Bite sized wisdom: forgetting to breathe

Before our ancestors left footprints on the ground, they surfed currents of our oceans. In the deep blue darkness they breathed, lived and thrived. Little did they know that millions of years later their predecessors will destroy their homes.

How exactly? A study published in the Global Biogeochemical Cycles detected that by 2030 the worlds oceans will experience a loss in oxygen. This means that fish stocks will die as it gets harder to breathe. Certain parts of the oceans will become barren.

The scary part is that it’s nothing new. We know that 250 million years ago, 90% of Earth’s species were killed in the ‘Great Dying‘. Those events were linked to low levels of oxygen in oceans. While the Earth did recover, it took an entire five million years for oxygen levels to be replenished.

Unfortunately, our love for growth is causing climate change and global warming. While we develop our shores, we also kill forests, raise temperatures and utilize resources like we won’t need them tomorrow.

As Hermes Trismegistus once said “As above, so below”. If our oceans are a mirror, then they’re definitely reflecting our ugliness. Modern civilization is wrecking havoc on Earth. Our hunger for more raises temperatures and leads to mass extinctions.

After millions of years of evolution, a recovery and new beginnings, we are back to where we started – on the verge of a new ‘Great Dying’. Can these findings be a call to action or are we too far gone to care?

Regardless, we must try to reverse the course of history. However small the action or the change, we need to be headed in that direction. Whether it means going vegetarian for a month, buying locally grown or organic, starting somewhere is a good idea.

Since no man is an island, having a team around you to inspire and motivate might help. For me, that team is made of like-minded individuals. Entrepreneurs, doers, appreciators of simplicity, and believers in the magic of nature. These individuals understand that Earth is our home. Not just the shores, but also the oceans. Though we don’t live in the waters anymore, we still need them.

We need to be realistic, but should stay optimistic. To help change our oceans, we must start by improving things on land: planting more vegetation and lowering CO2 emissions. Wasting less food and water, and keeping our soils rich in nutrients to support growth.

If you have tips to share, please do. We need a lot of people who care!
In the meantime, just keep swimming, just keep breathing.

Cheers to finding our inner Nemo!
Hokuma

It’s Midweek Delicacy Time: Chicken Coconut Curry

Our main purpose here is to eliminate food waste. Even with the best intentions this can be difficult. With our busy lives, sometimes even planning our meals still doesn’t prevent us from having to throw out rotten vegetables. These days I am often traveling and come home to veggies starting to look a little wrinkled. Believe it or not you can create some pretty delicious meals with these bruised beauties. Check out this beautiful Thai/Indian inspired dish I made using veggies on their last leg. The best part of this dish is how easily adaptable it is.

As I was creating this dish I started thinking of other ways I could put this meal together that would be just as wonderful. Instead of chicken using fish and adding butternut squash would keep it seasonal and healthy. To make it easy for you to be creative, I listed which ingredients were optional and provided tips for where to add your add-ins.

This dish has a lovely texture and is very fragrant. Enjoy it with rice and see if you can stop going back for more.

Happy eating friends!

Ingrid

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 lb boneless, skinless Chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tbsp Conola oil
1 Onion, grated on large holes of box grater
1 tbsp grated fresh Ginger
2 cloves Garlic, finely minced
1 fully ripe Tomato, diced or 1 1/2 cups packaged diced tomatoes
1 tsp Garam Masala (can be substituted with a combo of cinnamon, cumin, coriander & nutmeg)
1/4 tsp Chili or Cayenne powder
1/2 tsp Salt
freshly ground Black Pepper
1 can Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Basil, lightly sliced
1/4 cup Water
1 Red or Yellow Pepper, seeded and cubed (optional)
1-2 fresh Chili peppers, cut in half lengthwise and deseed (optional)

Preparation

Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and swirl in the oil. When the oil is heated, add the onion, ginger and garlic. Turn the heat to medium-low and let the aromatics cook slowly. Saute until very fragrant and lightly golden, about 5 minutes.
Add the tomato and sauté for another 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Use your spatula to smash the tomatoes a bit, and break them up. It should start to look like a paste. Tip: If you are using a tomato starting to go use 1/2 cup of packaged chopped tomatoes as well. It will add the needed juice to create the paste consistency.
Add the red/yellow pepper, garam masala, chili powder, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and cook for 2 minutes. Turn the heat to medium-high. Tip: When you add the seasonings add any extra vegetables you may want to include.
Pour in the coconut milk and the water.
Once the coconut milk is mixed in add in the chicken, chili pepper and basil. When the mixture comes to a good boil, lower heat and bring to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Tip: For fish, add in the basil, and chili first then bring mixture to a boil before adding the fish. To not over cook the fish check it after 4 minutes.

