Free recycling guide for Western Australia

Free recycling guide for Western Australia

The other day I went to a recycling info presentation. So many people are confused with what they can and can’t recycle so I made a little list/guide that you can stick near/on your recycling bin, or keep on your phone to check!

You can view and download it here: WA recycling guide

Please note: what you can and can’t recycle will vary from council to council, so it is best to double check this…

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Creamy, delicious, homemade almond milk recipe coming your way!

Tools you need:

• High powered blender/ food processor (I used a thermomix) – if you don’t have a high powered blender, you could try making almond milk with nut butter and water – blend ½ cup nut butter with 3 cups water and some maple syrup!
• Nut milk bag or cloth mesh bag

Making your own plant milk is also an easy way to reduce your waste if you scoop and buy your almonds plus dates from a bulk food store in a jar/container from home. Not only is this a great option for a milk to reduce your waste for this but it is also an option where no animals are harmed in the process.

You can also replace the almonds with other types of nuts –  such as cashews, macadamias or hazelnuts for a different flavour.

Making your own plant milk can also be great fun! You can experiment with flavours by adding things like cocoa powder for a chocolate flavour, or some frozen or fresh strawberries, or some vanilla paste/essence for vanilla. I like to add a touch of turmeric, some cinnamon, and cardamon when I warm up the milk for a delicious wintery drink.

RECIPE:

serves about 1-3 people. keeps for 3-4 days when refrigerated and stored in an airtight container.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup raw almonds
• 3 cups filtered water
• 2 dates that have been soaked in hot water (optional) (can subsitute for 2 TBSP maple syrup)
• a pinch of salt

Steps:

1. Soak the almonds in just enough water to cover them all for 24-48 hours.
2. Drain the almonds and rinse them with water.
3. Blend the almonds with 3 cups of filtered water, the dates, and salt in a high powered food processor/blender (I used a thermomix).
4. Strain the mixture through a nut milk bag or a cloth mesh bag. Don’t throw away the pulp! You can use the pulp in baking, bliss balls, and for raw desserts 🙂
5. Store the almond milk in the fridge in an air-tight glass bottle or container for up to 3 days.

Easy peasy. You can adjust the sweetness and saltiness to your preference!

Let me know how you go making this recipe in the comments down below ❤

xx

Neli

See how you can make your own gluten-free bread here!

One of the struggles of gluten-free bread is buying it plastic free. Usually, if you are able to eat gluten, it is easy to go to your local baker, take your own bread bag or get your bread in a brown paper bag – and you have plastic-free bread.

A way you can reduce your plastic, and waste in general, is by making things from scratch – that is one thing the ol’ oldies before us definitely did well. So, I think it is about time we go back to our roots, channel our inner nans in the kitchen, and start cooking/baking our favourite store-bought items from scratch.

In all seriousness … though I am not your nan, I do have a pretty sweet recipe for you. It is probably the best tasting gluten-free bread I have ever had and though it is denser than bread made with wheat flour,  it has a beautiful buttery flavour to it – you HAVE to try it. Whether you eat gluten or not, this is a bread you will love.

Best enjoyed within the first two days after baking (because freshly baked bread always tastes best).

*  this recipe is adapted from Dr. Bergs healthy bread recipe that you can find here.  *

RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:

Flour mixture:

• 2 cups almond meal/flour
• 2 cups arrowroot/tapioca flour
• 2/3 cup coconut flour
• 2 tsp. sea salt

Yeast Mixture:

• 4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 ½ cups water
• 4 tsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp. black chia seeds (optional)
• 4 tbsp. psyllium husk powder

Coating:

