I spark joy with upcycling

Everyone is talking about Marie Kondo, and the mantra that items should spark joy in order to have a place in the home. If an item doesn't spark joy for owning it, then it should be moved on and the result is a lovely decluttered home that is easy to keep clean and has wonderful energy because everything in it brings joy. I think this is a wonderful idea, once it's been put into practice.

Of course, this has inevitably meant that there has been a rush of people decluttering their house and moving things on - op shops in my area are turning away donations and the buy/swap/sell sites I follow are overflowing with items. I love the idea of only owning things that bring happiness. This is something that I have practiced myself for a long time - considerate buying, and thinking about whether the item I'm purchasing is a need or a want. Often, if I walk away and think about it, I realise that I don't really need it after all, or I have something already that will fit the purpose.

The frugal Asian side of me also delights in a bargain, in fixing things that others might discard, and reusing or repurposing what I already own. I like to hoard things, just in case they might spark joy come in useful in the future. With that in mind, here are two of my most recent projects:

Dining room chairs
Our dining room set was a bargain. A friend was going to send it to the dump because she was redecorating and it didn't suit her new decor. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the set, so I claimed it and we suddenly had a new (to us) set for free. It's a wonderful solid wood table that expands from seating 6 to 10 comfortably. It also had 6 wooden chairs with plain upholstery. These chairs serve us well, but as the kids grow, so too did the wear on the chairs. There were stains I couldn't get out and holes in the fabric that my small man has been picking at so they were no longer discrete holes but great gaping tears.

Mr Fork wanted to get new ones. I convinced him that they had good bones so instead to come to choose new fabric so I could re-cover them. For $5/m (on sale!) and half a day of labour unpicking staples and re-stapling (we already had one, and staple guns are fun!) we have chairs that look just like new again (if perhaps a little crooked on the pattern).  $12.5 worth of fabric, a little bit of work and I saved 6 chairs being sent to waste, and having to buy new ones that would never match the table properly. Also, I love that no one else will have chairs like ours.

New fabric on the left, old stained fabric on the right

I even had some time to use the leftover fabric I'd bought to whip up a quick cover for the ottoman, and added some pockets for tv remote storage to help tidy things away. Win!

Reuseable makeup wipes
I just knew that my love of flannelette pyjamas and keeping my sewing scraps would pay off. As soon as I saw the tutorial on Fiona's blog for making reusable makeup wipes, I knew that was a project I could pull off. An hour later, and I had a tidy little pile of cute wipes. I won't go into the method as I pretty much just followed Fiona's guide. All my little offcuts and threads went into the compost heap so no waste here!

I've been using them for the past couple of days and they're just as good as the bought ones, and heaps better for the environment. I followed Fiona's tip to keep a delicates bag nearby and they go straight into that as I use them ready to be washed. During this process, I also remembered just how much I hate sewing curves though. If I make another batch, I'm doing square ones!

How to spend 50k in a day

Recently, I was posed the question about how I would spend $50000 in a day. I thought, I could be all serious and put it into the mortgage, but then I thought, no, that's not very fun. It's $50000 I didn't have before and I'm playing 'let's pretend' so I'll spend it in a spectacular (imaginary) fashion. 

Then I thought, oh, I could fly everyone to Disneyland and we could go on rides and eat junk food until we're sick with happiness. But that seemed like it would be pretty stressful, hopping on a long haul flight with two kids and then dragging them all around a park that they'd honestly probably be too young to appreciate. So then I sat down and thought about the things I love best. Easy! I love my family, I love to be social, I love to eat, and I love to feel pampered and have fun. It was a bit easier after that. Words started to flow better. I had a great image of this fabulous reading nook that I would build in my house, and then stock with a comfy mattress and pillows and reading material galore!

With the funds that I didn't manage to allocate to books, I thought I'd develop a bit of a sharable area on my front footpath. I already have a passionfruit vine accessible to the street, but I thought it would be fun and social to make a sort of community garden and add in some herbs and things and get to know my neighbours better… and I like the idea of being a little bit of a rebel and doing some urban footpath gardening.

Source

Then I thought, no, what if after all that hard work, something like this happens and I'm made to remove it because someone complains?

