Hi Honeys,
How are you today? It's been a quiet, calm day here, mostly trying to recover from the past two days spent mostly catching up with laundry. I make it a rule to do at least one load of laundry each morning and that usually manages to stop it from becoming a pile I can lose our furbaby Jade in 😃
As you might know honeys, I work retail over the weekend so always have a bit of catching up to do on a Monday and Tuesday but this past weekend was the end of the month, always a busy time in retail, and I was just so drained it took me longer than usual to catch up.
While Jade is having a nap next to me on the sofa, I thought we could chat about some simple little swaps we've been making, including the latest two which I could kick myself for not knowing about sooner!
For quite a while now we've been trying to live a healthier, more sustainable life and while most of the changes we've made are small tweaks, replacing disposable things with reusable items instead for instance, it's been fun finding new, less wasteful ways to do the things that we do everyday.
Why not go grab a cuppa then honeys and meet me back here, after the page break (press the link) and I'll share what we've done so far and also those two latest tweaks I mentioned. See you in a few minutes....
Welcome back honeys, do you have your cuppa? Cool, me too ☕ Why not get comfy and put your feet up and we can take a look at a few of the simple swaps we've made so far in our home...
Glass Replaces Plastic...
Late last spring I'd read online about the dangers of chemicals leaching into food when microwaved in plastic containers. This, to put it very mildly, scared me senseless because I send Hubby to work with a proper, sit down lunch each day.
This means that he often uses a microwave in the office to heat up his yummy lunch and, yes honeys, you guessed it, he used to transport his lunch to the office in those clip and lock plastic containers!
Well, you can just guess how long it took me to go looking for replacements after that scary bombshell dropped. Luckily, I actually spotted what looked like identical containers to the ones Hubby had been using, complete with those clip and lock, airtight lids, only... they were glass.
Joy! I quickly ordered three of them, two 600ml square containers, same size as Hubby's now unusable lunch containers, and one of the larger 1 litre size. This was also a great opportunity to try out Ikea's smaller item home delivery service.
They arrived and were beyond perfect! Perfect size, lockable lids and made from a good quality, heavy glass...
Over the course of another few home deliveries, we built up a small collection of these fabulous glass containers in different sizes and shapes and then something wonderful happened.
I discovered that the lovely, fresh, crispy salads we love so much would keep so well in the fridge in these airtight, glass containers that the salad was just as fresh and delicious on a Friday as it was when I made them on the Sunday before!
The Joys of Meal Prepping...
I had discovered meal prepping Hubby could go to the fridge every morning and find his lovely salad waiting for him. Into his lunch bag went his fresh salad and he'd also add a little container of cooked chicken, or tuna in mayonnaise or whatever else he wanted. All prepared on a Sunday for the week ahead. I had discovered meal prepping lunches, it was life changing and I loved it honeys. 💖
The glass containers of lovely, crunchy salad were soon joined in the fridge by lots of these little glass jars...
The jars, spotted in Poundland being sold in sets of three, are intended to be used to store homemade jams and marmalade but they're the perfect size to add a little fruit to, and then to top up with lovely, creamy yogurt. A little additional treat for Hubby to take to work with him each day and far healthier than a mid morning trip to a vending machine for a bar of chocolate.
Creating A Meal Prepping Station...
Over time we've replaced all of the plastic in our kitchen with glassware and I'm still loving meal prepping. The glassware, along with the little glass jars (the yogurt and fruit idea was such a hit we invested in more of them) and our most often used utensils all live in two pretty little trolleys...
They're my meal prepping stations, one of them, with it's bamboo worktop, acts as an island and allows me to sit down while I work. This is such a blessing since I suffer from extreme pain in my spine from osteoarthritis and having all of the glassware right where I need it while working on salads or anything else is just wonderful.
Of all of the plus points in favour of meal prepping, and there are so many, it's helping us to eat far healthier than we did. A planned snack is a healthy snack, dear ones. No more mindlessly munching on a chocolate bar just because you feel a little peckish. Why would you, when there's something delicious waiting in the fridge 😋
Of course, meal prepping also means there's less waste too. Who wants to order a take away dinner when there are lots of your favourite scrumptious meals waiting in the freezer? Meals can be planned to take account of "use by" dates too.
So, less money wasted on takeaways, less food wasted because you haven't gotten around to eating it before it "goes off" and the fun of finding recipes that use up whatever ingredients you have on hand. It's definitely a win-win.
Saying No To Single Use Plastic...
As we all know by now honeys, single use plastic is polluting our oceans and beaches, it's causing so much suffering to sea life and if our precious wee world is to have a future, it simply has to stop.
The thing is, there are already so, so many alternatives to these one-use-and-it's-binned items. So many ways to avoid adding to the poisonous, ever growing mountain of needlessly produced items destined to be used only once and then just discarded to end up in landfill or in the oceans.
Let's Skip The Packaging When We Can...
Do you hate packaging as much as I do? One of the best ways to avoid taking home all of the packaging that's used to contain fruit and veg in the produce aisle is to buy items individually.
