I just got the recipe for this vegan moussaka from bbc goodfood. The link to it is here. It’s a really good recipe and I would highly recommend it. I only swapped the dried mint to thyme because I didn’t have any. I also roasted the sweet potato instead of boiling it!

View this post on Instagram

🍠🥒🍆🍄Recipe no.2: vegan moussaka 🍄🍆🥒🍠 I got this recipe from @bbcgoodfood and it's so good, would really recommend it! Basically you layer roasted aubergine, courgette and sweet potato slices with lentil/mushroom/tomato sauce and finish with vegan bechamel sauce on top. I also found it quite easy to make given I'm usually quite lazy when it comes to cooking! It's definitely a meal that uses up more ingredients, but you do end up with quite a lot of leftovers 😊🌿 #vegan #recipes #moussaka #mealideas #courgettes #aubergine #sweetpotato #veggie #vegetarian #stayathome #lowimpact #lowimpactmovement #yum

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Apr 5, 2020 at 5:20am PDT

With the current global pandemic and lockdown, food delivery slots are difficult to get and government advice is to reduce food-shopping trips as much as possible. So I’ve been trying to make the ingredients I have stretch as far as possible and avoid wasting food when it comes to cooking. I thought I’d post recipes for some of the meals I’ve made over the past couple of weeks. Some of these recipes are super easy and use minimal ingredients for when supplies are low and some use up more veg/are more of a treat meal.

View this post on Instagram

hope everyone is doing ok and staying safe during the lockdown! I'm going to be posting some recipes on my blog of meals I've made over the past couple of weeks so watch this space :-) I've been trying to use up as much as I can to avoid having to go food shopping often. Some of the meals are super easy and don't use many ingredients (when I've been low on stuff). Some meals used more ingredients but usually make lots of leftovers for other days 🌿🍠Here's recipe no. 1 🍠🌿 Tempeh, sweet potato and spinach curry (made with @tomsherlocked ) We made this recipe up as we went along because we were trying to use up some old veg. I'd never tried tempeh in a curry before but the plain one I ordered got substituted for a curried one. Definitely will do this again as it actually worked really well. The ingredients were: onion, green pepper, fennel, sweet potato, garlic, ginger, curry powder, spinach, a tin of tomatoes and coconut milk powder, + rice and flatbreads on the side! Will put more details up on my blog, link in bio soon :-) #vegan #mealideas #curry #homemade #sweetpotato #tempeh #veggie #stayathome

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Apr 3, 2020 at 7:36am PDT

I tried making some Kimchi as I thought it looked fairly simple to do after reading some online recipes. For those who don’t know, kimchi is cabbage fermented in salt and flavourings such as chilli, garlic and ginger. The three primary ingredients are cabbage (traditionally napa), salt and korean chilli pepper flakes (Gochugaru).

View this post on Instagram

I tried making kimchi for the first time ever 🥬🌿 was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here's the basic recipe/instructions I followed: step 1: chop up a Chinese cabbage, carrots and spring onions step 2: wash cabbage step 3: salt cabbage and leave for an hour step 4: rinse cabbage and add carrots crushed garlic, chilli paste and spring onions (was supposed to add ginger too but forgot to buy any) step 5: mix together and put into jars leave at room temperature for 24 hrs to ferment, then store in the fridge 🥕 blog post coming soon with more details 😊 #fermentedfoods #kimchi #homemade #lowimpactmovement #vegan #veggie

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Feb 24, 2020 at 12:16pm PST

I love kefir, but since going vegan I’ve found that its not easy to get hold of a dairy-free one. Although kefir is often made from milk, kefir can be made from other drinks such as juice or even water.

View this post on Instagram

reculturing some oat milk kefir 🌿🌾 blog post soon to follow on how to make your own kefir! I used a @madmilliekits Kefir kit #kefir #fermentedfoods #vegan #oatly

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Feb 18, 2020 at 11:02am PST

Thought I’d try making a body scrub made out of used coffee grounds. I drink coffee quite a few times a day often using instant but occasionally I like to make myself one with freshly ground beans and an aeropress! I saw a post on instagram about reusing coffee grounds for a coffee srub so thought I’d give it a try. I used to buy body scrubs a lot and they can be really expensive, but doing it this way is cheap as I would be throwing away the the main ingredient (in the food waste) so essentially it’s free!

