Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Orange You Glad for By-Products

Winter is the perfect time for citrus, and my Imperfect Produce box is overflowing with more oranges, grapefruits, and lemons than I can get to. Fortunately, I love some fresh squeezed juice! 

I've been reading about ways to use the peels. Having already tried (and not loved) soaking them in vinegar for homemade cleaner, I wanted to try something else: CANDY!

There are many recipes for candying orange peel. I tried and liked this one.

First step: slice your orange peel into 1/4" strips. Go ahead and leave the white/pith. It won't be bitter when you're done. 


Next: boil the peels for 15 minutes. Dump that water. Then add 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, and simmer the peels for 45 minutes. 


Finally: strain the peels (don't toss the liquid! keep reading for why), and a few at a time, toss them in granulated sugar to lightly coat. Set them on a wire rack and leave uncovered for 24 hours until fully dried. 


Voila! Perfectly candied orange peels! You can eat these as-is, garnish other baked goods, or dip in chocolate for a decadent treat. 

The end result? Something like this:

(image credit arsheffield on flickr)

These are not a picture of mine. Mine didn't turn out as pretty due to one main mistake: I used microwaved chocolate chips for my dipping chocolate, which re-hardens pretty quickly. I recommend using baker's chocolate in a double boiler for prettier results. Regardless of how pretty, they will taste amazing. 

Now, back to that liquid gold that is left in your boiling pot. The sugar water that you simmered your peels in is now orange-infused simple syrup! This is the perfect addition to a mocha or a cocktail. 

Cost of candied orange peel: $0.70 cents of sugar
Cost of simple syrup: FREE by-product!

These are a beautiful and festive treat as you wrap up your holiday season. Happy snacking. :)

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Waste Free Gift Wrap #2 - Gift Bags

With the holidays approaching, let's talk gift wrap: Each year, billions of dollars are spent on wrapping paper in the US alone, with millions of pounds of wrapping paper usually used once. Holy cow!

In February, I showed one alternate way to wrap presents, by wrapping the gift with another, such as a tea towel or scarf.

In this post, I'll share another: fabric gift bags. Gift bags are pretty easy to make. They are essentially tote bags, made in a variety of sizes. Last year, I got a bunch of holiday fabric by the yard at Seattle Recreative. You could also work with curtains, tablecloths, etc, from a thrift store near you. Not only are you up-cycling the fabric, but you are also creating wrapping that can be used over and over again for years to come. By using thrifted fabric, the cost comes to about $3/bag, about the same cost as a new paper gift bag.

1. Cut out the 4 sides of your bag, slightly larger than your gift. Add a few inches of length, which will be used to create the bottom of the bag. If your fabric is thinner, might fray, or you just want a contrast lining, cut out 8 sides (you'll be making two bags, outer and lining).


2. Sew the four panels together, with the pattern on the inside. 


3. Sew the bottom shut. Note: For this bag, all my sides are equal width. Check the placement of my seams when I go to sew the bottom. Two of the sides are folded in half; this is important for making the flat bottom of the bag. If your bag is rectangular instead of square, make the shorter sides the halved sides. 


4. Sew perpendicular across the bottom seam on the two corners, resulting in two isosceles triangle points. This triangle should happen naturally when you flatten the sides of the bag. 


5. When you flip the bag right side out, those triangles formed the squared base of the bag.


6. To make handles, sew strips of complimentary fabric into a tube, and then flip right side out. These can be any width you like, but keep in mind if you can't fit your finger inside, you will have a very difficult time flipping them right side out. 


7. Put your lining bag inside your outer bag. Fold the rough top edges inside, place your handles, and pin together to hold everything in place which you sew this top seam.


8. Once you've trimmed any long threads, you are now ready to fill your bag with gifts! Want reusable tissue too? Use complimentary fabric squares.




Not crafty, or running out of time? You can purchase reusable gift bags from many places:
From TheRubySwan on Etsy - ribbon closure means no tissue needed!
From Cohasset Party Supply on Etsy
From Appleby Lane on Amazon
From Illumen on Amazon
From The Container Store

The example bags above average $6, meaning payback after just a few uses.

Happy Holidays!

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Conscious Cookies!

With Thanksgiving having just passed us, do you have any leftover pumpkin puree? I know, crazy question, just like those articles talking about uses for "leftover wine".

