I was sitting in the window seat and out of the corner of my eye, I saw my neighbor. So I poked my head out of the picture window to say hi.

K asked, “Are you cooking bacon in there?”

“Yup, bacon and paella. We’re having a tiny party tonight.”

On Saturday night we squeezed four friends and the two of us into the little house for dinner. It was our first time cooking for such a large group of people in our tiny dwelling. Everyone seemed to feel at home and happy in our little house.

We used a few simple strategies to entertain guests in our tiny space. Even if you don’t live in a super small space, these tips might come in handy.

1. Cook before your guests arrive. Since we have a tiny kitchen space, it can be difficult to entertain and cook at the same time. To get around this Logan started dinner about an hour before everyone arrived, so it would be ready on time. He cooked the vegetables, rice, and meat, and when the paella was ready he kept it in the oven so it wouldn’t get cold.

We’re both impressed with our tiny range. Initially when Logan found the used range on craigslist, I balked at the price. But it was worth the investment. It’s nice having a small oven to keep food warm and to bake yummy treats like cornbread.

2. Improvise. We have limited seating, so Logan brought in a few bike buckets for folks to sit on and Laura and I hung out in the loft for a while.

Our guests biked to the tiny house and it was raining really hard on Saturday night. So everyone had to take off layers of clothing and we used our ladder and the shelf above our french doors to hang up wet bike clothes. Unfortunately, some of the bike gear didn’t dry out on the ladder.

3. Set expectations. Tell your friends what you plan to cook and about the size of your space. For example, we don’t have a table yet so our guests ate camping style with plates on their lap.

4. Ask. Don’t be afraid to ask people to contribute to the meal. For instance, we asked our friends to bring over beer and we had plenty of yummy drinks for the evening. Most of the beer was from Portland based breweries.

It was a fun evening and we’re looking forward to entertaining more often! Over the years, we’ve learned that you don’t need a huge living space to entertain guests. With a little bit of preparation, good food, beer and engaging conversation your event should be a blast!

Do you have any tips to add? Share in the comments section.

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Micro-action: Check out Leo and Courtney’s new project Clutterfree. I was very happy to be interviewed for the book!

Want to see more photos of our evening? Go to The Path Less Pedaled fan page.

Photo by Russ Roca.

About three months ago, we started an experiment. We decided to unplug our refrigerator because we wanted to answer these questions:

- Do we need a refrigerator in our tiny house?
- How reliant are we on our refrigerator?
- What would it be like to live without a refrigerator? Would our eating habits change? Would we miss it?

After we unplugged the refrigerator we started using a tiny, 1 cubic foot, cooler to keep our half and half and cheese from spoiling. So technically, we’re only 95% free from refrigerator use. To keep our tiny cooler cold, we use small ice packs. Logan has been taking the ice packs to work every other day and freezing them. Some folks have said this is “cheating,” but I call it creativity.

The little cooler rocks and it turns out I don’t miss the refrigerator at all. I don’t miss the loud humming noise, cleaning it, or throwing out the leftovers. In short, we figured out that don’t need a refrigerator in our little house. Plus, our eating habits haven’t changed much. In fact, I think we’re eating better. We’re eating more real food and less processed food. The only drawback of going without a refrigerator is that I have to shop more often for produce.

A lot of folks assume that we eat out a lot because we’ve turned off the refrigerator. Don’t get me wrong, I love eating out, however we do our best to cook a majority of our meals at home. We cook at home because it saves money and it’s healthier. I don’t know about you, but every time I eat out, I usually order a treat that isn’t very good for me if eaten regularly.

Speaking of the types of food we eat, a reader emailed me and asked: “What are your favorite meals for cooking in tiny spaces? Can you share some of your recipes?”

Our diet consists of what Michael Pollan calls “real food,” meaning most of the food we eat has fewer than 5 ingredients, has pronounceable ingredients, and excludes high fructose corn syrup sweeteners. Also, we try to get out of the supermarket as much as possible and shop at the farmer’s market.

Below are a few examples of my favorite low-cost meals, that are easy to prepare in small spaces, with no refrigerator. If you’re looking for other creative meal ideas, head over Stone Soup.

