Litterless Living

Greetings Friends! One of the things I love most about summer (and I love a LOT of things about summer) is all the fresh produce! As I've mentioned before, I enjoy getting my fresh veggies from the local Farmer's Market. I've learned this summer that I can make a wide variety of delicious dishes just by keeping a small variety of staple ingredients on hand. Below are some recipes I've loved making this summer. But summer's not over yet! If you try any of these recipes please let me know in the comments below what you thought & if you needed to make any alterations to fit your situation. I'd love to hear from you! But first: THE KEY INGREDIENTS are onions (red & yellow), zucchini , cucumbers , bell peppers (also called sweet peppers), and celery . Not every recipe uses all of these ingredients, and certainly not exclusively, but it is amazing how many different cuisines use these same ingredients as the base for their recipes. G AZPACHO This l...

Greetings Friends, Grocery shopping can be a difficult area for those of us wanting to live without plastic. When I first became aware of the less favorable traits of plastic my first trip to a grocery store was mortifying. I suddenly saw plastic in so many places that I never noticed it before. It wasn't that I didn't know that nearly everything in a conventional grocery store was covered in plastic, but I felt like a film had been lifted from my vision and these things I never thought of before were vibrating neon lights blaring at me. Even my debit card that I used to pay for my groceries is made of plastic! How is one to escape and still feed themselves? I've put together some tips on how to successfully (most of the time) navigate your food buying ventures. Please share in the comments if you have other tips for us zero-wasters/plastic-avoiders. Knowledge is power! Tip 1: Find Alternative Stores Of course I have to start off with encouraging you to support...

Hello Friends! I hope you are all well. Recently I ran out of my homemade laundry soap. Since I needed to make a new batch, I thought I'd bring you along and show you my recipe. It's super simple. I got the recipe from Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World  by Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen. Homemade Laundry Detergent 1 part grated soap bar 2 parts borax 2 parts baking soda/washing soda Mix together in a bowl, then pour into an air-tight container for storage. Use about 2 Tbsp of powder for each load of laundry, or what suits your needs. How simple can you get? And all of those ingredients can be found without plastic packaging--at least here in the US. I've been using this recipe for over 2 years. It works just as well as the liquid soap you can buy in plastic jugs. I use a castile soap so it should dissolve in cold water, however the authors of Making It  suggest starting off your load with warm or hot water to help the soap dissolve. If...

Greetings Friends! I hope you have been well. I myself got a little busy during the holiday season while also battling a stubborn cold, so I'm a little behind on my postings. Because it is winter where I live & because oranges are in season & because I had a cold, I got myself a large bag of oranges. They were absolutely delicious! I love those little guys. But as I'm sure you know, they can be hard to eat up before going bad. Forthe first time ever I had some with very dried out skins that were a pain to peel, but whose fruit was still soft & delicious. I didn't want to waste them, but it didn't make sense to peel them either, so I decided to juice them instead :) It worked great! I especially enjoy mixing the fresh juice with unflavored sparkling water to give it a little pzazz.  You may have noticed the bag the oranges were packed in looks like plastic. I believe it is. Yet I bought it anyway. This was my lo...

Greetings Friends, I know it's been a couple months since I last posted. I have lots in the works, I promise. But a friend of mine keeps a really great blog called "Living More with Less Today" where he & guests write about different ways to live an ethical/environmental life. He was kind enough to ask me to be one of his guest writers. Linked is my post about  the 5 R's of Zero Waste ; the framework I follow to help me with plastic-free living. Please check it out, and while there look at the other great posts written by David and his other guests. Thanks! And until next time, take care.