No Waste? Say Yes!

In Holland, we throw away approximately 50 kilos of food per person, per year. What?! Of course, that cannot go on anymore. And that despite it is super easy to throw away less food. Follow these tips and start with implementing the no waste principle in your own kitchen!

The tips are being structured according to the principle of this website. The tips follow a simple framework, namely: buy smart, cook smart and store smart. https://www.milieucentraal.nl/voeding/voorkom-voedselverspilling/

Buy smart

• Make an inventory what you do and don’t have in your home. These products you don’t have to buy anymore.
• Only buy food which you really need, so look closely to what you’re about to eat that week and buy only that. Of course, a bag of chips also counts, as long as you’re eating it that week.
• Look carefully at the date of consumption. If you know that you’re going to eat a certain product, you can buy the pack of milk which isn’t the long-lasting. This stimulates you to really use it. If you know that you find this difficult, you can buy freezable products if possible.
• Use before isn’t the same as best before. On meat products often is a use before date. After this date, you must throw it away. But on other, less-perishable products there’s usually a best before date, which means that, as long as it doesn’t look green and smells weird, you can perfectly eat that bag of chips.

Cook smart

• Use reasonable quantities, so not with the motto ‘we will eat that later on this week’. Preferably, cook per day, and if you really can’t do that you can also make a little more, for example fried rice.
• Always have a stock of potatoes, pasta and rice, so that you always have these products. These products are fairly non-perishable and you will most likely use them a lot.

Stock smart

• Read the packaging carefully, then you’ll see how you can stock it the best way. Most products perish less quick when cooled, but eggs for example, you mustn’t put into the fridge.
• Adjust your fridge at 4 degrees, that appears to be the ideal temperature for keeping goods.
• First, use your leftovers before opening new packages. This way, you won’t have to throw away things so soon.

Besides this, you can always cook with your leftovers! So you can take one day a week as a leftover day on which you’re cooking creatively with all leftovers. In this article are a few tips on how to cook with leftovers.

Good luck!

Hotspot: Trust Amsterdam

A cafe where you can be the judge about what to pay. Is that too optimistic these days? Certainly not for cafe Trust in Amsterdam. The cafe operates according to the principle of Pay As You Feel. Do you feel good? Then pay with that in mind. Feeling down? Then you can pay a little less. We went to have a look!

From the inside, café Trust looks like you would expect. Different colored tables and chairs, nice tiles and quotes on the wall which make you happy. On the menu are really no prices, which was new to me. When I went to order I was being helped by a kind girl who asked whether I have been here before. I said no, so she asked me if she was allowed to explain their philosophy. Of course, I said yes, so she began to explain. She told me that they work with an open kitchen principle so that guests can see what they get and don’t get surprised. She also said that they work according to the ‘Happy for no Reason principle’. Which means that they want to make people happy, without having a special reason for doing so. They ask you to pay with your heart instead of your head. For me, this was a little too spiritual, but still, I like the thought behind it and I think this is an interesting concept for our economy.

We both ordered a ‘Hulk Smoothie’,  a smoothie with banana, apple, spinach and celery. Because we had been eating all day (and because I was a little sick and felt highly awkward for not ordering anything in the previous restaurant and only drank tea), was this the only thing we ordered. That was a pity because there are enough tasty things on the menu. From sandwiches and soups to tasty salads and fried egg on toast.

At the checkout, it was really the case that you could type in the amount you wanted to pay on the paying device. With some awkwardness, I typed in the amount we discussed just before. For a moment, the bad person in me awoke and I thought: what if I pay just one cent? Well, that’s possible, but still, the happiness and the philosophy worked well. Of course, there will always be people who misuse these kinds of things, but still, this store is always very crowded and it already exists for 5 years now! Who would have expected that? Possibly, an idea for all Dutch stores? In any case, it’s really something to think about.

Do you want to visit Trust one time? The café is located at the Albert Cuypmarkt and very accessible by any tram!