Sunday, September 26, 2010

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.

  • 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!!

4 comments:

  1. I love this challenge! We made our own ravioli a couple weeks ago, down to the dough and my kids RAVED about it!! We'll never buy frozen again. Our dough recipe is egg-free and I learned real quick the value of a pasta machine!! In fact, our pasta recipe is almost the same as your tortilla recipe. Hmmm - I think we're going to have to give them a try!

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  2. Thank you!! It was crazy how AMAZING the homemade pasta was... especially after I thought I was going to fail... it was like eating victory!! My kids were awesome kneaders of the pasta dough and thought it was SO cool to make their own raviolis. (I'm with them on that one!!) :D

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  3. This is so cool and inspiring!
    I didn't know you could make requests like that:)

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  4. Thank you! The challenge was so liberating...not feeling bound to plastics..knowing that we have a choice and it CAN be done is so empowering. One of the biggest things that I learned is that "you never know until you ask"...especially at smaller local stores. People were completely intrigued by what we were doing...and were very open to helping us succeed. It's my hope as we continue to strive to use plastic-free food, that some of the things we have done especially for us will become the norm. How cool would that be?!?!

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