View this post on Instagram

I made a body scrub from used coffee grounds ☕ + coconut oil -- super cheap and easy to make (will put more info about how to make it on my blog) 🌿 #bodyscrub #diy #zerowaste

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Oct 12, 2019 at 1:37pm PDT

I love this meal. The satay sauce is what makes it, don’t miss that out! (+ the hummus - I used the one I made in my recent blog post)

View this post on Instagram

satay-veg bowls: roasted sweet potato, broccoli, onion and beetroot with couscous, homemade satay sauce and crunchy salad + hummus I made the other day 🌿 #vegan #veganrecipes #sweetpotato #satay #hummus #lowimpact #homemade

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Oct 15, 2019 at 9:46am PDT

I bought some dried chickpeas from For Earth’s Sake to make hummus with - finally got round to making some. This hummus has a really nice flavour - slighty different to one made from canned chickpeas. Here’s the recipe:

View this post on Instagram

made some hummus from dried chickpeas (cooked in boiling water for an hour), tahini, garlic, lemon juice, salt and olive oil 🌿 #homemade #hummus

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Oct 13, 2019 at 12:10pm PDT

I tried marinating and baking tofu to go on top of this stir fry and it worked a treat! Got the idea from veganrecipes.com who was promoting @the_clumsy_vegan on instagram. (Serves two)

View this post on Instagram

stir fry I made the other day: baked soy-sauce-marinated tofu with vermicelli noodles & stir-fried cabbage, peppers + broccoli (topped with nigella seeds, sesame seeds, basil and spring onions), recipe will be on my blog 🌿 #vegan #veganrecipes #veganfood #stirfry #noodles #tofu #midweekmeals #lowimpact

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Oct 8, 2019 at 12:08pm PDT

I tried making a homemade eyeshadow out of coconut butter, arrowroot powder, cocoa powder and cinnamon.

I made a zerowaste shampoo and condition from bicarbinate of soda and apple cider vinegar (acv).

I was pretty happy with this food shop. I got a lot of veg without packaging

I made ‘scruffy aubergine lasagne’ - one of the recipes from Jamie Oliver’s new veg book! It involved steaming aubergine and onion in a pan - I’ve never cooked these like this before, so it was fun to try something new and it tasted delicious. If you want the recipe, you can get it through this link I served it with gem lettuce and a giant raddish!

At the moment I seem to buy fruit and vegetables without an exact plan of how to use it, then I spend most of the week working out how to use the ingredients. This cauliflower I bought at the beginning of the week went from being a cauliflower cheese at the beginning of the week to a cauliflower curry by the end. (I’m still yet to work out a good vegan cauliflower cheese recipe) I’m glad I went for the curry though because it was really good. It was a bit of extra effort to make the parathas but it was well worth it as they were sooo delicious! They are basically flatbreads fried in olive oil. Here is the recipe:

Cottage pie seems like one of those meals that’s a lot of effort to make (for me it is anyway!), but this one I made was a lot easier than I expected. I used a tin of green lentils instead of mince and it tasted delicious! I sprinkled some cheese on top because I had some slightly old cheese that I’m slowly using up, but this meal vegan otherwise (I’m currently trying to go towards a more vegan diet).

I got the recipe for these cookies from lovingitvegan.com. I really fancied some cookies but am trying to reduce the amount of dairy I consume (for the environment) so I thought I’d try this recipe. It was super easy and they tasted soooo good.

I made some wholemeal bread the other week - it came out really well so thought I’d put the recipe up here. I used Dove’s farm’s traditional homemade bread recipe (the recipe below is taken from this link but I’ve added in a few of my own comments!)

I made another homemade cleaning spray for the bathroom as I ran out of my previous one!

I got this recipe from the green roasting tin by Rikmini Iyer. The great thing about this recipe is that you can chop up your veg, stick them in the oven to roast for 45 mins and get on with something else while it cooks.

After being surprised with how well my blusher turned out, I thought I’d make a homemade translucent face powder too. It was so quick to make as it didn’t require any oven-drying or crushing with a pestle and mortar.

I made this meal when I was on holiday in the lake district and everyone liked it! My mum came up with the recipe though - thought I should mention that on here and not take all the credit ;)

I thought I’d try making some blusher just for a bit of fun and because I’ve been struggling to find makeup with ecofriendly packaging! I used beetroot (I had half a bunch of beetroot that needed using up), arrowroot powder and a tiny amount of cocoa powder. Here’s how I made it…

I recently went on holiday to the lake district. I went to a plastic-free market in Keswick, climbed some beautiful mountains (Skiddaw and Great Gable), ate some delicious food and bought an alpkit down jacket that would have gone to landfill.

I made cannellini bean balls and mash with onion gravy (for two)- another recipe from Miguel Barclay’s vegan one pound meals.

I tried this recipe from Miguel Barclay’s vegan one pound meals book to use up some tofu. This recipe looked good because it had quite different flavours to the stir-fry I made the day before with the other half of the pack of tofu.

I made this veggie recipe up! It might serve 3 or 4 people depending on how hungry you are.

