Basic Ingredients without cooking from scratch!

I'll admit it.  Baking from scratch?  I'm in!  Cooking from scratch?  No bueno! Especially when I have so much to juggle with work and school and two young children!

How do I do it?  My secret is Trader Joe's, which happens to be my new favorite shopping establishment!

Not only do I love that they offer a meal idea in the store every day that is so easy to prepare, but "all Trader Joe’s brand products share the following attributes: they contain NO synthetic colors, NO artificial flavors, NO artificial preservatives, NO MSG, NO added Trans Fats, and NO genetically modified ingredients" (Trader Joes, 2014).

That's one way of going back to basics in OC without spending a fortune OR cooking from scratch!

Kindergarden Composting

It's a new year and I'm ready to start blogging again!

Since my last post, I was able to get Dr. Francene Kaplan of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, a composting guru and self acclaimed "priestess of rot," to hold a composting talk with the kindergarden students at my son's school!  She was really in her element and did a fantastic job with them!  The school has been supportive of the composting program and the kids are so excited to participate!  I donated my single rotating Lifetime compost bin to their yard, and its contents look great so far!

 (photo obtained from the Daily Pilot- from another composting talk by Dr. Kaplan)

The bonus for me is that I had to upgrade to a double composter and my first batch is looking great!

Unsolicited Waste

Little did I know what a difference this sign would make on my waste! 

It has nearly eliminated all the brochures that used to clutter my entryway, and reduced all the unsolicited advertisements!  

I no longer have to take responsibility for the laminated advertisements hung on my door or waste my time disposing of them!

Zero Waste Picnic

All packed up for a Zero Waste picnic and scavenger hunt at a local park and trail! 

Reusable beverage containers, reusable snack and sandwich bags, kids washcloths for napkins, an insulated reusable lunch box, and sandwiches placed in some handy reusable takeout containers.

Fresh Mint and Watermelon Juice!

My dear friend offered me a branch of fresh mint from her garden along with half a watermelon.  

I juiced them together this morning with help from the kids and it is DELICIOUS! 

We cut the red flesh from the watermelon and placed into a bowl and just tossed the mint leaves into the bowl.  Using a small cup, the kids scooped watermelon and mint leaves and poured straight into the juicer! 

Waste free donations?

The Center for Missing and Exploited children offers a waste-free option for donating to a good cause! 

No paper or packaging required!

Text SAFEKIDS to 20222 and donate $10 to NCMEC. Standard messaging rates apply. Must be 18 or older.

Give with confidence

NCMEC meets all standards of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance.

Healthy batch of compost

That's a pretty healthy batch of compost!  

Since I only have one bin, I have to stop adding for 2 more weeks.  

Yesterday's scraps were placed in an airtight container with layers of paper shreds.  Let's hope that works until this batch finishes cooking!

Round two

In California, we have the luxury of good gardening weather nearly year-round.  The initial plantings this year in March included sweet corn, romaine lettuce, radishes, carrots, and yellow squash.  The lettuce and squash are doing well.  The radishes and corn were harvested, and the few carrots that grew as well.  

I have just planted some bok choy, bush beans, more carrots and sweet corn.  Let's see how this works now that we've added some compost to the soil and learned a little bit about caring for these plants!

I can't wait to get my raised planters so I'll make do with what I have for now.

But I can say that this time around, the soil seems much more suitable to grow corn in!

New purpose

You know those little measuring cups you get with children's liquid ibuprofen and acetaminophen?  We keep them and reuse them and sometimes even give them another purpose. We can use them to scoop powdered laundry soap out of a reusable plastic container before sending them to be recycled.  This saves two items from being recycled and all the energy consumption that goes with it and avoids another plastic container from being purchased (laundry soap- we make our own from borax, dove bar soap, and washing soda).  

Can you share any ways you can repurpose items before sending them to be recycled?  

Doing more of what makes me happy

Zero waste is keeping my family home for meals, getting us more fruits and veggies, more time together, basic learning experiences for the kids without paying through the nose.  The kids know what composting is, enjoy adding to the composter and viewing its progress. They enjoy watering the plants, examining the progress in the garden and eating right from the garden!  The also enjoy learning activities like making homemade applesauce, a great zero waste activity. We peeled the apples, cored and chopped them, boiled them with cinnamon and puréed them. Scraps for compost, natural applesauce, time together, a creative activity with my hands, nothing goes to waste. We even reused a jar we already had. Sure beats picking up a plastic container of applesauce at the store!!!!

Repair and reuse

One of my favorite tops was coming apart at the seams, literally! So I decided to have it repaired at the dry cleaner my husband uses.  It only cost $5 which is cheaper than a new top and its as good as new to me!  

We have been accumulating wire hangers from our dry cleaning so I asked if we could return them.  The woman there was really excited about taking them back and explained to me that the price of hangers had recently gone up!

Thrift store finds

I really got a deal at the thrift store today! I got a kids grocery cart, toy car, purple moon sand set, food grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer, and three 3 pint Ball jars- all for under $15!

The whole family is happy with their new toys and we didn't go broke getting them!  What a great day of keeping it out of the landfill!  

