#zerowastekitchen

LOW WASTE SNACKS

One of my absolute favorite #packagefree snacks is stove top popcorn. Movie nights at home, a quick snack while I’m drawing, I love a bowl (to myself, let’s be honest) of popcorn loaded up with some flaky salt, paprika, and a palmful of nutritional yeast. It’s a relatively guilt-free snack you can doctor up with whatever seasonings you have on hand. I’m a dry popcorn kind of gal but to each their own, we’re not here to judge.

I usually find my kernels in the bulk bin of my local grocery store, which makes this a bin to bowl plastic free snack experience. (Reminder to bring your own container!) If you can’t find these at your local grocery store, a conventional packaged bag of popcorn is a much better alternative to several plastic wrapped, microwave bags coated with things we probably shouldn’t be eating on a regular basis.

Super simple stove top popcorn

Ingredients: - 2 tbsp olive oil - 1/2 cup popcorn kernels - handful of salt, nutritional yeast, pumpkin spice, etc - seasonings to your liking To-do’s: 1. Pour oil into a heavy bottomed, medium size pan and turn on medium heat. Add in a kernel and cover with lid. You’ll wait for the kernel to pop before you add in the rest.  2. Once that kernel has popped pour in the rest and cover with lid. Give the pot a little shake to let the kernels distribute evenly around bottom of the pan. Let sit as kernels begin to pop. Once they are popping, ever so slightly crack the lid to allow steam to escape (this will keep the popcorn from getting soggy.) 3. Continue cooking until popping slows to a single pop every few seconds or so, anywhere from 1 - 3 minutes. Turn off and remove from heat. Pour popcorn into bowl and add in addition seasoning! Feel free to get creative here and try out new flavor combinations. 

(Note: Make sure to never leave your oil unattended! If you ever smell burning or see smoke turn off the heat and take your pot off the burner. Leave the lid on and put the pot in the sink to cool down.)

I also like to save any unpopped kernels to use next time! I can’t be the only one!

Last week I'was doing a cleanup of kitchen cupboards with my family. We haven't done this in a long time, so it was important to take care of that to avoid waste of overdue food. As we all know hunger problem is big even in highly developed countries, so wasting food due to laziness or neglect isn't fair and shouldn't take place.

Broccoli stalk, anyone?

Don’t toss that stalk! Broccoli is delicious for the florets and that fresh stalk. You can eat the stalk raw, roasted, sauteed, and it goes well in just about anything you would add florets to. You can check for a healthy, fresh stalk by turning the broccoli upside down and looking for an intact, white-ish bottom. Cut off any rough ends or sides and add those to your scrap stock container.

KALE STEMS

Cinnamon apple chips

One of my favorite snacks of all time! My mom’s most used kitchen tool was the dehydrator–nothing was safe from it. One of her best successes was always dried apple chips. She’d make them every few weeks and the entire house would smell slightly sweet. She’d leave them to dry out overnight and by the next afternoon every single one of them had been eaten. She’ll still send them to me in holiday packages and I eat them just as fast. To make these cinnamon apple chips, I sliced up and cored 4 apples, including some bruised and on the edge of going to waste. I coated half of them with cinnamon and left them in the dehydrator overnight (approx 10 - 12 hours.) Voila! A simple, #packagefree snack you can have on hand, add in to granola or other baked goods. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can still use the oven - place apple slices on a try, turn the oven on its lowest setting, crack the oven door and let heat overnight.