The Joy Of Using Up

The other day I realized that we are almost out of tomato season. It happened quicker this year than last year. But each time we pick tomatoes there are less then the last harvest, more are unripe or rotten before we can get to them and each bush produces less. No more tomatoes and cheese, no more salsa and fresh sauce, no more tomatoes garnishing our salads and pastas. It made me sad.

But then, the weather took a cold spell and I saw a potato. Mmmm, I thought, we haven’t had potato soup in forever!

Part of being as zero waste as possible is eating with the seasons, eating what’s available when it is ripe and fresh. One might think that this is restricting, but really, it’s only the joy of using up. All winter we eat great and hearty winter veg and in the summer, those are set aside to have fresh light summer fruits and vegetables. A perfect balance and nothing is given up.

Pandemic Pantry: The Use First Bin

A great way to keep your Pandemic Pantry organized and make sure you are getting the most out of what you buy, all while reducing food waste is to create a Use First Bin. It doesn’t have to be an actual bin, it can be a shelf, the counter, or just a list where you keep all the food that you need to eat first sorted.

This is a simple concept but one that will save you time, effort, and food waste. It’s especially easy now that we are taking time to make a food inventory and extensive lists each week or so. Simply group any items that you need to eat together. Reasons why things need to get eaten might vary. Perhaps they are veg about to go bad, or the last little bits of your dry goods, or items that are getting past their expiration dates. Or maybe you’ve just been putting off eating these items. Remember when you got those grits six months ago for a recipe and still have half the box today? Put them in the bin.

I don’t use an actual bin, but I keep a running list when creating my pantry inventory to remind me what I need to eat. I will add items that are going to go bad, or that have lingered in the pantry too long. I also make notes on what I can use them for on the same list and then refer back to it when deciding what to eat for the day.

Have you organized your pantry like this? Do you find it hard to eat up items in your pantry?

Catherine (Cat) Agopcan, who I follow on insta, recently had a great post about her Eat First Box. She has a great page with lots of helpful advice and is fellow New Jerseyian.

Credit

Zero Waste Recipe: Vegan Sourdough Pancakes

I have been eating so. many. pancakes.

I’m not mad tho. It’s been a log time since I had such a hankering for them and now that I have extra starter, they are even better! It took me a little while to develop this scratch pancake recipe, but it’s simple with only 10 ingredients, and so tasty with a little sourdough tang!

You may have noticed from other recipes that I hate to measure. And you would be right. I don’t truly measure this recipe when I make it at home. Here I have provided measurements for a small batch of pancakes. Feel free to scale up or down.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup starter (fed or discard)
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tb sugar
2 tb oil (I like olive)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 baking powder
Pinch salt
Nutmeg
Oil for cooking

Equipment:
Medium mixing bowl
Fork
Measuring cups
Measuring Spoons
Frying pan
Spatula

Add starter, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and oil in a medium bowl and whisk with fork to combine. The batter will be very thick. Mix in milk, a little at a time, until you have the desired consistency. Make sure to mix well and get out any lumps and clumps (you can sift in dry ingredients if you wish but this is one too many steps for my taste). I like my pancakes to be thin so my batter is pretty runny. Heat frying pan and add cooking oil (I use a canola oil/olive oil mix). Once hot, pour in batter and cook like normal pancakes. Heat each pancake all the way through on one side until many bubbles form in center of pancake, then flip. Each pancake should be golden brown in the center and slightly crispy on the edges. This recipe makes about 8 small cakes or 4 large ones. Serve with butter, vegan butter, syrup, jam, etc… and enjoy!

Some notes:
- I feed my discard starter a little each day so for me these pancakes are pretty active. I really enjoy the flavor but sometimes the sourness needs a little getting used to.
- Use whatever flour you would like to change these pancakes to taste. Rye, buckwheat, or wholewheat all sound good.
- Change up the spices. I love nutmeg, but cinnamon, vanilla, and ginger would all work, I’m sure.
- I like my pancakes on the flatter, chewier side, so I usually cut down the amount of baking soda, but if you prefer a more fluffy pancake up it instead.
- These are sweet pancakes, but probably could be made savory by omitting the sugar, changing the spices and toppings.

These pancakes are a great way to use discard starter which helps with food waste. Using bulk flour or flour that came in paper, oil in glass, and spices in bulk cardboard, or glass, all help with waste. Use your homemade non dairy milk if you have it!

How do you like your pancakes? Fluffy or chewy? Sweet or savory? If you try this recipe, leave a comment below!

Something New: Sourdough Starter

Here’s a controversial statement. I want to make a sourdough starter but I don’t want to make bread.

I might have gone thru a brief period where I thought making bread was cool (don’t get me wrong it IS cool), but working at a restaurant that makes great bread, I’d decided to put my efforts elsewhere. I have amazing bread professionals around me to make the bread.

