Go here for cooking a whole sugar pie pumpkin in a pressure cooker. I can’t remember the last time I bought a can of food, including canned pumpkin. When we went plastic-free in 2011, we ditched all canned food. Cans are lined with plastic that often contains BPA, which according to the Environmental Working Group, […]
BPA
How to Make Fabulous Ricotta with Two Ingredients
Click here to go straight to the recipe. You may never buy ricotta cheese again after you taste this. Dense, creamy and delicious homemade ricotta surpasses any store-bought brand I’ve ever tried, and requires only two ingredients and about twenty minutes of actual cooking time. I use high quality ingredients to make ricotta—Straus organic milk […]
5 Ways Reducing Waste Can Reduce Your Waistline
If you have tried to lose weight to no avail, you may want to cut down on your waste rather than counting your calories. 1. To quote my friends at Plastic Free Tuesday, plastic makes you fat. Many plastics contains BPA, a synthetic estrogen. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, the UCSF pediatric endocrinologist made famous by his […]
10 Simple Tips for Packing a Zero-Waste Lunch
Updated 01/07/19 My younger daughter Charlotte returns to school this week. That means homework for her, chauffeur duty for me and what’s-for-lunch panic for both of us every morning. (Update: Charlotte now walks to school and makes her own lunches.) 1. Come up with a zero-waste lunch menu Preparing a zero-waste lunch begins with the […]
How to Make Easy and Free No-Waste Bone Broth
Click here to go straight to the recipe. I used to buy broth. I would use half a container, put the rest in the fridge and a couple of weeks later, empty the remains down the drain. The packaging waste is also excessive. At Safeway, you can choose from Tetra-Paks or cans for liquid broth; or plastic jars or paper […]
Tomato Sauce from Scratch!
Click here to go straight to the recipe. My coworkers know I don’t use plastic, and so they ask me lots of questions, such as: “How do you wash your hair?” (Baking soda followed by a cider vinegar rinse.) A recent midday email from my boss: “How do you take out the trash without a […]
How to Cook Black Beans
Click here to go straight to the recipe. Updated 01/19/21 Update 07/16: I now have a pressure cooker and cook my beans in that. IT IS SO FAST! Read more here. I don’t eat canned beans (or canned anything for that matter), for several reasons: Cans are lined with plastic that often contains BPA. Because […]
Zero-Waste Vegetable Broth from Scraps
I love to make soups, but I hate to buy broth for several reasons: If you read the label of virtually any commercial broth on the shelf at the grocery store, you’ll probably find loads of salt and—depending on the brand—crud. Canned broth can expose you to the hormone-disrupting chemical BPA. Food and beverage cans […]