SOMETHING TO “BAG” OUT!

December 23, 2015Leave a comment

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

There are many things you can ‘bag’ out, or criticise, in regards to real sustainable eating practices within the world. When it comes to food shopping, however, one way to not be ‘bag’ged out, would be to use a recyclable bag! This way, you don’t need to waste precious plastic bags every time you shop. You’re also doing your bit to help the environment.

Other sustainable practices include:

Cutting down on waste by buying fresh, unwrapped produce.
Avoid buying products with excessive packaging
Reuse all you can, e.g. grocery bags and glass jars
Recycle all you can, e.g. cardboard, paper and acceptable plastics from food products

Enjoy!

Karina x

HOW HAVE YOU “BEAN”?

October 21, 20152 Comments

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tips!

Above is a photo I took today of one of my many vegetables I’m growing at the moment: Beans. Since I’ve been gardening a lot lately, I can say with confidence, that I have “bean” great! How have you “bean”?

I would like to share some of my sustainable gardening tips for happy vegetables and an even happier planet, as below:

Use natural bamboo (as above) to use as a natural plant support framework, for when the plants would like to crawl up structures in order to grow. I have used natural bamboo grown over my neighbours fence, which had become a bit of a weed. Instead of buying plastic stalks, help the planet and your budget, by using natural bamboo.
If you don’t have access to natural bamboo, use any dead branch you may find which has fallen from trees. This will also help the planet and your budget, by using natural branches.
If you don’t have enough space in your backyard to have a garden, nor a few pots around your dwelling, then you can always join a community garden. You will receive similar benefits of growing your own vegetables, along with meeting like-minded green-thumbs. Win-win!
Try to take full advantage of your plants natural climbing abilities and try not to use garden ties, unless the plant needs them. By using either bamboo or dead tree branches, this will help the planet, your budget and your time 🙂

Have fun in the garden!

Enjoy!

Karina x

YOU “GOAT” TO BE “KIDDING” ME!

September 15, 2015September 15, 20156 Comments

Karina’s Healthy Cooking Tip!

Above is a picture of the mother and father goat, along with their “kid,” who was born only one week ago. This was a proud moment for the “kids” parents.

There are many benefits of raising your kids around farm animals you have bred. Too many to mention! The below is a small list of some of the benefits of raising your kids up with other “kids” and farm animals alike:

Reduces the amount of waste if you do decide that your livestock will be on your plate one day
Educates your kids about where your food came from
Encourages your family to eat more sustainably
Gives your kids a sense of pride, with raising their own farm animals
Helps your kids appreciate food more
Animals are a natural stress relief for humans

Enjoy!

Karina x

‘Rice’ To The Occasion!

August 2, 20158 Comments

Karina’s Low-Gi and High Protein Fried Rice!

Ingredients:

– 1 1/2 cups of brown rice

– 350 g chicken thai fillet, fat removed, then cubed small

– 1 tablespoon of sesame oil

– 1 1/2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce

– 1 1/2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce

– 1 1/2 tablespoons of oyster sauce

– 2 cloves of garlic, minced finely

– 2 shallots, chopped roughly

Method:

Grab a medium-sized pot, then pour water into it, until it reaches 3/4 of the way with water. Place the lid on your pot. Turn the heat to ‘high,’ then bring this water to a boil. Once the water has boiled, remove the lid and stir in 1 1/2 cups of brown rice. Turn the heat to ‘medium,’ then cook, stirring occasionally, for 35 minutes. Once your rice has cooked, turn the heat to ‘off,’ then drain your rice, and return your rice to your pot.

Place the rest of your ingredients, except for the shallots, all together in that pot, along with your brown rice, then cook on ‘low,’ for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken has cooked. Make sure you stir your rice every few seconds, to prevent it from burning.

Once your chicken has cooked, add your shallots, then cook for one minute only. Stir occasionally. Once your shallots have cooked slightly, turn the heat to ‘off.’

Compiling the Beauty:

‘Rice’ to the occasion, by piling your rice in your bowl. Simple 🙂

Enjoy!

Karina x

Serves 3

The Light ‘Bulb’ Moment!

July 29, 2015July 29, 201516 Comments

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

Not Letting Food Go To ‘Waist!’