And then… I just thought, much as I love the idea of that comfy reading nook (oh how I love it!), there are people out there who need more than I. There are people out there who also love their family, but can't be with them. There are people who love to be social but the world won't socialise with them. There are people who love to eat but have no food. There are people who don't even know the meaning of pampering and fun.

So instead of feathering my nest with a reading nook and adding to my edible garden, I would give that $50k to places where it would make a difference.

People who could help those children in detention centres and refuge camps. Who could make them smile and give them back a little bit of hope and dignity and show them compassion and help them be well. Those places would appreciate having a library and the books I would have bought, I'm sure.

People who need to eat. I'd get them staples and a couple of special things too, because everyone loves a treat, especially coming into the season of festivities.

I've been with both my children when they needed operations or stays in hospital. And I know that it's a pretty grim place for parents and children. My edible garden would be much better placed on a hospital roof somewhere to provide a little area for those who need it.

I could go on and on. But I'd run out of money. It's not 'fun'. It's not 'creative'. But I think I'd feel a lot better spending such a sum these ways than any other.

Little ways to save... the environment and your pocket

I'm always trying to reduce our household eco footprint and off the back of Plastic Free July, which aimed to raise awareness about the amount of single use plastic, I'm even more determined to do what I can to reduce house hold waste. A good friend of mine took the challenge and updated regularly about how she was doing. It was a bit of an eye opener to see how much in our daily life is single use only, and people just accept it.

See, it turns out that single use plastic is everywhere - it's in plastic bags, water bottles, takeaway coffee cups, straws, food packaging... I could go on and on. It's not just plastic that I find really wasteful, but I find that society these days is always chasing the next big thing, upgrading gadgets to something bigger and better. I was raised to be frugal, and so I'm sort of ok using my current things until they're old and threadbare and then mending them and using them a bit longer instead of just throwing them away and getting something new.

Really, it's just as easy to choose reusable alternatives, to make do with what you have, to be a little self sufficient and as well as helping the environment, this can sometimes have the added benefit of helping to save you money. Who doesn't like having a bit of extra cash in your own pocket right?

Here are 10 little ways that I save with very little extra effort.

• Instead of buying water to drink while out, I have gotten into the habit of carrying my own water bottle around
• Instead of using disposable nappies, I use cloth nappies. Babies go through so many clothes and cloths, it really is no extra effort to wash nappies as well. This can also extend into other cloth items, such as tea towels and cloths instead of paper towels and disposable dish cloths. Using hand towels instead of paper towels
• Instead of plastic straws, I have a glass one. Mine actually lives in my water bottle that I carry around with me anyway
• Instead of throwing out vegetable peelings, I compost them or feed them to chickens
• Instead of putting paper and cardboard into the recycling bin, I shred it and add it to the compost heap. For thick cardboard boxes or newspapers, I lay these down when I redo the garden beds to stop weeds from growing
• Instead of doing grocery shopping daily, I write a regular meal plan and do the grocery list at the same time. If it's not on the list, I don't buy it! I make sure that I have the meals organised to take advantage of what is freshest and already cooked. This has the added benefit of everyone knowing what's for dinner so you can avoid takeaway on those indecisive notes
• Instead of buying produce, I reduce cost and food miles by growing my own. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I'm proud of every food item I produce, and my children love helping in the garden
• Instead of buying bread that is mass produced and tasteless, I bake my own. I have grown to love the process of waking the starter, feeding the dough and I'm chuffed to know exactly what goes into my bread and have it taste exactly the way I want it
• Speaking of baking, I love to cook. I love to make my own food to my tastes and to know exactly what goes into it. I can use quality ingredients and make something really tasty that is superior to anything I could buy
• When something breaks, I like to mend it, or repurpose it for something else. Like the time my wheat pack burst, and instead of throwing it out, I used a pair of my husbands worn out pants to sew a new cover
• I like to sew my own clothes and other household items. This lets me reuse material, but for some items, a cover can help it last a little longer so you don't need to replace it

I'd love to hear in the comments little ways that you save!

How I reduce food wastage

I plan my meals to eliminate food wastage and to use up ingredients that I have at home, in the garden or that I know are cheap and in season. Here is how my meals worked last week.