Breakfast . . .

• Toasted bread, with a side of fruit.

• A cup of granola and fruit.

Lunch . . .

• An egg sandwich. Usually, I fry up my eggs, with a little bit of olive oil, toast the bread and add additional goodies like carrots, cheese and lettuce.

• Hard boiled eggs with bread and fruit.

• A small bowl of Quinoa or rice, with peanuts on top.

Dinner

• Quinoa or rice stir-fry with vegetables, like carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and green beans.

• Frittata with mushrooms, carrots and peppers.

• Salad, with dried cherries, an apple and balsamic vinegar. We never forget to pick up a baguette and some cheese for a side dish.

• Tacos with corn tortillas, eggs, sweet potatoes, onion and garlic.

• Pasta with garlic and onion sauteed in olive oil.

Desserts

• Currently we have a macaroon subscription with Confectionery, a local PDX business. The macaroons are delivered to our front door at the beginning of every month and they literally melt in my mouth.

• Homemade chocolate chip cookies are also favorite. Whenever we need a little flour, Logan busts out the tiny wheat mill to grind some up. Fresh flour makes baked goods fluffy and delicious.

Parting Words . . .

Living without a refrigerator has forced us to be a little more creative when it comes to meal planning. More importantly, we’ve learned that it is possible to cook yummy food without a big cold box. It’s not as difficult as you might imagine.

Do you have any low-cost recipes you’d like to share?

My relationship with food has been . . . well let’s just say tumultuous. I struggled with an eating disorder for years and it’s not something I like to talk about. For me it’s an embarrassing part of my life to discuss, particularly when I think about all the food I wasted. But it’s part of my story. And as Dr. Brene Brown says, “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.”

And I know I’m not alone here.

Americans have a very odd relationship with food. Actually, the relationship goes beyond “odd,” to psychotic. Locally produced food can be very expensive, most of the food we find in grocery stores is heavily processed, and millions of women and men struggle with eating disorders.

On top of that, the average American throws away about 197 pounds of food every year. And according to Jonathan Bloom “when you count what’s put down the disposal, 25 percent of what enters your home isn’t eaten.”

We need a new story when it comes to food. And for me that’s where the no-refrigerator challenge comes into play.

As you know, we are building a little house this summer and I’m incredibly excited about the project. However, living in such a small space is going to be a huge lifestyle shift. Especially, when it comes to food because we’ve decided not to have a refrigerator in the little house. Why? Well . . .

• Right now we don’t have a lot of food that needs refrigeration.

• We’ll be using solar panels for electricity and the refrigerator will be a huge energy suck.

• We want to cut down on food waste.

Now this little experiment isn’t going to work for everyone and my guess is most of you will think this is a little crazy. However, I’d encourage you to take a look at what’s in your refrigerator and examine what you eat on a regular basis.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Conduct a food inventory.

Pull the food out of your refrigerator and take an inventory. This exercise will tell you a lot about the types of food you eat. Take note of what you find. For example, do you have 20 bottles of condiments and salad dressing? Are there left-over’s that haven’t been eaten?

As you go through your refrigerator, think about how many fresh foods you eat. Is most of your food fresh or processed?

Without a refrigerator, we’ll be shopping more. But that’s okay because we’ll be eating more fruits and vegetables. We’ll be using an icepack in an insulated chest to keep our butter, half and half, and cheese cool. For things like carrots and lettuce we’ll be filling up a small bowl of water and placing the vegetables inside. This is something we do now and it’s a great way to keep produce fresh and crisp.

For more on this topic check out Beth’s post: How To Store Produce Without Plastic.

2. Plan your meals.

The challenge is going to force us to start planning our meals again. We planned our meals regularly when we lived in Sacramento, but once we moved to Portland we got out of the habit. So I’ll be visiting the Stone Soup blog to find fun recipes.

3. Start composting.

In 2008, we began an indoor vermiculture composting project. It’s easy to get started and a great way to cut down on food waste. For more read this post: Indoor Composting Project.

Last word . . .