If you do, try baking it into cookies! If you don't ,did you know that mashed sweet potatoes or butternut squash make an easy substitute, and it's a creative way to repurpose those leftovers?

I can't claim credit for this recipe (that goes to Lauren Miyashiro on Delish.com), but I did taste test it for you. It a fairly basic sugar cookie recipe, with just 9 basic ingredients, including pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. They're then topped with a cream cheese frosting, with just 5 ingredients. The ingredients are almost entirely kitchen staples.

(The final product - yum!)

The recipe calls for 2 cookie sheets. It easily made 3+ dozen cookies.

You can also make one simple swap in this process, replacing the parchment paper for silicone sheet pan liners. Not just for baking, silicone keeps your pan from having baked on messes, is easily washable, and replaces disposables like aluminum foil and parchment paper. Silicone is becoming popular with those trying to reduce waste, not only because it replaces single use items, but it's also non-toxic and doesn't contain BPA. T, as the primary dish-washer of the house, is *loving* my increased use of silicon, which is cutting down on time, elbow grease, water, and soap. They don't need to break the bank either; I got a 3-pack for around $15, and they also have measurement markings. They will pay for themselves within the first year, considering the cost of other single-use products.

(These sheets make it so easy.)

(Cook until browned, then let cool.)

These cookies are the perfect compliment to your coffee or as a dessert this fall. What are some of your tried and true recipes to re-purpose leftovers?

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Food for Thought

As the world population grows and with it, the waste reduction movement becomes more mainstream, we're starting to see TV programming join in. Here are a couple shows to check out to give you some great ideas about minimizing food waste:

1. Wasted! The Story of Food Waste (85 minutes documentary). This film was produced by Anthony Bourdain (RIP) and was organized around two simple ideas. First, there are billions of pounds of food wasted each year and there are billions of people that are food insecure. Seems like a 1:1 problem that we can solve. Second, the EPA has a pyramid for ways to utilize food. The film follows each step of the pyramid to look into areas where waste is created (from farms and fishing operations, to restaurants and grocery stores, to end consumers) and solutions for each (from big to small).


(source: www.epa.gov)

I haven't found Wasted! for free yet, but it is available for rental as low as $1.99 through Amazon Prime Video or a number of other apps referenced on their site. You can also request a community screening; I learned about this through a community screening at my work.

2) Scraps (series on A&E, now in season 2). Chef Joel Gamoran goes around the US making incredible meals out of parts of food that would otherwise be discarded. I learned about this show first through my mom (Thanks, Mom!) and then was lucky enough to have Joel be a guest speaker at work. He spoke about things that we often don't think to eat that make great dishes and often become mainstream (think: using carrot greens for pesto). You can take classes at a Sur La Table near you on the theme, for example, how to re-purpose Thanksgiving leftovers. He also has a cookbook, Cooking Scrappy, for more inspo.

Next steps:

  • Check out these shows for inspo! (And let me know if you find others. :) )
  • Think about how you can insert a step in your own life before compost or the trash. Can you you use the heels of your bread loaves to make homemade bread crumb? If you have a recipe that asks the the whites of green onions, can you meal plan to use the greens? 
Happy Scrapping!

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Blame Hilary!

(Aka "When thrifting goes wrong")

Tats and I went to Goodwill tonight. Tats was making a large donation and then we treated ourselves to some shopping. It didn't disappoint, with richer than usual stock of kitschy holiday tees and Halloween leftovers. 

I decided I needed a fall jacket, after having coveted some Uniqlo lightweight down jackets last week. Lo and behold, I found a light down jacket that fit perfect for $30 (Uniqlo's were $70).

We browsed around for a little while longer, until we came across the "themed leggings" rack. Staring at us were a hundred neon Hilary Clintons!


(We were excited to see each other.)


Problem is... I set the jacket down to take these pics. I looked behind me to pick up my jacket and another woman is holding it.

Do I take her down like a lioness defending her kittens? Or a New Yorker at a sample sale? Would she fight me back and start a brawl? Or, do I awkwardly back down and clumsily ask: "Oh, are you looking at that jacket?"

I chose the latter.

Before I know it, she's putting the jacket on. And another one on top of it. And filling her bag with other clothing items. I start to gesture to one of the employees, look at this woman. She's actively shoplifting in front of us.

She catches our eyes, and bolts for the door. I shout after her, "Hey! Stop!" and look around desperately: "She's stealing those clothes!" But she takes off running.

