Please note, this post contains affiliate links. It won’t cost you anything extra to use the links and opinions are all my own.

Vegan pancake recipe ingredients:

• 120 g (or 1 cup) of self raising flour
• 1 banana (the riper it is, the sweeter the pancakes will be)
• 250 ml (or 1 cup) of water
• 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
• A little coconut oil
• Optional topping ingredients: cinnamon and fresh lemon

Method:

1. Put one cup of self raising flour in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mash a banana?.
3. Whisk the banana with 1 cup of water.
4. Then add 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to the water and banana mix.
5. Slowly add the liquid to the flour, mixing as you go.
6. When the mixture is ready melt a little coconut oil in a hot (but not too hot) frying pan ?.
7. Wait a couple of minutes, then ladle in dollops of the mixture.
8. Leave them to cook for a couple of minutes on each side and then serve freshly cooked.
9. Optional: Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon?!

What to do with excess vegan pancake batter

If you make too much batter, I like to do one of two things.

1. Either I freeze the batter to use another time.
2. Or I make it into pancakes and freeze the pancakes to use at a later date.

You can keep the batter or the pancakes in the fridge to use the next day. But I find that it is easy to forget to use up the leftovers before they go off. In the freezer you don’t have to rush to use them.

Tip: to make it easy to use up the leftovers a bit at a time, freeze the pancake batter in icecube trays. Then you can defrost it as needed. If the pancakes are already made, open freeze them. This means lay them out so that they aren’t touching anything other than a tray in the freezer. When they are frozen store them in an airtight container in the freezer. This prevents the pancakes from sticking together and being difficult to separate once frozen.

Want some more vegan snack ideas? Check out these healthy homemade vegan and zero waste snacks!

The post You will love this simple, delicious, vegan pancake recipe appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Vegan YouTubers that are budget friendly

Rachel Ama

Over half a million YouTube subscribers watch Rachel share her journey of living a vegan life, her vegan recipes and food reviews. I love her enthusiasm. She shares some amazing looking Carribean recipes. Rachel has a series of £1 easy vegan student meals. She also has another series where non vegans try vegan food, which is a great one to watch if you are a meatlover or if you know a meatlover. Seeing people try vegan food and not being able to tell the difference can make meatlovers curious about trying it. Sometimes she mixes a recipe in with some vegan beauty / exercise/ day in her life.

View her vegan YouTube channel here

Cheap Lazy Vegan

A channel all about vegan food, from budget friendly recipes to her challenges. There is lots of Asian food on this channel. This vegan YouTuber has 700K subscribers.

View her YouTube channel

Madeleine Olivia

Over half a million subscribers watch her cheap and easy vegan recipes as well as her videos on minimalism and sustainability

View her YouTube channel

Comfort food Vegan YouTubers

Gaz Oakley

With over 1 million subscribers Gaz posts weekly vegan recipes, everything from vegan cheesecake to vegan gravy.

View his YouTube channel

The Happy Pear

The Happy Pear upload 1 vegan recipe a week, from deserts to curries. They come in at just under half million subscribers .

View their YouTube channel

BOSH.TV

193K subscribers. 2 guys that went vegan. British. Lots of comfort food. Older videos don’t show them in it, but the newer ones too and their video about lentils made me laugh – what words can you rhyme with lentils? Their channel is well worth a watch!

Veganism plus more!

Sustainably Vegan

With over quarter of a million subscribers, this channel is not just about vegan food but also about ethical fashion, zero waste, minimalism as well as vegan recipes. Encouraging a low-impact lifestyle

View her YouTube channel

So there you have it – 7 great vegan YouTubers to check out and get inspired by!

The post 7 Great Vegan YouTubers you need to watch appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

This is a guest blog post by Nick Bright from Brighton Bricks. They encourage kids and adults to play through LEGO challenges and events for all ages. You can find out more details via brightonbricks.com, or you can find them on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram

When I was a kid, my Dad made me a clock advent calendar out of matchboxes. It was so much better than any shop bought advent calendar. I decided to make a advent calendar for my son when he was born too.

