Planning a Zero-Waste Super Bowl Party

#Riseup over a sustainable Atlanta

It's time to RISE UP and take care of the planet tomorrow :) I am planning a small party (mostly for eating) in my apartment, so I decided to find some delicious football comfort food recipes that do not require a lot of trash generation.

Drinks

First, and most importantly, how can anyone get hammered without making any trash? I have a few solutions, depending on your taste and time-investment.

Homemade ginger beer - You can find the recipe from the Zero-Waste Chef here. This recipe takes about a week to complete fermenting, but it smells divine. I can't wait to try my own, but unfortunately it will not be ready in time for the Super Bowl tomorrow.
Refillable beer growler - I'm getting mine from Hop City. Lots of local breweries have a growler option also.
Refillable wine growler - Many wineries also have wine on tap that you can get in a refillable growler or bottle. I was disappointed to find out that the City Winery at Ponce City Market does not have this option yet, but they plan to sell their tapped wine in their growlers in the future.

Main Dishes

Now its time for the delicious food recipes. Not only are these recipes trashless, they are much healthier for you than their trashy alternatives.

Scratch Pizza from the Zero-Waste Chef

Sandwiches - Here is the basic homemade bread recipe that I use. It so much tastier than store-bought bread, and you can use it to make any sandwich your heart desires. These grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon look promising.

Scratch Pizza - If you are dedicated to pizza, and dedicated to not producing waste, this is the recipe for you. Fair warning: this is one of the most difficult recipes I have ever attempted.

Snacks

What is a Super Bowl without chips, salsa and guac? I have the trashless recipes for all of that, and more.

Baba Ghanouj from the Washington Post

Baked Corn Tortilla Chips - I was surprised at how common the ingredients are. I expect most people have everything you need already in their pantry.

Smoky Green Apple Salsa Verde - I LOVE salsa verde, especially on my enchiladas. If you're already planning to fire up your grill, why not through on some apple slices and tomatillos to make this delicious, zero-waste recipe?

Guac - The great thing about guac, it's all produce, herbs, and spices, so its very easy to make this without producing any waste.

Herbed Popcorn - The only part of this recipe that requires some trash generation is the vegetable oil. I have not yet found a place in my area that refills any sort of oil bottles. Please let me know if you have found a place! I am always on the lookout.

Baba Ghanouj - I have been thinking about making my own hummus, so this is a nice trashless alternative.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, and RISE UP FALCONS!

Graduating to WordPress

My blog isn't the only one to graduate this year ;)

Hello all! Thank you for your readership and support for this past month. Blogging was new to me a month ago, and I was unsure of success. At the time, I decided to allow Google's Blogger to host me, since the domain is completely free. However, Blogger limits my potential blog traffic and is not as customizable as I would like, so I have decided to move all my content over to WordPress!

With this move, I will be purchasing a domain name. I can either keep the current name and be "eatlivesustain.com," or I could create an entirely new (catchy) name. Below is a 1-click survey with a couple of alternatives I came up with, and I would love your input. Since you are my first readers, and my reason for migrating to a new site, I think it only fitting that you should have an input on the new name.

Which domain name should I purchase?

Thanks again for your support. With the new domain, I hope to add more content, be more consistent, and make the whole thing more pleasing to the eye. I will be sure to update you all when the transition is complete. Cheers!

Environmental Activism

"Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go," I chanted yesterday with the crowd of at least 200 who turned out to protest environmental injustice from the new administration. As we marched down Peachtree Street people smiled, took videos, and even chanted along with us. Some cars passing by waved and honked their horns. One man put his fist in the air and smiled proudly as we marched past. As we approached the Bank of America Corporate building, the chant changed to, "Dakota Pipeline. Shut. It. Down. KeystoneXL. Shut. It. Down." Finally, as we gathered in the Bank of America Courtyard outside the front entrance our chants targeted the banks who are invested in completing the pipelines, "Bank of America. Shut. It. Down. Wells Fargo. Shut. It. Down. Bank of America. Shut. It. Down. Bank of America. SHUT. IT. DOWN."

The video below is my live Facebook video of the march. I was only live for about 5 minutes, because that is as long as I can hold a sign and my phone above my head



As I reflect on that march, I can't help but wonder why we still rely on fossil fuels when so many people know in their hearts and minds that we cannot continue to burn dead animal carcasses and expect our planet not to respond. Rest assured that if we do not stop climate change, then mother nature will. When the polar ice caps have melted and all the landmasses are covered by a continuous sea, I imagine that the fish will happily ask us, "who's dumping on whose home now?" This ad from WWF really drives that point home.

