Besides the excitement, which I think stems from Mom occasionally buying bulk yogurt pretzels when I was a kid, here are the . . . → Read More: How to Navigate the Bulk Foods Section to Survive the Dark Days]]> Let me just get this out of my system. If you haven’t explored your supermarket’s bulk food section, you are missing out! It’s a smorgasboard of tasty bits and pieces. You can get a HUGE sack of oats for oatmeal or a tiny nibble of chocolate-covered raisins right in the same place!

Besides the excitement, which I think stems from Mom occasionally buying bulk yogurt pretzels when I was a kid, here are the rational, adult reasons for loving the bulk foods section:

• There is very little packaging, so you cut down on waste. You can even bring your own containers.
• It’s almost always cheaper than other options, especially since you can buy exactly the amount you want.
• It allows you to have more variety in your pantry, since you can buy smaller amounts of more things, rather than getting a gigantic bag of black beans or settling for just raisins in your oatmeal for two weeks.
• You can try new things without the committment.

I like to think of all choices as a hierarchy. If not this, then this, etc. My food hierarchy goes something like this: I prefer to buy food from a local farmer I’ve talked to, so I know how he or she runs the farm. If I can’t get what I need that way, I’ll buy food from Joe Schmo local farmer either at the farmers’ market or a grocery store. If I still can’t get what I need, then I probably don’t really need it. But, if I do really need/want it, I’ll buy organic produce from the US (since at least it hasn’t traveled as far as, say, Chilean strawberries) and almost everything else from the bulk foods section. In the Dark Days, we get down to the last level pretty often.

Our supermarket carries several different types of rice, grains, beans, nuts, and dried fruit. It also has a few flours and varieties of granola and trail mix. We can get some beans, flours, and grains locally, but we get all our dried fruit and nuts there.

Here’s how it works:

1. There’s often a roll of thin plastic bags nearby. Grab one or pull out your own container. If you bring your own, make sure it’s pretty lightweight. Some supermarkets will tare (zero out the weight of your container), but others won’t. If the store tares, remember to do it before you fill the container.
2. Find what you want. This can be the confusing part, since the aisle might not be organized in a logical way, so ask an employee if you can’t find something. They usually know exactly where everything is. Even though we go every other week or so, I feel like the section is constantly rearranged!
3. Fill up your bag or container. Sometimes there’s a scoop and sometimes the food comes out of a shoot that you open with a lever. Go slowly if it’s the lever kind, so you don’t take too much.
4. Take a look at the bin and find the product number. This is usually pretty conspicuous, but ask someone if you’re unsure. Some stores let you weigh your own and print a label with the amount and product number. Some just want you to record the number on the fastener, so that they can weight and price it when you check out. If you don’t see a fancy scale where people are printing labels, assume it’s the latter.

That’s it. Now go to the grocery store and try something new!

I’m almost completely unable to throw out food. I hold on to bits and pieces like we’re in the Dust Bowl and it’s 1933. My great-grandmas would be proud of me. Erik thinks there isn’t a use for the last tiny bit of jam or apple peelings, but there is! Flavoring yogurt and pectin stock for jam and jelly! So there!!

Until I found this recipe, I was throwing out the pulp from making . . . → Read More: Carrot Almond Macaroon Recipe]]>

I’m almost completely unable to throw out food. I hold on to bits and pieces like we’re in the Dust Bowl and it’s 1933. My great-grandmas would be proud of me. Erik thinks there isn’t a use for the last tiny bit of jam or apple peelings, but there is! Flavoring yogurt and pectin stock for jam and jelly! So there!!

Until I found this recipe, I was throwing out the pulp from making carrot juice and almond milk (and dying a little inside). I mean, you get tasty carrot juice and almond milk that’s much cheaper and less-filled-with-junk than store-bought, but still! All that perfectly good pulp…it made me sad. Plus, I like cookies, especially macaroons and especially when they use up stuff that I was previously tossing/composting while tasting rich and delicious.

Also, it’s a well-known fact that cookies have no calories when they’re mostly made of ingredients that were otherwise destined for the garbage.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to make almond milk or carrot juice first to enjoy these. I adopted this recipe from 101 Cookbooks, which uses chopped nuts and grated carrots.

We aren’t lucky enough to get oats or almonds at our farmer’s market, so we get both in the bulk section at our grocery store. They might not be local, but buying from the bulk section creates significantly less waste than buying pre-packaged.

I’d like to experiment with using ghee instead of coconut oil to increase the local-ness, but the coconut oil really makes them macaroons and isn’t as bad as it was once thought to be. Plus, I’ve replace my moisturizer with coconut oil, so we always have some on hand.

Carrot Almond Macaroons
Makes about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder, and salt) in a large bowl.
   
2. Add the carrots and almonds and whisk long enough to break up most of the clumps. Our juicer sometimes leaves a few chunks in the carrot pulp, so I fish these out now, too.
3. In a glass measuring cup, melt the coconut oil in the microwave until just melted. This usually takes about a minute, but it depends on how warm the apartment is.
4. While the coconut oil melts, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease them with non-stick spray or butter.
5. Add the maple syrup and ginger to the measuring cup and stir to combine

   

6. Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

   

7. Use either a 2-teaspoon scoop or a tablespoon, drop the cookies onto the prepared pans. They won’t spread much, so you can place them pretty close together.

   

8. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for as long as you can wait.

   Our oven runs hot, so I always set the timer for 8 minutes and then check every 2 minutes after that. To speed things up, I fill one pan and get it in the oven right away (top rack). The second pan takes me about 2 minutes to fill (thanks to the scoop!), so I put it in the bottom rack and rotate the pans when the initial 8 minutes are up (i.e. move the top pan to the bottom and the bottom pan to the top). Then I just remember that the second pan (now on the top) needs a few extra minutes.

These pack well, so I have been taking some along on my weekly business trips. It’s a nice little taste of home.

UPDATE: I just made these gluten-free by using buckwheat flour (instead of whole wheat) and gluten-free oats. They’re still delicious!