we are always on the lookout for new healthy snack ideas.  we've been enjoying this dip all week and thought you might enjoy it too!  i used a whole large bin of bulk beans and an 8 oz. jar of tomato sauce.  this gave me a really big batch to divide for eating this week, taking to a small group gathering to share, and freezing more for later.  it doesn't take any longer to make more, and we always love having some for later!  we've eaten this dip with carrots, apples, pretzels and blue corn chips.  it would also be a great spread on a sandwich.  yum!


zero waste bean dip

bulk white beans (soak overnight, simmer 1 1/2 hours)
tomato sauce (my recipe here)
bulk pepper flakes
bulk chili powder
salt
lemon(s)
olive oil

in the future, i might add green onions or parsley...

i was able to just stir it together and get a dip consistency.  you could certainly blend the beans or put them into a food processor for a smoother dip, if desired.  adjust amounts according to how much you are making and your desired seasoning taste.

enjoy!

love, 
jane

i bookmarked an image long ago with the thought that making liquid soap from a bar of soap would save a lot of packaging from reaching the landfill.  bea johnson talked about doing it in her book and i knew i would try it…someday.  in the mean time, i wondered if i needed a separate pot, since i had heard that making soap is a toxic endeavor.  i wanted a separate grater, because i didn't want my other one worn down quicker with the hard soap (it's a style i like that i haven't seen since).  bea's recipe calls for a hand mixer, which i don't have.  i wasn't sure i wanted to use the types of soap they used.  you get the idea…i put it off.

well, i finally gave it a try!  i decided i was only warming the soap- sort of like dishwashing- no extra pot needed.  another grater was bought, but wouldn't have been needed.  i found ways to avoid the need to buy a hand mixer.  i decided to go ahead and give my regular bar soap choice a try.

we buy this bulk soap from whole foods- no packaging, not too expensive and it works great.  i wanted to stick with this soap choice, since decreasing packaging is my main goal. another great benefit of making liquid soap is that it is very cost effective- a total money saver.  my single bar of soap cost $2 and yielded one gallon of liquid soap.  

liquid soap (from a bar of soap)- adapted from bea johnson and the farmer's nest

1.  grate the bar of soap (castille soap and mrs.meyers soap also work- but not all soap does)
2.  add the grated soap to 1 gallon of water in a pot and warm over medium heat, stirring until soap dissolves
3.  let sit overnight.  (i poured my soap into two glass casserole dishes.  a couple of hours after i'd poured my soap into the casserole dishes, it had set.  i put the lids on and went to bed.)
4.  set, it is more like set jello consistency than liquid soap.  here's where you could use your mixer, but i just dove in and mushed it between my fingers…fun!  :)  the farmer's nest said it would end up a snot-like consistency- gross, but true.
5.  pour into containers (i used glass quart jars and an empty shampoo bottle.)

my goal was for this liquid soap to work as hand soap, dish soap, and shampoo.  we tried it for a week as each and it does not work to my satisfaction as dish soap or shampoo.  i would have been ecstatic to have knocked three items off my grocery list and saved all that packaging, but we'll just have to stick with this as money saving hand soap.  (it would also work as shower gel and possibly as shampoo for short hair.)  yes, the plastic bottles that all these products come in can be recycled, but this plastic needs to be processed into new bottles.  this takes a lot of energy.  plus, 100% recycled plastic is not yet a usual end product.  this means that new plastic is constantly being added to the recycled plastic. more new plastic, in addition to new energy to clean, break down and make new plastic product that will never biodegrade is not totally positive.  keeping all those dish soap, shampoo and liquid hand soap bottles out of the system would be incredible, so i am still working on that!

i'd love to hear if you make liquid soap and what tweaks you make!  

love, 
jane 

update:  april 15, 2015  this zero-waste liquid soap is not a success for us.  it was fun to start with a bar of soap and see it come out as liquid soap…plus there is so much of it.  like i said in this post, it did not work as dish soap or shampoo for us, as i'd originally hoped.  we've been trying to use it for liquid hand soap for a while and don't really like it for that either.  it doesn't lather, so we don't really feel like it's cleaning well.  

i have found a natural, low-waste alternative that i do really like for hand soap:  a little bit of castile soap + lots of water in a foaming soap dispenser.  i had a dispenser that came with soap in it, and now i just refill it with my own mixture of soap and water.  castile soap is pricey, so this very diluted mixture will make it last.  

update: March 30, 2018 I no longer buy castile soap, because it is quite expensive + I don't use it in any other ways. I've tried it as dish soap, which I don't like because it is oily, expensive, + doesn't lather. I don't like it for my hair for similar reasons. Now we just use a drop of dish soap to wash our hands. I refill a smaller soap dispenser about 1/4 full at a time, because I find that a full bottle dispenses too much soap + we go through it too fast. This way, I buy the largest bottle of dish soap that I can find at the grocery store (I consider it bulk) + it lasts a long time. One bottle of dish soap works for dishes, hands, + hand washing intimates too.

jo: starting classes last week has me wishing that i could stay home, cozy and comfy!


we love clothing and our simple wardrobes, but ultimately it's not about the clothes we wear.  it's about the lives we live while wearing the clothes.

bundle up.
get moving.
breathe deeply.
embrace the beauty of winter.

love, 
j + j + j

i wanted to reduce our waste a few years ago and came across bea johnson, who i have mentioned many times before.  i have no problem saying that she is one of my biggest inspirations!  :)  i would love to say that we are totally zero-waste, but we are not quite there yet. bea is!  we have, however, drastically decreased our waste and recycling!  remember that recycling still takes a lot of water + energy and often involves adding more new plastic to the recycled plastic for new product.  so much of what we consume involves single use plastic and packaging.  reducing the need for packaging is important and can be quite simple, especially if we can access bulk nearby.  bea has explained how she grocery shops, and it was very inspiring to me.  i've adapted it a bit, so i thought i'd share what i do too.  

