News Reporter: Climate Coach: Three foods you can make in 5 minutes that taste better than stuff in the store

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Climate Coach
Down-to-earth advice for life on our changing planet.

By Michael J. Coren

Welcome. This week, snow-blooming irises and citizens turn against data centers. But first, the homemade foods I’ll never buy at the grocery store again.

Most homemade food demands a sacrifice: It’s more delicious than what you buy in a store, but it’ll never be more convenient.

True for potato chips, perhaps. But what you make at home can be cheaper, faster and better tasting than anything you can buy. This Holy Trinity is hard to pull off. But all it takes is a little practice. I spent the past year perfecting my favorites.

My motivations were twofold. I wanted to reduce, if not eliminate, packaging waste and ultra-processed foods (now 70 percent of the country’s food supply) along with the plasticizers that come with its packaging, from bisphenols to phthalates. My second was health: better ingredients for me, my family and the environment.

Modern grocery stores don’t optimize for better taste or even saving time. They optimize for shelf life. Emulsifiers and preservatives such as carboxymethylcellulose, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and other additives keep mass-produced products ready to eat for weeks or longer. That’s the reason your oil and vinegar dressing stays “shaken” for months or your bread doesn’t mold so quickly.

This isn’t entirely bad. Mass production lowers prices. But as more than half of Americans’ calories now come from ultra-processed foods, the health toll is rising. These products have been linked to higher rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, depression, certain cancers and a 50 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death. Consumer Reports found industrial chemicals used in plastic manufacturing, such as BPA and phthalates, are “widespread” in supermarket foods (albeit still within limits set by regulators).

I decided to find out what I could stop buying. I set three nonnegotiable rules: Everything had to taste better than store-bought, cost me nothing extra and take five minutes or less (once I’d dialed in my process).

Too good to be true? It turns out, I had too many to fit in this column. I picked three favorites that gave me the “why did I ever buy this” moment I sought. Read the column to see what I made.

What do you make at home (and refuse to buy in the store)? Send your recipes to climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.

Click here to read the column

Field Sample

Timbercraft Tiny Homes finishes building a new tiny house every eight days. Now it’s building an entire neighborhood.

The houses — most under 400 square feet — roll out of the factory fully equipped with refrigerators and dishwashers and air conditioning, cabinets and fireplaces and porches. At a time when the median price of all U.S. homes has climbed above $400,000, these tiny homes generally go for between $100,000 and $200,000.

Post reporter Julie Z. Weil traveled to Guntersville, Alabama, to see what the future of affordable homes might look like.

A new house rolls off the indoor assembly line at Timbercraft Tiny Homes.

Learning Curve

Solar is surging. Last month, it helped make renewables the single-largest source of electricity on the U.S. grid, according to think tank Ember. It was the first time it eclipsed natural gas.

It’s only one month: windy, sunny March shines for clean energy. But it’s a preview of what’s to come as renewables continue to account for the vast majority of new capacity coming online.

Read more at Canary Media about how fossil fuels are losing out to emissions-free energy.

Snapshot

The Second Degree

Last week, I wrote about how I wanted to buy less stuff. I ended up borrowing — and connecting — with my neighbors as well.

Many of you shared your own stories. Repair Cafes, like one hosted at the Greenbelt Makerspace and Tool Library, were highly rated. Tool libraries, often sponsored by public libraries, won rave reviews. Regina recommended TimeBanks which let you exchange skills and services: time spent helping others is deposited in the doer’s time bank account and withdrawn from the receiving member’s banked time. “The aim is to connect people in places where friends are hard to make,” wrote Regina. “As we accept and give help we can also discover if the chemistry of friendship can grow.”

Others have found sharing just comes naturally in their neighborhood. Peggy said her neighbors share tools, blow-up mattresses, and electric radiators. “My special place in this exchange is my fabulous bike pump,” she wrote. “It lives on my front porch along with a 50 foot extension cord. Neighbors don’t even ring the bell.” Gary’s small rural town has a volunteer-managed storefront where people bring things they no longer need, and others take what they need or want.

Charles doesn’t own a lawn mower. He’s generous with cookies and his long-handled tree trimmer occasionally, and his neighbors mow his small patch of lawn. “Helps that we are also good friends,” he wrote. “Neighborhoods should be kind of like communes or co-ops. Takes a village.”

On the Climate Front

From The Post:

In this U.S. hot spot for data centers, voters have turned against them

Congress ends ban on mining near Minnesota’s pristine Boundary Waters

Here’s what the stock market might have gotten wrong about the Iran war

Former FEMA leader set to return after being ousted

From elsewhere:

A critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought (The Guardian)

As North America loses billions of birds, some species are bucking the trend (NBUR)

Is carbon removal in trouble? (MIT Tech Review)

Electric bills in coal country West Virginia now top mortgage payments (AP)

Benton sent in signs of spring (although some places feel like it’s summer). This dwarf iris is a flowering species prized for its ability to bloom in late winter or early spring, even through snow.

Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com