“SEAL”ING THE EVIDENCE!

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tips!

When it comes to helping the environment and the kitchen, you can do many things. In order to “Seal” the evidence, with regards to ensuring you are helping the environment, you can ensure the “Seal’s” of your fridge and freezer, are left good condition. By doing so, you are helping to reduce your power and electricity bill, minimise the time it takes to cool down and freeze your food, along with helping the environment by reducing wasted food and electricity.

Other tips you can use to save energy in the kitchen include:

• Try to minimise the amount of times you open and shut your fridge and freezer.
• Load your dishwasher completely, before turning it on. Use the Eco cycle on your dishwasher, if you have that option.
• Don’t place your refrigerator near sunny spots. If you do, you will use more energy keeping your fridge cool.

There are many more energy-efficient tips, however, this will do for now.

I hope this post gets your “Seal” of approval!

Have fun in the Kitchen!

Karina x

Copyright © 2015 by Karina Teuma

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The Light ‘Bulb’ Moment!

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

There are many light ‘bulb’ moments in life, however, pay attention to this particular ‘bulb.’ All you need to do, in order to grow garlic, is the following:

1/ Buy some garlic bulbs.

2/ Reserve a few individual garlic cloves, allowing them to sprout from the top, as (photographed by myself above).

3/ Once the garlic clove has sprouted, it is ready to plant, precisely how it looks in the picture above. You’ll need a pot, some regular soil from your garden and/or from your lawn. You’ll also need to mix about a quarter of the soil with all-purpose premium compost. With the compost, you can either buy this by the bag from your local farmer, nursery or supermarket. If you really want to be green, you can make your own compost, by depositing vegetable scraps into your soil or canister, then mixing this up with the rest of your soil.

4/ Completely fill your chosen pot with this nutrient-rich soil mixture.

5/ Plant the individual garlic clove in this pot, ensuring you only allow the green shoot (at the top of the clove) to protrude.

6/ Water well, to allow the garlic clove to settle in well.

7/ Place and keep your pot out in part sun and part shade. Near a fence would be great.

8/ Every few days, monitor for signs of new green growth.

9/ Water your garlic plant every 2 days and allow to grow.

10/ Your garlic is ready to be harvested, when half the leaves are dead and half are green.

11/ Don’t water the plant at this stage (for approximately 9 days), as you want to prevent the garlic plant from rotting.

12/ After your garlic plant has dried a little (after waiting approximately 9 days), you are ready to pluck this straight out of the ground. Do this, by grabbing at the base of the garlic plant, to prevent breakage.

Have fun in the garden and the kitchen!

Enjoy!

Karina x

Copyright © 2015 by Karina Teuma

Food for Thought!

Food for Thought!

Food for Thought!

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

Most poor countries are great at using every part of the animal in their cooking, along with eliminating any probability of waste. The issue resides in wealthier countries discarding perfectly good food, straight into the bin. Food waste directly impacts the environment in many ways.

According to www.foodwise.com.au, “Australians discard up to 20% of the food they purchase!” Do you know what this extra 20% of waste would have costed the average Australian six months worth of your electricity bill! According to www.foodwise.com.au, out of the “8 Billion Dollars” Australians waste on food every year, “33% of fresh food is wasted and 27% of leftovers are wasted.”

There is also a waste problem in other wealthier countries such as America. According to www.earthshare.org, “40% of our food ends up in the trash instead of our stomachs.”

I’m picking up on a pattern here! People aren’t using their leftovers! Let’s start using our leftovers so we can save money and protect the environment! Now, that’s a win-win situation! An example of when I used leftovers on my blog, was when I made that beetroot salad. Since there were leftovers of the beetroot salad, I whizzed this beetroot salad up to make a dip! Now, this is a classic example of saving money and protecting the environment!

Let’s hope this really is food for thought!

Enjoy!

Karina x

Liebster Award!

Thank you, Lola, for nominating my blog “FOOD IS LIFE!” for the Liebster Award! 

I think Lola’s blog is great also! Everyone, Lola’s blog is found at: https://hushlola.wordpress.com

Receiving lovely posts on my blog, regarding my cooking tips, safety tips, environment tips and recipes, has kept a smile on my face and kept my passion for cooking alive.

I have answered Lola’s questions for me, as per below:

1. Do you remember your dreams? And if so, what is your most vivid?

I remember many of my dreams. The most vivid childhood dream would be where I had a dream of how lollies and chocolate bullets were falling from the sky, in the form of rain. All the houses were made from musk sticks, lollies, chocolate, gingerbread and other wonderful sweets. The dogs in the neighbourhood were made out of chocolate- liquorice bullets. I then snapped a dogs tail off, in an effort to eat this divine chocolate- liquorice bullet. It began raining lollies again, when I woke up with my hands in the air, feeling disappointed that it was only a dream 🙂

2. When did you last laugh and what/who at?

I laughed today with how someone imitated a good-luck kitty statue, whilst knocking on the door.

3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Right where I am now: in Sydney, Australia!

4. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

Firstly, I will buy heaps of houses and use that rental income to fund my overseas trips around the world! Then, I’ll buy a really lovely Italian convertible car!

5. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?

I wouldn’t change anything, as the world is not designed to be perfect.

6. Are you listening to music right now? If so, what is it?

Nope.

7. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?

It depends on the morning 🙂

8. Is the glass half empty or half full? Explain.

It depends on my thoughts for the day, however, generally speaking, the glass is half full.

9. What’s under your bed?

Nothing

10. What do you do most when you are bored?

I love to cook, despite whether I’m bored or not. I also love to watch cooking videos (I don’t do this often), bush walk for fun and go food shopping!

11. How are you feeling right now?

Super happy that I will have a four-day Easter Long Weekend!

The following are 11 additional facts about myself:

– I made my first pizza when I was 5, although there was a big whole in the middle of it 🙂

– I love cooking and educating people about food 🙂

– I used to be a TV editor, whereby, I would bleep out Gordan Ramsay’s swearing 🙂

– I have met some famous chefs, which I am immensely happy about 🙂

– I lived and worked in South Korea as a teacher

– I work in the Health, Safety and Environment profession

– I am creative

– I smile easily

– I laugh easily

– I have swam with seven whale sharks in one day (measuring 18 or so metres long!)

– I am very adventurous and am proud of my adventures.

In no particular order, the 11 blogs I nominate for the Liebster award are (sorry if I sometimes nominated above the 200-follower limit and sorry if a couple of these have already been nominated previously):

– India Travel Diaries: https://indiatraveldiaries.wordpress.com

– Captain Coriander: https://operationgoodfood.wordpress.com

– Bake Sales Are My Bitch: https://bakesalesaremybitch.wordpress.com

– Avocado Alice: https://avocadoalice.wordpress.com

– Baja Moto Quest: http://bajamotoquest.com

– The Food On Spot: http://thefoodonspot.com

– Cooking Without Limits: https://cookingwithoutlimits.wordpress.com

– Natural Groove Gal: https://naturalgroovegal.wordpress.com

– Artlessly Fit: http://artlesslyfit.com

– A Year in the Provinces: https://ayearintheprovinces.wordpress.com

– Not By The Harvest: https://notbytheharvest.wordpress.com

N.B. There are many more blogs I would love to nominate. If I haven’t chosen yours, it’s probably because I am only allowed to nominate 11 blogs. Keep up the great work everyone!

The 11 questions I have for the 11 nominated bloggers to answer, are:

1. What is your favourite pastime?
2. If you were free as a bird and money was no object, what would you be doing right now?
3. What thing/s make you the most happy?
4. What is your favourite genre of film?
5. What is/are your favourite food/s and drink/s?
6. Have you travelled? If so, what was your favourite country?
7. What makes you feel most proud?
8. If you were to be an animal, which animal would you be and why?
9. Can you remember your childhood? If so, what is your favourite childhood memory?
10. If you were to look into your future, what type of Grandma or Grandpa would you be? i.e. Young at heart, daredevil, laid back, etc
11. What is your greatest strength?

My rules for the nominated bloggers are:

– Nominate 10 blogs with under 150 followers, then notify the bloggers via their Blogs, Facebook or other social media stating that they have been nominated.

– Thank the blogger, then post the link of the Blog that nominated you.

– Answer my 11 questions.

– Share 10 facts about yourself to your followers and readers.

– Make your own rules for your 10 nominated bloggers, or use my rules on them.

Enjoy!

Karina x

‘Veg’-etating!

Eat Better, Environment, FAMILY, Food, Food Ritual, fresh, gardening, Healthy, Kids, vegetables, zerotohero

via ‘Veg’-etating!

‘Veg’-etating!

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

Why ‘veg’-etate, when you can start your own vegetable garden!

There are soo many benefits of having your own vegetable garden and even more benefits, if you start from seed!

Some benefits of growing your own vegetable garden, include:

– You save money by not having to buy your own vegetables

– You will improve your family’s health

– You will help the environment, by not having to drive to the grocery store to buy your vegetables

– Your food will taste better and be better for you, since it would be incredibly fresh

– You can trust where your food came from, since you grew it yourself

– Growing vegetables is much easier than it sounds and will give you great pride, joy and a strong sense of accomplishment!

By growing your own vegetable garden, you are teaching kids where food originates from. This is what this world needs: more children learning about good, natural and nutritious food. Besides, you’ll get to see how happy kids get, when one of their seeds they planted, turns into a vegetable! Once your kids grow into adults, then have kids of their own, they will then be able to pass down this sacred food ritual to their kids too. Now, this is what awesomeness is made from!

You don’t need heaps of land to grow a vegetable garden. All you need is a lovely garden bed in your backyard, which will maximise space, create depth and retain nutrients for your vegetables. Now, theres no point ‘vegetating,’ is there? Sorry, my ‘Dad jokes’ are terrible 🙂

One way to get kids to start gardening, would be to make your own garden bed and then have your kids help you plant seeds. If you don’t have a garden at all, fear not: you can make a garden bed for your balcony or porch! Let’s maximise space people and have fun at the same time 🙂

Now, let’s stop ‘veg-etating’ and start gardening!

You will be incredibly proud of what you have planted from seed!

Enjoy!

Karina x