I had experimented with a matchbox advent for my wife a few years previously. But my craft skills weren’t really up to scratch. I decided to use my favourite toy instead, so I built my son a LEGO advent calendar. Now I reuse it every year.

Why build your own LEGO advent calendar?

A great advantage of building your own advent calendar, aside from reducing waste, is you can build is according to the size of the gifts you putting inside. You can make it as a big or small as you like. Making this design out of LEGO allows me to change and adapt it if I want. Maybe one year, I will rebuild it in a different colour, or theme it in a certain way.

What can you put in it?

We put a variety of things in the calendar. For example snacks my son would normally have and little toys he has probably forgotten about. Grandparents have also knitted finger puppets and little soft Christmas trees. We do buy some new things, but we they will last and not get thrown away. Things like LEGO Minifigures or toy cars, stuff we know he will play with for a long time. 

Advent calendars like this don’t just have to be for kids

In the past I created an advent calendar for my wife. I put vouchers inside for things like:

• a home cooked meal,
• to have control of the remote control for the night and
• to have breakfast in bed.

Advent Calendars don’t need to be disposable or thrown away. Also by creating your own calendar, you can customise it for the person it is intended for.

For more ideas about how to reduce waste and save money at Christmas time, check out How to have a luxurious eco friendly Christmas on a budget.

The post Ditch the disposable advent calendars and make your own reusable LEGO one appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Please note: I received soap to review and this blog post contains affiliate links. Opinions are all my own and I was a customer of Friendly before getting in touch with them to ask for some soap to review.

Ways that I tried to go shampoo and conditioner free

I tried:

• Using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. But vinegar can be quite a harsh substance and I read that both can damage your hair over time. I didn’t want to risk it, so I gave up.
• Using a boar bristle brush. The idea is that it brushes the grease out, or at least distributes it. After one or two go’s with it, I had a brush and a hair full of grease
• Using water only. It was alright for a bit, but my hair got progressively greasier
• Using plain olive oil soap. Again OK for a bit, but it was hard to wash out after a while.
• Using cornflour as a dry shampoo – the only effect that had was to make me look like I had white tinged witchy hair and then I had to wash it out!
• Egg wash – you have to be really careful not to use hot water on it, otherwise you end up with scrambled eggs in your hair. I’m not really a fan of cold showers and let’s just say it didn’t work for me.
• Persisting for ages – my hair didn’t cave and say OK then I will survive without shampoo, it just said no!

Back then I gave up after what I felt was a really good try at it and everyone breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn’t have to look at my greasy hair any more.

Fast forward a few years and shampoo, conditioner and shaver bars are now widely available. I decided to give some a try. I found that they either didn’t work for me, were too expensive or both. But then I discovered Friendly Soap Bars.

Friendly soap review

Before we get started with this review, I am sad to report that their shampoo bars don’t work for me. This is because I live in a hard water area and they don’t work with hard water. I think that is why I had so much trouble in general with going shampoo free. Apparently soft water makes all the difference.

However I love all their other soap bars.

Reasons I love Friendly soap

1. The soap bars work. I use the Friendly conditioner bar instead of liquid conditioner and the Friendly shaver bar instead of shower gel. They both do the job really well and I don’t miss the liquid alternatives at all.
2. They are very reasonably priced compared to other similar alternatives. To save even more money you can buy them in bulk like I do e.g. bulk packs of 6 Friendly Conditioner Bars and Friendly Shaving Soap.
3. They smell good. Some of the other soap bars I tried from other places smelled OK, but then after using them, they weren’t so nice. These bars are really nice and have a gentle scent, that isn’t overpowering.
4. I love the ethics of the company. The packaging is made from recycled cardboard and it is recyclable. The soap is vegan and free from sulphates. They pay a living wage and Friendly soap is handmade in Yorkshire using traditional methods with no by products. They donate 10p from every website order made to charity and they also give staff paid days off to go and help plant trees and hedgerows locally!