Skipping for change

In the wealthy city of Washington, DC, to join the top 1% you’ll need to earn 555K. With so many of us in the city making money, it seems we’d have more to give to others. Yet homelessness is increasing. Spend a few minutes in front of the World Bank and the IMF, and you’ll find a number of huddled individuals earnestly waiting for the 5 o’clock food donation. For them, a small warm meal on a chilly winter’s day can go a long way.

Looking at facts, it’s clear that income doesn’t determine how much you give, then what does? Scientists are saying it depends on our time. Daniel Goleman shared this idea in his TED talk on compassion. He said that: “What turned out to determine whether someone would stop and help a stranger in need was how much of a hurry they thought they were in…”

DC is a busy and stressful city. Here, competition and work is high, and free time is almost non-existent. In a matter of years the use of ‘busyness’ as an excuse for ignoring world problems, especially the poor, became a norm. Despite this, scientist say we were programmed for kindness, and deep inside we know that small acts translate to big changes.

The other day, I saw a homeless man begging for money. People around him scurried by, shaking their heads and moving to the other side of the street to avoid him. Their actions made him visibly upset, and he would say: “I’m a veteran. I fought for your freedom!” Hearing his words and seeing the way he was treated, I was compelled to stop. Without having any money to give, I reached for a red apple in my bag and extended it to him. He thanked me and shyly pointing to his missing teeth said he can’t chew it. Still, he thanked me for stopping, for trying to help and most importantly, for recognizing his presence with a smile. This interaction didn’t last more than a few seconds but it filled the both of us with goodness.

Of course, being good isn’t easy. It takes motivation and good company. Knowing that a problem exists isn’t more likely to make us address it, we must pay attention to it. Nowadays, with smart phones and constant commitments, it’s easy not to notice. Sometimes we ignore the signs of a problem around us and claim we’re too busy to commit. We feel it will take too much time, and while we truly want to help, we just can’t at the moment.

For those feeling this way, here’s an idea. What if we carve into our schedule a moment for caring? I’m talking about a commitment once a week, or once a month, to skip a meal and instead donate the money or the food to someone in need. The benefits are threefold: A) your small action will help a person in need, B) you will place yourself in the shoes of someone who skips a meal due to personal finance, and C) your actions will inspire others to notice. For me, I’ve been bringing this movement to life by taking any food left on my plate to go.

Carrying a doggie bag is a commitment, but when I hand its delicious contents to a person in need, I’m always greeted with a smile and appreciation. Making a difference doesn’t require much. A small step is all it takes.

Would you agree?
Hokuma

Thanksgiving Waste

Happy Thanksgiving! Today is a time to eat delicious traditional food, surround yourself with family and friends, and be grateful for what you have. Whether it’s the history, the food or the being grateful, this can be considered the best US holiday.

Unfortunately, it is also a pretty wasteful one. After the friends have gone and the food is too much to eat, a lot of turkey meat ends up in the garbage. In fact, 35% of the holiday turkey, valued at more than $282 million, is wasted per year. On top of the nutritional and financial losses, it also leads to environmental ones.

Organic matter that decomposes in landfills anaerobically (without oxygen), produces methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 21 times more potent at trapping heat inside the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Besides that, it wastes all resources that went into growing the food. For instance, one pound of turkey requires 468 gallons of water to produce, and releases 12 pounds of CO2 emissions. With many US families producing more than one pound of wasted meat, it’s obvious that Americans need to be more grateful and less wasteful.

The Environmental Working Group says that wasting the meat is like driving the car for 11 miles or taking a 94-minute shower. Swapping the turkey waste for a real adventure or a long warm bath sounds like a better option. The choice of which a family can afford depends on the leftovers they produce. Looking at the millions of wasted dollars, Americans can save a lot more at home than through sales on Black Friday.

Let’s eat well, do well and be thankful!
Hokuma

Don’t Waste – It’s Thanksgiving!

