Hey guys and welcome back to my channel!
Thank you for joining me for another video in this 100 swaps series. The
last video: "100 zero waste swaps" (I'll link it above or below), thank you
for your positive feedback on that, it really means a lot. As always with these
swaps, take what is applicable for you and accessible in your situation and
simply leave the rest. If you do like this video, please give a thumbs up
because it really supports my channel especially in that youtube algorithm and
helps get the message out there. And while you're at it, subscribe so you
don't miss the next video in this 100 series. Let's get into it.
When you go shopping for food make sure to write a shopping list beforehand. It
may sound simple, but it helps prevent you from buying additional food that you
want on the spur of the moment, but may not end up consuming. Create a meal plan,
even for a couple of days, to help you plan out how you're going to use the
food you buy. Do a monthly cupboard sweep to ensure you're using all the foods you
already have. Lots of food gets forgotten and deserves to be eaten, so don't let it
go off. The longer you leave beans in your cupboard, the longer you need
to soak them and cook them. So when you do come to it, please remember to soak for
longer and cook for longer, otherwise you may end up throwing them away because
you don't like the texture of them and what a shame that would be. Don't buy
foods you think you should buy because they're "healthy" or "trendy" or because you
can buy them in zero waste bulk, but wouldn't otherwise eat them. They always
end up in the back of the cupboard, forgotten about and, believe me, I would
know (maca powder!) Make it a habit to also clean out your fridge every week. This
forces you to take all the food out and evaluate what needs eating up before it
goes bad. Of course those of you with children and multiple jobs may not have
the time, so maybe try it just once a month. Make a list of the foods you
frequently leave to go bad in your fridge or cupboard and stop buying those
products or buy a smaller amount. Prep a small notebook of recipes that you
genuinely like and find alternative ingredients that you can supplement ones
for if you don't have all the stuff. This helps to use up what you do have and
prevents you from buying new. It also provides a small education in what goes
together food-wise to prevent those weird concoctions that are gross. Believe me,
again, I would know! Always eat before going to the shops to buy food. I've
bought so many things not on my list just because I was hungry at the time.
Food storage is so important so let's break them down. Root vegetables should
be stored in a cool dark place. Herbs; I always recommend, if possible, having a small live pot of them on your windowsill. But if you can't then
keep them in a sealed bag in the fridge or in a glass of water on your window
sill again. I find the sealed bag method keeps them fresh for longest but the
glass of water does the trick too. Utilise your freezer (if you have one) to cook and
store vegetables that are going off but you don't [want to] or can't eat them yet. Again,
utilise your freezer also for leftovers if you know you'll be eating out or not
at home in time to eat them. You can also store several portions of, say
plant-based chilli, so that it lasts longer because after a few days in the
fridge it can get a bit gross. The same goes for beans. If you're cooking them
from dry, then you want to make the most out of your time and cook a lot, by
portioning out the beans and freezing them you can ensure they won't go off
and you'll have a store of wonderful protein ready to use. Label the items of
food you freeze because it helps you to know the expiry date of that item. This
will make sure you eat it up in time. Don't buy into offers unless you
actually need something. For example, a three for two. Don't get this unless you
actually need or will use within the specified time. Use apps like Olio to
give food away or to use up others' food that may go to waste.
