Chocolate chip cookies

I bought an egg replacement powder a couple of weeks ago.
Yesterday I baked chocolate chip/nut cookies and they turned out great!
So I wanted to share the recipe with you guys:

Chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients
170 g dairy-free butter
2 dl brown sugar
1,5 dl cane sugar (or normal sugar if you like)
1 egg + one egg yolk = 2 teaspoon egg replacement powder +2,5 tablespoon water
5 dl flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
200 g of chocolate chips
Nuts of your preference

1. Set the oven on 170 degrees
2. Melt the butter and whip it together with the brown and the cane sugar.
3. Mix the egg replacement and the water in a small cup so that it blends, then add it to the butter and sugar mix.
4. Mix all the remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then combine the two bowls and make a firm dough. Mix in the chocolate.
5. Let the dough rest for approx 20 min in the refrigerator.
6. Make 25 small balls and spread them out on at least 2 baking sheets. Pro tip: if you want thick cookies don’t press out the balls too much, I let mine stay almost as balls.
7. Put them in the oven for approx 10-12 min.
8. Embrace your inner Cookie Monster (I’ve had 7 of them in less than 24 hours<333)

Drinking and great stories?

I am what I would call a natural abstainer. I don’t refrain from drinking from moral grounds or bad experiences, but because I don’t like the taste. For me it doesn’t make sense how you have to “get used” to it to enjoy it, so I’ve simply not tried to. And happy that way – non-alcoholic wine is faaaar better tasting!

You’re assumed to like alcohol (especially as a young adult) and to have ample experience. Sometimes that actually makes me feel left out or embarrassed that I don’t drink. And I hate that. How can drinking be an expectation?

When I went to gymnasium (our collage) my two best friends were an absolutist and a religious non-drinker. Drinking was never even on the agenda. So when people share stories of the time they got drunk and puked or that crazy thing they did intoxicated –  I have no story.

More than awkwardness on my part, it leads to some people viewing me as taking the high ground and thinking I’m better. Now they become protective of their drinking – claiming it to be the height of youth- or they clam up and become embarrassed.

It’s rarely a smooth thing. It is however just a choice. I don’t judge people for it, just I don’t want to be judged for my choices. I would advocate a white drinking style for anyone who cares to listen (because I do believe it to be healthier and safe for those around me), but I would not force it upon someone.

Advocate or not, I do sometimes which I had a crazy-drunk story just to be part of the group. Which is quite sad. So for that reason, I wish drinking weren’t a norm – but a simple choice. We’re getting closer to that though, and a lot more people are choosing a to go white. So at least I’m in good company.

Thoughts on a week of sustainability

As said, living zero-waste was not my thing. Mostly because of food limitations. I will post my week of waste in another post, but this is some thought on the week and waste-free living.

Here is why its not my thing:

– diy toothpaste feels wierd, and I’m not convinced of it’s effectiveness.  Buying better toothpaste is something I will absolutely do though.

– it’s super heavy to buy more metal and glass. Like beans which I eat a ton of. But, in some cases I will continue to prioritise it.

– buying bulk and package free is quite a hassle since it’s not available everywhere and more expensive. I wish it was easy and would love to lobby for stores to make it more available, but right now its not.

– it limits your options and you have to think a lot more of what you eat. It’s hard. And with all the other issues, it becomes too hard.

There are however some things I take with me:

– when buying fruit and veggies you don’t need plastic bags for them

– pretty much anyting can be properly recycled. I think I will remove my “normal” waste bin for only recyclable stuff.

– glass and metal is best, cardboard is ok, ditch the plastic. When possible.

– fresh bread is tasty and easy to buy

– you don’t need soy or other replacement products,  beans are awesome. Variations is gold though .

– frozen banana and lots of lemon makes awesome ice cream

– home made deodorant is easy and usable. Worth it.

 

I think my major issue with zero-waste is that is complicated. As my partner said after all that hassle: it doesn’t make much difference is we do this. I needs a lot of people. So the responsibility  should be on the stores to make it more available. They should be the ones who help reduce waste.

And I agree.

Me and my partner talked a bit about it this week and decided that for us it’s more important what is in the product than how its packaged.  We would rather eat healthy, near produced, ecological, chemical-free and socialy sustainable. That is more important than the packaging.

Especially socialy sustainable is important to me. I rather take the time this took and put it into researching how some foods are made so I can make an informed choice to buy what is in and behind the product.

And that was my thoughs on this waste free week.

