Several years ago, I walked into my therapist’s office, sat down and said, “Before C leaves for college at age 18, I have 4,372 more dinners to cook.” If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of cooking dinner every night, I suggest you avoid making a similar calculation. Instead, I urge you give meal planning […]
real food
7 Starter Steps to Zero Waste
Adjusting to a new shopping/cooking/living routine took us a few months. We had to figure out which stores had the best bulk options—and which would allow us to fill up using our own containers. We had to plan ahead more. Gone were the days of running to the store for a plastic tub of sour […]
How to Cook a Whole Pumpkin in a Pressure Cooker
Homemade pumpkin purée tastes so much better than store-bought. For several years now, I had been roasting small whole pumpkins to make purée. That works well. Basically, you stab the pumpkin a few times around the top, roast it for about 45 minutes and purée the flesh. You can read a post about that here. However you […]
18 Time-Saving Tips for Cooking From Scratch
Unless you already do cook everything from scratch, you’ll cook more when you decide to cut down on—or eliminate—your waste. That’s because you’ll cut packaged, processed food from your diet and replace these food-like substances with home-cooked versions. I can do without a lot of stuff in my life—piles of clothing, cosmetics, the latest gadgets. […]
Two Upcoming Free Webinars!
I’m so excited to teach some more webinars. People had always asked me if they could watch them later and I had to say no. But I can now record them! And if you don’t want to participate in the webinar but simply watch it live (or later), I’ll stream these on YouTube. Tonight, I hosted […]
Kick the Can[ned Pumpkin]
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, […]
Zero-Waste Menu No 2
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that transitioning to my zero-waste shopping and cooking routine took many months of reprogramming and I continue to tweak and hone the drill as new challenges come up. I had always cooked but at some point, started shopping quite a bit at Trader Joe’s, basically a giant convenience store. (I’m sorry. […]
7 New Year’s Food Resolutions
Did you make new year’s resolutions? What do they entail? Weight loss? Better money management? Improved health? A reduced carbon footprint? The following 7 food resolutions have you covered.
I Eat Food Unfit for Human Consumption
I live in Silicon Valley, high-tech central. Almost everyone I know is an engineer, married to an engineer or divorced from an engineer. I see more Teslas here than minivans. When the tech-heavy NASDAQ has a really, really bad day, stores like Fry’s Electronics (geek central where you buy parts to build your own computer) have […]