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Hello!
This week, we're changing our bagel habits. We always have a plastic bag of Trader Joe's Bagels in the fridge, bagels being one of the foods that both kids eat, and bagels being my favorite lox vehicle.
Instead of the TJ bagels, I'll be adding a stop to the bagel store up the street to our errands. They're fresher anyway and I'll bring my own bag. As a bonus, we won't be buying cream cheese in plastic, only the kind that comes wrapped in foil/paper. (We've been doing that awhile anyway.)
However, how to get my beloved lox fix without plastic will be a challenge. I'd love any suggestions!
I don't know what the shops are like where you live, but as a kid in Brooklyn lox only came wrapped in paper from the appetizing department (aka the deli counter). Maybe you can find that somewhere?
Alas, I live where the only lox to be had comes in plastic, and isn't all that yummy for the price, so we skip it. It is a must eat when I go home though :)
Hmm, I will have to think about what plastic item to give up.We use cloth shopping bags. We take our produce naked (except if the stinkin' store has already wrapped it and put it on a styrofoam tray- arrrgh),
Maybe we'll do homemade hummus instead of the kind from the store.
Jennifer, I'm going to scour our local delis. Maybe I'll get lucky.
Homemade hummus is so yummy. My secret ingredient is Cardini's Lemon Herb dressing. It makes for very creamy, slightly tangy hummus. How do you make yours?
I'm going to go through my facial cleansers and make sure I don't have any with tiny plastic bead exfoliants. And from here on out, I'll make sure I find something with a natural exfoliant instead.
You mention cream cheese, Sasha -- I have the same issue with feta cheese, and yet foil-wrapped feta seems harder to find than cream cheese in foil. Cheese people: More foil, less plastic, please!
I didn't even KNOW that facial care products were made with plastic until recently. I was stunned and a bit depressed. It's EVERYWHERE. I wish you luck in your feta expedition...maybe it's available in bulk in a swanky deli too?
We're not buying any frozen pizzas anymore. They're wrapped in plastic. I've started making my own dough and freezing it. So I can make pizzas, pizza bites, calzones...all those come shrink wrapped inside the box if bought frozen. :)
We started baking our own breads and rolls. That eliminates the plastic bags that most bread loaves come in. None of the ingredients for our bread come in plastic and they can also all be used to make other things...I am much more inclined to cook at home and try new recipes if I already have a bunch of the ingredients on hand. We've just recently had great success with homemade graham crackers and are going to try tortillas next.
Have a tried or know of a good recipe for pita bread? That's the only bread we buy that comes in plastic -the other local baked artisan breads are in a paper sack.
This week, still week one for us, we (I already drafted my husband!) need to just start making ourselves more aware of what we buy and what we do with garbage that leaves my house. Currently our weekly 'recycling' container is larger than our trash container but we want to reduce both.
This week we decided to make the local Co-op our primary grocery store and focus on minimizing the products that over-packaged.
Over the last several two years, we've given up coffee-to-go cups and lids. We either bring our own travel mug or take our time and socialize over a ceramic mug.
