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Zero-Waste Chef

Thanksgiving

  • All Recipes

Easy, Adaptable, Sweet & Sour Apple-Cranberry Chutney

Posted on December 16, 2021December 16, 2021by Anne-Marie Bonneau
Chopped chutney ingredients in a stainless steel pot sitting on the stove at the start of cooking. The ingredients include apples, shallot, minced garlic, dried cranberries, vinegar and spices.

Have apples a wee past their prime? Make this sweet and sour apple-cranberry chutney. Or swap out the apples for pears. Make it your own.

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7 Comments
  • Sourdough

Sourdough Discard Vegan Pumpkin (or Squash) Ginger Cake

Posted on November 30, 2020November 30, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

If you started baking sourdough bread, bake this sourdough pumpkin ginger cake to use up discard left over from feeding your pet starter.

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12 Comments
  • Fermentation

Unsure How to Eat Persimmons? Make Cultured Chutney

Posted on November 24, 2020November 25, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Not sure what to do with persimmons? Make this sweet, sour, spicy and slightly salty chutney to serve with cold-weather main dishes.

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3 Comments
  • Food Waste

Thanksgiving Dinner for One (or Two)

Posted on November 21, 2020November 21, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Stay home to reduce the spread of Covid-19 this Thanksgiving. Plan ahead to reduce food waste.

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5 Comments
  • ZWC Book

Book Excerpt! The Freshest Pumpkin Pie: Full Recipe

Posted on November 19, 2020November 27, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau
pumpkin pie in a pie dish with a slice cut and a slice on a plate

Full recipe reveal from my book! Once you taste this pumpkin pie, made with fresh pumpkin and fresh ginger, you can never go back.

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  • Zero-Waste Menus

A Zero-Waste Vegan Thanksgiving Menu

Posted on November 16, 2018October 27, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau
Fall farmers' market produce arranged on a rustic tabletop. Some of the produce is in cloth bags. The produce includes persimmons, mushrooms, romanesco, tomatoes, apples, cabbage, onions, small squash, jalapeños, potatoes and purple string beans

Like all things zero waste, this menu requires a bit of planning but not that much. During a recent Instagram Live, I discussed tips for preventing waste at Thanksgiving—not just food waste but packaging waste also (read 18 waste-busting tips here). A few people asked for Thanksgiving dinner menu ideas, specifically for vegan dishes. I […]

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  • Food Waste

Take Food Waste Off the Thanksgiving Menu

Posted on November 16, 2017October 7, 2019by Anne-Marie Bonneau
farmers market haul

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), over the 2016 Thanksgiving holiday in the US, “six million turkeys—a value of roughly $293 million—ended up in the trash.” Producing that much discarded turkey “requires an estimated more than 100 billion gallons of water (enough to supply New York City for 100 days). And when it […]

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  • Zero-Waste Basics

7 Make Ahead Staples for a Zero-Waste Thanksgiving

Posted on November 15, 2017November 23, 2019by Anne-Marie Bonneau
fresh pumpkin purée

Cooking without producing waste requires some planning but not that much. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner without waste needs a bit more planning. I don’t like to leave all my prepping for Thanksgiving to the day before or day of. I like to sleep. So this week and continuing on the weekend, I’ll prep a bunch of […]

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6 Comments
  • Zero-Waste Basics

18 Waste-Busting Ideas for Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on November 3, 2016November 9, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

The biggest food day of the year in the US will soon be here. These ideas will help you waste less. 1. Keep it simple For this post I did a bit of research into a typical Thanksgiving dinner. I checked out menus on the website of a popular, mainstream magazine site and found them […]

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  • Zero-Waste Basics

How to Cook a Whole Pumpkin in a Pressure Cooker

Posted on November 1, 2016November 30, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

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 […]

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  • Rants

How to Scale Back During the Holidays

Posted on October 25, 2016November 27, 2018by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Some might say I go too far. When compared to the average consumer, I may seen downright nutty. But I believe that decades ago—before mass consumer culture kicked in—I would have seemed fairly normal. Well, let’s say normal as far as my consumption patterns go… As I have said many times, I’m not extreme, our […]

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30 Comments
  • Rants

5 Buy Nothing Day Activities

Posted on November 26, 2015November 27, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Updated 11/27/20 Buy Nothing Day (previously known as Black Friday) may come around just once a year but you can embrace it year round. Adbusters launched the day in the early 1990s to protest the consumer madness that kicks off in the U.S. (and now all over) the day after Thanksgiving. You can read more […]

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  • All Recipes

Kick the Can[ned Pumpkin]

Posted on October 22, 2015November 30, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau

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, […]

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It's Week 7 of my 8-week challenge to plant more n It's Week 7 of my 8-week challenge to plant more natives. This week, I'll attempt to recruit neighbors by offering up a couple of milkweed plants in my Buy Nothing Group or on Nextdoor. I'll mention how I'm planting natives to get on the Homegrown National Park map, a grassroots effort created by entomologist Doug Tallamy to conserve nature by converting private yards into nature corridors. If several of us plant natives in the neighborhood, our yards will reconnect wildlife habitats here.