No dear ones, I don't mean make six trips into the store, all in different disguises, buying a single apple each time (even if that does sound like a fun way to spend an hour or so....) I meant to choose each of your six apples from the loose selection available and to place them into a reusable produce bag you've brought to the store with you, along with your reusable grocery bags of course.
I really love our little mesh produce bags. They allow you to pick and choose your fruit or vegetables, avoiding those slightly "iffy" specimens that seem to just "go off" too fast. Why oh why do so many packs of fruit have (at least one) piece in them that pretty much has to be binned as you're unpacking your groceries?
Loose fruit and veggies also tend to cost less than the packaged versions too so not only does it allow you to avoid food waste, you can also save money on your food budget! Why buy a pre-packed package of 6 apples if 4 is all you need?
Of course you don't have to keep these great little bags only for fruit and vegetables. Why not bring one to put bread or rolls in from the bakery counter and say "no, thank you" to their offered bag?
Silicone - I'm A Fan!
"Silicone, Rosie?" I hear you say honeys. Yes, dear ones, silicone. I'll add some links at the end of this post if you want to find out a little more about silicone and why it's such a boon in your kitchen and in other places. As choices go, it's certainly a great improvement on plastic.
Silicone items are also very long lasting, so they make a fabulous replacement for every day kitchen items, generally made from single use plastics, such as...
Straws
There are no words for how awesome these silicone straws are and how much they've helped me. I need to use a straw honeys. I'm not being cute or adorable when I'm using a straw it's because, for as long as I can remember, even as a child, I've suffered from involuntary muscle spasms that close my airway, leaving me struggling to breathe. I've always known this will probably be how I'll die. One of these days, I simply won't be able to get my breathing to start again.
For this reason, I use a straw. I can control the amount I drink and I feel safer using a straw. Now one of the biggest problems with plastic pollution in the seas has been the countless single use straws being washed out into the oceans. I understand that, I hate that it's happening so I needed another solution that would let me drink without... well.... drowning. Sort of.
I tried paper straws but they're useless and fall apart far too easily, and what I wanted was something reusable, something that would last. I've heard horror stories about the metal ones, although many prefer them, and then I discovered these silicone straws 😍
They were supplied in a set of eight, in two different sizes. There are four normal sized straws and the other four are large enough to drink smoothies with. They are also supplied with their own travelling pouch and two cleaning brushes to keep them clean.
I can fold one into a small pouch and take it with me in my handbag or in my lunch bag to work. Now I don't have to worry about not having a straw because so many places simply don't offer them anymore, which is as it should be, but it's a little scary if you're a little Rosie who's scared to drink without one.
Folding Travel Cup
I use this little folding cup whenever I'm away from home honeys. As fellow spoonies might understand, some of my medication is effervescent, that is to say it dissolves in water and if I'm at work, this little cup means I don't have to use a plastic or paper cup from the break room to take my medication. Again, less waste.
The cup folds up so small that it all fits into the lid too so it doesn't take up much space in my handbag or lunch bag. Whoever designed this little cup, thank you 💖
Reusable Food Bags
You might remember honeys how excited I was recently to spot these reusable bags, intended to replace plastic zip lock bags in the kitchen?
They seem to be good quality and can work well in the freezer. I was disappointed though to find that they can't go straight from the freezer into the oven as the more expensive versions can. The "slider" which is placed across the top of the bag to seal it would melt in the oven because it is, disappointingly, made of plastic.
The bags are made of a very heavy, food grade silicone though and if just used in the freezer will, I think, last a very long time. So, having discovered that Poundland have reduced them to £1 each, we bought two more of them...
Do you remember our smoothie bags honeys? All created ahead of time and having their own dedicated drawer in our freezer? As I type this, it occurs to me that these bags may be perfect to store our smoothie mixes in... I think I'll need a few more of these bags😃
Reusable Baking Mats
Remember earlier when I mentioned there were two latest "tweaks" to our kitchenware I was most excited about? This is the first of those tweaks and might actually be one of the best products ever to come into our kitchen! Lofty praise indeed, I know, but so worth it!
No more baking parchment or buying countless rolls of aluminium (tin) foil in this house! I'd spotted these on Amazon and the reviews sounded positive so I ordered a set. They were in fact so, so good I immediately ordered another set.
Each set of three mats includes two large mats, sized at 16.5 inches by 11.5 inches (42cm by 30cm) and one of the smaller green mats, 9 inches by 13 inches (23cm by 33cm) in size. We've been using them to line our baking trays when baking anything from a chicken and vegetable tray bake to cooking homemade potato wedges and absolutely nothing sticks! I don't know what I did without them. As I said honeys, no more tin foil for this little Rosie 💖
Anyone For (Very Healthy) Homemade Doughnuts?
Do you love doughnuts as much as we do? I know they say that everything in moderation is fine but for anyone trying to live a healthier life, well, deep fried and then sugar coated anything just can't be a good choice, can it?
Having been diagnosed as just on the edge of being diabetic a year ago, I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't ever be in the company of a doughnut again. Then I saw these brightly coloured, spark-of-genius, silicone baking moulds, designed to make perfectly heavenly and perfectly healthy doughnuts...