The Spirit of Thanksgiving: Don’t Waste Those Leftovers

If you’re American, live in the United States, or are aware of American culture to any degree, you know that Thanksgiving is a mere two days away. Distant relatives and friends are excited to come together to share a huge, delectable meal in celebration of the founding of the US (controversy aside) and, much more importantly, in recognition of what we have to be grateful for. Do we truly appreciate all that we have, though? I’m not so sure.

Somewhere between one-third and half of all of food produced in the US goes to waste. This translates to around 34 million tons of discarded food per year, in which each American is responsible for at least 200 pounds of annual food waste. Meanwhile, over 49 million Americans experience food insecurity: an insufficient or lack of reliable access to food. Not only do Americans not value all the food at their disposal, but heaps of food that is shamelessly, largely unknowingly, thrown away could be put to greater use feeding people in need. The sad truth behind Thanksgiving is that people feel obliged by tradition to express how thankful they are for their meal, but most are ignorant of humbling facts on food waste and insecurity.

The holiday teaches us that a way to show appreciation is through mass-consumption, buying and eating all that we can simply because we can. This seems entirely backwards, considering that value is derived from scarcity. But, on the other hand, at least the whole idea of reflecting and ‘giving thanks’ is emphasized. In other words, it feels wrong to celebrate humility with excess, but at least people are being reminded, albeit superficially, to be grateful when they might not otherwise count their blessings.

If this seems confusing, it’s because it is; Thanksgiving is quite paradoxical. So, rather than weighing the rights and wrongs of celebration, the easiest ethical way to approach the holiday is to minimize waste. Someone truly thankful for food should know better than to throw it out. The tradition of serving gravy already enables cooks to save meat drippings that would otherwise be wasted and put them to a tasty use. Vegetable juices and scraps can also imbue other dishes with flavors, such as when stuffing a turkey. What poses the biggest challenge to many families, however, is the notion of leftovers. I personally love mixing bits of all of the Thanksgiving leftovers together on a plate, but many people are put-off by the idea of eating ‘remnants’ or simply tire of having the same meal over and over again. In the same spirit as last week’s vegetarian post, I decided to compile another recipe list – this time, creative re-workings of some common Thanksgiving remnants.

Miscellaneous Leftovers

1. Sandwiches and wraps.
The simplest leftovers solution: pile as much as you want of whatever you want on a couple slices of bread or in a tortilla. For example, you could drizzle gravy on one side of a slice of bread, smear on some mashed potatoes, add a few green beans and some turkey, drizzle one side of another bread with cranberry sauce, and sandwich everything together. Feel free to also add other ingredients from your kitchen, such as using cheese for a turkey quesadilla.

2. Crostini.
Cut up some baguette and top the slices with whatever leftovers you like to make dainty appetizers.

3. Salad.
Pairing any leftovers with leafy greens will alleviate some of the post-feast guilt.

4. Pizza.
Swap tomato sauce for cranberry (or gravy) and toss whatever else you’d like on a pizza crust.

Mashed Potatoes

1. Loaded Mashed Potato Cups.
Use puff pastry or Pillsbury dough to make adorable tartlets filled with mashed potatoes and typical baked potato toppings.

2. Potato Pancakes.
Soft, fluffy, and cheesy latke variants. These are closest to American buttermilk pancakes.

3. Mashed Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Waffles.
Transform your potatoes into a comforting weekend brunch.

Stuffing

Muffins: Mix the remaining stuffing with an egg or two, fill it into a muffin pan, and bake at 300°F for 20-25 minutes to make a nice batch of snacks.

Bread

1. Croutons.
Cube the bread, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, or other desired spices (such as rosemary), and bake on a cooking sheet at 400°F for 15 minutes. They will keep well for a couple weeks and spice up any salads.

2. French toast.
Slice the bread and soak it in a mixture of eggs, milk, and any desired spices (such as nutmeg and cinnamon) overnight, then cook it in a pan the next morning for a sweet breakfast.

3. Bread pudding.
There are thousands of other bread pudding recipes that are also great for leftover bread, but this one will also help take care of those leftover sweet potatoes.

Let’s really show how thankful we are for our food by not wasting it!

