Making soy milk from scratch
April 3, 2022In an effort to have a more vegan diet, I have recently switched from drinking dairy milk to oat and soy milk. I really only drink milk in my morning latte and with my oatmeal. It has taken me some time to get used to the taste, but now I can drink it without…
Homemade Vanilla
November 24, 2019Like I always say, mostly everything that you buy, you can make yourself. When I ran out of vanilla for baking, I decided to investigate how I could make it myself. I was surprised to discover that vanilla consists of two simple ingredients: vanilla beans and alcohol. The majority of the vanilla beans sold today…
Would you eat this apple?
October 20, 2019I always thought that the apple tree in my backyard was an ornamental apple tree. In the five years we have lived in the house, the tree only produced small green apples. I don’t know what happened to my apple tree this year, however, not only do we have a phenomenal yield but the apples…
How does your garden grow?
August 24, 2019I started another garden this year. Last year was a learning experience for me and I was determined to improve and (pardon the pun) grow. Since cauliflower and broccoli were a disappointment, I decided to try two new vegetables: tomatoes and cucumbers. To my surprise, my strawberry plants came back and I just let them…
Trying to Make Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar
July 2, 2019Once you get into zero waste/reducing your waste, you realize that everything that you buy, you can probably make yourself. Sometimes it can be something easy to accomplish, and sometimes not. After taking my food waste class, I have become extremely aware of what I put into compost. While composting is a “good” thing, not…
Practical Tips for Reducing Food Waste
April 25, 2019As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, reducing the amount of food that you waste is one of the best ways that you can help the planet. In North America, the statistics for food waste range from 30 to 40%, however, the bulk of the waste is institutional, from places such as…
My Favorite Containers
March 4, 2019One of the most frequent questions I get on reduce our waste living is, how do you buy or store your meat and bread? This is definitely one area where I had to do some research and experimentation. For my bread, I go to the bakery with fabric bags. I purchased this one from Vert…
Making Homemade Nutella
February 24, 2019When my daughters told me that they wanted Nutella crepes, I understood. Nutella, the Italian chocolate hazelnut spread, is delicious. Although Nutella comes mostly in plastic bottles, I was able to find it in a glass jar with a plastic cap: However, like my mustard experiment, I figured that there had to be a way…
Reduce our Waste Halloween
October 28, 2018Zero waste halloween: quite the oxymoron. Bea Johnson,the priestess of zero waste, tells you to simply refuse the holiday. But since my goal is to reduce my waste while still having fun, I decided that I would look for ways to partake with minimal impact on the environment. My decorations have always been rather simple:…
Making da sauce… Canning homemade marinara sauce
October 12, 2018Another “experiment” I wanted to try as part of my reduce our waste 52 week challenge was canning tomatoes. As someone of Italian descent, “making da sauce” was something that was part of my heritage. My mother used to make tomato sauce using tomatoes from our garden. Since I had not canned tomatoes before (and…