Reuse before recycle

Bea Johnson of The Zero Waste Home blog established a 5 R's hierarchy -in this order- refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot. The other day I mentioned that I had reduced my waste and had a significant increase in recycling.  I decided I would reuse some items before just tossing into the recycle bin, consistent with the 5 R's hierarchy.  

I collected a couple glass juice jars from store purchases and sterilized them just like I would do with a baby bottle.  

I took all the ripe lemons from my tree and juiced them for my own home made lemon juice. I get fresh lemon juice from my garden, reuse something instead of recycling it, and avoid the purchase of a plastic lemon juice dispenser!  Oh, and my kitchen smells like fresh lemons!

I found some Ball brand jar labels from Amazon that wash right off the jar!

My first batch of compost

My garden has been showing signs of nutrient deficiencies.  We have coastal clay soil and it is really difficult to work with.  To avoid having to enrich the soil with purchased topsoil or compost, I made my own out if kitchen scraps, yard waste and shreds of paper.  I applied it to the ground surface as a mulch. Let's see how this helps the garden!

Approaching waste at a different level

I've mentioned before that in my house, it's a question of waste, recycle or compost. Now we have gotten to the point where we have very little trash, a lot of recycling, and very little green waste (thanks to the composter). 

The reduction of waste relates to the increase in efforts to recycle and avoid purchases of difficult to recycle items. This includes prepackaged coffee, for example.

The increase in recycling quantity relates to better conscious efforts to recycle everything possible, learning what can be recycled and what can't.  

Now, we have an opportunity to make a better use of the items we could be recycling.  This is important because a lot of energy is wasted during the recycling process.  Choosing g items we consider safe to reuse is a better option.  That means avoiding purchase of plastic containers, reusing them when possible, or finding alternative materials.

To get to the next level, I am going to try making certain things of my own and using reusable containers.  

For starters, applesauce can be made at home and placed in a glass jar from a previous purchase.  The bonus being all natural ingredients, no added sugar or preservatives.   

I have made my own liquid soap from bars and placed in pump dispensers.  The process is simple and only takes a few minutes of your time.  Next I want to try making my own laundry detergent, and placing in the plastic bucket that came with dishwasher detergent packets.  This way I reuse the plastics I already have and divert them in their original form from the recycling facility -at   least- as long as I can.

Garden fresh!

This year I have been struggling to get my yellow squash! I finally got a perfect little one, brought it in and sautéed it with a zucchini from the farmers market, a little oil, salt and pepper.  My LO really loved this healthy snack! 

I cannot wait for the current batch of compost to be ready for enriching the garden!  

Zero Waste: One step at a time

One of the first things I did to start reducing my waste was get a composter.  I found the one that suited me best on Amazon called the Lifetime 50 gallon compost tumbler.  I anticipated some resistance by my husband.  His assumption was that composting involves a smelly pile in the yard that looks awful to visitors.  I proved him wrong.  In reality, it is an enclosed system that only requires turning the tumbler from the outside, holds in potential odors, and accelerates organic breakdown by insulating heat within.  People don't even notice it along the side of the house unless I point it out to them.  It is extremely easy to compost and anyone can find a system that suits their family.  It's an excellent way to reduce trash going to the landfill and reduce the production of methane gas at the landfill.  Furthermore, it is a great way to enrich your garden soil.  For my family, we like using the OXO Good Grips Countertop Compost bin in the kitchen for collecting compost scraps and we transfer it to the outdoor compost tumbler every 2-3 days.  I just got the gardener (who comes once every 2 weeks) to add the grass clippings to my composter for me.  That's just one more step toward reducing waste and having a zero waste lifestyle!

Why did I start this blog?

I was inspired by Bea Johnson of www.zerowastehome.blogspot.com. Her lifestyle and approach to waste spoke to me as a busy mother. I was inspired by how she was able to find a happy balance to achieve multiple things that I was seeking. For example, a beautiful home without spending a ton of money, time to enjoy the activities she loves, reduced clutter and time spent cleaning. And the BONUS was the environmental benefits.  

To clarify, the environmentalist approach was not the original thing that spoke to me. I wanted simplicity, happiness, beauty and time. Who doesn't want that? And who doesn't like knowing they're doing something good for the world at the same time? 

So as I got energized about trying this lifestyle I started to see the benefits and little ways I could improve my life, the life of my family, and the earth! How did Bea do it?  She demonstrated qualities if a great leader: she inspired through her actions, spoke to my motivations to inspire me to share the "goal."  

Now I hope to inspire others through my actions and demonstratethe idea that if you believe you can make a change to your behavior to improve something, you are more likely to make that change.  The biggest barrier to achieving this lifestyle is not believing that it can be done in our current culture within Orange County.  

I am about to prove that it can and is being done. And you can do it too!

First attempt at corn!

I just harvested the first ear of corn! It was small, but delicious right off the stalk! 

Have you tried growing corn? Why did the ear end up small? What should I do to improve my corn growth next year?

Please post if you have advice to share!

Leftover radish greens

I used the leftover radish greens from my radish harvest as a soup starter. I boiled them with potatoes, green onions (also from the garden), spotted purple sweet potatoes (from farmers market), carrots, celery, and bok choy and seasonings.

Afterwards, I blended it and it turned out pretty good!

Have you tried using radish greens in a recipe? If so, please share!