Use apps like Too Good to Go to help restaurants or cafes etc in your area to
reduce their waste. I've used this so many times and you end up getting a
really delicious meal for a fraction of the price and you prevented food from
going to waste. Make a veggie broth from your peelings or off cuts that can't be
used. I'll link a recipe in the description. So grab veggies, clean with a
brush rather than peel them to save the skin (which also carries lots of the
nutrients in the food). Keep scraps in your freezer until you need them to
prolong their life and prevent you from wasting or forgetting about them. Compost,
however small, any other scraps and use to grow new food. Check out Hippimoji on
IG. Learn how to identify a properly ripened fruit so you don't pick it and
eat it before its time. I've certainly prematurely bitten into an under-ripe
pear and ended up wasting it because it was crunchy as. Things that you need to
eat immediately; create a system so they are immediately available to you when
you open the fridge. If you tuck things away at the back, they will get forgotten. Veg prep: you're more likely to use veggies when they're chopped up or
prepped - just like the dried beans. If you have a disability that prevents you from
chopping, buying pre-chopped in plastic is nothing to feel guilty about and it
could help you save food waste too. Support companies like Oddbox or, in the
U.S. you have Imperfect Produce that save veggies from going to
waste because they're too big, too small, too weird or wonky. Support farms like
Riverford who use organic and slow practices to grow their food thus
wasting less. Use the stems of herbs (I never understand why people don't). For
ones like coriander the most flavour is actually in the stem. So chop them up,
really small, add to the blender with your other ingredients and make a paste
for a curry. Or even just throw on top of a salad. The stems are good; don't throw
them away! The same goes for broccoli stems and the
green bits of spring onions. These hold wonderful flavours and can really enrich
any dish or soup. I like to take a moment to think about how lucky I am that I can
actually afford these foods and question whether, if I weren't so lucky, would I
really be wasting any part of it. Regrow your vegetables. It's actually amazing
how much you can regrow things like lettuce, spring onions, leeks, and so many
more. Give it a try and you'll be surprised. When making your own DIY milk
recipes like the one linked at the top of the screen now, don't waste the pulp.
You can use it in things like porridge or to make pancakes, muffins, or cookies.
Pickle those veggies. This is such a great way to get some new flavours into
your palate while saving some beautiful veggies from going to waste. You could
also make a soup or hummus with the veggies that are getting soft and are
needing a little blendy blend to make them palatable. Candy those citrus
peels. If you haven't tried this, you are missing out on a treat!
You can pickle or candy those delicious peels and have them as a snack or a side.
You can also use citrus peels once scraping out the pith to flavour your
vinegar to wipe down surfaces and clean those countertops. Some veggies that are
going soft actually perk right back up if you place them in a mug of water-
like celery. So give it a go before giving up on those veggies. Be careful
how you store your produce. Bananas will help ripen other fruit quickly, so if you
don't want to end up with a whole load of ripened fruit quite yet, separate them
out so they don't help them along. If you're a real waster, why not try keeping
a food waste journal. I've always found this helpful when I'm ending up with
more food waste than I think as normal. And it helped me to confront the issues
of where I'm wasting the most and why, One thing I like to do if I've chopped
up some fruit and it's been sitting in the fridge for a few days and has become
a little too juicy is to blend them up and freeze them, turning them into fruit
popsicles; a great healthy snack for kids too. Another tip for herbs that might be
going off is to chop them up really small and put them in an ice cube tray
with some olive oil or just water and freeze them.
Then next time you need some you can head to the freezer and add them
straight to the pan or leave them to thaw on the side. The same goes for
coconut milk if you have any leftover. You can also put those cubes into and
freeze until you're ready to use them. There are so many options for stale
bread so don't give up on it just yet. You can blend them into bread crumbs,
chop them up and put them in a panzanella salad, or simply toast it. Use
apps like Plant Jammer to help you decide what to make with the random
ingredients you have in your fridge or cupboard when you need a little
inspiration. Soaking banana peels in water for at
least 48 hours makes a good fertilizer spray for gardens or, as Shelby does, you
can wipe the peel over your plant leaves (apparently this is good for them). Another
bread tip is when you want to buy bread, visit your local bakery and check if
they have and are willing to sell you yesterday's bread. It's always just as
good and often cheaper because they may have just thrown it out. Dry your herbs
if you're not going to use them. My parents have a rosemary brush that I
often take clippings from and just hang upside down to dry out so I don't forget
about it and let it go bad, then they last for ages,
Snother citrus rind tip is to freeze them and then use them in a cake or to
flavour a sticky sweet sauce. If you must peel your potatoes, you can always dry
them off and place them on a baking sheet with some salt, pepper, and oil and
make delicious crispy skins as a snack. Buy bruised or scratched fruit at the
supermarket. These never get picked and end up in the supermarket bin when
really there's nothing wrong with them. You can always just use them for juices,
smoothies, or those popsicles I mentioned earlier. We have some apple
trees that always produce too many apples for us to eat, so we like to share
them with the neighbours and donate boxes of them to the rest of the community to
eat and share the spoils we're so lucky to have. You can also make apple butter
with excess apples or even bruised and slightly aging ones too.