"If we don't stop global warming, nature will."

To answer the question of why we still use fossil fuels, we must look to money and politics. I have never known or studied politics heavily, so the march yesterday was eye-opening for me. It was a lively crowd, and from talking with the people there I learned a lot about the politics of the oil and gas pipelines. For example, I had no idea that there were so many banks invested in pipelines. The organizer of the march read a list of all the banks invested in the Dakota Access pipeline, and my bank was one of them. To find a list of all 17 banks along with their contact information, click here. I called the Wells Fargo line, and was talking to a real person within a few seconds.

I also had no idea that Donald Trump has retained his stock in the Dakota Access Pipeline. No wonder he issued an executive order that will move the Dakota Access and KeystoneXL pipeline projects forward. If he would put his assets in a blind trust, like so many have advised him to do, his motives would not be questioned so often. Poor Jimmy Carter had to put his beloved peanut farm into a blind trust, but Donald Trump can keep all his international businesses and assets running while he is acting president.

On a more hopeful note, I have not given up. The activism that is popping up all over the world is inspiring, and I know that Trump has heard our outcry. A man so narcissistic must be hurt by the unity and determination of people who have spoken out against him. Let's keep it going, so we can make America greater than ever before.

A Reflection on my Return from Cali

Me and Berkeley <3

For those who did not know, I spent this past weekend at UC Berkeley, in Oakland, California. I had a fantastic time, and was very humbled by the intelligence and high caliber of people I met throughout the experience. So I apologize for the delay between posts, but don't worry; I was still paying close attention to how Oakland treated sustainability, and I was not disappointed.

One thing I noticed in Oakland, and have noticed before in Seattle, is the number of compost cans in public spaces. The system works exactly like the garbage and recycling systems from a user standpoint. You simply collect your compostable items in a separate bin, and waste management comes to pick it up from your house. The compostable waste is then transferred to a facility where it begins to degrade, and finally the compost soil is given to local farms.

Compost Collection Can at the Oakland Airport

If you are interested, there is an independent organization within Atlanta that performs the same service, called Compostwheels. I have my own compost at home, but Compostwheels is a great option for those who want to compost, but do not want to deal with any maintenance. What I also love about Compostwheels is that they pick up on bicycles in most neighborhoods. An average garbage truck gets a measly 2-3 miles per gallon, so the bicycle initiative is saving a huge amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

Another thing I noticed in Oakland is the amount of signage that pointed out climate change issues our world is facing. I took photos of two such signs in the airport. One is a photograph showing the effect of global warming on evaporating our freshwater, and another is an infograph about clean water. I have always found it interesting how much more involved the west coast states are in sustainability issues than the east coast states. Then again, the population density, severe weather droughts, and nearness to major fault lines does force people to pay attention to the power of climate change over our daily lives.

"Epic Fail" Freshwater Sign (from WWF)

Clean Water Infograph

Restaurant Review: Tin Lizzy's

Tin Lizzy's in Kennessaw, GA

Yesterday I went to have dinner with my sister, who is attending Kennessaw State University. We ended up grabbing dinner at Tin Lizzy's, which has decent Tex-Mex food, especially if you are on a budget. I have tried to be cautious with my eating out habits, particularly with fast food, since it tends to generate a lot of waste. Tin Lizzy's is definitely a step above fast food though, so I thought I would give it a try. They had real plates, utensils and serving trays, instead of single-use disposable ones. The only time these sorts of restaurants cause you to produce waste is when you take your leftovers home in a Styrofoam box.

I could not finish my food, and neither could my sister. My sister asked for a box to take hers home, and the waitress ran off to grab two boxes before I realized that I should refuse. Since most take-home boxes are made of Styrofoam, which is not recyclable in my apartment building, I have been avoiding taking home my leftovers. However, when the waitress brought out our boxes, to my surprise and delight, they were labeled on the top as "Recyclable, Compostable."

My box of leftovers from Tin Lizzy's

I tried to do some more research into Tin Lizzy's to see if they had any other sustainability outreach, but I had no luck. So Tin Lizzy, if you can hear me, thank you for the compostable box so that I can enjoy my delicious buffalo chicken salad one more time, and if you have any more sustainable initiatives, I would love to hear about them!

Homemade Snacks

Homemade cheese crackers

I used a recipe from the Pioneer Woman herself, Ree Drummond, to make some cheese crackers from scratch. Oh my, they were heavenly. I was craving some goldfish or cheese-its, and since I am trying not to purchase all the packaging that comes with those snacks, I decided to make my own cheese crackers instead. The only trash I ended up making was the plastic wrapping from the cheddar cheese I used. I have heard and read online that you can find cheddar cheese to purchase by the wheel so that you would then only be left with wax waste (which is very reusable) but I had no such luck at Kroger.