Saturday, I knew it was going to be a busy day, so I took the arborio rice that I had leftover from my Hello Fresh box, and I defrosted a frozen soup base that I had in the freezer. It's my cheats risotto - I know that my soups are made with good stock and are tasty, so I thin them down with water and use them to make a risotto. This one didn't turn out quite the way I envisaged - I thought I'd taken out a pumpkin soup but it was a red lentil curry! Never mind, an experimental curried risotto resulted... but probably not something I will repeat again. Ha!

Sunday, I tend to make something that I can feed leftovers to Ellie for lunch on Monday as that is a day she's home with me. I had some fresh eggplants and parsley from the garden, so I diced these up, with some onion, tomato and stock, and turned it into a sort of eggplant stew, which I served over rice. Simple meals are taken to next level delicious with the addition of fresh herbs I think!

Monday, I had some of the risotto leftover, so I turned it into arancini balls. Funny story, I thought I'd invented these and was feeling terribly clever with myself until I saw them on a restaurant menu once and realised I'd been pipped at the post! Oh well. These were quick and easy - I took the risotto leftovers, rolled them into balls using wet hands, added a bit of panko crumbs to the outside and then shallow fried them quickly in some olive oil. I've also baked them as an alternative, but Mondays are a bit hectic with two kids at home, so I tend to go for something easy to prepare. I served these alongside some salad greens. No pictures as quite frankly, I was too hungry and forgot!

Tuesday was pasta bake day. We love pasta bake in our house. We always bake big batches as Mr Fork takes leftovers to work for lunch, and I have them at home for lunch. Ellie loves pasta and cheese so it's an easy way to get vegetables into her diet by including them with favourite foods of hers. I took the remains of my eggplant stew, added extra tomatoes for more liquid and some mushrooms that were looking sad in the vegetable crisper, and added this to some pasta before baking. Easy peasy! Since the oven was on, I also put a loaf of garlic bread in as its a special favourite of Ellie's.

Wednesday was designated a hunt and gather day. I've spoken about these before, but basically, it's a day where we all hunt through the cupboards and refrigerator to use up things that are open or cooked. First in, best dressed in terms of portions. It's a bit strategic to have H+G days on Wednesday as well, because Thursday is our bin day so we make sure we minimise anything we would throw out.

Thursday we usually go out to one of our local restaurants for a family takeaway night. We are big fans of our local Vietnamese restaurant - they know us there and always look after us.

Friday is always a quick and easy meal. It's the end of the week so everyone is tired, but also it's well into football season at the moment, so Mr Fork likes to have dinner done and dusted and the kids in bed so that he can watch his game in peace. I don't mind - Fridays, after the kids are down, I tend to take to bed and read a novel or catch up on blogs or social media via the iPad. So, Friday was homemade pizzas. I am starting to get Ellie more involved in the meals we prepare, so she was allowed to top her own individual pizza (bases were just premade wraps as I hadn't had time to make some dough). We put out a selection of ingredients and everyone assembles their own. Here's hers - tomato paste, mushrooms, cheese and some fresh basil from the garden on top.

So that was our week of meals!

On Saturday, Mr Fork and I make a point to sit down and write up the meal plan for the next week, doing the grocery list at the same time while we're checking the fridge/freezer/pantry supplies. If it's not on the list, we don't buy it. This also helps prevent tantrums from Ellie while shopping, as we've already discussed treats and what we are buying at home as a family, so she understands.

Do you meal plan and chain meals together?

Odd bunch produce

I like odd things that other people sometimes find strange. If I'm offered a plate of something, I'm the sort of person that will choose the weird shaped item because I feel sorry for it. I'll pick the runt of the puppy litter as my favourite (both of our hounds were runts and the last of the litters), and I always check out the wilted and marked down seedlings at Bunnings in case there is anything there I think I can save.

So, you better believe I was super chuffed when I discovered a small section in my local Woolworths devoted to 'Odd Bunch' produce. This is produce which is perfectly fine and edible, but perhaps doesn't meet cosmetic standards of 'good looking' food.

 

Look at that! I'm a bargain hunter from way back (blame the Asian heritage!) and at a time where 'perfect' apples are going for $5.98 and carrots were $2.48 in store, there is no good reason not to get these odd fruits really ($3.98 and $0.98 for comparison).