The employees are all staring at me, mouths agape, surprised that I called out after a shoplifter. Tats said they were probably thinking "Oh, bless her soul." (Southern sarcasm intended.) They shrugged it off like this happens every night, and unfortunately, it probably does. I'm sitting here torn between "she must need it if she needs to steal it" and outraged for Goodwill  and sad for myself. "But... my jacket!!"

Keep in mind, this would have never happened if we hadn't been preoccupied with Hilary.


Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Fabulous Fail

Sometimes, your best thrifted DIY intentions fail you. After two months of frugal, patient shopping, crafting, painting, sewing, and jewelry-making, my Halloween costume was a huge flop.

Literally. After a couple wrong cuts, the top of my dress lost all structure and became floppy.

So, all of a sudden, I'm a day away away from Halloween, and no costume, and I still want to keep my two priorities:

1) Save $$.
2) Reused, recycled, or borrowed.

Thank goodness, Goodwill came to the rescue. I'll follow with a picture of the final product after Halloween, but I've decided to go as punk Eleven from Stranger Things. That's her in the middle:

(Image borrowed, copyright Netflix)

The good news is these are pretty normal clothes, so I only needed two items: white sneakers (how do I not have these?) and an over-sized black coat.

Here's what I scored. Like-new Nikes, a deal at $15. That logo's from the '70s, so someone had them stashed in a closet for a very long time. They fit great, so I'll incorporate them into my weekend wardrobe.



This wool blazer. New with tags, that shows it would have been $175! Now I got it over-sized, but it turns out it's exactly the right size for T. Not only did I get a screaming deal for $20, but T will get to incorporate it into his regular wardrobe.


$35 for a Halloween costume, where we can reuse everything? That's a Halloween Treat.




Saturday, October 20, 2018

November 6th - Vote for the Planet

I got my ballot for the midterms in the mail today.


According to The Environmental Voter Project, 15.78 million environmentalists did not vote in the 2014 midterm election*, and only 4% of voters listed Climate Change & The Environment as the most or 2nd most important issue in choosing a presidential candidate**. Their hypothesis? "If environmental issues are a low priority for voters, they will be a low priority for policy makers."

Voting is the most formal way to get your voice heard, whether it's choosing candidates that share your beliefs or voting on specific policies.

First, confirm that you are registered to vote with your current address, etc. You can still register to vote in Washington State in person until October 29th. Click here for information.

Next, keep yourself honest: you can check on your own voter history here for Washington or by Googling "my voter history" and your state.

Finally, VOTE! If you live in Washington, you are lucky that you can vote by mail, which gives you a couple weeks to complete your form and mail or drop it off at an official drop-box.

If you are in a state that doesn't have mail-in ballots, and transportation is a hardship to get to your polling location:


First time voting from your current address? Find your polling location here.

What you can do:
Easy: vote!
Advanced: get involved with The Environmental Voter Project to support others in voting


*From the Environmental Voter Project's 2017 impact report.
**Per an AR Research poll leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Style and Savings

It's been at least 5 minutes since I've talked about Buy Nothing, so I wanted to brag about my latest "gift". For those who aren't familiar with Buy Nothing, think about the free section of Craigslist but limited to your neighborhood. Since they are closed Facebook groups, you can also put a face to a name and have some community guidelines.

Normally, I use Buy Nothing to give away items, but this week, I was a lucky recipient of a leather Style & Co purse! This would have cost $65 new at Macy's, and the great news is it's in like new condition.


Petite, so it won't weigh me down, but with plenty of pockets, this is perfect for my upcoming vacation. With the classic back and gold, it will function well for day to night. There are spots for cards, sunglasses, and more, with zippers aplenty to keep me from spilling out!


Now to put my $65 in savings into the purse for souvenirs! 

Have you given or recieved from a local gifting group?



Thursday, September 20, 2018

Wilted... but not Wasted!

I was gifted a carton of cherry tomatoes, and also received a carton in my produce box, and just couldn't get to all those delicious tomatoes in time. I came back from a business trip to them all wrinkled.

Google to the rescue. Multiple sites said it wasn't too late, and they were recoverable if I roasted them.

Step 1: pierce each tomato. I used a fondue fork.


Step 2: drizzle with olive oil and a little salt and paper or desired seasonings.


Step 3: roast until browned. I did 375 degrees for 30 minutes.