For me, the No-Refrigerator Challenge goes beyond preparing to live in a little house and wasted food. It’s about deeply examining my own issues with food. In essence, it’s about getting real with privilege.

“Sometimes, the most direct route to appreciation is through the darkness – even if it’s merely imagined. Facts, faced: even in our struggles, most of us are privileged.” ~Danielle LaPorte

An Interview with Becky Lerner

Over the last few months, I’ve been interviewing amazing writers about simple living, location independence, financial freedom, and more. Today the feature interview is with Becky Lerner. We talked about her blog First Ways, the benefits of urban foraging, and more!

Enjoy the interview peeps!

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Tammy: Can you tell us about your blog, First Ways?

Becky: First Ways is my urban foraging blog, where I write about adventures like eating, healing, smoking, brewing and otherwise having fun with the wild plants of the city. Sometimes I share my own stories or those of my friends, and other times I like to highlight really interesting videos floating around or profile fascinating people who are into foraging. Above all my goal is to inspire, empower and entertain.

Tammy: What is urban foraging? And what are some advantages of foraging?

Becky: Rarely do we think about the weeds growing in sidewalk cracks, but in fact they are very valuable — and everyone can have them — and they’re free. Every plant on Earth has a use for human beings, because we co-evolved together over hundreds of thousands of years. Everything we need to live is growing out of the ground.

Urban foraging is about recognizing that, getting back in touch with those plants for fun or for food and folk medicine — if you’re lucky enough to find an abundance, it can add free, healthy food to your diet.

Tammy: How did you get into foraging?

Becky: I first heard about foraging when I was learning wilderness survival from some rural homesteaders in Ithaca, NY, three years ago. It transformed my world to find out that plants have direct relevance to my life, that they aren’t just random abstract living things that happen to be here too, so I took that knowledge with me when I moved to the city of Portland, Oregon, later on.

Foraging is a great way to experience yourself as part of the landscape. It’s also a way to build self-sufficiency skills, something that’s very appealing in times of uncertainty. Plants are everywhere, so you can do it in the city or the country.

Tammy: How is foraging related to simple living?

Becky: What can be simpler than picking your own food or making your own medicine? Foraging is as simple as living gets. It’s even easier than gardening.

Tammy: Do you have a favorite edible that you routinely forage for?

Becky: My favorite edible all-around is the dandelion. I love roasting the roots and making a caffeine-free coffee, stir-frying the leaves in curry, and making wine out of the blossoms.

But I get excited about so many wild plants. I love purple dead nettle because it’s full of antioxidants. I love sorel because the leaves are heart-shaped. And then there’s chestnut flour, which has an unbeatable sweet, nutty flavor. Oh, and fruits and berries are great too — I love picking blackberries in late summer and the fruits of the strawberry tree (Madrone) in fall. There’s so much out there!

Tammy: Your blog is very thoughtful and I think everyone should head over and take a look at your content. Which of your posts should my readers check out first?

Becky: First Ways has something for everyone: If you’re a foodie, check out the posts up right now about chantrelles, Madrone fruit, or my review of the new wild food cookbook by Steve Brill. If you’re intrigued by hallucinogenic wild plants, check out this piece on the dark Datura. Or for something a bit tamer, here’s one on smoking lemon balm, a kind of mint, to relax. And if you’re into survival, don’t miss my posts about living off urban weeds for two weeks.

Tammy: Do you have any upcoming projects you want to share with us?

Becky: I’m excited about a top-secret writing project I’m working on. It’s in the developmental stages.

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For the last few weeks, I’ve been interviewing amazing bloggers about minimalism, location independence, financial freedom and more. Every Thursday, a feature interview is posted on RowdyKittens. Last week, I spoke to Chris O’Byrne from Editing Your World and Tiny Simplicity. This week the feature interview is with Jules Clancy from Stone Soup. We talked about location independence, minimalist home cooking and her rockin’ books.

Enjoy the interview and be sure to check out Stone Soup.

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Tammy Strobel: Jules, leaving your day job was a big decision. What prompted you to take the leap and pursue your dreams?