All in all, they seem to be a company that are getting it right in so many ways and I’m not the only one who thinks so. They have won an award for their Lavender and Geranium Conditioner Bar, voted for by the readers of Your Healthy Living Magazine.

Are there any downsides?

As I said earlier, the shampoo bars don’t work in hard water areas. I bought my first bars of Friendly soap in a local health food shop. Although Friendly are very open about the shampoo bars not working in hard water areas on their website, it doesn’t say anything on the bars, or on their Amazon listings. I think they need to be clearly labelled as not being suitable everywhere, to stop them being sold/ people buying them in hard water areas. I used my shampoo bar that I bought originally that didn’t work as a shower bar to use it up and that was fine.

Another point, which isn’t specific to this company, but is about using soap bars in the shower. You need to get soap dishes to put the soaps in. I would recommend trying them to start with though, to make sure you like them before you invest in soap dishes.

Would I buy Friendly soap in future?

Yes definitely! As I said earlier I love them so much I have bought them in bulk.

As I haven’t found a shampoo bar yet, that is affordable and works for me, I still buy liquid shampoo. I buy Faith and Nature shampoo in bulk and top up a bottle as needed. If you are thinking that’s too much to buy at once, you could top up a bottle at your local Zero Waste Shop. You will probably find Friendly soap for sale there too.

Have you tried Friendly shampoo, conditioner and shaver bars or other varieties? Which are your favourites?

The post Eco friendly conditioner and shaving bars that are affordable. appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Note: this blog post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own and it won’t cost you anything extra to use them. It will help to support the blog though. Thanks!

Join my Zero Waste Christmas Facebook group

I have started up a Facebook group, where people can share ideas about how to have a zero waste Christmas. You are welcome to post pictures of things you have made,or about your business as long as it is relevant. Come and join it here: Zero Waste Christmas Facebook Group.

Kickstart your Christmas on a budget, by keeping food waste low

Food gives off methane in landfill – a potent greenhouse gas. Reduce food waste in the first place, by avoiding buying more food than needed. It is such a win-win because you get to eat all the same luxury foods you would have done. But you might buy less, which costs less. Or you will make the most of what you have, which gives you the best value out of what you bought.

Do a Christmas meal plan and make a shopping list from that. When you get to the shops (or order online), make sure you stick to the list! If there are leftovers freeze them if possible, to use another time. Also come and join my Reduce Your Food Waste Facebook group community, where you can ask for help if you are stuck on how to use up leftovers. For some general ideas to prevent food waste, check out my round up of use it up ideas.

Buy Eco Friendly festive gifts or make your own eco-friendly budget Christmas presents

If you want to get your friends and family sustainable gifts this year check out my list of sustainable gifts your friends and family will love. I’ve included suggestions for him, her, couples, families, experience gifts, book gifts, kitchen gifts and homemade gifts in there. Plus I also have some suggestions for how to stop unwanted gifts.

Ditch the single use disposable wrapping paper

Swap disposable wrapping paper for reusable and upcycled versions. Wrap gifts in fabric. Or save things from your recycling to wrap gifts in.

If you like a challenge, take the Cut The Wrap challenge and pledge not to use any single use disposable wrapping paper this festive season. If you need some help with this, check out my beautiful eco-friendly ways to wrap up gifts. Also if you want some more in depth information come and sign up to my Sustainable Gift Wrapping Online Course.

Swap Christmas cards for e-cards and other alternatives

Instead of sending cards this year, speak to friends and family and wish them well in person. Other options include sending e-cards and/ or telling friends and family that instead of sending cards this year you are going to make a donation to charity.

In Mike Berners Lee’s book How Bad Are Bananas – the carbon cost of everything, he says that an email costs between 0.2g and 26g of CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent). Whereas a letter costs between 280g and 350g CO2e. You can significantly lower your carbon impact by sending e-cards over real ones! To make your e-card free, design a Christmas card in Canva (you can get a free account) and share the picture in your email.