Step 4: Enjoy! These came out perfect. You couldn't tell that just 30 minutes earlier they were were all dried out and shriveled. Throw a handful in a pasta dish, or smash into a sandwich.





Sunday, September 9, 2018

Travels, and Gearing Up for Halloween

Hi Friends ~

It's been a whirlwind of a last few weeks, so today, this will be a bit of a digest:

First, I've been getting really prepared for Halloween. Halloween? That's a couple of months away! Yes, but when you want to thrift all your components, sometimes you've got to plan ahead. :)

I'm going to be this Klimpt painting, "Adele Bloch-Bauer I". Of course, no one will know who I am, except for art history nerds, but #worthit to get to wear a gold dress.


My base will be a white maxi dress found at Crossroads ($20), and a gold tablecloth ($5) and gold shower curtain ($4) found at Value Village. I'm most excited about the shower curtain, which will give me the eyeball shapes needed for the middle of Adele's dress.


I'll be sure to post the finished product after Halloween, with a step-by-step on how to create the look.

Last week, I went on a business trip to Luxembourg. If you don't know it, it's a small country sandwiched between Germany, France, and Belgium. One cool thing was seeing closed-loop upcycling of our office paper to toilet paper by a Luxembourg company TechnoGreen. Yes, there were jokes about using our last quarter's reports for our personal functions. :) Does your office do anything cool to manage office waste?


Next month, T and I are taking a much needed vacation. After sweating my way through Luxembourg, I decided to bite the bullet and stock up on some capri pants. Value Village delivered again, and I scored three pairs of pants for $13. The biggest win were the Calvin Klein pair, which run $60 new, and I got for $3. 


Here's to the start of great fall!

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Shhh... Victoria's Secret is out

I stopped into Vickie's this weekend (bras are one item I won't be thrifting), and was pleasantly surprised to see this sign. You bring in old bras to recycle and get a $10 credit towards a new bra. With the cost of VS bras, this is a decent discount of 15-20%.


VS isn't the only mainstream store trying to reduce the impact of your new purchases. Just a couple other examples:
  • H&M will give you a discount voucher for recycling textiles of any brand.
  • Madewell will give you $20 off jeans when you bring back old jeans, which they then recycle into housing insulation. 
  • The North Face will give you $10 when you donate clothes or shoes of any brand, which the then use for disaster relief or micro-businesses. 
There are more and more programs like this popping up. While we still have too many new clothes and fast fashion items entering the system, this is a great way to participate in recycling, especially for those items that you want to purchase new.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Ham, and Brussel Sprouts, and Butterball, and Limes!

What do these things all have in common? They've all entered my home in nylon mesh bags.


These are not recyclable in some municipalities, but there are many ideas online for how to reuse these. The most direct reuse with no crafting skills needed at all is: Bring them back to the store and use them again as bags for your loose produce! 

But, if you want to get into crafting or upcycling, the most common idea I've seen is to form them into kitchen scrubbies. The patterns go from extremely easy to advanced: some are no-sew, some involve sewing, some involve crocheting. Depending on your skill and desire for pretty kitchen accessories will help you choose your method. My priority was EASY. :) 

I worked off of this tutorial. Laurie's scrubbie came out a bit more attractive than mine due to having bags of the same size and color.

First step: prep your bags by trimming off any tags and hardware.


Next, tie one end shut, and then flip the bag inside out so the knot is on the inside. 




Roll up and stuff a few other bags inside the first one. Once you have the desired size, tie a knot at the top of your first bag. Laurie left her top knot visible - I finished mine by sewing the "tail" flat, leaving me with just a ball. I also switched mid project from purple, to green and yellow, just because I didn't have enough purple and green yellow was the most attractive color combo I had available. Totally your choice if you are thinking of aesthetics, or pure functionality!


Last step: test out your new scrubbie at your next meal!


Postponed: 4 nylon bags into the landfill.
Saved: about $1

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Every Last Scrap

I showed up at work this morning to find this empty box at my desk. My co-worker, who is an avid tea drinker and regularly has it shipped to her, had left it for me to see because of the awesome packaging!


What is all this "paper" shred? Biodegradable, renewal, corn mesh. :)
 

It turns out this is the scraps from when they make the tea bags! Not only do they use up all their production scraps, but they also don't have to use extra materials like bubble wrap or peanuts to pad their shipments. 


