Next up on the zero-waste meal plan list: root vegetables. Basing a meal around sweet potatoes or potatoes offers an anchor, but still leaves a lot of room for creativity. A big pan of roast vegetables is one of my favorite meals to eat. Chop up in-season vegetables like carrots, turnips, onions, leeks, radishes, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers...and the list goes on...along with the potatoes. Toss them with some olive oil + sprinkle on some salt. Once they are in the oven (425F), there are about 45 minutes to do something else. Add a hard boiled or sunny-side-up egg, and it's a meal. 

I often add a bunch of chopped kale to the pan during the last 15-20 minutes of roasting time as well. A sprinkling of salt + pepper flakes + nutritional yeast is all the extra flavor we need. 

As with all of these categories, there is a lot of room for variation. A breakfast burrito bowl (or regular burrito bowl) could use roasted peppers, onions + potatoes (or sweet potatoes) along with scrambled eggs (+/or beans), salsa, cheese +/or avocado. Baked potatoes offer a different canvas to work with. Mashed potatoes or fries (just either type of potato cut into strips + roasted) are good bases as well. Top fries or a baked potato with some leftover chili + a dollop of yogurt. Yum.

Some extra roasted vegetables can be kept in the fridge + added to salads or rice for quick meals later in the week. Bake an extra potato to toss in with some scrambled eggs. I always thank my past self for the foresight.  :) 

Numbers one + two on the zero-waste meal plan.

Love,
Jane

Best Gluten-free Pizza Crust
2 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 cup warm water
1 egg
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups 1-1 gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 425F. Mix yeast, sugar + water. Let sit 5 minutes. Mix in other ingredients. Spread onto compostable parchment covered pan. (Can let stand for 10-15 minutes for a thicker crust.) Add toppings. Cook 15-20 minutes.  (this recipe slightly tweaked)

The pizza pictured just above is topped with olive oil, sliced potatoes (purposely left over from earlier in the week), pepper jack cheese, feta (put into our own container at the salad bar), salt + cracked pepper. Top it with a big pile of greens tossed with lemon juice + a little olive oil- yum! (some fresh chives from the garden sprinkled on top would have been great as well) The pizza up top is a taco pizza topped with salsa, beans + cheese...with greens, cilantro, avocado, cayenne + salt added after removing from the oven. So good.

​Let seasonal vegetables or ethnic flavors steer the direction. Pizza is extremely versatile + quite nutritious when piled with protein + vegetables (go easy on the cheese).  :) Top it with some nutritional yeast (found in the bulk bins) +/or fresh herbs for a little more goodness. 

Love,
​Jane

When I decided to try this zero-waste thing, food was my biggest concern. In most of our homes, the biggest trash can is located in the kitchen...because that's where the majority of our trash is made. I'd read about how the only person out there at the time doing zero-waste bought her groceries...and decided to drive past four grocery stores to the one that had bulk bins. I skipped the middle aisles + gathered my (mostly) package free foods. At the time, I felt a bit cut-off from our usual staple meals. There was a bit of a learning curve...an adjustment to making do with what was now available to me...but I could see that eating zero-waste was possible + in so many ways...preferable.

A list of flexible recipe categories is very helpful to me today. Each week, I use these six categories to guide my meal planning + grocery list making. On the seventh day of the week, we might order pizza (+ recycle the box), go out to eat (somewhere with real plates) or eat leftovers. Food almost never goes to waste this way. 

So...the first category we'll dive into is soup or salad. In the summer, we are more likely to eat salad...in the winter, it is almost always soup. We like hearty soups + salads that really count as meals...so I make sure there are in-season vegetables, protein + grains involved. Soups + salads are very simple + forgiving, so this can be a great fridge-clean-out meal to eat just before grocery day.