But since my work was closed for about 5 weeks, I finally broke down and got started making starter.
It wasn’t lack of bread that convinced me. Some friends have been kind enough to gift me bread, and we have been buying it on grocery trips. It was seeing all the other things you could make with the starter.

Pancakes, biscuits, flat bread, pita, crackers! So many items that one would otherwise have to buy in plastic can be made at home more easily with a sourdough starter!

So start a starter I did, it’s been a few weeks now and going well! I used King Arthur Flour’s sourdough starter recipe, which is simple and easy. I particularly like it bc it doesn’t require a scale. I’m not much of a measure-er let alone going to scale things out. I also have only been feeding my starter once a day. It’s cool enough in my house, and I’ve only been making a small amount to reduce waste, so this has been working for me.

Have you made a sourdough starter? If so, share your thoughts and tips in the comments! Have you made bread, or are you focusing on the lesser uses of your mix?

I’m excited to share more about my starter and much more about the recipes I use it for!

Zero Waste Recipe: Super Simple Vegan Tomato Sauce

For most of my life I ate tomato sauce out of a jar. Right from the store, into a pot, onto the pasta. Every once in a while my parents would make a special sauce from scratch or canned tomatoes. I ate scratch sauces in restaurants of course. One day a few years ago, I was eating a store bought sauce at home and it suddenly was horrible to me. I couldn’t imagine ever eating a prefab sauce ever again.

This recipe still uses canned tomatoes, but it’s a huge step up from jarred tomato sauce, so easy to make, and can be modified to anyones taste. I’ll never go back!

Ingredients:
1 large can tomato puree
2-3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
olive oil
salt, pepper, sugar to taste

Equipment:
knife
cutting board
pot
spoon

Fine chop garlic. Chop onions as fine as you would like, I usually do mine in a large dice. Add oils, garlic and onion to the pan over low to medium heat. Cook until the onions and garlic are soft and translucient. I try never to burn mine but if those are flavors that you like, go ahead. Add tomato puree and cook for a few minutes to warm tomatoes thru. Add sugar, salt and pepper. I add about a teaspoon of salt and pepper, and and two tablespoons of sugar. Sometimes I add less sugar, it just depends what mood I’m in. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 -50 min depending on how thick you like your sauce. Serve over pasta, use for pizza, use in rice, or anything else you like tomato sauce on.

A few notes:
- I know sugar in tomato sauce is controversial, but I like it.
- Add any herbs you like as well. I try to keep a few frozen herbs/oil ice cubes from summer and like to add these occasionally. Fresh or dried herbs work great, too. Chili flakes would also be good, I’m sure.
- I prefer my sauce to be smooth, so I use tomato puree, but if you like chunks/seeds you could use diced or whole tomatoes.
- The better the canned tomatoes you use, the better the sauce will be. Same goes for olive oil.
- This recipe usually yields about 3 meals for us, depending on how we use it. We generally get two pasta meals from it, maybe three, and then I use the last little bit when making rice or lentils (I just add sauce right to the cooking water).

Using loose veg, canned tomatoes, and oil and spices in metal or glass make this a very zero waste friendly recipe. Refill the spices from a bulk section, refill the oil if possible, and reuse the can (good for seedlings if you poke a few holes in the bottom), or recycle it, to be even more zero waste.

I’ve seen other easy tomato sauce recipes; one interesting one used only tomatoes, salt and butter. Do you have a go to sauce recipe?

Mad Cat Quilts | Pandemic Pantry - Planning is Key

Having to self quarantine is interesting. I miss things I expected to miss, like going to restaurants and bars and going to work, but I didn’t realize how much I would miss being able to thrift whenever I want and go to the grocery 2-5 times per week. On the other hand, having an unprecedented amount of time to be home, pet cats, take long walks, and cook and eat great homemade food has been pretty wonderful.

Like many (hopefully everyone by this point), we’ve been trying to drastically limit how often we go out in to the world. We have dropped from going to the grocery whenever we please to going once every week or more if we can get away with fewer trips. This means that we have had to change a lot about how we shop. We used to buy things multiple times a week whenever we thought we might need something. Now we have to really plan what we need and what we will get. We also have to figure out how to do that.

The first thing I did before our first big shopping trip was to make a list of everything we already had. I didn’t write every single items down, but I did write down a lot and everything I thought was going to be relevant. While I was taking this inventory, I also jotted down a list of meals that we usually eat, as a reminder to myself, a list of items that we needed to eat asap and dishes they might be good in, and a list of a few recipes that I want to try in the future.

Having all these lists in front of me helped tremendously when I wrote a very detailed shopping list. I actually remembered to take the shopping list with me when we went on our first trip! Having the items and the list of meals made remembering what I was buying and why I was buying what I did very easy. I reused the same paper, with a new list for the next week’s shop.

