Good Day Organics - new BUAV approval!

I like to check out the latest BUAV leaping bunny certifications, and Good Day Organics were approved last month.  I'm especially excited to try them as they are based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is just down the road!  The products are called Mt. Raw Skincare - a tiny bit confusing that the name is different to the company's, but maybe that's just me.  The packaging looks great, with dark, moody tree graphics, and the cold pressed natural oil ingredients sound impressive.

The product range is quite small, but for a first look, I've ordered the Body/Face/Hair gift set, which contains:

MT. RAW HEMP BODY MOISTURISER (1OOML)
MT. RAW JOJOBA MILD FACIAL MOISTURISER (100ML)
MT. RAW ARGAN HAIR CARE (50ML)

I'll review as soon as I've tried them out!

Oh, before I go, I've just checked out the latest BUAV approval, which is called - erm- Yes! Nurse.  Their thing is hand cream, a product I don't often use, but nonetheless, I may well check them out at some point...

Zero Waste Week - Days 6 & 7 and round up

Days 6 and 7 were weekend days, of course, and we nearly always eat lunch at home.  I believe we had more rolls and houmous, so just using up what I'd bought for Friday's lunch.  For me, I'd say that Zero Waste Week was mostly successful, apart from the one blip I had when my plans went awry.  It wasn't easy though!  I have to say that surprised me, but then it's the first time I've made a concerted effort to make homemade food every day.  Anyway, here are my round-up Q&As:

 1. What was the favourite thing you learned / your greatest insight from Zero Waste Week?

I really learned that the key to zero waste is organisation.  And that's really why convenience foods have taken hold of us - I don't need to think or plan ahead if I can just nip down the canteen or out to the shops for something to eat. 

2. Do you think you reduced your overall landfill waste this week? If so, by how much?

Yes I did - by 4 sets of plastic sandwich containers.

 3. Are there any new habits (or resurrected habits!) you put in place this week that you intend to keep?  Yes, I will make greater efforts at weekly food planning, and also building in more variety whilst reducing waste.

4. Do you think you've saved any money during Zero Waste Week? If so, how much?

 I didn’t tot it up but I’d estimate about £10, which is not bad at all.

5. What helped you the most with achieving your Zero Waste Week goal(s)?

I’m not sure anything really helped that much – I just gone on with it...

6. If you could choose the theme for Zero Waste Week 2015, what would it be?

Recycling textiles/zero waste wardrobe, something along those lines.

7. Sum up your experience of Zero Waste Week in one sentence or add any other comments about the week you wish...

Ultimately, participating in Zero Waste Week was a positive experience.  Every time I buy a sandwich, I hate throwing away the wrapper, but breaking the convenience food habit (and any other wasteful habit, for that matter)really is worth the effort. 

Zero Waste Week - Day 5

For today's lunch, I managed to get home, and had a roll and some houmous.  The roll came in a plastic wrapped pack of 4, and the houmous came in a plastic pot, so it wasn't really zero waste, but it's still less plastic than buying an individual sandwich with single-use packaging.  But hey, it's an improvement.  Which is really what it's about, because it just isn't possible to achieve zero waste overnight, or even in the space of one week. 

Zero Waste Week - Day 4

Back on track today - I boiled 30g each of rice and brown lentils, with a bit of stock in the water for flavour, and added a boiled egg and some dressing.  I managed to remember to take it with me this morning, and found time to eat it.  Success.

But I'm not very inspired by my lunch choices, and a bit more variety is going to be necessary to keep it up on a longer term basis.  It's funny because I'd quite happily stick to only two types of sandwich in the normal run of things, but somehow that doesn't feel restrictive.

One more week day to go - I'm sure I can manage...

Zero Waste Week - Day 3

Oh dear.  Complete fail.  You ask yourself, how hard can it be to make your own lunch every day for a week.  Seriously, you say, how hard can it possibly be?  Not possible at all, it appears.  My big mistake was planning to come home for something to eat at lunchtime.  That didn't happen, and there isn't even a good story behind it.  I just ended up working through lunch and never had a chance to get home.  So I got a sandwich in town, which, in my defence, did not come in plastic - just a brown paper bag - so it could have been worse. 

Of course, tomorrow is another day, and I'm going to aim for: mixed together rice and lentils, and an egg. And some dressing. (I wish myself luck...)

Zero Waste Week - Day 2

Top tip of the day - remember to actually take the zero waste lunch with you when you walk out the door of a morning.  Luckily, I remembered in time.  Today it was a portion of lentil dahl - leftover from last night's tea - heated up and put into my thermos food flask, which is a great little device.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to do any rice or couscous, so I had to go to the shop for a bread roll.  Still, you learn as you go along.

Tomorrow's lunch: rice and lentils with salmon, and a splash of dressing...

Zero Waste Week - Day 1

Today's homemade lunch was - wholegrain rice, pesto and salmon.  The recipe, insofar as it can be called a recipe, was: 50g wholegrain rice, mixed with 33g pesto (I like to be precise with pesto as it's so high in calories), and one small fillet of salmon. 

Tomorrow's lunch will be: brown lentil dahl with preserved lemon, and an egg...

Zero Waste Week: 1-7 September 2014

Zero Waste Week starts tomorrow, and I've joined up with a pledge to take homemade lunches to work every day this week.  For Monday, it's going to be rice and pesto with salmon.  And I haven't planned anything after that.  Normally, lack of planning is the reason why this kind of venture fails for me.  I haven't prepared ahead, and so it's far easier to nip down to the canteen at work and buy stuff that is inevitably well wrapped in non-recyclable plastic.  But not this week!  I'm going to make it five straight days of making my lunch - will post each day's recipe as I go along.