 

Just walked past this…

..and it gives me more faith in a sustainable city. Recycle through someone is both recycling and supportive – unlike throwing it in the bin. Good work local city planing – and keep it up! 🙂

Day 6 of zero waste

Hi peeps! Today I have had a pretty chill day (: Started it by working out at the gym with the bf. We trained legs, so lots of both front and back squats some deadlifts etc. Tomorrow we are going to do a teamwod at the crossfit box near us, so I am very excited. We have just hanged around all day and enjoyed the lovely weather, had a big melon for lunch because it was all I had at his place. But I compensated it by having a big big dinner (: We barbecued lots of veggies such as carrot, paprika, corn and I also had beans, avocado and sweet potato. Delicious and filling ❤ Now we are actually on our way to get some ice cream in town. I’ll “cheat” a bit by also buying, but I mean, if I have a cone with ice cream and don’t take any napkins or plastic spoon, it’s kind of waste free. I promise not to through away any of it (;

Sliding in to the ice cream vendor like…

Day 4- the sloppy lunchbox

Today went good actually.  I started work a bit later so I had a loong breakfast and enjoyed some tv-series. I made a smoothie bowl consisting of frozen pineapple and banana plus some lime juice and zest. The taste was very refreshing and nice, so it’s a recommend recommend on this one (;  I also made it a bit nicer by carving out half of a pineapple and using it as my bowl. Zero waste, you know.

Todays lunchbox, which I did not take a picture of, was a sloppy mess of everything thrown into a glass container. Some rice, lentils, beans, tomato sauce, grated carrot and zucchini. It was ok, but could have been nicer. I’m just a bit too lazy/ have a lack of time to make something proper.

Right now I am enjoying a bowl of (also sloppy and not so picture friendly) whole grain pasta with kidney beans, tomato and a vegan red pesto. Nice and filling, but not that beautiful.

I also made a kind of banana bread this morning. It turned out good, but not perfect. I didn’t use any recipe and it was kind of hard to bake without bakbig powder or such. The ingredients I used were bananas, oats, mixed nuts, peanut butter, chia seeds and aquafaba.

Third day of our zero waste experiment

.. and I must admit that I don’t like it. Is so frustrating and limiting! The no plastic part is pretty easy, aside from qourn and soy products, but the no-cardboard part is killing me! No milk (or replacement), no frozen berries, no spontaneous bean pasta, no flour or sugar. Nothing. I can’t make a proper smoothie cuz I have no berries (only banana which I eat only cuz I can, but I actually don’t like the taste). If I want to make a nice sauce I have to use coconut and it is making me feel really unhealthy and after three days I’ve begun to dislike the taste. I can’t whip up a pie, or lasanga, or something like that because I would need stuff that comes in cardboard boxes.

So instead, I just sitt here and eat the banans I despise and the coconut I am beginning to hate. I can feel the health going out of me. This is not my thing. I’ve started asking myself what the point is: could this make a difference. And the answer when it comes to cardboard is: very little. I don’t mean to buy it in heaps, but I’ve come to realise I need it. Untill it is possible to acess those products I need to feel good about my self, zero-waste is not for me.

But, still four days to go. And we will se how it goes.

And, on the small plus side: I made som sweet potato soup and it was lovely, and a variation of my grandmothers seed crackers which is super tasty. And I meet my very best friend in the world – though that has nothing to do with zero-waste.

The Story Behind The (Almost) Homemade Subway Sandwich

Yesterday was a preeetty specked day!
I had work at the 4H stable from 8 am to 5 pm.
A funny thing was that there were lots of activity stations such as Zumba, orientation and cycling in the park where the 4H stable is located. This was organised for a  big crowd  of people and we contributed with horse and carriage rides. When all of the activity stations were closing down one of them donated a whole box of eco bananas to me and Erika. WIN!

After my work day I got a ride straight to my crossfit class which was between 6-7 pm.
After that me and my mom fed the animals at 4H their night snack.
Then we quickly drove to the grocery store to pick up something to eat. I thought this was a bit of a challenge because I was really hungry and had to find something filling but no waste to eat. I bought the biggest walnut/fig bread loaf that I could find from their bakery and had lots of the bananas that were donated to us earlier that day.
Then we drove approximately 40 mins to my uncles garage (he’s a mechanic) and left our car with him. My mom is leaving for Malaysia today, and will be away for 10 weeks. I don’t have a license, so it’s better that the car is being used at my uncles than if it would just stand and rust at our parking lot.

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After all the events yesterday, we got home around 9.30 pm. I had no time or energy to make something proper for today’s lunch.
So I used the other half of the bread and made a sandwich.
A real damn good sandwich, if I may.

Sweetpotato soup and seed crackers

Sweet potato soup recipe

1 large sweet potato
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
2 tablespoon coconut cream
Water- until you get the consistency you like (I like mine thick)

Peel and cut the potato in to cubes and put it in the oven for approx. 35 min in 200 C, or until the potato is soft. Mix the potatoes together with all the other ingredients until smooth and creamy.

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Seed crackers

2 dl oats
1dl walnuts
1 dl mixed seeds and nuts such as sunflower, pumpkin etc
0,5 dl chia seeds
2 tbs coconut oil
2 dl water

With a blender: grind the oats and walnuts into a meal.
Mix the meal with the rest of the ingredients without a blender to get a nice and chunky texture.
Let the dough set for 10 minutes, so that it can soak up the water properly.

Press it out flat and even (I reused an old baking sheet but you can also just put some oil on the bakestone), put it in the oven for about 40 minutes on 160 C.
Cut out the size of your crackers right after you have taken it out of the oven, before it has gone too stale.

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Enjoy!