When I first started cooking, I wasn't exactly sure how to get soup to taste like soup rather than stuff floating around in water. Here's what works for me now:
-heat some olive oil over medium heat + add some chopped onion (I use about 1/6 of a big red onion) + cook until translucent
-add water, vegetables, protein, spices, grain + a spoonful of bouillon (I like this brand) + bring to a boil
-reduce heat + simmer until vegetables are tender + grain is cooked
-adding a squeeze of lime, small glug of vinegar, coconut milk or cream after removing from heat often adds a great hit of flavor or creaminess

The soup above was the one we ate last week. It started with the olive oil + onion, had a broth of bouillon, water + tomato sauce (a chopped tomato works well too), and also included carrots, broccoli, chickpeas (cooked + frozen), rice (extra cooked earlier in the week), salt, cayenne + cilantro. It might sound like there are lots of ingredients to gather, but one of the reasons that we ended up with this combination is that I already had rice in a jar and tomato sauce + chickpeas in the freezer when I made my grocery list. We already had onion + bouillon + spices. I wanted broccoli + cilantro for different meals this week, so used what I knew would be leftover in this meal. The only thing that went on the grocery list for this soup was carrots. I want my meals to fit together like puzzle pieces. That way we save money + eat everything we buy.

Zero-waste salads are simple enough to put together with seasonal ingredients. Homegrown herbs, nuts, seeds + cheeses are tasty additions. My favorite dressings are simple combinations of olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, salt + pepper. I also like a mixture of yogurt + salsa as a dressing. 

Soup + salad are easily adjustable for vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free or other dietary needs or preferences. Since I cook for a family of four, we usually eat all of what I make. If I were cooking for one or two, I would put some into jars for dinners or lunches later in the week. 

More soup + salad inspiration here.  :)

Love,
Jane

Nothing new here...just popcorn. But this particular popcorn is local + came from our CSA box.  :) Normally, we buy our popcorn kernels in bulk. Our minimalist kitchen doesn't contain a popcorn popper, so I just use my trusty lidded pot + about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat to pop it. A handful or two of kernels can fill the entire pot!

A few of the ways we like to eat popcorn include:
-sprinkled with salt + a melted butter 
-sprinkled with salt, melted butter + nutritional yeast (available in bulk where we live)
-a spoonful (or two) of sugar thrown in with the kernels (just shake the pot periodically during popping to avoid burning) + salt + melted butter (if desired)
-a little cayenne or cinnamon sprinkled in with salt + butter 

All of these make a great, light snack...in the middle of the afternoon or after dinner. What are your favorite popcorn "toppings"?

Love,
Jane

We find ourselves at an abundant spot in the season...especially as I've chosen to wedge myself between our garden + our CSA box. I've filled up all of my available jars (+ the freezer) with tomato sauce. I've put up a year's worth of pepper flakes. We've got a little stock of potatoes + sweet potatoes tucked away in a cool, dry spot.

Right now, I'm feeling most triumphant when we eat up some of our bounty. This meal did that alright...but it took some time to prepare. The process was easy + much of the time was spent simply waiting, after the initial chopping + mixing. Zero-waste meal preparation is often simple + straightforward...but it can also be a bit time consuming (which can be made a bit more so due to my minimal kitchen tools). 

I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this line of thought, except to say that I don't spend too long in the kitchen every night. If I'm making rice, I'll always make two nights worth in order to save myself the time (+ dishes) another night. I make big batches of beans + chickpeas + then freeze them in jars, so that I have stock on hand. Greens get washed + stored once per week. Carrots can be chopped + stored in a jar with just a little water...ready to use. Pickled vegetables or kimchi can be batch made.

If I was cooking for fewer people, I would still make just as much + store the leftovers for lunches or quick dinners. Vegetables could be chopped + roasted once per week + tossed into salads, soups, or grain bowls as desired. I do think zoodles (spiralized zucchini "noodles") can be made as quickly as pasta though!  :) 

Zero-waste food may take a little more time to prepare than a microwave meal...but zero-waste food is much more tasty + healthy too! The connection we make with our food as we gather it + prepare it is beautiful + important. Food is one of the things that makes the rest of our lives possible...so we might as well enjoy the process.