Make your own budget Christmas Advent calendar

Make an inexpensive and fun advent calendar with some clean socks or small bags on a line with numbers pinned on them. Fill with a small gift of your choice e.g. a coin, a love note, or a chocolate. If you want to make your own fillers, this homemade condensed milk fudge is delicious. Wrap them up in little swatches of sterilised fabric (and save for next time afterwards). Or put them in small jam jars or pots.

Consider the Christmas tree options

A Christmas tree doesn’t have to be an actual tree. It could be a large houseplant that you decorate once a year or a wall hanging you put up for Christmas each year. You can even get creative with this and make something like this upcycled pallet Christmas tree.

If you want to get an actual tree, it has been concluded that a real tree is better for the environment than a fake tree.

Dispose of real Christmas trees properly

If you buy a real tree, make sure that it gets recycled afterwards. This is because in landfill it can give off methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.

Use reusable Christmas crackers

Instead of having disposable Christmas crackers, you can opt out. Alternatively buy or make some reusable crackers and stuff them with your own less wasteful gifts.

I was sent some reusable Christmas crackers by Keep this Cracker to review and I have some to giveaway (see the bottom of this article). They come flat packed and in two parts, with snaps that you add in. Because they are in two parts, when you pull them apart, the only thing that breaks is the snap. They aren’t cheap, but should last a few years.

You do need to add in your own fillings, but there are loads of festive jokes online you could use. Either leave out the hats, or have reusable ones outside of the crackers. As for the gifts, it depends on your budget. Something like these pill/ money keyrings could be good. I have one and keep a rolled up £10 note in it. So, if I go out and I’ve forgotten my wallet, I still have some money on my keys. Whatever you choose, they will probably be better than the gifts that usually come in crackers!

An easy win for Christmas on a budget – stop buying a new Christmas jumper every year

Instead of buying a Christmas jumper every year for yourself and / or your kids, get Christmas decorations that can be reused each year on your regular jumpers.  For example these Christmas brooches would work and would make great stocking or Christmas cracker fillings too. If you have kids and you don’t want them to have brooches, instead you could buy sew on motifs. Don’t iron them on, just sew them on. This allows you to unpick them and reuse them on a different top the year after (in case they outgrow the original one).

If you don’t like the above idea, you could buy a jumper in a charity shop / secondhand. Then wear it throughout the Christmas season and every year afterwards until it wears out. The final option of course is to simply opt out.

Do a Christmas clothes swap

One of the items in your Christmas budget, might be new clothes. Swap buying new clothes for Christmas get togethers for buying secondhand clothes. Or if you are able to get together in person, do a clothes swap with friends for a wardrobe refresh.

Try a vegan or vegetarian Christmas dinner

Vegan food has gone mainstream. There are many vegan alternatives available in supermarkets and restaurants now, which taste really good. Instead of having a turkey dinner at every event you get invited to, why not give the vegan or vegetarian option a try. 

Ask guests to bring a dish

If you are having people over for a meal (and we are able to), instead of doing everything yourself, ask guests to make part of the meal. You could do a pot luck or ask for something specific (tip: check that the person you ask is happy to bring that item first!). When I’ve done this in the past, I’ve asked people not to bring other things like flowers and chocolates and to bring a dish instead. This will really help with your Christmas on a budget and makes life much easier if you are a host!

Borrow furniture, crockery and glasses

Would you like to invite more people over than you have seats, cutlery, crockery and glasses for? You don’t need to go out and buy these things. Ask guests to bring them with. They have some folding or camping chairs they could bring for example.

Another tip is to buy the items you need secondhand and sell them on afterwards, or to give them to charity. This is useful if you don’t have space to store them throughout the year.

So many ways to have a luxurious and eco-friendly Christmas on a budget!

As you can see there are lots of ways you can save money at Christmas time. It is also better for the environment. Once you get into the swing of it, you will find that you aren’t missing out on anything. You are just doing things a bit differently. You might even find that you can have an even better Christmas. This is because you don’t need more money, just different ideas, to get all the furniture, clothes, food and decorations you want at this time of year!

The post How to have a luxurious eco-friendly Christmas on a budget. appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Note: This blog post contains affiliate links and I was sent some Wrag Wrap to review/ giveaway.