I'll link a recipe in the description. Use spent coffee grounds for a number of
things. It's a great fertilizer for your garden with plants that bond well with
coffee. It's also a great natural repellent if you don't want animals
eating your edible garden. You can use it as a body scrub with some coconut oil
and it's also a natural deodorizer if you have any bad smells that need
assisting. If you're someone who has a rabbit or other such a veggie eating
creature then give leftover scraps to them. Broken off single bananas are much
less likely to be picked in the store since most people buy a bunch. If you
find singles, buy them, since they're more likely to be tossed. Check your
supermarket to see if they have a misfits
section. Some of them offer boxes with wonky fruit and veg, so by choosing
those, you're helping to vote with your pound and tell the supermarket that
those foods are valuable to you. Another apple or fruit tip is to slice thin and
baked into apple chips. If you're someone who has a dehydrator, dry tiny cubes of
veggie scraps and herbs in a dehydrator, then toss them in a food
processor with a little bit of salt and grind finely - and voila! You have some dry
veggie stock. Yet another apple one: use those apple peel and cores to make apple
cider vinegar. It takes a little time, but it's certainly worth it. The same can be
done with red wine. Consider turning a red wine that you may have forgotten
about into red wine vinegar. It's so simple and so worth it. Always save your
seeds from things like pumpkins that produce edible seeds. You can either
roast them and eat them or you can save them, propagate and plant
them like we did last year. Last summer we went to a local farmers market and
bought a massive tray of local tomatoes for $3 which otherwise would have been
about 40 just because they had to be eaten within the day. We cut out any bad
bits, boiled and blended them, and froze jars full of it to be ready for any
tomato-based sauce that we wanted to create in the future. If you're arty or
into textiles, plant waste can actually be turned into dyes. It's so clever and a
great way to create art from waste. If you give it a go, please post it to IG
and tag me as I would love to see what you create. Don't peel your ginger with a
knife! Use a spoon; it's just as effective and makes sure you peel only the skin and
none of that delicious flesh. Cauliflower leaves are delicious. Don't throw them
away. Whenever we make an aloo gobi, which is actually very often, we always steam
and add the stems because they're perfectly edible. You can also toss in
spices and olive oil and roast them in the oven. If you're lucky enough to have
a little outdoor space or a balcony big enough for a few cucumbers, then planting
your own food is excellent. This means you can harvest when the food is
actually ripe or leave on the stems for a little longer until you're ready to
eat them. Cucumbers are very easy to grow if you fancy giving them a go. This one
is a little bit out there, but learning about regenerative agriculture can help
you understand the importance of soil health, which for me made me put a deeper
value on the food I consume. When we value things more, we waste them less.
Freeze overly ripe bananas or make them into a delicious banana bread. In the UK
it's pretty tricky to secure a spot but if you can, allotments are great for
growing food and also learning, from that community, the best way to grow and share.
Jams and chutneys are great ways to extend the life of fruits
and veggies that are desperate to be turned into something new.
How about canning? Okay this process is tricky and it's essential you learn how
to do it properly, but this can help you eat those delicious sun-ripened tomatoes
all year round. Simply by storing correctly, you can even
turn your leftover orange peels into candles. How's that for zero waste? Link
in the description. The leafy green tops of carrots are actually edible if you
didn't know. Why not make a delicious artichoke dip with chickpeas and carrot
tops. The same goes for beetroot tops. They are delicious steamed or fried with
other spring greens. Lemon peels can also be turned into lemon powder. Again, if you
have a dehydrator or an oven capable of slowly drying, then grind away. These can
be used in baking, for lemon pepper, and so much more. Infuse your alcohol, like
vodka, with leftover herbs or berries or
citrus rinds. Yum! Back to stale bread. Why not try making
some croutons out of them? Add some salt, oil, pepper, shove them in the oven and
then top a homemade tomato and basil soup. Leftover herbs can again be used to
flavour oil (same with chilies or garlic that's about to go off). Make pesto.
Anything green that needs eating up can be chucked in there with nuts of choice.