I also loathe that I was shopping at Woolworths for produce anyway, but if I can't get to a farmer's market and pay the farmer directly, I see no reason why Woolies should get extra money if I can help it. Besides, I feel sorry for those 'ugly' foods that people would likely pass over.

Someone in marketing has a sense of humour:

Peculiar Pears: A bunch of pear shaped fruit who dream of being pureed or eaten as they are.

Abnormal Apples: A bunch of ridiculously delicious apples who dream of being an apple pie or eaten as they are.

Misshapen Potatoes: A bunch of imperfect potatoes who don't have a chip on their shoulder, they just want to be mashed.

I understand that there are Blemished Beetroots, Peculiar Parsnips, and Motley Mangoes, as well as a couple of other things depending on availability and season. I was a bit sad to realise I didn't get a proper photo of the tomato description and there were no carrots to giggle at, but it just gives me an excuse to go back and rescue more of this odd produce!

Note, this is not a sponsored post, I was just chuffed to see this initiative in store. I'm big on a small eco footprints and reducing waste, so I'm pleased to see Woolworths doing something like this. Besides, when I grow my own food I know full well it doesn't always look shop perfect but it's still perfectly tasty.

Do you like odd things? 

Eight ways to reduce food wastage

Thursdays are bin day around our area. Every week, I'm actually amazed at how little rubbish is in our bin. I suppose it makes sense, what with the composting, meal planning and cloth nappy usage. However, talking to other people, I understand that this isn't the norm and sometimes there is a struggle to fit everything in for collection.

Apparently, a huge source of garbage is food wastage - a third of food produced globally is lost or wasted, amounting to 1.3 billion tonnes. That's a lot of food. I'm sure it's not on purpose, but we all have those unidentifiable bags of goo in the fridge sometimes. Well, that costs both money and space in the dump, and no one likes to throw money away, which is essentially what's happening. So, here are 8 fairly simple things I do to reduce food wastage:

1. Meal plan. I've talked about it before. Not only does it save money, but it means you know what you're making and the ingredients required before you go shopping, so you only buy what you need for the week.

2. Portion control. Did you know that the recommended serving size of protein (meat, tofu etc) is a piece the size of a deck of cards? Suddenly you can stretch ingredients even further! And if you buy in bulk, no big deal because...

3. Freeze what you don't need. This applies to heaps of things. Got a great deal somewhere? Fabulous! Portion things out and freeze what you won't use right away. You can still take advantage of specials if they don't fit the meal plan, just store them so they last longer and don't turn unidentifiable in the back of the fridge.

4. Sniff test. Lots of items have a 'best before' date on them, but they're still perfectly edible after then, maybe just not aesthetically pleasing. That's ok. You can cut those bits off (and compost them too). So don't just blindly throw out food, give it a bit of a sniff test to see if it's still good. Obviously don't eat it if it smells gross.

5. Get creative with leftovers. Mr Fork and I regularly schedule a hunt and gather night into our meal planning, to use up all the little bits randomly left in the fridge. First in gets to eat them. But you can still "tszuj" up leftovers. Got some mash left? Make shepherds pie? Leftover roast or steak? Chop and add some gravy and pastry and make pot pies. Leftover rice? Make fried rice.

6. Learn to love the less attractive. So your carrots have wilted and you forgot about the broccoli you bought last week. They're still good, just hide them. Make soup. Put them into a casserole. Mix them with mash and make fritters! You are only limited by your imagination. My personal tip? Cheese sauce makes everything taste good and Mr Fork and Ellie lap up anything it covers!

7. Do you garden? Plant things in waves so that they don't ripen in one big glut and you can spread out the supply. If that doesn't work for you, barter. I have a friend who swaps my tomatoes and eggplants for her beans and corn. We both get variety and no wastage because we have an oversupply. I've also got the added benefit of swapping seeds with her to expand my urban gardening empire.

