811 million people don't have enough to eat. The @worldfoodprogramme reduces food waste by boosting farmers' access to local markets where they can sell their produce that might otherwise remain in the fields and rot. It can also transform the money saved from reducing waste into life-saving meals for hungry communities around the world. Every year, the UN WFP delivers an incredible 100 million life-saving meals across 80 countries! 🤯 To help you reduce food waste at home, here is my number one tip: shop in your own kitchen first before you head to the store to buy more food. By cooking what you have on hand, you'll not only slash food waste, you'll also have more fun in the kitchen while harnessing your creativity to cook tastier food 😋 Shown here: leftover cooked rice and random vegetables for my recipe, Grateful-for-What-I-Have Fried Rice. So... what foods do you struggle to use up before they go off? I have a hunch that leafy greens, herbs and bread are contenders for most-commonly foods that go uneaten.
This pumpkin and spice sourdough discard quick bre This pumpkin and spice sourdough discard quick bread will put a smile on your face (although maybe not the googly eyes). It tastes like pumpkin pie in bread form. Back when I decided to kick the plastic in 2011, I soon discovered I’d have to also to kick the cans of pumpkin purée that I’d used for baking. Canned food contains a plastic lining that often contains bisphenols, known hormone disruptors. And while many manufacturers no longer put BPA (one kind of bisphenol) in their can linings, many have turned to BPS or BPF (other types of bisphenols). Some food manufacturers have begun to line their cans with natural resins but you’d have to do some sleuthing to figure out which cans contain those more natural linings because the practice of slapping the “natural” claim on food labels has rendered the term natural completely meaningless and even suspect. Feeding ourselves should not require this much research. When I buy pumpkin, I just want damn pumpkin. Fortunately I can buy a whole, unadulterated fresh pumpkin and transform it into fabulous purée fairly easily. A whole sugar pie pumpkin will cook in a pressure cooker in minutes. Roasting in the oven takes longer but renders a richer flavor. I then either run the flesh through a food mill or my food processor. Of course, opening a can requires zero work but once you taste fresh pumpkin in this quick bread (or in pie), you’ll want to eat fresh pumpkin only. And in other good news, within days after you stop eating canned food, your BPA levels drop quickly. Recipe in my blog’s recipe index.
As the holiday season approaches, if you can, plea As the holiday season approaches, if you can, please shop small. (And if you don't want to buy more stuff, buy services as gifts. But that's fodder for another post!) Many small businesses have struggled throughout the pandemic. Meanwhile, many large corporations—some of which pay zero taxes—have raked in record profits. You may pay a bit more to shop small—not always though!—but low prices from you-know-who come with a high social price tag. According to Indiebound (@americanbooksellers), when you spend $100 at a local business, $67 stays in your community. The sales taxes small businesses collect help pay for, you know, building roads and funding schools and keeping hospitals open and paying firefighters. Shop online with the big guys and virtually none of your dollars stay in your community. Small businesses are also more likely to fulfill your "bizarre" waste-reducing—and other—requests. Want to fill your jars up with bulk foods, provide your own container for takeout or bring your own mug for a cup of tea—all without the manager first calling a remote head office to seek permission? Go to a small business. Small businesses tend to do whatever it takes to retain their customers. The big guys, not so much. Whereas big corporations make all their buying decisions from centralized head offices, rendering their stores homogenous, small businesses all differ in their offerings and decor. Which would you rather see in your neighborhood? Corporate America or independents that reflect your town and region? So, if you want that locally owned, quirky coffee shop down the road to be there when you need a quiet place to escape to, if you can, please buy your coffee there rather than from a big chain. Which small businesses are your favorites? I buy my shoes and have them repaired at this one, European Cobblery.
I have a hunch that Hachiya persimmons often go to I have a hunch that Hachiya persimmons often go to waste simply because people are unsure when to eat them. If you eat the firm persimmon on the left of this image, you will truly regret it. Wait until it looks like the persimmon on the right. Unlike Fuyu persimmons—the more flat persimmons that you can eat hard or soft—teardrop-shaped Hachiyas must transform into soft, squishy, jelly-filled fruit before you eat them. If you eat them while they remain firm, the astringent flesh will completely dry your mouth just as you need to spit out what you’ve put in there. But if you wait until Hachiya persimmons become jelly-filled, they taste like candy and, if you're like me at least, your heart will leap a bit the first time you spot them for sale in the fall. So, buy Hachiyas, store them on the counter and check them every few days until they reach that magic state. Are you team Hachiya or team Fuyu?
The Silicon Valley Reduces stickers are finally in The Silicon Valley Reduces stickers are finally in! I've been working on a project to help local businesses connect with customers who shop with reusables. The more people shop with reusables, the less single-use plastic waste will choke our environment and the more normalized choosing reusables will become. Imagine you're walking down the street with your reusable mug or jar in hand and want a cup of tea or coffee. You see this sign in a café window and know immediately that the business accepts BYO containers. You won't need to take a deep breath, present your case, wait for a manager to approve your subversive request—"Please put my drink here"—or feel like you're doing something borderline. You simply hand over your container, order your drink (or food) and enjoy! And yes, the printing is backward. These will face outward in shop windows so people walking by can see them, like a beacon! My goal this week is to get these stickers into the windows of at least a few small businesses here in Silicon Valley. If you own a small business here that accepts reusable containers for filling—you could be a café, restaurant or bulk store, for example—please contact me and I'll get you a sticker. And if you know of a Silicon Valley small business that already accepts BYO (or you would like it to), please tag them so they can see this post and learn about this grassroots initiative. Why do plastic waste-reducing initiatives matter as the world heats and burns? Single-use plastic pollutes the environment and harms people all along its lifecycle, from extracting and refining the fossil fuels that make plastic, to manufacturing, to disposal after a very short use. @roncyreduces launched this program in Toronto in 2019 and it quickly spread throughout the city and Ontario. Thank you very much @roncyreduces for all the help getting this started here!
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