I like hazelnuts because they can be found in the UK, but any herbs, carrot
tops, etc can be made into a warming pasta dish. At the ends of jars like
delicious tahini or peanut butter etc, there's no need for waste. Add some lemon
juice or soy sauce for whatever salad dressing you want to make and get every
scrap out of those beautiful jars. Fruit scraps make delicious water. Infuse a big
jug in the fridge with your rinds, herbs, strawberry tops and enjoy later. It's
especially good for cheeky kids who hate drinking water! You can actually eat
banana skin if you wait long enough for the bananas to ripen properly. Give them a
good clean and then add them to your smoothie. You can also bake them too.
Ginger peels don't need to go to waste. Put them in a mug and pour over a good
helping of hot water, wait to infuse, and drink your ginger tea. Ignore best by
and sell by dates for fruits and veggies and, if you eat dairy, these are
incredibly overcautious. Instead use your senses - that's what they're there for. If
there's no mould and it smells fine then, but it's after its sell-by date, then
it's more likely an indication than it's actually still okay to eat. But of course,
always proceed with caution. Slice and freeze bread. This is a great
way to prolong the life of your bread, especially if you don't eat it every day.
Wrap it up in a tea towel and take a slice out when necessary. Store things
like carrots and asparagus, celery too, in a glass of water to keep them crispier
for longer. Chuck an apple in with your potatoes when stored. This helps to slow
down their ripening so they don't sprout before you're ready to eat them.
Keep mushrooms in a paper bag to prevent them from prematurely decaying as
the bag can absorb some moisture. A small cloth bag works well too. Turn old food
into face masks. People are loving using foods to hydrate and nourish their skin,
so why not try DIY on your own out of bananas for example, if you can't stand
overripe ones and you're not a fan of banana bread. If you love pickling like
me then don't forget to reuse your pickle brine. There's no need to throw it
away and it takes the hassle out of making a whole new batch. If you love to
juice but hate to compost so much veggie pulp, there are lots of other ways
to use it. Personally our dogs love it, but only the veggies. We also like to fry
it into some rice, add it to hearty pasta sauces, and heap it into stews. Just make
sure to use it quickly or freeze it to prolong the life. Ever made homemade soy
milk? Well then you'll know that the waste product is actually called "okara".
Instead of dumping try frying and adding to a rice dish or smooshing with veggies
and rice to make fritters. When storing things like sauces and soups in the
freezer, only fill the container 3/4 to allow room for expansion. Store these in
small quantities so the food freezes more quickly, which gives it a fresher
taste. Make a tasty casserole with all the weird bits of vegetables that you
haven't used in your fridge. Chop them up really small and pop them in. You can
also make a lentil shepherd's pie with all the little bits of veggies you have
left as well. Use root ends of things like Swiss chard to flavour your soups.
Just remember to take them out before the end. Often not knowing what to do
with vegetables can leave them to being wasted because we haven't cooked them
properly or not found a recipe that makes them delicious. Riverford have a
great feature on their Instagram called "veg hacks" where they teach you how to
make dishes from weird things like kohlrabi, kale stalk pesto, whole baked
celeriac and many more. Research is a wonderful tool. Read Braiding Sweet Grass
on indigenous wisdom and plant teachings. This may seem odd but this
book made me understand the idea of reciprocity when it comes to nature and
food, and I haven't wasted a single piece of food since. Support food products that
save waste like Rubies In The Rubble, Rejuce, and many more. By supporting them,
you're supporting industry that hates waste. Use aquafaba or liquid from canned
chickpeas to make meringue or homemade plant-based mayonnaise. Easy as. Link
in the description. And lastly, do your best. We can't all do everything, so
meeting your self where you're at is incredibly important. Choose what works
for you and leave the rest and remember it's not just up to us but also the
supermarkets, our governments, and many more. And that's it! I'll shove loads of
links in the description box. If you have any questions about anything I've
mentioned, please put your questions in the link below. Obviously I wanted to run
through lots and lots of things, so if there is any other things, again leave
your questions in the link below. If you'd like to see a little more of my
content, a little bit more personal, you can head over to my Patreon where I do
things like journal entries, share how I plan videos and research videos and that
whole process, and also I put three additional videos a month on there
as well, so I'll link that in the description if you're interested. And
that's it guys, thank you so much for watching this next hundred series! Make
sure to give it a like if you liked it and are excited for the next one. Thank
you all for you know being here and supporting, I really appreciate it. Share
this video with a friend you think needs it and I'll see you guys next time. Thank
you for watching! Bye.