Yep, you heard me, dear ones. I said perfectly healthy doughnuts 🍩 "How do you make a doughnut healthy Rosie?" I hear you ask.
Well, you bake them instead of deep frying and for extra healthiness bonus points... skip the sugar and make a sugar free version using Stevia. You can find all of the details, and the recipe here. Enjoy dear ones 💖
I adore baking with silicone, and we've gathered quite a collection of everything from muffin trays to a very large cake mould in the shape of a Dalek. Hubby is a Whovian you see. He's a dyed-in-the-wool, lifelong fan of Doctor Who, so we have any number of Who related items dotted around the house... even in the kitchen 😊
The extremely yummy lemon sponge buns in the image above were baked by Hubby himself using silicone bun moulds that form the raised Who characters on their tops. He then placed them into paper cases, all with Daleks printed on them of course 😊
Silicone baking items, such as muffin cases, are incredibly easy to bake with primarily because whatever you bake rarely sticks and of course they can be re-used over and over again.
Who Needs Paper Towels...
You know those dozens of spills, drips and splashes that happen every day when we all reach for paper towels to clean up the mess honeys? All that paper wasted, poor wee trees cut down.
Want to take another item off your grocery/shopping list? We have, by swapping from paper towels to micro fibre cloths...
These useful little squares are perfect for so, so many jobs around the house and if you do have a spill they soak it up in no time. Then straight over the sink, give it a quick rinse out and throw it into the washing machine with the next load of laundry.
They're so inexpensive too. Most pound/dollar stores will have packs of three or four cloths for £1 or $1, and it feels like they last forever. We still have some in the kitchen we've had for over 4 years and they're still going strong.
Each cloth is around 12 inches (or 30cm) square and make great replacements for paper napkins too. Why use paper napkins at work when you can pack a little brightly patterned micro fibre cloth in with your lunch?
Our little squares have their own home in the kitchen, just behind the kitchen door in a wall mounted, three basket storage system that keeps them to hand whenever needed. I wouldn't be without them now and would never go back to using paper again.
Reusable Beeswax Wraps
Our very latest tweak honeys and I'm so excited to try this. I've only just gotten this in the mail so I haven't had a chance to try it out yet but I've read so much about them online and if it knocks another item, cling film, off my shopping list forever it's definitely a winner 😊
Beeswax wraps are essentially pieces of cotton fabric with a coating of beeswax covering them. The fabric pieces can be small, medium or large in size to suit which ever task they're to be used for, just like the cling film it's replacing but much, much less harmful to the environment.
My first piece of beeswax wrap arrived beautifully packaged in a paper envelope style packaging, tied with a piece of string and a little wooden button.
When unfolded the wrap measures 12 inches by 10 inches (30 by 25 cm) and can be cut into smaller pieces if needed. It said on the listing on Amazon that patterns were randomly chosen and of all of the gorgeous patterns they have, they sent me the penguin design 😍
Isn't it adorable honeys? I just love it 😊 I have a collection of penguins🐧 going back so many years, including a 5 foot tall, inflatable chap I named Percy🐧 sent to me from Taronga Zoo in Sydney as a gift by a much loved friend many years ago💖
These pretty wraps can be used to replace not only cling film but also tin foil too in wrapping items to store in the fridge or for packed lunches. They can be wrapped around sandwiches or lunch items such as grapes or berries and mould into shape from the heat from your hands when you fold them around whatever is being wrapped.
They can't be used in the oven or microwave or anywhere else they'd be exposed to heat though because obviously the wax would melt. According to the directions on the back of the packaging, these wraps are a zero waste product too since the cotton is biodegradable.
Caring for them sounds like it will very easy too. The directions suggest they are given a wipe down with a cold, damp cloth and are allowed to air dry. I'm looking forward to trying out this little wrap and maybe buying a few more.
DIY Beeswax Wraps
I might actually try to make a few of these little wraps too at some point. There are so many tutorials on Youtube and on Pinterest and the pure beeswax used to coat them is available to buy quite easily too in places like health shops. The beeswax can also be used to re-new your existing wraps too and so increase their lifespan.
Interesting Links
Silicone: The Plastic Alternative How silicone can be a great help in living a sustainable life, from EarthHero Blog.
Are silicone products sustainable and eco friendly? Lots of information, and answers, from MindsetEco, take a coffee with you honeys, this site is fascinating, lots to read.
Going Zero Waste is a blog by Kathryn Kellogg and well worth visiting. Take a cuppa honeys, it's a fabulous site and with lots to read.
Zero Waste Scotland is a Government site with lots of information on the Scottish Govt's initiatives including trying to cut food waste by 33% by 2025, again, lots to read.
Pebble Mag has an article here listing 50 brands to help us aim to be zero waste.
Over to you honeys, do you have any tips to share? What changes have you made to try to live a little healthier or a little more sustain-ably? Thank you so much for visiting and for keeping me company 💖 Till next time dear ones, smiles lots and hug even more, huggles always x
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