Eva

Hunger isn’t pretty

A world that throws away 40-50% of the food it produces must be super healthy and wealthy, right? No, not at all. Our world is filled with millions of people who are hungry and malnourished. In the USA, close to 50 million people are unsure about their next meal. They have to choose between paying their bills and buying food.

A new series looks at this problem in the UK. “Britain Isn’t Eating” was created by the Guardian newspaper. Through short videos, viewers take an honest look at what it’s like to have nothing to eat. Or have food, but no electricity to cook it with.

Hunger isn’t pretty, and some need outside assistance for proper nutrition. When will governments and supermarkets realize that $165 billion worth of food should be on the table, not in the landfill?

Here’s to being the change we want to see!
Hokuma

Pleasure Study of Food

Ever noticed how the first spring roll seems to taste better than the other five? Or how a fun-sized Halloween candy bar is more satisfying than the regular one? This feeling isn’t necessarily because your stomach is telling you that you’re getting full; rather, it’s your senses becoming accustomed to the flavor. Boredom with flavor is a real sensory phenomenon that develops as you consume food over a period of time. The food is still yummy, but its taste-novelty wears off with every bite, exciting your senses less and less.

A study by Novakova et al. investigated how smell influenced people’s enjoyment of food while eating. Participants were asked to look at, sniff, and chew (taking ten seconds for each ‘step’) ten individual banana slices and then rate their satisfaction on a 21-point scale. Half of the thirty participants had congenital anosmia (loss of smell), while the rest could smell normally. Since taste and smell are intertwined, the idea behind removing the aroma factor was to isolate the food’s flavor and its pleasure effects. Quick semantic note: taste is the way your body interprets a food’s objective flavor.

As expected, the control (‘normal’) group demonstrated a clear decrease in enjoyment as participants made their way through the ten slices. More noteworthy was the fact that the anosmic group continuously gave higher satisfaction ratings than the control group. Not only did they rate that the food tasted better initially, but their pleasure ratings waned to a lesser degree than those of the control. One proposed reason for this is that the absence of the smell lessened the overall habituation effect that normally causes loss of flavor appreciation. Another possibility is that, much like how blind people tend to have better hearing, anosmics have a more receptive palate. In any case, the study shows how our senses influence our perception of flavor and dull to its enjoyment as we eat.

While the effect of prolonged sensory stimulation is really interesting in itself, recognizing it could also be helpful in preventing food waste. For instance, when many people say that they’re ‘full’ from a dish, they mean, “I have satisfied myself with this taste,” rather than, “My stomach has been filled.” They might even proceed to another course, typically dessert, to provide their senses with new delights. This becomes a problem if the initial meal wasn’t finished and its leftovers aren’t saved: food is wasted simply because the eater got bored. However, people who frequently find themselves in this situation can easily resolve it. If, for whatever reason, saving leftovers isn’t an option, simply take less food to begin with. Other options are to share with friends or assemble a diverse plate, full of small portions of unique flavors that will, hopefully, encourage you to finish what you have.

Cherish your food and relish the experience of eating it.

Eva

Healthy and Sustainable on Halloween

Pumpkins, fall colors, scary jack-o’-lanterns and pounds of candy!

Highlights of the deliciously scary day are abundant. For Americans, October 31st is the day of celebrating their inner child. Dressed in scary, or sexy costumes, adults and kids alike stroll the streets and neighborhoods in search of candy. Of course, for adults it’s usually ‘eye candy’ that really motivates the evening plans.

Either way, one thing far from people’s minds on Hallow’s Eve is food waste. Yet, as a very scary topic, I’m surprised it’s not adequately covered.

A Statistic like this: ‘95% of pumpkins sold on Halloween are wasted, with 5% re-used in meals,’ is scary! In UK, 18,000 tons of pumpkins end up in landfills after all the ghosts go home.

With so much hunger and malnutrition, these pumpkins can serve a higher purpose than decoration. For a vegetable, there’s no worse a death than failure to meet your life’s purpose to nourish a soul.

Another concern on Halloween is the rate at which Americans consume candy. Colorful chocolates, shiny wrappers and cocaine like addiction, drives adults and children to overindulged in sugar. Considering that on a daily basis Americans consume TRIPLE the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested sugar dosage, is it really necessary to set aside an annual day to celebrate a fructose overdose?

