Plastic-Free Food: Day 3

For the past couple of days, the rain has been coming down here in Wilmington.  We got over 10 inches of rain on Monday and are expected to get another 4-8 inches by Thursday... and as I type the rain is coming down in buckets.  SO... we've been stuck inside... which leaves kids wanting more snacks than usual.  I don't usually have too many plastic wrapped snacks in the house... but we usually have pretzels, string cheese, and some other easy to grab kid snacks.  I normally make granola bars, but the recipe that I use calls for crisp rice cereal... AND... cereal comes in a plastic bag.  SO... for the past couple of days my kids have been snacking mostly on fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts and granola (all bought in bulk... using my own containers).

As the week progresses, I feel like living without foods in plastic is completely attainable for longer than just one week.  Food without plastic really takes some thought... but it's only because new habits are in the process of forming.

For breakfast, I made my husband an omelet... my daughter had an egg  (if you recall, we have our own egg laying hens... but if I do buy eggs I choose paper cartons).  My youngest had a leftover pancake (when I make pancakes... I always make too many and freeze the leftovers).  AND, I made biscuit cinnamon rolls.  I wasn't too crazy about them, but my bread loving 8 year old devoured them...

For lunch, I made more whole-wheat tortillas and the kids and I had PB&J roll ups (peanut butter ground fresh... put in my own glass jar) with fresh fruit-- apples and bananas.  My husband ate the leftover Vegetable Barley Soup and french bread (from day 2).

AND... for dinner?!?!!!...I don't know why I get most excited about dinner.  Maybe it's because it's the end of the day and it is in some sense a culmination of the day's work... my "chef d'oeuvre" to a plastic-free food day.... it's my reminder of what I am accomplishing...

Day 3 Plastic-free Dinner Menu

Pan Seared Portobello Mushrooms

Mac Shells & Cheese

Romaine Salad with carrots and red onion

Here's how I made it all plastic-free:

I bought the portobello mushrooms, carrots and onions in bulk (using my own bag).  I didn't have any "mock beef broth" so I just used water.  I also didn't use the basil because I don't buy dried basil and I didn't have any fresh.  For the shells and cheese-- which I have to say that I was the most excited about!!-- I bought the pasta bulk (using my own container), I used local milk in reusable glass containers (the cap is plastic), and the gouda was wrapped in paper (per my request).  As far as the salad goes, I chopped up a head of romaine with loose carrots and red onion.

AND... besides being plastic-free... it was on the table in UNDER 20 minutes AND it was all SO YUMMY!!!!

Plastic-Free Food: Day 1

Knowing that I was planning on doing a plastic-free food week... last week, I kept all of the plastic that I used throughout the week.  This is what my plastic waste in my kitchen looked like:

I submitted my plastic waste to Fake Plastic Fish:  Show Us Your Plastic Challenge.  I'll post that link whenever it's up.

Sure there are some things there that I normally don't buy.  For example, the Clif Bars, M&M's, and individually wrapped tea were from a road trip to Greenville, SC to see Jason Mraz in concert.  I usually plan our road trips really well... but not taking our 3 children... I really didn't think to bring snacks and this girl was hungry and not stopping at McDonald's for lunch.  Good news.. I never leave home without  my reusable water bottle!!   I'll be prepared with an arsenal of snacks next time!  AND I have to bring up the cookies... when I purchased them, I thought... "Well, I'm going to go plastic free next week... what if it's forever?!  I need to say good-bye to Liz Lovely's Chocolate Moose Dragons."  I LOVE Chocolate Moose Dragons... but I don't love the packaging.

SO... today was day one of buying or using no foods in plastic.  Breakfast and lunch were easy peasy.

• Breakfast:  Pancakes with maple syrup and local chocolate milk.

• Lunch:  Quesadillas made with homemade whole-wheat tortillas with maple smoked cheddar wrapped in paper**, sweet corn tomalito and mexican rice (left over from tacos last night... recipes coming soon!) and canned peaches that I made last week!  Note:  The whole wheat tortillas were made without wrapping the dough in plastic wrap-- I used a dishtowel.  I used bulk canola oil in the pan instead of using a spray can.

Now on to dinner.  All day I was stressing about what to make.  My husband is out of town and usually when he's out of town I pick up something easy to make like frozen organic raviolis or Gardein.  BUT... that wasn't an option.  I didn't want to go to the store and I had two butternut squashes sitting on my counter that I got from the Farmers' Market almost 2 weeks ago!!  So I decided to make "Butternut Squash Ravioli."  And by make... I mean make everything... the pasta and the filling.  I made the pasta in my food processor and thought, "hmmm... that's the easiest thing I've ever done."  I let the dough rest and then started the process of rolling it out using my pasta maker (that I got as a gift 8 years ago!!  Thanks MOM!!).  AND... the dough kept tearing and after so many tries... I nearly had a meltdown....and I almost gave up. But, I got my kids to help knead the dough some more and kept running it through the pasta maker and then... MAGIC... beautiful pasta!!!!

Dinner:  Butternut Squash Ravioli served with sautéed zucchini.  I made the ravioli using this recipe with these plastic-free adjustments:

• Instead of wrapping the dough in plastic wrap, I wrapped it in a dishtowel.
• I left out the butter. (only because I forgot... oops!)
• I used local buttermilk (in glass) in place of the marscarpone or cream cheese (both come in plastic)
• I used Chapel Hill Asiago (wrapped in paper**) in place of the Parm.
• My thoughts are that none of the dairy ingredients were really needed.  Next time, I'll make it with almond milk and a bit of nutritional yeast.

Day 1 is down... only 6 more to go....tomorrow I'm making Almond Milk!!!

**Last week, I asked the "cheese girl" at my cooperative food market to wrap cheese for me in paper in lieu of plastic... she wrote down my request and Friday after yoga I picked up my plastic-free cheese!! YAY!!