Plastic-Free Food: Day 2

After my near meltdown on day one and feeling like there was no way that I could go 100% plastic-free with our food... I was nervous about day two... BUT... day two was AWESOME!!  Really all it took was me focusing on what we could eat instead of thinking about all the things that we couldn't eat.  I quickly reminded myself that I did the same thing when I stopped eating meat... focused on all the things I was going to "miss out" on instead of thinking about all of the possibilities.  From experience... I know that the possibilities are endless :)  SO....  Once I stopped thinking about all of the foods that come in plastic... all of these ideas as far as "what" to eat came to me.

So hear is a run down of our plastic-free meals:

One of the easiest and plastic-free breakfasts is a smoothie.  I usually make smoothies with Almond Milk, but almond milk comes in a plastic lined paper container... so there's no buying it.  Sure I could've used local milk... but I'm not a big milk drinker... and prefer almond milk in smoothies.  SO.... I bought raw almonds in bulk and MADE almond milk!!!!!! ;)  To make the smoothie, I just threw in fruit that I had in my freezer...bananas, local blueberries, and local peaches!!  YUM!

Along with our smoothies, my kids also finished up the rest of the pancakes from the previous day.

For lunch, my husband and I had taco salads using romaine that I cut up, black beans, and the leftovers from taco night.  (The taco night leftovers are finally gone... I'm a little bummed... as I don't know what I'll be eating tomorrow)  I made my kids cheese pizzas with the whole wheat tortillas that I made on day one along with applesauce and peaches.  

For the pizzas: My kids spread out some tomato sauce on each tortilla and we topped each tortilla with (paper wrapped) cheddar cheese that I shredded (in my food processor).  I popped the "pizzas" in the oven at 400º until the cheese melted.  My kids LOVED it so much they asked if I would make pizzas EVERYDAY!! 

Ok... now dinner is where I get super excited to share!!  On day one, I was panicking all day about what I was going to make.  BUT... thanks to the rain that was pouring down outside... I knew that I only wanted to make one thing... and that one thing was SOUP!!  So I grabbed a cookbook that I picked up from the library last week, and made vegetable stock.  As I was cutting up the vegetables, I kept thinking how strange it is that I've never made vegetable stock.  I used to make chicken stock all the time and keep it in my freezer... but hadn't made stock since I stopped eating chicken last fall.  Instead, I started BUYING vegetable stock... and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why I've been buying vegetable broth in aseptic containers!!  Besides the house smelling AMAZING... it's so easy to make vegetable stock-- cut up vegetables... throw them in a pot with some water and simmer.  

So here's our Day 2 plastic-free dinner menu:

Vegetable Barley Soup-- I used Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook for the stock and changed up their Vegetable Barley Soup for what I had on hand.  All vegetables and barley used to make the stock and soup were bought unpackaged and never put in a plastic produce bag.

French Bread-- yup!  I busted out my bread machine and threw in the ingredients and let the machine do the work while I made the soup.  The smell of bread baking was.... mmmmm :)

Before I made our soup, I read this quote... and it just made me feel happy about making my soup from start to finish....

"Everybody LOVES soup.  It fortifies the body and soothes the soul.  It's one of those comforting first loves that quietly sustain us from infancy into venerable old age."

Seriously, that soup renewed me :D

If you're interested in our plastic waste from last week... you can check that out here:

Show Your Plastic-- Danielle: Week 1