I’m off. Not quite fishing, but off to write my next book (yes!) so I figured I’d leave you with a bit of a teaser for Simplicious in my absence…
As you might have picked up from my blog, I’m fired up about waste. Mindless consumption. All of it, but also very specifically food waste.
I’ve always eaten the whole apple, core and all. My tiny apartment kitchen is littered with recycled jars filled with the drippings from last night’s chops (which I use to sweat my veggies, thus adding the right fats for absorbing the essential vitamins), the water from steaming my silverbeet (perfect for padding out soup) and the olive oil from the marinated feta my friend was going to chuck when I was at her place for lunch (ready-made salad dressing, people!).
My fridge is a rainbow of fermented vegetables made from the ‘ugly’ veggies my local markets can’t sell on. My freezer boasts a plastic bucket containing three fish carcasses that I retrieved from guests’ plates at a friend’s dinner party. They’ll be turned into fish stock, a litre of which I’ll send back to said friend as a thank you gift. And I should mention the carcass haul came after I’d been through my friend’s bin and pulled out a bag of still-sprightly celery leaves and asked if I could keep them . . . for making my Leftovers Pesto (the recipe for which is in Simplicious!).
Other things I do (as collated by my oft-bewildered friends and family):
- ‘She once collected sardine heads left over from a book shoot on my rooftop. She made them into a pizza topper for her dinner.’ – Joice (Jo, my assistant)
- ‘Coming over to cook dinner at my place, going through my veg drawer and turning all my old stuff into our dinner. She does this every Sunday night.’ Rick
- ‘I once witnessed her fishing a tea bag out of the office bin because it had only been used once.’ – Zoe, my business partner and I Quit Sugar’s CEO
- ‘Eating everyone’s fish skins and heads at our local fish restaurant. We now know to dump all bones and bits on her plate straight up.’ – Brad
Which is why I decided to write a book about how to eat your scraps. Sustainability has always been at the guts of my books, albeit camouflaged behind pretty recipes and shiny, smiley pictures of myself. My recipes use leftovers and secondary cuts of meat. I’ve used my sugar-free platform to promote doggie bags and, um, cauliflower, to the masses.
Plus, when you quit processed food you’re left with real, whole food only – which you have to cook, right?
This means you’re motivated (forced?) to cook, which means you save money and time, plus your health improves with exponential flourish. Which in turn means you stick to this way of eating and living because it feels so good.
And on and on the sustainable vibe flows…
I’ve written this book to get a conversation started.
Fire up below with your food waste tips and tricks and we’ll keep the momentum going.