For the second shop, I also took a new inventory that was more thorough than the first. We ended up eating a few of the things between making the list and going shopping. I just crossed those off. Our second shop was bigger and even more thorough than the first and I anticipate a longer time between shops, which is a goal. From the first shop to the second was 8 days. We will see how long between second and third. I plan on making another inventory a day or two before we go.

This inventory/sticking to a list method is very different from how I normally shop. Perhaps you always shop like this. Using this method allowed me to buy everything I needed but not over buy or buy duplicates. Here is my advice in easy steps:

1) Take a thorough inventory - write down everything you already have. Take note of meals you want to create, items that need to be used up, and things you want to learn to make. Remember the goal is not to hoard items, just to get you through a week or more of nutritional and pleasurable eating.

2) Write down a list of meals you can make/want to make with what’s in your inventory - You could plan it out by day and meal, or just write down the meals you normally like to eat or can make. I prefer to be spontanious, so I’ll often write meals that overlap and I can choose from when the time comes.

3) Make a shopping list based on what you still need - Think about getting thru a week or more but be careful not to over buy! We have to be even more concerned about food waste at this time. Waste not, want not.

4) Don’t forget your list! - And you reusable bags! Many groceries are not excepting refillable packaging or have done away with bulk items (in my area, at least). I do understand that these are hard places to ensure cleanliness. There is some debate about cloth bags, but most places will let you bring and use your reusable bags, as long as you bag your own groceries.

Now you are ready to brave the grocery! Good luck!

Zero Waste Recipe: Creamy Vegan Veg Soup

Here is another great recipe for using up veg that might be on the turn. Take those wilty leeks, those potatoes growing eyes, those limp celery stalks and turn them into a rich and delicious soup.

The soup I’ve made here is a Creamy Leek and Celery Soup. But you can use any veg you have languising in the fridge or pantry. Potatoes are a must to make it thick and creamy.

Ingredients:
(I’ve put the amounts I used here, but feel free to scale up or down. This made 4 good sized portions which we ate over 2 nights)
2 potatoes
2 leeks
5 stalks celery
2-3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
1 tablespoon vegan veggie boullion
2 Bay Leaves
Water
Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:
Soup pot
Cutting board
Knife
Spoon
blender

Fine chop garlic and chop celery. Peel and chop potatoes. Slice leeks and wash thoroughly. I soak mine in a bowl of cool water to let the dirt float out, drain, rinse and repeat until no dirt or sand remains. Add garlic and leeks to put with olive oil and cook until fragrant and wilted. Add celery and cook until tender. Add potatoes, salt, pepper, water to cover and bouillon and bring to a boil. Make sure to stir the bouillon in well to make sure it is totally incorporated. Boil until potatoes are fork tender and then reduce heat to simmer until veg practically falls apart when poked. For this soup, it was about an hour. Let cool before blending in a blender. This time I let it cool for several hours and reheated, but you can wait as little as 20 min as long as you can safely blend it. Blend the entire soup in batches if desired. I always reserve some of the chunky veg as I prefer my soups with a little bite. Add more salt and pepper to taste and serve.

A few notes:
- Make this soup ahead and store then blend. Or do like I did and blend and then store. This soup lasts up to a week in an air tight container. I’m sure it can also be frozen, but I’ve never tried it. It never lasted that long!
- Serve with crusty bread, crackers, add more veg in, as an appetizer, or as the main meal.
- Add whatever spices you might like to change this soup up. Pepper flakes might be nice, warming spices, french herbs. All sound good. Personally I think the bay leaves are key to making this taste fantastic.
- Remember that the bouillion is salty! Add salt with that in mind.
- This soup would also be delicious with sour cream and cheese on top if you are not vegan. But it doesn’t need it!

Using up old vegetables makes this a great zero waste recipe. Using bouillion in a glass jar and spices and oil in glass or bulk are good zero waste options. Always make sure to buy your veg not packaged in plastic.

I love this soup bc it’s so simple, quick and delicious. I also believe all soups should be both creamy and toothsome and this fits the bill. What are some of your go to soup recipes?

Zero Waste Recipe: Chickpea Salad

This recipe is so simple, it’s barely a recipe even, I always forget how good it is! It’s simple, can easily be made vegan, delicious and doesn’t try to be something it’s not. And it’s practically zero waste, of course.

If you like tuna, chicken, or egg salad, you’ll enjoy this dish.

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, or dried and soaked equivilant
1 medium to large carrot
1 small or 1/2 bigger red onion
1 to 2 stalks celery
mayo or vegan mayo
salt and pepper to taste

bread, crackers, rice cakes, lettuce wraps, or whatever you most like to eat your salad on.

