There's something Bea mentioned about zero waste grocery shopping in her "Tips" section that has always stuck with me. She encourages to make the food that you cannot find in bulk. As I was grocery shopping for my apartment for the first time, I kept this idea in mind, and chose foods that came in glass jars rather than plastic (jelly, salsa, etc...) in hopes that I could reuse those jars in the future.
I finished off my salsa the other day, and realized that I could definitely make my own. I started off with peeling off the label from the jar, scrubbing all the sticky glue off (vinegar works great), and washing it thoroughly.
Then I got a recipe for salsa from a family friend. The whole process of making the salsa took about 30 minutes. I think technically it's pico de gallo because I didn't cook it. But I prefer the thin salsa to the chunky anyways. I would give you the recipe, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to share. It's essentially just throwing some tomato, cilantro, garlic, red pepper, jalapenos and garlic salt in a blender. Not difficult to make at all. I found a similar recipe here, and this one doesn't even use a blender! What's great about making your own salsa is that you can add and delete and ingredients you want, make it more spicy, less spicy, more thin, more chunky, etc. You can pretty much customize it, unlike when you buy it in the store.
So yes, it takes longer to make than picking up a jar and placing it in your buggy. But when you make it yourself, you know what your eating, you know how it's being prepared, you're reducing waste, and you're making it strictly to your taste buds. To me, it's really self-satisfying. Although, I know I find self-satisfaction in strange things.
I must admit, I did buy canned diced tomatoes. Next time, I plan on using whole tomatoes, but I was scared to not follow the directions the first time! But now I'm more brave. The rest of my ingredients were either bought in either reusable spice jars (dried cilantro and red pepper), reuseable glass jars (jalapenos - I plan to use whole jalapenos once the jarred ones run out), or fresh in my reusable mesh bags illustrated below (the garlic is mixed in with the onions). These mesh bags have worked great so far. I used them at Target, and the woman who checked me out didn't even react strangely to them. I'll admit, it was a bit difficult for her to tell the fruits apart because the bags aren't very transparent, so you may want to get thinner ones. But to be honest, I wouldn't change my purchase for more transparent ones. I can tell these can handle weight and will last a long time. I plan on buying some more cause I only have four. I got these! I found these that seem like you can identify the produce easier. Also, there are a ton of more options at reuseit.com. You can also just google "reusable produce bags," and you'll receive a ton of options.
I've gotten off topic of this salsa, but I'm really excited about those produce bags embarrassingly enough. The point of it is, I reused my old salsa jar for the salsa I made! And it has worked great, and I'm sure it will continue to work great for quite a long time.
I made it last weekend, and it's already halfway gone (my batch made a ton - the other half was stored in some tupperware - I need another glass jar!) . It has been quite the hit around my apartment.
My next step: buy produce at the Farmer's Market instead of Target, experiment with properly cleaning the produce (I'll test it out then show you guys - comes along with a really neat article I'll link you to), and finding someway to buy tortilla chips without that plastic bag. I think that last one will prove to be challenging.
**Update: In my defense with those tomato cans, I recycled one and used the other for that makeup brush holder I was wanting! By the way, this is all the makeup I own (besides some lipstick). Just what I need, no excess. I'm excited to see what makeup alternatives I can find once I run out.
Also some valuable information: feel free to click the blue (which are mostly used) and green words on my page. They'll link you to other pages I want to show you; however, watch out for the green underlined words. It's this awful advertisement strategy that I can't get rid of. I'll keep trying to rid my page of them, but until then: don't press the underlined words, but check out the words that are only colored.