• 3 Tbsp Soy milk ( alternatives: any other plant milk or aquafaba)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Whisk together the flour mixture ingredients in a large bowl.
2. In warm water (be careful that it is not too hot or the yeast will not react! About 40°C is what you want) add the maple syrup, then the yeast. Let sit until the foam layer has formed on the top [see photos] – if it hasn’t done so in 10 minutes, then the water was most likely too hot or too cold, so try again.
3. Mix together the chia seeds with the psyllium husk powder and then add into the yeast mixture. Whisk until it thickens and becomes sticky.
4. Then pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients. I use a thermomix to knead the dough from here on for about 2 minutes – but you can easily do it by hand, mix the mixture with a wooden spoon until it comes together, then take it out and knead it. Knead the dough until it sticks together nicely – it will be stickier than most bread dough usually is!
5. Then, roll the dough into a ball and place in a bowl with a damp cloth over the top. Let it sit for an hour to rise.
6. Preheat oven to 180°C (fan forced).
7. Place in a lined bread-shaped baking tray, (or alternatively you can roll it into bread roll shapes and place on a flat baking tray).
8. Coat bread with soy milk (or any plant milk), you can also use aquafaba (chickpea water) for this. This is optional; it will just help the bread become more golden on the outside!
9. Bake bread in the oven for 35-40 minutes (baking time will vary depending on the size of the bread, so check it every 15 minutes!) until it is golden on the outside. I also like to make a tic-tac-toe cut on the bread by doing long diagonal lines across the top and then going the opposite way to make the pattern [see photos] – again, optional!
10. When it is ready, take it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack before cutting it.
11. You’ve done it – your nan would be so very proud of you right now – and if not, well, I sure am. Enjoy!

xx

Neli

Find out more about why you should quit plastic here

I recently watched the documentary ‘A Plastic Ocean’ (a must watch by the way) and also attended a beach clean-up at my local beach. Though I have been consciously aware of the harmful effects of plastic, it really hit home the other week. I was inspired to research and find out more about plastics, and more about plastic-free living – so that’s what I have been doing, and I want to share it all with you. I hope that this series will provide you with simple solutions to help you quit plastics so that you can live a happier, healthier, and more planet-friendly life 🙂

So.. firstly, let’s talk about why quitting plastic is so important…

Currently, we produce 300 billion kilograms of plastic. In the last ten years, we have produced MORE plastic than the whole of the last century. More than 8 billion kilograms of plastic ends up in our oceans and it is predicted that in 32 years, in 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than there is ocean life.

I went through my whole childhood not even blinking an eye at the thought of food wrapped in plastic, or when using plastic cups, bags, straws, cutlery, bottles, etc.

Plastic is such a widely used material because it is very durable – but because it is so good at being durable, it is also indestructible. This means that it will never biodegrade; never break down. It will only ever break apart into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces until they are about only a one-one thousandth of a one-one thousandth of a millimeter. Scary, huh? What is even scarier, is that all these pieces of plastic we use need to go somewhere – putting them in the trash, unfortunately, doesn’t make them magically disappear.

So, how can we call plastic items ‘disposable’ when they never go away? Where do they go? …

The answer is into the ocean. Washing up on small islands – destroying the health of communities and villages. Into the stomachs of sea animals, which leads to many diseases and death as a result. And finally… plastic ends up in the stomachs of us, humans.

Did you know that these toxic chemicals in microplastics are associated with serious health conditions… such as cancer? And when fish or mammals consume these microplastics, the toxins release into their fatty tissues?

Toxic chemicals. Yikes.

Micro-plastics have been found in many of the sea animals that humans consume, and so humans basically consume the toxins that have dissolved into the fatty tissues of these sea animals.

Meaning, if you eat seafood, there is a definite chance you’re also eating harmful chemicals from plastics.

While there is evidence that seafood is not necessary for a healthy diet [15], there is not yet enough evidence to show the long-term effects that plastics are having on our bodies, as it is still considered an emerging factor of concern.

We do, however, have some research showing the currenthealth implications that the use of plastics has on our health, including associations with:

• Cardiovascular, liver, urologic, genital and endocrine (hormone-related) diseases [14] :
  • Endocrine disruption and Infertility in humans, from the chemical BPA, found in plastics [1]
  • Lower quality of sperm in males [4,6]
  • Increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and liver dysfunction in humans [2]
  • Cardiovascular disease and hypertension [3]
  • Developmental and reproductive toxic effects [12]
• Genital, prostatic, endometrial, ovarian and breast diseases from affected biochemical and toxicogenomic mechanisms [13]
• Affects childhood behavioural outcomes [5]
• Development of the brain [7]
• Asthma and allergies [8, 9, 10, 11]

And lots, lots more…. but I think you get the point.

