Home waste audit. Part 2.

In our last blog post we went over how to perform an at-home waste audit. Now that we know how much waste we’re producing - that many versions of unrecyclable plastic?! - what now? Well, we shift. We change. We adapt. I think that as humans we often forget how good we are at this. It’s pretty much our party trick as a species.

Change is hard, we say. It’s actually not that hard for us. Sure, you may need to schedule more frequent sessions with your therapist when you’re going through a period of change in your life. That’s fine, it’s expected. But that doesn’t mean it’s sooo hard. It means you need support. Needing support is par for the course - something else we seem to have forgotten as a culture, if not as a species.

So, let’s remind ourselves of this amazing thing we already know. Humans are wildly talented at adapting to change. These brains we have with this specific evolution of consciousness make it possible for us to adapt more easily than many other species - and to big changes! So let’s wipe those baby-change-tears from our cheeks and do the thing.

Now that we’ve gotten cozy with our trash, what did we see in there? Buying habits that need to be thrown out as well? I know I did. So, where to start? What eco-friendly routines can we roll out today to help support our planet’s holistic health?

One easy way to cut down on those pesky plastics (and waste in general) is to make your own staples - the stuff that you keep in the house on the reg, and whose packaging is consistently piling up in your garbage bin. So we’re going to kick off this beautiful new life change with 2 recipes for some classic (and healthy!) staples: hummus & crackers. But don’t stop there. What other trashy culprits produced unnecessary packaging in your waste audit that you can make at home instead?

Classic Hummus*

(Yields a nice bowl-full.)

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, peeled

2 cups hydrated chickpeas

1+½ teaspoons kosher salt

⅓ cup tahini

6 tablespoons lemon juice (2 lemons)

2 tablespoons water (in case it’s too thick)

8 dashes hot sauce

Instructions: (I could draw it out into several steps, but there’s really just the one...)

Turn on your food processor fitted with the steel blade & drop the garlic down the feed tube, processing until it’s minced. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor, processing until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste for seasoning. Serve chilled or at room temp.

*This recipe was given to me by mom on a page photocopied from a photocopy from a photocopy of the original recipe. That brings me a lot of joy, so I just wanted to share. On my copy of it, I have tacked the word “Flawless” to the beginning of the title. I imagine you might want to do the same. The flavor and texture have never been matched by a store-bought version IMO.

3 Ingredient Crackers**

(Yields about 40 crackers.)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

⅓ cup + 2-4 tablespoons water

⅓ teaspoon salt

Optional Ingredients:

Sea salt, for topping

Herbs

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine flour & ⅓ cup water in a medium bowl with your hands. Also add the herbs at this point (1 teaspoon per batch of crackers) if you’re using them. Mix until all the flour is wet, adding another teaspoon of water at a time if it’s still too dry.
3. Divide the dough in half & roll each section out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough thin for a crunchy cracker and a little thicker for a chewier cracker.
4. Use a knife to cut the dough into your desired cracker size and poke little holes in each cracker with a fork.
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the crackers, or until they’re medium brown and starting to pull away at the edges.
6. Remove from the oven & enjoy, or let cool & store!

**I found this simple, lovely recipe here.

Photo by Cristiano Pinto on Unsplash