Eco friendly wrapping paper alternatives course and the #CutTheWrap Challenge

Last year I set the challenge to not use any single use wrapping paper over the festive season at all. I think it is relevant every year! Find out why and pledge to take the challenge here: Cut The Wrap Challenge. When you sign up to the challenge, you can then join my newly formed Zero Waste Christmas Facebook Group. It’s a group to share ideas over keeping waste low over Christmas.

This blog post can help you with the challenge. However there are so many ways to wrap up gifts beautifully and with the environment in mind, that I am setting up a course on the subject! It will be fun, filled with tutorials for different gift wrapping ideas and is going live on 23rd November. It will be ready in plenty of time for you to wrap up your gifts in time for the festive season. Find out more here to pre book your place and get an early bird discount: Sustainable Gift Wrapping Course

Eco friendly alternatives to wrapping paper

Once you have your sustainable gifts sorted, these eco friendly ways of wrapping them will give them the perfect finish! You could also add upcycled gift tags to them to take it one step futher

The fabric eco friendly wrapping paper alternative

One of my favourite techniques for wrapping gifts in fabric is Furoshiki. It’s a Japanese wrapping style that is elegant and involves zero waste! It is a bit like origami for gift wrapping!

There loads of ways to wrap up your gifts in fabric aside from Furoshiki. You can wrap up gifts with fabric and string. Or put the gifts in fabric gift bags or sacks. If you can sew, these gift bags made out of festive pyjamas are a fun upcycling project and look great.

Another way of wrapping up gifts in fabric is to use Wrag Wrap. I first found out about it at a local Zero Waste Christmas market. Wrag wrap is reusuable and is made of recycled plastic. It comes in a variety of beautiful colours and patterns and looks really attractive. Wrag wrap crackles when you use it, so that it sounds a bit like paper folding as some people said they miss that with fabric wrap. It isn’t cheap and is a bit fiddly to wrap up with, but it is fun and looks great! Tip: I found it a bit tricky to wrap up soft items in this, but boxes or books work well.

Use items from your recycling

There are lots of things that you would usually put in your recycling that makes fun gift wrap. For example colourful pages from old magazines or kids artwork. Check out some more ideas here: Saved from the recycling – beautiful ways to wrap gifts

The no wrap method

You don’t have to wrap up a gift to make it exciting. Obviously you could just hand the person a gift unpackaged. But if you want to make it more fun, hide the gifts around your home and set up a treasure hunt. If you need help with this, I’ve written a handy list of Treasure Hunt Clues for around the house.

As you can see there are lots of ways to wrap up gifts whilst bearing the environment in mind. So come and sign up for the Cut the Wrap Challenge and why not treat yourself and/or a friend to my sustainable gift wrap course

For more ideas about how to save money and the environment at Christmas time, check out this post: How to have a luxurious eco friendly Christmas on a budget

Wrag Wrap and Keep This Cracker Giveaway

Next week I will be reviewing reusuable Christmas crackers by Keep This Cracker on the blog and I am giving some away alongside this Wrag Wrap bundle. They are the perfect combination to help you on your way to an eco -friendly and zero waste Christmas.

You can enter the giveaway below. None of the options are compulsory, but you must choose at least one option to enter. The more you do the more chances you have to win. If you purchase access to the Sustainable Gift Wrapping course you will get 5 entries to the competition. If you sign up to the mailing list and the Cut The Wrap challenge, you will get 3 entries and you will get one entry per relevant Instagram follow. The competition closes at midnight on the 3rd December – full terms and conditions here. Good luck everyone!

The post Beautiful eco friendly ways to wrap up gifts. Plus a festive giveaway! appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Note: This blog post contains affilate links. It won’t cost you anything extra to shop through them and all opinions are my own.

Sustainable gift experiences for families and couples

Experience gifts can be a lot of fun and don’t need to be disposed of afterwards. Not all experience gifts are eco-friendly though e.g. motor car racing or trips to Barcelona. So look for experience gifts that are good for the planet too like National Trust membership and these eco friendly experience gifts for kids, families and couples.