Equipment:
bowl
fork or spoon

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Chop veggies in to preferred size (I like mine in a rough dice). Combine veggies, chickpeas and as mush mayo as you like in a bowl. I like my sandwich salad to not be too wet, or too dry. For 1 can of chick peas, I usually use 1 1/2 tablespoons. Make sure to mix well using a fork to help chop up the chickpeas. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve on your favorite bread.

Some notes:
- I usually eat mine on potatoes bread or rolls, as I love the contrast of the crunchy salad on soft bread.
- This is a great recipe to make vegan, and a good way to introduce simple vegan and zero waste food to those who are new to these ideas.
- This recipe can be used as a dip as well. Simply dice veggies very small and mash the chickpeas more when combining.

Using loose veggies and bulk or canned legumes make this recipe low waste. Making your own bread or crackers, or getting it from a local shop in your own bag would help even more.

This is a good simple dinner or lunch, great to take to work or school, and keeps well in the fridge for a few days for a snack. What are some of your easy go to recipes?

Please note, In my excitement, I ate the final product and neglected to take photo. When I make another batch I will add the finish product photos, here.

Update 3/30/19: Photos added.

What I Ate on Thanksgiving 2019

Started the day as every day should begin - with coffee.

There were quite a few breads and things about the house that needed to get eaten, so I toasted a few olf buns and reheated some hashbrown patties that were left over from a breakfast out. I also had a bit of veggie bacon that has been hanging around the freezer collecting ice.

Another thing I’m trying to use up is my old stash of various teas. This was the last of a loose leaf jasmine green.

Next we headed to my father’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner!

He always has lots of cheese and crackers for us, and we shared a aged sour beer that we like. The stuffed celery are a holiday tradition. Some days we have olives, but today we had some fresh fruits.

He prepared the entire dinner, which was mostly just veggies. Roasted cauliflower, roasted brussels sprouts with hollindaise sauce, green beans with tomatoes and garlic, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, herb stuffing, and veggie gravy. He makes the best gravy from a from scratch veggie stock and onions.

Last Year we tried a field roast, but this year was tofurkey. Like last year, we all agreed that we could have done without this as a “main” dish and just stuck with more vegetables. This tofurkey was one he actually purchased last year and had frozen, so it was better to use it up than not eat it.

After a walk we got into dessert but we barely made a dent. We had locally made pie and cheese cake, as well as some chocolates my father bought. Decaf coffee was in order but still kept me awake too long!

This was definitely not a zero waste thanksgiving and I struggle with that more and more each year. But one must do what we can. I do feel like becoming more mindful of zero waste and low impact living reflects in every choice I make now. But I can’t let it drive me or my family crazy, either. I feel the same about social justices, learning from and reflecting on history and standing up for the rights of the oppressed. It’s easy for this holiday to be done away with in my mind for the atrocities it is based in. But to keep the memory of many good times with family and friends alive is important as well. Let’s learn from our triumphs and our offenses and do better in the future.

How was your Thanksgiving?

What I Ate 2/20/19

This was a pretty typical of eating for me. And it was a pretty typical day for documenting in that it started off strong, but kinda petered off.

Everyday, always, forever starts off with coffee.

But I’ve also been smitten with ginger tea. So simple, so good! Usually this is just ginger slices in hot water. Sometimes I add honey.

For breakfast/lunch/first meal of the day I had a salad with romaine, homemade crunchy croutons, Quorn chicken nuggets, and store bought caesar dressing. And lots of fresh ground black pepper!
Fake chicken doesn’t always agree with me, but a chicken caesar salad is one of my all time favorite meals and I was craving it! I love getting this brand and type bc it comes only in cardboard (no plastic!) and I can heat just a few nuggs up at a time, so there is less waste. Store bought dressing is one things I want to give up and start making myself, but I haven’t motivated to do it quite yet.

On this day I went grocery shopping and couldn’t resist snacking on some pistachios in the car. We go on various nut kicks and pistachios have been a hot for a while now. I usually by them in a plastic bag, unfortunately. But we take that bag to be recycled at some of our local shops.

Grocery shopping usually leads to unhealthy snacking for me! I have been digging these self-serve mochi lately. No plastic!

My husband prefers the self-serve donuts. If they are around, I’ll take a bite.

As usual, my dinner pics are a little lacking! We had one of our favorite vegan meals this night: tofu, rice, broccoli, peanuts, sesame seeds, and chili garlic sauce. I wish this meal were a little more zero waste, but the tofu and chili garlic sauce only come in plastic near us.

On many nights, I would also eat something sweet at the end of my meals, but since I snacked on so many sweets today I didn’t feel like eating anything else sweet.

I was happy to eat a lot of my favorite foods today but this could have easily been a vegan day of eating, as well. I find myself trying to assess my meals and see where they can become more vegan and more sustainable.

What did you eat today?