This DIY cleaning spray was so simple to make! It used the following ingredients…

The first washing-up liquid I made came out a bit watery and lumpy, didn’t bubble and left glasses a bit smeary so I decided to try a different recipe.

I got a massive reduced bag of spinach to use up so was looking for a recipe to use it up… I found Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne when browsing the veggie section of Jamie Oliver’s website.

I bought the vegan one pound meals cookbook the other day by Miguel Barclay and he has a recipe for aubergine bao buns which I thought I’d try as I had an aubergine to use up. He makes the actual buns from scratch but I had some frozen ready-made ones that I bought a while ago from m&s that needed eating up before they went out of date,so I just used the recipe for the filling.

I made a zero-waste swap from kitchen roll to machine-washable, reusable cloths which I’m storing in a jar which I lost the lid of lol. The cloths were old cleaning ones which I don’t use anymore so thought I’d use them for this! I’ve also read about people cutting up old tea towels or clothes and used them as a kitchen roll substitute.

I was inspired with two different recipes for this meal: The ‘balti pie’ recipe in the MOB veggie cookbook and Izzy Hossak’s ‘olive oil pastry’ from ‘The Savvy Cook’. 🥕

View this post on Instagram

zerowaste shopping at @forearthssakeuk in cranleigh 🌿 one of the best zerowaste shops I've been to 😊 (next time I'll take my own containers!)

A post shared by ella (@rhubarbandrubberplants) on Sep 24, 2019 at 12:23pm PDT

I made homemade pea falafel, hummus and wholemeal flatbreads!

The other day i bought these palm fibre scrubbing brushes and a wooden cleaning brush from muji!
I’m trying to buy biodegradable cleaning utensils so the impact on the environment won’t be so bad when they get thrown away! I also bought some soap nuts from Lakeland. Never tried these before but have seen that they can be used to make diy cleaning products or to wash laundry! Only shame was that they came in plastic packaging inside the canvas bag it came in which I didn’t realise when I bought them. :(

This summer I went on holiday to Perranporth in Cornwall for a week. I went to a really nice place did veggie + vegan takeaway food called the yard street food kitchen.

There are a lot of middle eastern/Moroccan vegan/vegetarian recipes I’ve been wanting to try that use preserved lemons, so I thought I’d try doing some of my own. I used the recipe on BBC goodfood for guidance. 🍋

One of my favourite pasta recipes! Made this one up myself. 🍅

I got some super pretty locally grown flowers from Trevilly farm shop in Cornwall. 🏵️🌼🌺🌸

I tried making some granola the other day because we ran out and I wondered, as I was throwing away the plastic packaging it came, how to reduce packaging consumption! So I thought I’d try making my own using advice from this article on epicurius.com. 🌰🥜🌾

I made a DIY scrubbing powder for difficult cleaning and dishwashing after reading about them online. It is 50% bicarb, 50% salt + I mixed in few drops of orange and eucalyptus essential oil to make it smell nice. I also read somewhere that the orange helps to cut through grease 🍊🌿 Will let you know whether it works next time I have something like burnt roasting tray to wash-up! I think all you do is sprinkle over some of the powder, add water, then scrub. Normally I would just use washing-up liquid + a scourer before to clean something like that, but the DIY washing-up liquids I’ve switched to are a bit gentler so felt like I needed something extra for more difficult cleaning✨

I bought some v pretty fruit and veg from my local market. It was good to be able to get such a variety of groceries without plastic packaging! It all came to around £10 which I didn’t think was too bad. Will try to use my local markets more in the future 🍑🍋🥒

Last night I made veg + paneer curry to use up old ingredients and served it with chipatis, coriander, brown rice + mango chutney.

My partner and I don’t have a dishwasher so we get through a lot of washing up liquid! I was concerned about the amount of plastic bottles we were getting through and about the harsh chemicals in some of the washing-up liquids we were using. From what I’ve read online, making your own is cheap and better for the environment so i thought I’d try it.

Last Tuesday I came across a zero-waste stall called ‘Twin Larder’ at my local farmer’s market. They sold bulk washing-up liquid, shampoo, hand soap + vinegar. It was the first time I’ve seen anywhere local to me selling refills! They also sell also other products like natural skincare/toiletries in reusable or paper packaging, beeswax paper, metal lunchboxes, produce bags etc.

Recently I made jarred pepper, tomato, pesto and goat’s cheese tarts with red onion and mixed bean salad (inspired by jamie oliver’s mediterranean veg tarts recipe). It was a super easy + delicious veggie dinner. Recipe is below 🍅

Hey everyone. This is Rhubarb & Rubber Plants - my blog documenting my journey towards a zero-waste lifestyle 🌿. Bookmark this blog, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow me on Instagram - @RhubarbandRubberPlants