Who can pass up a free native plant? (Not me.) Sometimes, if we're lucky, the squirrels do all the work and plant natives for us. I recently discovered this volunteer oak tree growing beside one of our raised vegetable beds. It's doing very well! At the end of the growing season, we'll move this bed to another location. Oaks take precedent! A keystone species, they help keep the ecological web intact by supporting hundreds of types of caterpillars, which in turn feed the birds, for example.

I’m proof of that you don't need to be a master gardener to participate in the largest conservation project ever attempted. Link in profile for the 8-week challenge.
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#californiadrought #dougtallamy #extinctioncrisis #climatecrisis #nativeplants #oaktree #oaktrees #invasivespecies #invasiveplants #homegrownnationalpark #regenerative #regenerativegardening #urbangardener #urbangardens #gardeningtips #selfreliance #foodweb #nativebees #sustainablelifestyle #simpleliving #wastefreeliving #intentionalliving #artofslowliving #plasticfreeliving #zerowastejourney #zerowasteliving #zerowastechef #thereisnoplanetb
If, like me, you could use some uplifting words to If, like me, you could use some uplifting words today, this post is for you. Elizabeth Knight, the co-author of Repair Revolution, a book that explores the philosophy of repair, offers guidelines for launching repair cafés and examines the right to repair movement, sent me some of the uplifting thoughts people have relayed to her over the years regarding repair cafés and repair in general. I've posted a bunch of them in the carousel.

When our entire society appears broken and irreparable, we can easily fall into a state of despair or paralysis. That leaves a much smoother path for those in power to continue to take away our rights. Reading these quotes today reminded me that millions and millions of people out there are working toward a more equitable and liveable world. If you've been feeling anxiety or despair, I hope you find these quotes uplifting and helpful.

And if you know of an upcoming repair café in your area, please add it to the comments. One is coming up near me in Palo Alto on Sunday July 10th.

Link in profile for how to repair your stuff.
Put every scrap of summer fruit to use and make th Put every scrap of summer fruit to use and make this very bubbly, barely sweet, refreshing fruit soda that costs basically nothing to make.

For this batch, I combined 2 cups tap water, 2 tablespoons sugar (to feed the microbes) and 1 cup fruit scraps I had saved and frozen until I had lots: cherry, peach and nectarine pits with some flesh attached; strawberry tops and cores (my daughter cuts the tops off...I wish she would eat them...I can control only so much...); and a very small bit of lemon pulp.

I fermented this in a clean jar at room temperature for a mere 2 days before bottling and fermenting again for another day. It was incredibly carbonated! And delicious! I also made a second smaller batch with the scraps. 

If you're doing @plasticfreejuly this year and want to cut plastic soda bottles but would still like to enjoy a bubbly drink, make this! You'll reduce the number of planet-heating, fossil-fuel-based plastic bottles in the waste stream, consume fewer microplastics (plastic bottles shed them), drink a tastier drink and save money.

Link in profile @zerowastechef for the full recipe.
"I’m a teenager living at home with unsupportive "I’m a teenager living at home with unsupportive parents. What can I do to make them live more sustainably?"

I hear this question constantly. If only parents would listen to reason! First of all, realize that you can’t make others behave the way that you want them to. And because your parents make the buying decisions, you have little control over what comes into your home. 

But you can still try to persuade your parents by deploying this tenet of sales 101: Sell people things they don’t want to buy by telling them how they benefit. Explain how the kinds of changes you’d like to implement will improve your parents’ lives.

Then, show them some of the benefits:
🌿 Cook a delicious vegetarian or vegan meal if they love their meat
🌿 Cook a clear-out-the-fridge meal to reduce food waste and save money
🌿 Do some of the grocery shopping and choose reusables
🌿 Grow a bit of food and save money
🌿 Hang the laundry up to dry and make clothes last longer
🌿 If you go out for dinner, bring jars for the leftovers to reduce food and packaging waste
🌿 Show them how well baking soda and vinegar work for cleaning
🌿 Don't ask them to buy a bunch of fancy zero-waste gear
🌿 Choose an environmental documentary when it's your turn to pick the movie (or happen to have one playing when your family enters the room)

I don’t expect anyone to try every single tactic I have included here, but if you do do all of them, I would like to adopt you.