of course, we start with the reusable bags.  please, please do this…every time!  at times i have left my bags in the trunk of my car, so that i would always have them with me.  now i keep a couple of fold-up ones in my purse.  sometimes we go to the store and carry everything out in our hands, if we don't have bags.  the way to keep it to what you can carry…is to walk through the store without a cart or basket.  we know we can carry everything out to the car, because we carried it to the check out.  :)  it's ok if we look silly- we just saved a plastic bag!! woohoo!

for bulk foods, i use these bins that are available at my whole foods. glass jars would be an even better way to avoid plastic, but here are a few reasons why i like these bins.  
-they are light weight and stack inside each other for compact transport.  i often need more than five bins.
-i don't have to bring them to customer service to get them weighed for tare (so they can subtract the weight of the jar to get an accurate weight of the item you put inside).
-i don't need as many glass jars.  i would need extras to bring to the store.  if, for example, i need more flour for the week ahead, but still have some left in my flour jar.
-i don't have to worry about all the grocery store germs on the outsides of the jars, because I pour the contents into clean jars.  
-i have used these same bins for 3 years now. (still using them almost two years later...that's 5 years so far.) 
-there have been times that i have been able to use one of these to bring a meal to someone with family in the hospital or to gift food from our garden, etc.  they are great to use when i don't want the recipient to have to return my dish.  i hope they reuse them too.

we grocery shop once a week.  it's something our tribe looks forward to now.  we know people who work at our store and like to catch up with them when we can.  we usually eat lunch there as well, so that makes it a special treat.  i make my menu and list ahead of time and then bring what we will need.  this could include:
-bins for bulk, cheese, and occasionally fish
-rubberbands to keep the bins from spilling on the way home...and so that i don't collect more each time we go
-cloth bags for bread + cookies (i have the bread sliced and placed in the cloth bag.  at home i place the whole thing in a reused plastic bag before putting it in the freezer.  we just break off a slice and toast it when we want one.)
-a little jug for honey or syrup
-tiny plastic bags for spices
-a coffee bag or sometimes i just use a bin
-reusable grocery bags

i've collected these from the store and just reuse the same ones over and over. the store knows how to deal with their own items.

i don't use cloth bags for vegetables or fruit. i just place them all in one reusable bag and the cashier weighs them before replacing them in the bag.

everything fits into one bag.  we grab another to carry our empty glass milk jugs and any other glass that needs to be dropped at the glass recycling bin outside the store.  (if you don't home compost or have city compost pickup, whole foods has compost bins inside the store.  take your compost along too!)

when we get our bulk home, i transfer it from these bins to our glass jars.

loveliness on full display.

these supplies have a place to rest between jobs.  one large bin holds all of the bins, bags and extras.  i like that there is a bit of extra room in the top of this bin to put newly dried bins that might need a bit of extra air to completely dry all the nooks and crannies.

the other large bin holds the empty bags.  i add our empty glass milk jugs to the top of this bin, so we can return them to the store with the next trip.

a place for everything, and everything in its place!  

i acknowledge there is plastic involved here.  i consider switching to glass sometimes and then come back to all the reasons i do like my bins.  i don't store food in plastic.  i also know that the bulk items arrive in plastic lined boxes and are stored in plastic bins.  i can change my mind at any time.  i also consider switching my bags to cloth, so that i can wash them.  i just have a hard time getting rid of these now, since they still function.  i do like their size and ease of loading.  they are 100% recycled.  again, i can change my mind.  the large plastic bins are easy to clean and won't rust.  just letting you know what i do, in case it could inspire.  :)

love,
jane

p.s. a little more about the shopping here.  :)

julia:  i love looking at the sky.  i like its fluffy clouds, moon and stars. one of my favorite things in the sky is the constellation, orion, the hunter. you see him best in the winter months. i am very excited to see that he has returned once again, and i discovered i could see him out my window on clear nights.


we love clothing and our simple wardrobes, but ultimately it's not about the clothes we wear.  it's about the lives we live while wearing the clothes.

we've picked a word or phrase to inspire our year- maybe you have too- yay!  or maybe you've got some other ideas about how you would like this year to look.  since these are ideas we don't want to forget, here is a little project to keep them fresh in our minds.  i saw a version here, and i'm sure many of us have thought of this idea at various times… you polyvore girls have a head start already, i'm sure!  :)  

the idea:  make a collage that reminds you of various aspects of your word or phrase.  cut up magazines (that's what i did), make a polyvore set (like jo), draw or paint something, make a screen saver…just make a visual reminder of your commitment.  then post it somewhere you will see it everyday!  

we'd love to see what you've made, so feel free to link to your project in the comments!  this is not a creativity contest…it is just inspiration for our own selves to keep progressing and moving forward!  :)  have fun!

love, jane and jo

sometimes we've just got to share the most obvious discovery that has changed our lives, right?  here's one of mine!  we love home made cookies.  my problem was that we'd make them and then they would all be sitting there on the counter looking at me.  in two days we'd have eaten a whole batch of cookies!  my waist-line was not thanking me.

now we make half a batch, bake what we are going to eat right then…and then put the rest of the dough in the frig. for the next time we want warm cookies.  i know that the freezer is an option for baked cookies, but i don't like the way they taste after being frozen, and this way we always get warm cookies!  yup, life changing!

love, jane