Passionfruit flowers in my garden

8. Store things properly. Invest a bit of time learning how to store food to get maximum shelf life from it. For example, onions and potatoes like to be stored in a cool dark place with plenty of air circulating. Just not right next to each other as that seems to speed up the rot. You can freeze some things as is, others need to be blanched. Lettuce and herbs hate plastic bags but will last longer in paper. Always reach for the cans and bottles with the longest shelf life (these are often toward the back of the shelf). When you put those away, put them at the back of the pantry so you use the oldest stock first.

How do you reduce food wastage? Any tips for storing food?

Eco heroics

Recently I was a finalist in the ettitude eco hero awards. I lost my category by one vote, which was disappointing, but it got me thinking about my eco footprint and I thought I'd share a little about how we live.

I don't really think of myself as an eco hero, per se, just a regular mum who sets a good example for her family. As you know, I use cloth nappies on our daughter and when we wash, its full loads only. Speaking of cloth things we are also big users of cloth for washing dishes, drying dishes and cleaning instead of using paper towels. Living in QLD, I don't own a drier as we get plenty of sun and I think laundry smells nicer dried in fresh air. We meal plan to avoid food wastage, and any food scraps are composted or fed to the dogs. Any paper scraps are likewise shredded and composted. We recycle, freecycle and bicycle as much as possible, and buy second hand where feasible. We have solar panels and our lights and appliances are off when not in use (although I think that's just financial sense!). I also sew, so old clothing generally gets upcycled into something new.

One of the big things that I think makes us eco friendly (and definitely helps the budget) is that I grow as much of our veggies as possible. We don't have a huge yard, but I try to make it as productive as I can - we have a dedicated veggie patch and a fruit section too, which hopefully should start producing in a year or two. Everything is looking lovely after all the rain we've had so I seized the opportunity for photos.

As well as flowers, our front garden has a basil plant which is so top heavy I needed to stake it, as well as that glorious purple chilli plant you can see there. These two are decorative and useful, especially for pasta dishes!

Wider view of the front - the garden behind the hedge is lime, lemon, mandarin and passionfruit vines which I'm gradually training along the fence. This is a slightly old photo and everything is a bit larger now. Mr Fork was a bit vigorous trimming the hedges, so they're looking a little worse for wear.

Here's the raised veggie patch, looking sparse at the moment as lots of it is still underground. There are some rangy cherry tomatoes climbing around the fence, some eggplant, some cucumber, celery, leek and a few other goodies hiding in there.

Beside the house is an area which we don't use very often so I'm making it productive. This boring looking patch actually has some galangal growing beautifully (yet invisibly) along the fence, and then in the mound beside it I've planted sweet potato. Sweet potato is awesome because you can eat the leaves above ground while the potato does it's thing growing underground. Very useful!

Gardens aren't restricted to just the ground either, you can grow lots of things in pots and containers! Styrofoam containers are great for growing lettuce - I plant a variety of types and just harvest the leaves as we need them.

In a sunny place under the stairs I have spring onions in a pot. Fabulous and pretty much ever lasting - I snip them off as I need them. Occasionally I'll do a huge harvest and chop and freeze them in bags for cooking with later. Also some pineapples. These babies are slow growing - it took a year to get my first one, and this is year two, when I get another two! These are seriously the sweetest pineapples I've ever tasted. There used to be rosemary in another pot. People say it's easy to grow but I just can't seem to keep my rosemary cuttings alive at all!

Here's the compost bin. Not very exciting, but it does make exciting things for the garden. I move it to a new position every time it's ready and full and the old position gets used to plant something yummy. You can also see some aloe in a pot in the background. It used to run wild in the garden, until it really did run wild and amok requiring much effort to control, so now it's contained safely in a pot for when we get sunburnt.

So that's some of my gardening and eco heroics. Do you try to be eco friendly or sustainable? I'd love to hear about it (or see your garden if you're keen to share that too!)

Bagel goodness

I'm a sucker for a good bagel. When Mr Fork and I make it to the New Farm markets (less of an occurrence now Ellie is around) I used to stock up at the bagel stand at 6 for $10, then freeze them and hoard them, savouring them for special breakfast and lunch occasions.

Since we rarely go to those markets anymore, I've been somewhat bagel deprived. Then I figured, $1.67 per bagel is kind of pricey, especially when I could get a whole loaf of decent bread for twice that. So I started to look around for a recipe I could utilise at home without needing a bread maker or any fancy ingredients. I think I've cracked it!