Have you been able to get your family on board with sustainable action? What has worked? What hasn't?
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#sustainbilitytips #sustainablehome #simplify #simplifyyourlife #simpleliving #sustainablelifestyle #wastefreeliving #intentionalliving #selfsufficient #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #plasticfreejuly #breakfreefromplastic #plasticfreeliving #plasticisfossilfuel #planetorplastic #plasticpollutes #lowwaste #lesswaste #zerowastejourney #zerowasteliving #zerowastetips #zerowastechef #thereisnoplanetb #noplanetb #loveearth #loveyourmother
It finally happened! One of the straps on my Birke It finally happened! One of the straps on my Birkenstocks tore. I thought they were done for but when I took them to the cobbler, they said the straps often break and they could repair my shoe! I was amazed when I picked them up. The patch looks good and feels very comfortable.

I bought these Birks in 2015 and this was the fourth repair (I wear them most days). I think my shoes will have more lives than cats! 🐈‍⬛

For any locals, I have my repairs done at European Cobberly on California Ave in Palo Alto.

Link in profile @zerowastechef for a new blog post, "How to Repair Your Stuff so You Buy Less of It."
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#birkenstocks #buylesss #buylesschoosewell #consumerism #repairshop #repaired #repairs #repaircafe #reuse #reusables #reducewaste #loveearth #noplanetb #thereisnoplanetb #climatecrisis #climateemergency #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #lowwaste #plasticfreeliving #plasticpollutes #breakfreefromplastic #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowastemovement #zerowastehome #zerowastetips #zerowastechef
It's hot here today! Yesterday, the temperature hi It's hot here today! Yesterday, the temperature hit 95°F 🥵 Today's forecast calls for high 80s.

This homemade, three-ingredient deodorant has kept me smell-free. I'll still perspire though, which is fine (and healthy).

This contains baking soda and cornstarch, with coconut oil as the delivery system. I wear cotton t-shirts almost every day and haven't had a problem with stains (one of the top questions people ask) but if you're worried, test some of this on an inconspicuous spot. Simply applying baking soda to your underarms will work but I find I get baking soda all over my bathroom counter when I do that (you may be more coordinated).

I haven't tried this with arrowroot powder but over the years, people have told me that they use it in place of baking soda because they find baking soda irritating. Apparently the arrowroot powder works (please let me know if you've tried it).

To make this, combine the following in a short, wide-mouth jar:

☀️ 1/4 cup baking soda
☀️ 1/4 cup cornstarch
☀️ 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or more to reach desired consistency)

Apply a tiny amount of this per underarm, less than a pea-size blob, as shown in the picture. It works for a couple of days straight.

Cut the clunky single-use plastic applicators that contain a bit of deodorant and a lot of plastic. Save money too!

Do you make any of your own personal care products?
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#plasticfreejuly #deodorant #plasticfreedeodorant #simplify #simplifyyourlife #simpleliving #selfreliance #selfsufficient #sustainablelifestyle #wastefreeliving #intentionalliving #selfsufficient #zerowastebathroom #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #plasticfreeliving #plasticisfossilfuel #planetorplastic #plasticpollutes #lowwaste #zerowastejourney #zerowasteliving #zerowastetips #zerowastechef #thereisnoplanetb #noplanetb #loveearth #loveyourmother
Perhaps the rewilding is working! According to the Perhaps the rewilding is working! According to the Seek app from @inaturalistorg, this flame skimmer is a common dragonfly in the West. It hasn't been so common in my yard though!

It's week 4 of my 8-week challenge to plant more native plants. This week, we're choosing keystone native plants to put in the ground. Like keystones in the center of a Roman arch, certain native plants support entire ecosystems. These plants include oak, cherry and willow trees and goldenrods, asters and perennial sunflowers. Without keystone plants, ecosystems fall apart, according to entomologist Doug Tallamy @homegrownnationalpark: “Landscapes that do not contain one or more species from keystone genera will have failed food webs, even if the diversity of other plants is very high.” 

