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food essays

Zero-Waste Basics

Anne Marie’s Book Club

Posted on September 10, 2015March 16, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” ― Desiderius Erasmus I have wanted to write a post with book recommendations on the topics of simplicity and food—I cannot separate the two—since I began writing my blog. I haven’t read all the books that […]

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Zero-Waste Basics

Chef and Author Dan Barber Live!

Posted on March 15, 2015January 7, 2022by Anne-Marie Bonneau

“The future belongs to people who care about food.” — Dan Barber, Mountain View, CA, March 9, 2015 On Monday night, after attending his brilliant lecture, I added Dan Barber’s book The Third Plate to my cookbook and food essay collection pictured above.

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Storing leftovers in the freezer prevents food fro

Storing leftovers in the freezer prevents food from going to waste. Store the food in there for a few days, a few weeks or a few months.

Some of the questions I hear about freezing food in jars:
🫙 Is it safe to freeze food in glass? (Yes)
🫙 Do you use special glass for the freezer? (No)
🫙 Don’t your glass containers break? (Only that one time I filled a jar with a neck…)

Some precautions to take:
🫙 Use wide-mouth jars with flush sides (no necks or shoulders)
🫙 Always leave headspace when freezing liquids
🫙 Allow food to cool before freezing
🫙 Thaw out food in the refrigerator the night before (i.e., not in hot water or in the microwave)

Do you freeze food in jars?
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#jars #jarporn #masonjars #wastenotwantnot #savefood #lovefoodhatewaste #foodwaste #wastedfood #zerofoodwaste #sustainablelifestyle #sustainablefoodsystems #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreelifestyle #breakfreefromplastic #plasticpollution #plasticisfossilfuel #plasticfreejuly #plasticfreeforthesea #plasticfreeoceans #wastefreeliving #lowwasteliving #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowasteliving #zerowastetips #zerowastehome #zerowastekitchen #zerowastechef

This silky, beautiful sourdough pizza dough contai

Los Altos just down the road from me now has a ref

Los Altos just down the road from me now has a refill shop! @rightonrefillery carries bulk cleaning supplies like laundry detergent and dish soap, personal care items like shampoo bars and lotions and even a bit of food like maple syrup, olive oil, coffee and tea.

Does your city have a refillery or bulk shop that allows you to bring your own containers to fill? Please give them a shoutout! We need these shops all over the place so we can shop like our grandparents (or great-grandparents) used to. Refill and bulk shops are one of the solutions to plastic pollution.

Not an ad, just a fan!
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#reuserevolution #refillable #supportsmallbusiness #shopsmall #wastenotwantnot #sustainablelifestyle #sustainablefoodsystems #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreelifestyle #breakfreefromplastic #plasticpollution #plasticpollutes #plasticisfossilfuel #plasticfreejuly #plasticfreeforthesea #plasticfreeoceans #refillnotlandfill #wastefreeliving #lowwasteliving #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowasteliving #zerowastetips #zerowastehome #zerowastechef #climatecrisis #thereisnoplanetb #loveyourmother

Oat flour is so easy to make. Blend oats in a blen

Oat flour is so easy to make. Blend oats in a blender, use immediately or store in a jar.

Halfway through prepping nutloaf for dinner, I realized I didn’t have any breadcrumbs. Or bread to make breadcrumbs. So I whirred up old fashioned oats in a blender to make coarse oat flour, added that to the nutloaf and it worked so well, I’m making it this way from now on.

Ingredient substitutions save time and money. I didn’t need to schlep to the store or buy anything. I used what I had on hand.

I keep at least one unpaper towel in my bag at all

I keep at least one unpaper towel in my bag at all times. I use these in public restrooms to dry my hands or I'll pull one out whenever I need to wipe up something. Sometimes I'll wrap up a treat in a clean one to bring home. When needed, I replace the used towel in my bag with a fresh one. Simple!

After my daughter wore out the center of a thrift shop flannel sheet—it was too shot to salvage—I cut the thicker sections of fabric into these towels (and a couple of handkerchiefs and several makeup remover pads). With a serger, I finished the edges. You could do a zig-zag stitch or cut the fabric with pinking shears to finish the edges.

I used pinking shears to cut out the pile of white t-shirt hankies in the second pic. Standard scissors also work. Flannel doesn't fray too much and t-shirt fabric won't fray at all.

Like food, paper towels and paper tissues in a landfill emit methane as they break down anaerobically. And paper doesn't feel good on your hands or nose. Save money, save your skin, reduce pollution. Win-win-win!

What have you stopped buying to reduce waste—and save money?
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#unpapertowels #deforestation #reusables #choosetoreuse #reuserevolution #ecoswaps #methane #plasticpollutes #plasticpollution #nosingleuseplastic #plasticfreeoceans #breakfreefromplastic #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreelife #planetorplastic #lowwaste #simplelifestyle #sustainablelifestyle #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowastekitchen #zerowastemovement #zerowastehome #zerowastechef #thereisnoplanetb #climatecrisis

I was on NPR's Morning Edition today! Do you need

Buy Nothing Day (formerly known as Black Friday) m

Buy Nothing Day (formerly known as Black Friday) may come only once a year but we can embrace it any time! With US credit card debt at an all-time high of $1.08 trillion according to the Federal Reserve, many of us have no choice but to spend less money this holiday season.

And keep in mind that many of today's Black Friday supposed deals often aren’t deals at all:

"But while Black Friday may be known for offering the lowest prices of the year, in reality, it’s one of the worst times to shop […] The goal of a typical Black Friday retailer is to attract customers by offering a few key products at a so-called discount. Then, once those ‘deals’ run out, the retailers have still got you in their hooks because you’re already in their stores or on their sites, at which point you’re more likely to buy something else—even if it’s not on sale." — The Motley Fool

Swipe through to see some fun and free alternatives to shopping today.

Three different neighbors dropped off three differ

The compost is ready and it smells amazing. We top

The compost is ready and it smells amazing. We topped off one of our hard-working raised hugelkultur beds with a layer of it, followed by a layer of wood chips. In the late winter, after the bed has had a rest, we’ll plant some vegetables here.

Composting keeps inedible food scraps and wasted food out of landfill, where it would generate planet-heating methane gas. It’s a wonderful and free soil amendment and basically makes itself—you can’t stop organic matter from breaking down!

Applesauce is so easy to make. And it’s a great

Applesauce is so easy to make. And it’s a great deal when you score a pile of not-so-pretty apples at the farmers’ market. These cost 40 percent less than the “pretty” apples. Sometimes the not-so-pretties looks the same as the supposedly pretty apples. However they look, they all taste the same—amazing.

I used a variety of apples for this applesauce. I wouldn’t use red delicious for it—or for anything actually.

Simmer 10 cups of apple chunks in about half a cup of water and the juice of 1 lemon. Add a cinnamon stick or two. I didn’t peel these organic apples or add sugar. Once foork tender (10 minutes or so), mash the apples up with a potato masher. If you leave the skins on, purée the sauce or run it through a food mill.

I made about three jars’ worth but we ate a lot before I could pack it away (hence you see only two in the video).

I saved apple cores in the freezer to make scrap vinegar later (that recipe is on my website).

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