Homemade and homegrown sustainable gifts

Homemade and homegrown sustainable gifts can show that a lot of thought went into a gift. Plus you can have complete control over the materials and ingredients that go into them and how they are packaged. Check out these ideas for homemade and homegrown gifts, which include things like making fudge, or bath salts. But before you go into production remember to double check the gift will be wanted! Another option along these lines, is to give your help or skills as gift.

I find that homegrown or homemade gifts make great small festive or end of year gifts for teachers.

Secret Santa gifts

Secret Santa gifts are often a bit of a joke. People give each other things like this nothing as a gift. It is a plastic empty ball, totally ridiculous. I can’t believe quite how many people have paid that amount of money for it and reviewed it! You get a few laughs out of it and then the gift is put to one side and either gotten rid of, or collects dust at the back of a cupboard.

Don’t give people a load of tat this year. Instead check out my list of alternatives to Secret Santa – they include things like giving experience gifts, or donating to charity instead.

Eco friendly gifts for him

Perhaps an experience or homemade offering isn’t going to cut it and you want an eco-friendly gift you can put in his hands.

Of course it depends on what he likes, but I’ve put together a list of suggestions here: Sustainable gifts for him. They include things like getting him a reusable coffee mug or cork wallet.

Sustainable gifts for her

Again sometimes only a physical gift will do. A lovely gift that doesn’t cost anything is to give her some jewellery that you already own. My parents gave me some earrings and a bracelet that had once belonged to my grandma’s for my birthday one year and I loved it!

If you want some ideas of gifts to buy, I have some suggestions here: 5 top eco friendly gifts for women, which include bamboo sunglasses and a cork leather handbag

Eco friendly gifts for everyone

For the baker or cook

I love cooking and enjoy using pieces of equipment in the kitchen that do the job really well. Especially if they are long lasting, great quality and are good for the environment. For some ideas for gifts like this, check out this list of my favourite eco-friendly kitchen products. There are some great products listed like Fig and Pickle battery free scales.

For the bookworm

There are some brilliant books out there about being eco-friendly (including my Eco Thrifty Living book – obviously I’m slightly biased though). Some are practical, some are entertaining and some are educational. Check out my handy list of Sustainable living books for a gift for the book lover in your life!

Sustainable wrapping and gift tags

If it makes sense to avoid buying gifts with excess single use packaging, then it also makes sense not to add your own! Yes it is more fun when gift is wrapped up, but do it sustainably! There are loads of options for sustainable gift wrap, including using brown paper from packages you have received and popping the gift in a reusable bag without wrapping. Check out my tips for alternatives to gift wrapping here: wrapping paper alternatives (scroll down to the bottom to find links to more ideas).

Take your gift to the next level and make your own gift tags from upcycled materials too!

How can you spot a sustainable or eco friendly gift?

if none of these ideas quite did it for you, then I have a few more suggestions to help you before you go shopping. The terms sustainable and eco-friendly are quite vague and could cover a variety of qualities. So I’m going to break down into bite sized chunks, what I think makes a gift sustainable.

1. Do they want the sustainable gift?

Before worrying about the eco credentials of an item, first we need to ask if the gift is wanted? It’s a waste of your money and the resources that went into the gift if it isn’t. Check out these 10 easy ways to stop unwanted gifts to avoid that problem.

2. Is the gift genuinely sustainable?

What is the product made of, how is it packaged and where did it come from? It is difficult to find a product that ticks all the sustainable boxes. But some things you might want to do are:

• Avoid single use excess packaging. Gifts often come with lots of packaging.
• Where possible, get things second hand, upcycled or made from recycled materials.
• Look for good quality items that will be long lasting (where relevant).
• Find items that are easy to repair if something goes wrong with it.
• Avoid perishable items like flowers, that are flown in, or hot housed out of season.
• Check it doesn’t contain any nasty chemicals and try to avoid unsustainable materials where possible.
• Avoid greenwashing

It is likely that no gift will be perfectly eco friendly or sustainable, so focus on choosing one that has features that you are happy with.