Native plants provide food for insects, support ecosystems, restore biodiversity, require less water and more. During this challenge, I'm working on restoring what was once a water-hungry lawn into a drought-tolerant, insect-attracting and critter-sustaining piece of the biodiversity puzzle. Link in profile for the full challenge. And please follow @homegrownnationalpark! Doug Tallamy's book, Nature's Best Hope, changed my life—and maybe this dragonfly's 😍
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#homegrownnationalpark #dougtallamy #insectgram #biodiversityconservation #extinctioncrisis #climatecrisis #nativeplants #invasiveplants #regenerative #regenerativegardening #urbangardener #urbangardens #gardeningtips #waterconservation #conserve #conservewater #californiadrought #californialife #drought #selfreliance #foodweb #sustainablelifestyle #simpleliving #wastefreeliving #intentionalliving #artofslowliving #zerowastechef #thereisnoplanetb
"When we think in terms of 'nobody is doing enough "When we think in terms of 'nobody is doing enough,' we forget about all the millions of people who care and are taking action. There are positive initiatives taking place, and we can choose to be a part of the remedy, rather than being consumed by the problem." — @climatepsychologists 

I recently finished reading the book, Turn the Tide on Climate Anxiety, written by the Climate Psychologists, Megan Kennedy-Woodard and Dr Patrick Kennedy-Williams. It has helped me reduce my anxiety-induced, scatterbrained feeling.

I don't know how one cannot feel anxious when reading about the climate crisis or experiencing its effects—or both. This book explains that anxiety is a rational response, tells us that we must take care of ourselves in order to be capable of taking care of the planet and it provides tools for turning climate anxiety into climate action.

On this World Environment Day, be sure to take care of yourself as well as the planet.

If you or someone you know has climate anxiety, this book can help.
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#worldenvironmentday #ecoanxiety #climateanxiety #climateactionnow #climateaction #globalgoals #keepitintheground #loveearth #noplanetb #thereisnoplanetb #buildbackbetter #strikeforclimate #plasticisfossilfuel #planetorplastic #climatecrisis #climateemergency #extinctioncrisis #biodiversitycrisis #climatechangeisreal #globalwarmingisreal #drought #californiadrought #californiawildfires #environmentalracism #stopline3 #honorthetreaties #climatejustice #actonclimate
Food prices keep going up, with no end in sight. Food prices keep going up, with no end in sight.

According to the UN, global food prices soared by nearly 30 percent this past year. Here in the US, food prices have increased 9.4 percent during this same time period. Food banks are also struggling to meet increased demand.

Drought, high shipping costs, bird flu, supply chain problems and a lingering pandemic have all contributed to higher food prices. Russian aggression has worsened an already precarious situation. Russia has blocked the export of 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain, which, if left to rot, will exacerbate a global food crisis. On top of all of this, climate change affects everything. According to NASA, climate change will result in substantially smaller crop yields by as early as 2030. Less food leads to higher food prices.

These seven ideas will help reduce your food costs:

1. Shop the fridge first before buying more food. Let it’s contents dictate what you’ll cook next. 
2. View everything as a resource. Use up every edible part of vegetables, for example.
3. Eat more fresh vegetables. They've increased in price less than most other foods and most of us need to eat more of them.
4. Buy pantry staples in bulk. Do this only if you'll eat all the food. You'll spend less money per pound.
5. Be your own sous chef. Do some advance prep. If it's prepped, it's eaten.
6. Cook like Grandma. Grandma used everything and knew how to do stuff. Her skills helped her through hard times. 
7. Grow a bit of food. If you don't have a yard, look into renting a plot at a community garden. I did this when my older daugther was a baby and we lived in an apartment. The plot was very inexpensive and I grew lots of food.

Go to my blog for more details in a new post. Link @zerowastechef
"The good news is that we can fix our ecological p "The good news is that we can fix our ecological problems by indulging rather than sacrificing." — Doug Tallamy @homegrownnationalpark 

Please join my 8-week challenge to plant natives!

Do you hear the daily bad environmental news and think to yourself, “I’ve got to do something, but what?!” Entomologist Doug Tallamy wants you to plant natives (as does wildlife). Planting natives addresses the climate crisis (native plants require less water and fewer pesticides and fertilizers) while simultaneously addressing the extinction crisis (planting natives supports ecosystems and restores biodiversity).

Our National Parks are too small and widespread to preserve and regenerate wildlife. Tallamy proposes we build Homegrown National Park, a grassroots effort to conserve nature by converting private yards into nature corridors. Filled with native plants, these yards will increase and reconnect wildlife habitats across the country. Every private home can participate in this extension of our National Parks. And individual homeowners need not be master gardeners to start. I’m proof of that!

And if you don’t have a yard, you can help get natives in the ground in many other ways. Volunteer at a local arboretum, community garden, school garden or park. The California Native Plant Society has several positions open for volunteers or interns, for example. Your state or province likely does also. (I have a link in the challenge to a list of state and provincial native plant societies.)

This week, I've been re-reading Tallamy's wonderful, NYT bestselling book, Nature's Best Hope. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It has inspired me to literally roll my sleeves up and get to work in my yard, putting in native plants to regenerate biodiversity.

Link in profile for the challenge @zerowastechef.
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