July 15, 201516 Comments

Nathalie’s Healthy Cooking Tip!

My Mum, Nathalie, has taught me heaps about healthy cooking, which is why this post is dedicated to her. Every time my Mum cooks, it is healthy and full of flavour. With the right amount of ingredients, you really don’t need all this fat in cooking. My Mum has many great ideas, with regards to healthy cooking, however, I will just touch on a few of the main ones.

Make a habit of removing all the skin of chicken, prior to cooking it, in order to eat more healthy. Skin is full of fat, which may make your food go to your ‘waist’ i.e. don’t let food go to ‘waist.’ (Nathalie’s Cooking Tip)

Whilst cooking or frying food in a pan, it is advisable to only put the smallest amount of oil required to cook your food. Olive oil is one of the best oils to use, if you would be using oil. Better still, steam or boil your vegetables, rather than frying them, unless you’re attentively watching the fat content in your fry pan. (Nathalie’s Cooking Tip)

Whilst baking, use fruits in order to naturally sweeten your bakes. This way, your bakes will still taste great and will also taste sweet from the natural sugars coming out of the fruit. (Nathalie’s Cooking Tip)

Try to use as little butter as possible in your baking and cooking. Try to replace butter with olive oil or another healthy cooking oil. Your bakes and cooking will still taste great, with nowhere near as much saturated fat contained in your cooking. If the recipe really needs butter, try replacing at least 3/4 of the butter for olive oil, then put the rest butter. Alternatively, you can experiment by using olive oil spread, which still has less saturated fat than butter. (Karina’s Cooking Tip)

Whenever you make a pasta dish, try to avoid cooking white sauces, as these are usually high in saturated fat. If you really would like to use a white sauce, then make your own and use low-fat cheese, low-fat milk and olive oil spread instead of butter. (Karina’s Cooking Tip)

There are many more tips I can think of, however, I will leave you with all this for now.

Enjoy!

Karina x

Up to the Waist with Waste!

July 7, 2015July 7, 20156 Comments

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

There are many things you can do, in order to reduce waste in your kitchen. If you buy goods which have recyclable packaging, then you are one step closer in significantly reducing waste. Always use the well-known saying: ‘Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.’ Reuse plastic containers and water bottles, until they cannot be used any more. Reduce the amount of waste you generate, both in packaging and in food scraps. Recycle anything you can recycle. Use cloth napkins, instead of always relying on paper ones. This will save a tonne of waste and will significantly help the environment.

There are many other Environmental Tips I can offer. I will cover another one next time.

Have fun!

Enjoy!

Karina x

Having a ‘ball’ of a time!

June 17, 2015June 17, 20159 Comments

Environmental Tip: Making Seedballs, thanks to http://www.milkwood.net !

On the 31/05/15, Milkwood held a free class on making seed balls and talking permaculture. I was engaged the whole time and even got to make my own seed balls, then take them home! What an awesome day!

All credit goes to http://www.milkwood.net for showing me how to make Seedballs, what they are and how good they are for the environment.

Seedballs are made from the below ingredients:

– 3 parts clay

– 1 part compost

– 1 part seeds (we used a combination of lettuce seeds and parsley seeds)

– Enough water (just to make it damp enough to roll into balls)

The method:

Mix three parts clay, with one part compost, then one part seeds (whichever vegetable seeds you like), then pour just enough water to make the mixture moist.

Using your hands, roll the mixture into tiny balls (about 1.5 cm in diameter).

Lay out to dry in a sheltered/shady position for approximately 2 days, then store with plenty of ventilation, until you’re ready to use them.

Using the Beauty:

Simply roll these little beauties into your veggie garden, on the ground wherever there is soil, or simply on the grass in your backyard. It really is this simple.

How these Beauties Work:

Once these beauties make contact with the soil, all they need is a heavy downpour of water, be this by the rain, or man-made rain i.e. the tap. The idea behind these Seedballs, is that the seeds within the Seedball, become protected right until they germinate. This means that birds will not be able to peck at these seeds, as the seeds become protected within this clay/compost/seed/water mixture, allowing the plant to fully develop and to become resilient to wildlife.

Now this, people, is such a clever idea! I’ve got a few at home ready to simply roll into my garden!

Now, you can say you have had a ‘ball’ of a time!

Have fun in the garden!

Karina x