Easy Peasy Plastic-Free(sy)

Let’s face it, when people are asked to describe what a typical “zero waste practitioner” looks like, they might come up with a stereotype that’s pretty common: a pretty and thin Caucasian upper class or upper-middle class college-educated female who is most likely single/vegan/a yoga practitioner/a millennial living in a tiny 200 SF apartment in a large cosmopolitan city like New York or Chicago. When you see the people currently leading the zero waste movement, the majority of them tend to fit one or more of the aforementioned descriptions. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the glaring lack of diversity in this movement is striking to me. Although I love that this well-intentioned movement is catching on like wildfire, it’s not catching on in the communities that could benefit from it the most. As I pore through perfectly curated photos of vegan dishes, eco-friendly recipes, people camping and climbing mountains on Instagram, I can’t help but wonder: where are all the bla...

Happy Monday everyone! I wanted to start this week by sharing a great lip balm recipe. I've always wanted to make my own lip balm but didn't want anything too complicated or with too many obscure ingredients. After some light Googling I came across a pretty simple recipe on Wellness Mama 's website. BTW I really like her website and recommend it as a good go-to for DIY recipes! The recipe on her site is an imitation of Burt's Bees Lip Balm using beeswax, shea butter, coconut oil, and peppermint essential oil. The prep process is similar to the body butter recipe I shared in a previous post: you heat all of the ingredients (except the essential oil) in a double boiler, but add the essential oil afterwards when the mixture is still melted. The recipe recommends using lip chap tubes, but I chose to reutilize mini-jars I have in stock rather than buying more plastic tubes, which I feel is counterproductive to the idea of going zero waste. I poured the mixture into a sili...

Woohoo! First product review! I had been wanting to try out shampoo bars for a while now and have finally decided to give them a try. I was debating between J.R. Liggett's and Ethique, but decided to go with Ethique because they offer a sampler of their products on Amazon. Their shampoos are slightly more expensive but have gotten pretty good reviews. I was so glad that they offer samples of their products for people like me who are on the fence about committing to shampoo bars. A little bit of background: I've been using various brands of liquid shampoos and conditioners my entire life (i.e. Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Dove, etc.) Some worked better than others, but I would still end up with flat, greasy hair within two days of washing it every time (even though I have pretty thick wavy hair). Ironically, I would also end up with a dry, flaky scalp on top of my greasy hair. At one point I even sprung for the $60+ stuff my local fancy salon offered hoping for a miracl...

So, part of my goal towards a zero-waste lifestyle is to cut down on a lot of the pre-packaged foods I buy and attempt homemade recipes for the stuff  I don't really feel like giving up entirely. One of those staple items is BREAD. Honestly, I love my bread. Bread will probably be my ultimate downfall. I love the convenience of whipping up a sandwich any time I don't feel like cooking a whole meal from scratch on a Saturday afternoon. I also like that it's more filling than just eating a salad. However, the majority of bread comes in plastic packaging, unless bought fresh from a bakery. Store-bought, pre-packaged bread also comes with a lot of other not-so-great stuff, like added preservatives and sugar. I decided to peruse Pinterest in the hopes of finding a great bread recipe and I came across this one and decided to give it a try. The recipe uses ONLY 4 INGREDIENTS that you can find in any pantry which I love, with the only novelty item being a deep cast iron pan and...

A while ago, I had heard about this thing called the "Zero Waste Movement " that sparked my interest. Since I'm a busy mom of a toddler and infant, my time is scarce and I wanted to look for recipes and products that were earth-friendly but not a pain in the butt to create or use. I figured the easiest place to start would be with personal care products (soaps, shampoos, etc.) I stumbled upon this recipe on Lauren Singer's 'Trash is for Tossers' blog and decided to give it a try. It's basically equal parts raw shea butter, raw cocoa butter, coconut oil, and almond oil melted together in a double boiler, refrigerated, then whipped into a body butter (add it a few drops of scented essential oil if preferred). Sounds simple, right? Actually, yes, it was REALLY FREAKING SIMPLE. Once I had the ingredients in hand, I was surprised at how well it turned out and how fast it was to make! I slightly increased the ratio of shea/cocoa butter to oils after tinkerin...