One More Planter from Found Stuff

Cilantro in a container made from a plumbing part

How to make Catsup

THIS IS A REPRINT FROM MY ROB'S WORLD BLOG:
As accustomed as I am to not having original thoughts shut me up on this blog, today I think I will copy Fake Plastic Fish. Yesterday Beth made wonderful mustard and eliminated one more plastic condiment bottle from her clutches. Today I will make Catsup in an effort to eliminate a plastic bottle from mine!
This recipe is from the All Things Frugal site. I unashamedly stole it. First gather your ingredients:
1 Can Tomato Paste
1/4 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Cumin
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar



Mix together, cover and refrigerate. (Note the human power mixer I used whereas Beth used an electric blender). *Electric-power consuming Fake Plastique Fish? Fake plastic Fish is really an Electric Eel?

This is how much I got out one batch plus about enough to cover two weenies- Refrigerate and it should keep for a month

The taste of this is very similar to chutney I buy at Trader Joes. Very sweet and good. And while the initial expense of the spices seems far from frugal, I would imagine one could buy them in bulk for a fraction of what I paid. You should also note that keeping in the spirit of FPF, I tried not to buy too many plastic bottle spices- I chose Colman's Dry Mustard (In a tin) and used my Trader Joe's cinnamon (in a glass bottle)- Any way I can now say that i will not buy ketchup in plastic bottles again. Thanks Beth. As far as the frugal goes you use just a small amount of the spices that cost wise it should be good.

*I tease Beth unmercifully in this post. But she is one cool fish, and her campaign against plastic usage is important and sincere. Anything I can do to help reduce plastic waste is always OK by me.

How To Make your Own Microwave Popcorn

I love pop corn but don't like all the chemicals and crap in the microwave popcorns- just when I thought all was lost along come Seattle Free School and How To make Microwave Popcorn Instructions on their blog!Popcorn for pennies! How cool is that?

And the neat thing, beside reducing those nasty chemicals in microwave popcorn, is you get to reduce the plastic wrapper from the microwave popcorn. And I'm guessing you can buy popping corn in bulk at some markets- reducing your waste even further!

How to make a Bell Cloche out of a plastic Juice Bottle

I was bragging on Beth's Fake Plastic Fish Blog that I can reuse an entire juice bottle and not have any of it go in the waste stream. Well I cannot- I forgot the label is also plastic. But I can reuse a good 90% of it.

How to make the mini wreaths!

How to make your own Oil lamp from an old bottle

You can use pop bottles, liquor bottles -any glass bottle to make your own oil lamp- Handy to have in a power outage Just follow the instructions on this instructable on how to make an oil lamp from a bottle