Jules Clancy: The biggest factor was the realisation that if I stopped spending and started living a more minimalist lifestyle that I didn’t need a big corporate salary to live on. It lowered the bar as to how much money I needed which meant the dream of supporting myself through my writing was suddenly within my reach. The other factor was that over the 5 years I have been writing stonesoup I’ve come to know exactly what my passions are. Once you know your calling – it’s hard to keep working on other unimportant things.

Tammy: You just finished writing a lovely ebook, called “How to Bake your Family Cookbook“. Can you tell us about the book and what inspired you to write it?

Jules: After I published my mum’s cookbook last year – I got a heap of feedback from people saying that they would love to do something similar for their families. There are so many amazing tools out there these days to help people write their own books I wanted to help more people feel the joy of capturing their family stories and recipes.

Tammy: You also have a print book called, “and the love is free.” Can you also tell us about this book and your motivation behind it?

Jules: I wrote and the love is free last year to celebrate the life of my Mum who died in 2007. I was lucky that my mum was an amazing cook and I saw the book as a way to preserve her memory and keep a record of the food that I had grown up with. I also wanted to share this simple home cooking with people who weren’t so lucky as to have a mum who could teach them the basics of good cooking.

Tammy: What is your definition of minimalist home cooking?

Jules: Minimalist home cooking the focus is on recipes that meet most or all of the following criteria:

1. minimal time
2. minimal number of steps
3. minimal number of ingredients
4. minimal equipment

It’s food that is delicious, visually appealing, mostly wholesome and as natural as possible but sometimes a little decadent – after all even minimalists need their chocolate.

Tammy: When did you discover the minimalist movement? And how has minimalism improved the quality of your life?

Jules: I discovered minimalism mid 2009. I can’t tell you how much just starting on the path to minimalism has improved my quality of life. The biggest impact of course has been having the freedom to quit my day job (which was pretty fun – I used to design chocolate biscuits (cookies)). Now my 2 hours a day commute is gone as I am working from home and every day I get to do what I love (which is even more fun). Whether that’s cooking things and taking photographs of them or writing, I’m working on my passions every day rather than watching the clock or sitting through endlessly boring meetings.

Tammy: Reading is an amazing way to discover new perspectives and life changing ideas. What books have made a significant impact on your life and career?

Jules: I hate to say it but The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris had a big impact on me last year which started me searching. Leo Babuta’s The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life was extremely useful in visualising how I could apply minimalism to my life. Passionate Marriage by David Snarch has had a big impact on helping to understand myself and relationships.

In terms of cooking I’ve been heavily influenced by the Australian chef Karen Martini. I love Jamie Oliver and his relaxed attitude to cooking. My latest obsession is Nigel Slater in particular his latest book Tender Volume 1 – A cook and his vegetable patch which not only highlights the best ways to cook different veggies – it teaches you how to grow them – am plotting to be able to have my own vegetable patch one day.

Note: photography by Jules.

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For more interview awesomeness read:

Minimalism is a State of Mind: An Interview with Chris O’Byrne

Danielle LaPorte, “Growing an Empire that Works for You.”

Ashley Ambirge, “Let One Word Guide Your Way: Fun”

How to Live Anywhere: An Interview with Karol Gajda

How to Pursue the Reality You Imagine Yourself Living: Interview with Everett Bogue

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Note: This ebook is no longer available in a PDF version. However you can read it on Issuu.

Since the release of Simply Car-free, I’ve received an incredible number of emails from folks asking questions like:

How can I improve my health?
What are the best ways to lose weight?
Where can I find real food?

In response to the questions I’ve received, I decided to write my first free e-book. The book is 20 pages and I hope it will help you get active.

You only get one body and mind. If you don’t take care of both, it’s hard to create amazing art or get involved in your community. I hope this manifesto will help you improve your health and inspire you to change the world.

If this e-book helps you, please help spread the word by…

• Sharing it with your tribe on Twitter or Facebook.
• Writing about it on your blog.
• Printing out copies and leaving them in your local library or coffee shop.

Please let me know what you think. Feel free to connect with me on twitter.