Sustainable Kitchen Hacks
Hey earth-loving eco pal!
Did you know that one of the easiest places to reduce your carbon footprint is in the kitchen? Between mindful food storage, proactive meal planning, and creative food scrap repurposing, you can massively minimize the waste that your home produces. You’ll also save money, increase your nutrient intake, reorganize and declutter your storage, and perhaps rediscover the joy of experimenting and regenerating produce in the kitchen! Read on for some of my top tips and/or watch my YouTube video that I linked up below.
Here’s the (big) deal. If food waste was a nation, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Globally, we throw away 30-40% of the food we produce (valued at $165 billion annually). This is not only disastrous when we think about global food security and how many individuals around the world go to sleep hungry or die of malnutrition-related diseases, but also the environmental impact associated with growing and shipping food that just goes to waste!
The good news is, some of this waste happens at the consumer level. While there are many systemic factors out of our control, we CAN work to adopt small, sustainable habits to reduce our personal food waste by using all the food we buy and getting savvy to keep produce fresher, longer.
As with everything, progress > perfection. You don’t have to jump to 100% zero-waste overnight, but commit to making incremental changes consistently. Maybe you’ll tackle one tip at a time, or maybe you’ll do a massive 24 hour overhaul. You do you! (and don’t forget to tag me on social @oylwithme so I can see your progress). Celebrate the little wins along the way. Let’s make this fun!
First, watch my youtube video for some rapid-fire easy sustainable kitchen hacks!
Let’s get organized, reduce waste, and save money. 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
Shop Eco-Friendly
Before we get to storing and using our food purchases, let’s make sure we are shopping consciously and responsibly.
Meal plan and prep to avoid over-shopping or getting too excited about a new veggie at the farmers market without a plan to use it before it spoils! Bookmark recipes and curate a specific grocery list so you don’t go wild (as I often do) once you get to WholeFoods! (p.s. try to avoid shopping hungry, that’s when I do the most over-shopping damage!)
Cook in bulk and store things correctly (more on that in a bit) to save yourself time and make sure you use all of the perishables you buy! #moreplantslesswaste
Cut down on the use of plastic bags at the grocery store. Instead of using the single-use plastic produce bags they offer, use cloth/mesh bags that can be used and washed thousands of times. I link up all my favourite reusables below!
Finally, ALWAYS Think about where and what you’re buying! Stay as seasonal and local as possible to minimize the food miles that your veggies travel to get to your plate. If it’s available to you, shop at local farmers market to support your community economy and make sure you’re getting the freshest, most nourishing produce. A CSA (community supported agriculture) share is also a fab option!
P.S. Consider ugly produce that still taste great (look up Imperfect Foods delivery).
Stick with climate-friendly foods! Watch my ‘climatarian’ videos to learn more about the foods that are best for the planet. Hint: they’re plant-based ;)
So Fresh, So Clean.
Here are a couple of ways (many mentioned in the video above) that I store my fresh foods to make sure they stay organized, fresh, and easy to use.
Keep fridge temperature at the recommended 38 degrees.
For humidity drawers, keep foods that rot in low humidity and foods that wilt in high humidity.
Low: ripe avocados, tomatoes, apples, etc.
High: spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc.
Store asparagus and herbs like cilantro and parsley with the stems in water (as you would with fresh cut flowers). I often repurpose an empty pasta sauce jar.
When your herbs are starting to go off, preemptively freeze them in ice-cube trays. They can be de-thawed and utilized, or they make a great addition to an herbal iced tea.
Store carrots, celery, and radishes submerged in water and sealed in a glasslock or mason jar. This ‘greensaver’ reusable container is one of my favourites!
Use sealed mason jars (and a grab an old-school label maker) to organize and store nuts, powders, oats, and flours in the fridge for optimal freshness (and you can easily see how much is left so you don’t accidentally over-purchase!)
Eco-Friendly Food Storage:
Now we know how to make sure our food lasts longer, now here are some ways to reduce the amount of plastic you use for storage.
Beeswax Food Storage Wrap a super easy swap for single-use (toxic!) plastic cling wrap.
My favourite ‘Stasher’ reusable silicone bags to replace disposable ziplock bags.
Food huggers can be used to save half of your onion or avocado, or to cover a bowl of leftovers instead of plastic wrap or foil.
A set of mason jars are SO handy for storing anything in the kitchen, from leftover soup to your superfood powders and bulk items. You can also start to save empty glass jars from your olives, sauces, nut butters. (hint: a drop of lemon essential oil is a great hack for removing the adhesive labels.)
Finally, when you’re shopping, make sure you bring your reusable produce and shopping bags! The average lifecycle of a single-use plastic grocery bag is 11 minutes before it’s thrown away into a landfill — how depressing and easy to avoid!
Up Your Food Scrap + Compost Game
When we are cooking up a storm, some food scrap waste is inevitable. We can either USE THEM or COMPOST them.
USING FOOD SCRAPS —
For veggies that are about to go off, use them to make sauces like salsa verdes (filled with blitzed greens and herbs), romesco (made up of nightshades like bell peppers, tomatoes or eggplant), and flavored hummus or bean dips (butternut squash makes a great base). The fat and acid in each helps these sauces hold up longer in the fridge, and they can be easily frozen as well.
You can also make a pesto out of just about anything. Carrot top pesto, avocado pesto, broccoli stem pesto, spinach pesto...just add any nuts or seeds you have on hand (such as hemp or pumpkin seeds), nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon.
Same goes for making veggie broth with your veggie scraps! Super easy. When you’re cooking, keep a bin for stems, seeds, tops, leaves and then add those to a pan of boiling water. I use my veggie broth for stir fries, soups, and more!
Leftover broccoli stalks or cauliflower stems chopped into rounds are also great ways to add extra fiber to your stir fry or smoothie.
Trying to get rid of those two-week-old, slightly droopy radishes in the back of the fridge? Whip up quick pickles. Slice the vegetables thinly and toss with salt and vinegar. They are delicious on a veggie sandwich or as a garnish on a rice bowl.
Did you know veggies and herbs can regenerate?! I’ve had a scallion growing in my fridge for months! Regenerate your most-used vegetables, like romaine lettuce or spring onions, by soaking them in water. Save seeds from squash or the root bulbs from onions and regrow them by sprouting them and replanting them in a small container.
Save citrus peels and submerge them in vinegar to make an all-purpose cleaner. With your essential oils, of course!
COMPOSTING 101 —
The most sustainable thing you can do in your kitchen is give back to mother earth. Keep a compost bin (linked my fav!) under your sink or by your trash can. You can also store compost bags of food in the freezer. Depending on where you live, you’ll have to do your research. Does your town offer a compost pick-up? Do you have space in your backyard that’s begging for an at-home garden that uses your compost? Do you have access to a local farmer’s market that usually accepts compost drop-offs? When I lived in NYC in a tiny apartment that couldn’t fit my compost dreams, I’d freeze my food scraps and drop them off at the Union Square Farmer’s Market. In Boston, I use a compost service called Bootstrap Compost.
Start small with what feels manageable to you!