Falafel + all the veg                                            (measurements given for 4 servings)
from the garden:
-tomatoes
-pepper
from the csa box:
-2 zucchini, spiralized
-radishes
-onion
from the freezer:
-chickpeas
also:
-olive oil
-salt + pepper
-pepper flakes
-1 tsp. cumin
-4 Tbsp. flour or besan
-lemon
-yogurt
-dill

For roasted tomatoes + pepper :: Cut tomatoes in half (+ slice peppers), toss with a bit of olive oil + salt, spread in a single layer, and put in the oven at about 350F for at least an hour (checking periodically)...until roasted + a bit browned. (These are good for a few days in the fridge + tasted amazing on our avocado toast for lunch today.)
For falafel :: Mix chickpeas (I used about 16 oz. for 4 of us), onion, juice from 1/2 lemon, salt, cumin, pepper flakes, flour or besan in the blender. Form into patties + place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Cook at 400F for 10 minutes...flip + cook for 10 minutes more.
For zoodles :: Toss spiralized zucchini into hot skillet + cook for around 4 minutes.
For dressing :: Mix around 1/2 cup of yogurt, juice from other 1/2 of the lemon, dill, salt + pepper.
(I give measurements where they matter most + season or substitute as desired with the rest.)

Love,
Jane

I am a huge fan of leftovers. They feel like a gift from my past self. With a leftover half of an acorn squash, 1/4 of a can of coconut milk, some leftover quinoa, + a jar of beans...this was the result + it was delicious. There was no plan, but sometimes...one thing at a time...it just all comes together.  :)

Coconut Squash Grain Bowl
quinoa
black beans
spinach
1/2 acorn squash (cooked)
1/4 can of coconut milk
plain yogurt
pepper flakes
cinnamon
ginger
salt

Blend all ingredients from squash on down. Pour over the others.  :) Enjoy!

(We ate ours with the leftover half of a local honeydew.)

Love,
Jane

If I could only choose one spice (other than salt), it would be pepper flakes. We love them sprinkled into + onto most everything savory. From avocado toast to soups to grain bowls...we like them all a bit spicy. So last summer, after growing peppers for years + eating them all fresh, I was scared/inspired into trying to make pepper flakes out of some very spicy peppers that burned my hands when I cut them.  :)

Those pepper flakes lasted all year + were so good! We are still using up the very last of them. So, of course, we're at it again with this year's spicy peppers. I've found the best way for me to dry the peppers is just to put them in the oven on low heat (I've been putting them in at about 270F) until they become brittle enough to crack. I check on them every hour or so + remove the dry ones from the pan. I'd rather hang dry them (to avoid the power used for the oven), but my attempts last year made me realize that it is just too humid here to avoid some going bad in the process. Oven drying lets me avoid losing any of my precious peppers!

Once all of the peppers are dried, I crush them with the bottom of a jar (to avoid getting stinging pepper hands) + put them into jars. (This step involves a little sneezing, no matter how hard I try to avoid it...but confirms that this is good stuff!) That's it + we have spicy, zero-waste goodness enough to last another year!

Love, 
​Jane

My feelings about green peppers are the same as they are for green tomatoes...I'd rather have red ones. The farmers get to make the selections for our CSA box, however, so green peppers it is. We eat some version of this often (proof). I love that this meal...full of good stuff...can be made entirely zero-waste! This time our stuffed peppers were a combination of:

Stuffed Peppers
pepper 
brown rice
beans
tomatoes
spicy pepper
onion
garlic
salt
cinnamon
cumin
​avocado

Sometimes I cut the peppers in half + put them into the oven at 375F for about 20 min. while cooking + cutting the other ingredients. Sometimes I stuff the peppers before putting them into the oven. Either way...it's good.  :)

Love,
Jane

Locally grown okra showed up in our CSA box last week + my heart did a little dance. Okra is not a vegetable that we saw in Michigan where I grew up...so I associate it (fondly) with my family's yearly trips to Tennessee (when I was a girl).

I always liked it fried, so I set out to replicate the dish I remembered minus the frying.

Sautéed Okra
Okra, sliced...tips + tops removed
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/8 besan (chickpea flour)
1 tsp. salt
cayenne to taste
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F + set skillet over medium heat. Add oil to skillet. In a bowl, toss the rest of the ingredients until well coated + add to a hot skillet. Cook until lightly browned...about 3 minutes on each side. Put skillet in oven for 10 minutes.

I added some chickpeas + onions to the mix as well for this meal. Next time, I think I would make a yogurt/herb dressing to drizzle over the top. Add some watermelon for desert + it's dinner!  :)  (A big, big thank you to our favorite farmers for planting, tending, harvesting, assembling + transporting the okra, corn, onion, cornmeal + watermelon that made us smile, filled our bellies + nourished our bodies! Our gratitude runs deep!)

Love, 
​Jane