Plastic wrapping for the cheese

 Since my nutrition fact comparison from a couple of days ago was such a hit, I decided to do the same comparison between these homemade crackers and store-bought cheez-its. I weighed out my crackers so that I could compare the two by weight instead of number, since my crackers are much thicker than cheez-its. Turns out that 8 of my homemade crackers weigh the same as 27 cheez-its.

Weighing the homemade crackers

Below are the nutrition facts for my homemade crackers on the left, and for store-bought cheez-its on the right.

My crackers seem to have more of every nutrient; calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein, vitamin A, calcium, and iron. My crackers have less carbohydrates, and also lack the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

My crackers also contain significantly less ingredients, and more natural ones at that. A huge problem with engineered snacks that most Americans now consume are the unnatural chemicals that are added for taste or color or preservation. When we consume these chemicals, our body has a hard time processing them, and so the body sets the chemicals aside in your body, coated in fat so that the chemical does not damage any other part of your body. Enter the American obesity crisis. Now, when your body tries to break down fat after you exercise or fast, those questionable chemicals are released into your body, making you feel sick. By beginning a more natural, trashless diet we can fight back against companies who would have us hooked to their chemically enhanced foods. To quote Bill Buford, "Food made by hand is an act of defiance, and runs contrary to everything in modernity."

How to Make and Love your own Compost

"Do you wanna live in my compost pile?"

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that about 24% of Americans' waste is compostable, but according to the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) only 8% of Americans compost. Composting is an easy way to speed up the decomposition of our food waste, and if you garden it will give you some of the most nutritious soil that money can buy.

I have a worm composting bin (also called a vermicompost bin), and I use it every day. Below you'll find the process I followed to make my bins. Let me know if you try to do this yourself, and what your results were!

My compost bin system

What you'll need:

• Red wiggler worms: I purchased my worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. For my first compost pile I tried using Nighttime Crawlers, but they do not eat nearly as much as the big red wigglers from Uncle Jim's. The worms cost about $20 for 1000 worms, and the worms double in population every 3 months. So, if you want to pull some worms out of my compost pile for free, I probably have about 16,000 by now. This also means that the longer you have a compost pile, the faster your pile will break down what you put into it.
• 2 plastic storage containers and 3 lids: 2 bins with lids will be used to hold your worms and compostable waste, and I use an extra lid on the bottom of the bin system to catch any excess liquid that would otherwise leak all over my balcony.
• non-glossy paper: To start your pile, you'll need a nice bed of paper for your worms to begin eating on their first day in the bin.

Easy steps to making your own bin:

1. Cut out holes on the top and bottom of each bin, making sure that the holes on the bottom of one bin line up with the holes on the top of the other. 
2. Shred your non-glossy paper and put it down as the base inside of your first (bottom) bin.
3. Toss your worms onto the paper bed inside your bin. They will immediately begin chomping away at your paper! (When I first got my worms I watched them eat for about 30 minutes because I was so fascinated... is that weird?) 
4. Leave the lid of your bin off for the first day that you have your worms. The worms do not like the light so it will force them to burrow down into your paper bed. 
5. You can now begin tossing your compostable waste on top of the worms. That's it! The worms will do the rest of the work for you. 
6. (Optional) If you want your waste to degrade a little faster, then mixing your pile every couple of weeks will speed up the process by forcing your worms to stray from their central "hive."
7. Once you fill up your bottom bin with waste, simply start filling the top bin with waste. When your worms run out of waste to eat in the bottom bin, they will naturally migrate to the top bin in search of food, leaving you with a bin full of extremely nutritious compost for your garden. 
8.  Dump your bin of compost in your backyard. Place the empty bin back on top of your now-active worm bin
9. Repeat steps 5-8 for as long as you like.

You can also purchase commercial composters like the Worm Factory 360, which accomplishes essentially the same thing for about $100. My compost bin system costed me about $40 altogether.

Inside my top composting bin

All fruit and vegetable scraps can be composted, and non-glossy paper or cardboard. Some more surprising things can also be composted including dryer lint, stale bread, and hair. If your compost is kept correctly, you should be able to keep it indoors without developing a strong odor. However, if you accidentally add any meat or dairy your pile can quickly become absolutely putrid.  I keep mine outside on the balcony just in case. :)