Happy gift hunting – hope you find gifts that will be loved!

By the way if you are looking for ideas about how to save money and the environment at Christmas time, you will like this post: How to have a luxurious eco friendly Christmas on a budget

The post Sustainable gifts your friends and family will love appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Note: This blog post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own and it won’t cost you anything extra to shop through them. I received a copy of the book to review.

The book summarises the carbon costs of various activities and sorts them into sections by the weight of carbon emissions. At the low end of the scale are things like texting and emailing. At the higher end are volcanic eruptions and wars (which makes volcanic eruptions pale into insignificance).

Who Should Read How Bad Are Bananas?

This book is for everyone. If you are a beginner, then it will be highly educational and eye opening. There are also lots of helpful recommendations for positive actions that you can take.

For the more advanced, you can smugly turn the pages and say I do that, oh and I do that. But don’t get too smug as you might also learn something new!

Why Read How Bad Are Bananas?

If you want to get an understanding of how much it costs in carbon terms to send an email, eat a banana, watch an hours worth of TV or go to space (and much more), this is the book for you. I really enjoyed reading the book and feel that it is incredibly helpful to have Mike’s figures in mind when making every day decisions.

If you are making lifestyle changes or have done long ago, having facts and figures to back up these choices can be really helpful. Especially if people around you are curious about the justification for making these changes.

It’s not all about carbon footprints

Mike helpfully points out that the carbon footprint is not the whole story. Something might have a low carbon footprint, but still not be good for the environment for other reasons. I liked that in general he gives a rounded view of the issues.

There was only one recommendation he made where I felt he didn’t do that. That was when he encouraged people to swap to synthetic clothing. He didn’t mention that synthetic materials leach small plastic fibres into the water they are washed in. Unfortunately that does leave us stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to choosing the materials we clothe ourselves in.

No exact figures

Mike is a professional in the world of carbon footprints and is a university lecturer. But he admits throughout the book, that a lot of the figures are guesstimates. It is often difficult to put an exact figure on our activities as many variables come into play. However the point is to get a rough idea of how things compare and learn how we can make better choices!

I did also notice that it looked like there was a mistake in the headline figures in the TV watching section, but if you ignore them and read the blurb it makes more sense.

Get the book!

You can get your copy here: How Bad Are Bananas. If you don’t want to buy a copy, maybe you could borrow it (or request it) from your local library. Plus enter the competition below for a chance to win a copy. I have 3 to give away! When you enter the competition you also get a chance to win a copy of Ice: Tales from a Disappearing World and my book Eco Thrifty Living (This is the same competition I published last week in my review of Ice).

For more environmentally themed book suggestions, check out my Ultimate List of Sustainable Living Books

Pin it for later:

The post How Bad Are Bananas Book Review and Giveaway appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Note: This post contains affiliate links and I received a copy of the book to review. All opinions are my own

You zoom in and out from the difficulties of getting dressed and eating in such cold conditions, to the blindingness of the light reflected from the ice, to the science behind the melting ice. There is a sense of danger and adventure throughout the book and an incredible event takes place during the day.

Does Ice: Tales from a Disappearing World, give us answers about the future of the planet?

I don’t feel that Marco gives us any rock solid answers about what the future will hold for the planet. Scientific models and predictions are essentially best guesses. They are based on our current level of data and understanding. Marco stresses the importance of critical thinking and remaining open minded to new information.

That said, we should still take the threat to the planet of melting ice caps seriously. We don’t know exactly how it will all play out.

Should we follow in Marco’s footsteps?

Most of us are unlikely to visit this ice sheet. However towards the end of the book, Marco mentions how the melting icecaps, will open up the area to tourism and potentially mining and frets about the devastating impacts that can have. So if you want to gain an understanding of what it is like, the best way to do it, is to sit back and relax with a cuppa and this book. Read about his adventures from the warmth of your sofa. Unless you fancy being a polar scientist that is – in which case, you have work to do!