However, it is not only eating seafood that puts us at risk of getting toxic chemicals in our systems. Other ways that these chemicals from plastics transport into our body include from:

• Plastic food containers
• Food wrapped in plastic
• Cosmetics and personal care products
• Flooring and wall coverings
• Medical devices (tubing and blood gags)
• Varnishes

( [1] and more info can be found on http://www.plasticoceans.org website )

For all these reasons, it is urgently important that we reduce our plastic use – or better yet eliminate it. For this reason, I will be doing a Planet-Friendly series; all about simple ways that you can reduce your plastic use and waste in your daily life.

Join me in saying no to plastic! Together we can make a difference to our oceans, our health, our planet – and most importantly our home, and the home of our future generations.

xx

Neli

The research papers + references:

1. Rochester, J.R. (2013). Bisphenol A and human health: a review of the literature. Reproductive Toxicology 42132-55.
2. Ropero, A.B., Alonso-Magdalena, P., García-García, E., Ripoll, C., Fuentes, E., Nadal, A. (2008). Bisphenol-A disruption of the endocrine pancreas and blood glucose homeostasis. International Journal. Androl. 31, 194-9.
3. Shankar, A., S. Teppala, C. Sabanayagam. (2012). Bisphenol A and Peripheral Arterial Disease: Results from the NHANES. Environmental Health Perspectives 120 pp: 1297-1300.
4. Meeker, J.D., S. Ehrlich, T.L. Toth, D.L. Wright, A.M. Calafat, A.T. Trisini, Ye, R. Hauser. (2010). Semen quality and sperm DNA damage in relation to urinary bisphenol A among men from an infertility clinic. Reprod. Toxicology 30 532–539.
5. Braun, J. M., K. Yolton, K.N. Dietrich, R.Hornung, X. Ye, A.M. Calafat, B.P. Lanphear.(2009). Prenatal bisphenol A exposure and early childhood behaviour. Environmental Health Perspective, 117, 1945-1952.
6. Rozati, R., P.P. Reddy, P Reddanna, R. Mujtaba. (2002). Role of environmental estrogens in the deterioration of male factor fertility Fertility and Sterility 78 Pages: 1187-1194. 
7. Miodovnik A, A. Edwards, D.C. Bellinger, R Hauser. (2014). Developmental neurotoxicity of ortho-phthalate diesters: Review of human and experimental evidence. Neurotoxicology 41 112-122.  
8. Bornehag, C.G., J. Sundell, C.J. Weschler, T. Sigsgaard, B. Lundgren, M. Hasselgren, L. Hägerhed-Engman. (2004). The Association between Asthma and Allergic Symptoms in Children and Phthalates in House Dust: A Nested Case-Control Study. Environmental Health Perspectives. 112 1393–1397.
9. Jaakkola, JJK; Verkasalo, PK; Jaakkola, N. (2000). Plastic wall materials in the home and respiratory health in young children 90 pp: 797-799.
10. Kimber, I., Dearman, R.J. (2010). An assessment of the ability of phthalates to influence immune and allergic responses. Toxicology 271, 73–82.
11. Tsai, M. J. P. L. Kuo, and Y.C. Ko. (2012). The association between phthalate exposure and asthma. Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences 52 528-536.
12. Skakkebaek NE, Rajpert-De Meyts E, Main KM. (2001). Testicular dysgenesis syndrome: an increasingly common developmental disorder with environmental aspects. Human Reproduction 16 972–978.
13. Singh, S. and S.S.L Li .(2011). Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects. Gene 494 85-9.
14. Singh, S. and S.S.L. Li (2010) Phthalates: Toxicogenomics and inferred human diseases Genomics 97 148-157.
15. Nutritionfacts.org (2015, August 13). Food as medicine: Preventing and Treating the Most Common Diseases with Diet [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0IhZ-R1O8g

For more research papers check out:

https://www.plasticoceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Plastic-Oceans-High-Level-Science-Summary-Version-4.pdf

https://www.plasticoceans.org

https://nutritionfacts.org