Sugar leads to many health diseases, including obesity and diabetes. To limit these effects, here’s an idea for the concerned parent. Instead of throwing away your pumpkins, celebrate Halloween with a home-cooked meal. Try something exotic, such as Azerbaijani Qutabs with Pumpkin! You’ll not only expand the life of this fall vegetable, but enrich your child’s palette. As for sugar, switch from sugar rich sweets to more nutritious options, like baked goods. An oatmeal cupcake, or a homemade apple pie will be less harmful than processed candy.

If you don’t have time for baking, check out these delicious alternatives to hand out on Halloween. Whatever comes your way, I wish you a great time with family and friends! Have fun and stay safe!

Happy trick or treating!
Hokuma

The change you want to see is YOU

Who hasn’t thought of changing the world, or at least impacting history in a memorable way? Many of us have grand ideas of change we want to see and make. But, the likeliness of us making those huge changes in a short time span is slim. Putting too much strain on ourselves and being weighed down by big dreams can be paralyzing. We might give up even before embarking on the journey.

The solution to that is: start small and start with yourself! As the world is made up of many individuals, many friendships and many communities, influencing one can have a ripple effect on the others. This is exactly what happened to me and how the journey of Disco Soupe DC materialized. I first heard about the amazing events through Tristram Stuart, author and founder of non-profits that addresses food waste and food security, through Feeding the 5k, The Pig Idea and The Gleaning Network.

Tristram was kind enough to connect me to social entrepreneurs and visionaries that took Disco Soupe events to another level. Some of these guys are even Gangsters and belong to a cool social entrepreneur network called MakeSense. One thing led to another and soon I was organizing Disco Soupe DC events in USA. Every city has its own group of activists that want to share their time, talents and ideas to help reshape their city into a small ecosystem of sustainability, love and understanding.

Organizations such as the DC Time Bank and The Sanctuaries provided the support and talent to make Disco Soupes amazing! And the networks Tristram introduced me to, jump-started a revolution in the nation’s capital! Today I am happy to share a feature of our event in a National Geographic video that highlights explorers, such as Tristram, who are changing our world for the better! I’m also happy to announce that on November 20th we will host the third Disco Soupe DC!

If you haven’t been to a Disco Soupe DC, or enjoyed the previous one and want to continue the party, then join us! Details will be coming soon. Follow them on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Change is possible guys, it starts with you!

Much love and many hugs,
Hokuma

Your Waste, Your Responsibility

After I became conscious of food waste a few years ago, I considered it my duty to stop it in every way that I could. I feel no shame asking waiters to hold certain sides or ingredients of my order that I know I won’t want to eat. I have become accustomed to inspecting the contents of my fridge and pantry to check how close things are to expiring, so that I know to eat them sooner. I take leftovers home whenever I can, be it in a restaurant’s doggy-bag or my friend’s Tupperware after a potluck. And, for several years, I felt compelled to finish the food off of my friends’ plates. Very recently, though, I realized that this last effort was actually doing me and my anti-food-waste crusade a disservice.

One of my biggest problems with food waste is how disrespectful it is. In addition to all of the environmental and economic illogicality of throwing away good, uneaten food, there is just an ethical wrongness to treating it so carelessly. You can consider all of the people who are hungry and all of the effort and resources that went into getting that food to you; but, also, you should just respect it as a beautiful thing that gives us life. This was my motive for insisting on eating my friends’ unfinished food that was definitely headed for the garbage: ‘I need to stop this from being wasted. I need to make sure its full value is enjoyed.’

Although I only had the best intentions, I was just causing myself undue anxiety. Already satisfied by my own meal, I would gobble up whatever my friends had left, which often left me feeling overfed and regretful – not proud of saving food from the dumpster. Moreover, my friends started expecting it of me, sometimes even taunting me by saying things like, “Are you sure you don’t want it? I’m not going to finish it…” Rather than inspiring my friends to stop being wasteful, I was just acting as their personal garbage truck (yes, a couple of them actually jokingly referred to me that way and as a ‘food vacuum’).

Just recently, though, it hit me: I am responsible for cherishing my food, and you are responsible for yours. I can lament the fact that something is going to be tossed out and try to convince you to change your mind, but there is no reason I should feel guilty for your wasteful choices. From now on, if I eat off of your plate, it will be because your food looks tasty and I want to have some – not out of some misplaced sense of culpability.

Don’t try to fight food waste alone. Spread the message.
Eva