Bagels - makes 8

Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warmish water

Method:

1. Combine half the flour with the sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl.
2. Add the oil and water and pour into the bowl 
3. Use a wooden spoon and beat until smooth and creamy looking
4. Add the remaining flour and knead by hand for 10 minutes
5. On a lightly floured board, divide the dough into 8 equal size balls. Let them rest for 20 minutes.
6. Roll each ball into a long log and wrap around to form a ring. Make sure the hole in the middle is distinctive otherwise it may close when the dough rises. Fuse the ends of the log and smooth over the join. Rest the rings for another 20 minutes.
7. While the dough is resting for the second time, preheat the oven to 205C, boil a large pot of water and line a baking tray.
8. Drop bagels into the boiling water and cook 1 minute on each side, then place on the lined baking tray.
9. Bake for 10 minutes then turn over and bake for another 10 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven bagel goodness!

Tips and Substitutions:

• I've successfully made this with a mix of wholemeal and white flour, and have even substituted some wheat bran for the white flour successfully. The recipe is pretty forgiving!
• You can season the bagels before baking. After boiling them, drop them face down into the decoration - poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried herb or garlic for example. Continue to bake as per the method above.
• I've also made these in a sweet version by adding cinnamon and dried fruit to the mix as well.

Cost of my home made bagels? About $1.50 for the batch if you use fancy flours (cheaper if you just use white flour)... so 19 cents a bagel. Much better than the $1.67 I was paying before, and I get the satisfaction of making them myself to taste. Win!

Tell me, have you made anything delicious lately?

Meal planning helps the budget and the waistline

Mr Fork and I used to do them same dance every night when we came home from work:
"What do you want for dinner?"
"I don't know, what do you feel like?"

Then we'd decide on something, realise we didn't have the right ingredients and either a) go to the supermarket to get them as well as a few other "necessities" while we were there or b) give up on the idea and get takeaway instead.

In the end, I made up a meal planning sheet for us to stick to the fridge. It was supposed to be used for all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks) but instead we just use it to write our planned dinners on now. Breakfast is usually cereal or toast, while lunches tend to be leftovers or sandwiches, and we found we didn't need to plan those.

It's just a simple A4 document, which I laminated. We write on it with a whiteboard marker every Saturday morning, and complete our shopping list at the same time. There's a bit of a system to our routine:

• If it's not on the shopping list, we don't buy it. So if we use something up during the week or need something specially for a meal, we need to make sure to put it on the list or wait until next week. The shopping list is also stuck to the fridge with a magnet so we can add things to it as we think of them. Friendly on the hip pocket as we know what we want and can get in and out of the store fast.
• We try to only shop once a week. Weeknights are hectic enough with the bedtime routine that we don't need to add a shopping trip in as well. Therefore meals that require the freshest ingredients tend to be on the weekends or earlier in the week, and meals that we can use frozen or canned things for appear later in the plan.
• Mr Fork and I both have a terrible habit of cooking up way more than we need. So we regularly have "Hunt and Gather" nights (H+G). That's when it's a free for all with the leftovers and frozen meals - whoever gets in first gets to eat it. We don't cook on those nights, and just eat up things that would otherwise have been forgotten about in the fridge/freezer. Less waste for the bin or compost heap. 
• We plan in takeaway nights and around upcoming events. If we know Mr Fork has an early football game on Tuesday nights, that's usually a H+G night or something quick. If we've planned dinner with friends or family, that goes on the plan so we make sure not to cook or to cook something suitable if we're hosting.

I didn't think our meal planning was anything special, until my friend the1337mum came to visit and commented on it. It works for us - just knowing that we have a meal planned takes the stress out of dinner preparations. Because we know what's happening, whoever gets home first starts the food prep so we eat (mainly) nutritious, home cooked meals which are healthy for both the wallet and the waist.

Do you use a shopping list or a meal plan? If so, how does that work for you and do you have any favourite meals to share?

Speaking of being good for the wallet, everyone loves a giveaway. The1337mum was lucky enough to be invited to KMarts toy launch and she wants to share the love with a toy giveaway. Head on over and put your entry in!