I don't drink a lot of tea, so I needed to read up a bit on The Republic of Tea to learn about their company. Besides having cool packaging, they also do a bunch of other great social good, such as donating proceeds to non-profits, and being a member of Ethical Tea Partnership, for environmentally and socially responsible tea production.

What can you do?
  • Beginner: support companies like this that make the most of their production waste and shipping supplies
  • Advanced: contact companies of products you love, who could improve on their packaging, to recommend changes

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Healthy You, Healthy Oceans

Howdy ~ After several weeks of back and forth heatwave then chill, I think summer's finally here in Seattle. This means more outdoor activities and beach time!

I'm a super pasty white, so it's hard to be brave enough to do these things when I'll just get sunburned, and sunscreen is oh-so-yucky-greasy. After having tried several sunscreens that promise to be non-greasy over the years, I finally found one that I'm in love with: Australian Gold Botanical Sunscreen.


Not only is it truly non-greasy, but it also doesn't have the trademark sunscreen smell. Rather, it has a soft tropical scent (perhaps hint of coconut?) and dries to velvety finish.

So, not only am I loving this product for how it feels, but a trip to Mexico a couple years ago made me start thinking about sunscreen's effect on sealife.


Specifically of note is coral reefs. In the callouts on the back of the bottle, Oxybenzone Free = Reef Friendly. Oxybenzone has proven to be dangerous to coral, and this and similar ingredients have recently been banned in Hawaii. To pick a better product, look for mineral-based products with primary ingredients like Zinc Oxide. Another interesting note is "Non-Nano". This means the zinc particles are a little larger and less likely to be absorbed by both the coral and in our own blood streams. Apparently the FDA isn't recognizing non-nano yet, so you may primarily see this on products from Australia.

Fun fact: did you know that coral is not a stone or plant, but rather animal in the same family as jellyfish? They have a symbiotic relationship with algae, which they depend upon to get energy from the sun.

(Image borrowed from noaa.gov. Click to enlarge for text.) 

At $8 for 5oz of liquid sunscreen, this is a middle of the road price. For no extra cost over chemical sunscreens, it's an easy switch to protect our oceans.

Monday, July 2, 2018

Borrow

This one's for people with small dwellings (calling all you apartment renters or condo owners!), or people who just don't want to own things that they won't use regularly... have you heard of Tool Libraries or Libraries of Things?

These are community resources that allow you to borrow items from hammers and gardening tools to Cuisinarts for a small membership fee or suggested donation. Some of them also have work space and repair classes. In general, there is minimal cost to the borrower; some funds are recouped through late fees or charges for broken items, but otherwise they are funded by city or community groups and run by volunteers. 

(Image borrowed from www.resourcefulpdx.com)

Here are just some of the tool libraries in the Pacific Northwest:

Seattle Metro area
Capitol Hill, Seattle - 420 E. Pike St.
SE Seattle - 4425 MLK Jr. Way S
West Seattle - 4408 Delridge Way SW
NE Seattle - 10228 Fischer Pl NE
Tacoma - 754 S. 38th Street
Vashon Island - 18870 103rd Ave SW

Portland area
NE Portland - 5431 NE 20th Ave
Green Lents, Portland - 9215 SE Ramona St
SE Portland - 1137 SE 20th Ave

Even more libraries can be found at this directory

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Potato Planters

Last year I started planting potatoes for the first time. I did OK, getting a couple pounds of potatoes from a couple plants, but this year I decided to keep with it and follow the YouTube instructions of planting in 5 gallon bucks to give the potatoes more room to grow.

I started with 2 planting buckets with from Home Depot, and HOLY COW am I growing some wildly huge plants!


This looks promising - I need another bucket, stat!

Last week, a gal from my Buy Nothing group posted an empty coconut oil bucket. (I'm curious about the need for 5 gallons of coconut oil. Does she make her own beauty products?) I snatched it up, and now have the base for my next potato plant.


Next step: recruit T, his drill, and largest drill bit to put some holes in the bottom for drainage. Don't have a drill handy? Stayed tuned for my next post on Tool Libraries.


Insert sprouted potatoes. If you start them towards the bottom of the bucket (just 4" of dirt), you can add dirt as the plant grows, and they'll grow up the hieght of the bucket. 


Water and wait. :) In a couple weeks, these little guys will be the giant bushes up above!


Free bucket for the win (and $6 savings)!