#3 A Simplicious Challenge: Christmas – a time of waste and reflection

The Simplicious Challenge: I’m cooking all 306 recipes from Sarah Wilson’s book Simplicious, to see the impact it has on the way I buy, cook, consume and waste food. Read the first post here, if you missed it.

Well, that’s Christmas done. Every year, I find it difficult to wrap my head around Christmas. To me, it represents a bundle of social norms, stigmas and problems: the disparity between the privileged (the lucky) and the disadvantaged, our obsession with consumerism and materialism, the expectations of gifts, a time of overeating and food waste, and weeks of everyone trying to catch up with their recycling and credit card bills. Continue reading →

#2 – A Simplicious Challenge: The Battle with Laziness

The Simplicious Challenge: I’m cooking all 306 recipes from Sarah Wilson’s book Simplicious, to see the impact it has on the way I buy, cook, consume and waste food. Read the first post here, if you missed it.

I’ve read Simplicious at least three times from start to finish over the last month (I even took it interstate, and it’s not the smallest book around), and I’m still picking up new tips and noticing little notations with each read. I was embarrassed to discover how little I know about seasonal cooking, beyond citrus-in-winter and berries-in-summer… For example, I was surprised to find out that Australian pomegranates are in season in Autumn – yet they seem to be marketed here by supermarkets more often during Spring, presumably because they are imported. As part of my own education process I’ve recommitted to buying fresh produce from a local vegetable delivery service, Vegies To Your Door, which sources local Australian produce. If it’s not in season here, they don’t have it. Plus, I like the thought that I’m reducing my food miles. Continue reading →