Get your copy here: Ice: Tales from a Disappearing World or enter below for a chance to win a copy! Alongside Ice, I am also giving away a copy of my book Eco Thrifty Living and How Bad Are Bananas – the Carbon Footprint of Everything. There are three prizes in total, because I as well as the book bundle, I have an extra two copies of How Bad Are Bananas to give away.

For more environmentally themed book suggestions, check out my Ultimate List of Sustainable Living Books

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The post Ice: Tales from a Disappearing World – Review and Giveaway appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.

Did you know the flowers and young leaves of a courgette plant are also edible? This list includes recipe suggestions for how to use them up too.

Tip: bookmark the post so you can come back for inspiration, the next time you are in the courgette cooking mood!

Note: this post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Savoury courgette recipe options

Vegan recipes

1. Courgette Salad – slice baby courgettes thinly and sprinkle over your salad. Alternatively spiralise the courgettes and mix with salad leaves. Drizzle over some oil and vinegar, or salad dressing of your choice.
2. Courgette Chutney
3. Courgette Pickle
4. Breaded courgettes: Coat in oil and then in breadcrumbs and then bake
5. Thinly slice and sprinkle over a pizza
6. Courgetti spaghetti/ noodles. Spiralise (I love my Oxo Good Grips Spiraliser) then steam them for 5 minutes, or fry in a little oil. Use them as a noodle base, or add spiralised courgette to salad raw.
7. Roasted. Mix with peppers (quartered), mushrooms and carrots (chopped in half if large ones) toss in olive oil and season with Italian herbs. Roast for around 30 mins at 180 to 200 degrees C (turn over the veg after 15 mins).
8. Ratatouille
9. Slice thinly and dehydrate, to either use later or eat as a snack.
10. Grate or dice, blanche in hot water and freeze to use another time.

Vegetarian recipes

1. Zuchinni pea fritters
2. Spicy courgette koftas
3. Courgette / zucchini souffle
4. Courgette lasagne Courgette lasagne
5. Creamy courgette soup
6. Courgette and lemon tagliatelle. Slice the courgette thinly, then fry in a little oil and garlic. Next add to the cooked tagliatelle (cook 90g raw tagliatelle per person), with a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and grate over some parmesan.
7. Melting cheese courgettes
8. Courgette risotto
9. Courgette/ zuchinni bread
10. Canneloni filling – grate the courgette and mix with ricotta or cottage cheese. Cover with a passata pasta sauce and bake
11. Pistou soup
12. Courgette and red onion bhajis

Sweet dessert courgette recipes

1. Spelt, zucchini and lemon cake
2. Gluten free courgette chocolate cake
3. Blueberry zucchini muffins
4. Courgette and lime cake
5. Courgette jam
6. Courgette lemon drizzle cake
7. Dairy free chocolate zucchini cupcakes
8. Banana zucchini muffins
9. Zucchini chocolate chip cookies

Courgette flower and leaf recipes

I have always wanted to learn how to cook courgette flowers and once I got going with it, I got a bit addicted. Most courgette / zucchini flower recipes involve deep frying them. But sometimes I tear them into pieces and sprinkle them over salads raw. I love the splash of colour they add to the salad leaves!

Always use the male flowers, unless you are picking a baby courgette with a flower attached. You can identify the male flowers because they have no courgette attached. I wait until they have closed up because the closed flower will keep the stuffing contained. Carefully pull the stem and stamen out of the flower at the bottom, leaving a circular opening. Give it a wash and then it is ready to be stuffed

1. Deep fried courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and herbs
2. Fried courgette flowers with honey and vinegar
3. Traditional Italian Fried Zucchini Blossoms
4. Finely chop a baby courgette, mix with a dollop of houmous and a chopped up mushroom. Stuff the prepared courgette flower with the mix. Then make up a simple batter of flour and water. Coat the courgette flower in the batter and then deep fry until crispy.
5. Make a simple batter as above and cover a washed baby courgette complete with flower still attached (but pull out the guts of the flower) and deep fry.

Take it one step further and check out this article with various recipes for courgette leaves: How to cook zucchini leaves

The post Love courgettes? Feast on these delicious ways to use them up! appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.