Baby step do-over: stop micro-waving food in plastic containers
So here's the deal. Ages ago when we first got into the whole EnviroMom thing, one of the first cautions we learned was to stop micro-waving food in plastic. To clean our your cupboards. Recycle or reuse the old, scratched up ones. As I recollect, Heather went straight home and cleaned out her cupboards. I thought about it. And I figured, 'Well, I don't really have to get rid of them, do I? I can just be really careful. What's the big deal? Store it in the plastic, and just put it in a plate or bowl before nuking. How hard can that be?!' Um. Well. It didn't really work out. Far too often, there are just times when you get so dang busy and the kids are starving because they had back-to-back soccer practices and they're clamoring for dinner and you know you need to take it out of the plastic and put it onto a plate and nuke it that way, but you really don't think you'll keep your sanity unless you can quiet your kids immediately by putting some warm food in front of their bleating pie-holes so they'll just start shoveling some food in and be quiet, while silently praying that by heating in plastic you're not slowly killing your kids! (Readers, I have no idea where I get this reckless idea that I can take shortcuts and still get the job done, when all evidence points to the contrary.)
The scenario described above has happened to me more times than I care to confess. So I went back to square one. I cleared out the plastic food storage containers and replaced them with glass. I bought a set of square/rectangle glass food storage containers with snap-on lids that I'd seen a lot of my friends using, and I told myself it'd be my Christmas present to myself. I'm kind of sickly excited about them, but it's taken some getting used to. The lids are plastic, so I don't want to use those as covers, nor do I want wax paper, plastic wrap or paper towels. Borrowing an idea from the French (and other countries?), the eating plates have gotten a promotion (note: it's a recession era promotion with more responsibility, but no pay raise) and now act as lids as well as plates. Especially the saucers that have sat in my cabinet, alone and forgotten like wall-flowers since my husband and I got married.
Meanwhile, the old plastic food storage containers have been put to reuse as pencil boxes and crayon containers. There seems to be no limit to the collections of small things that need to be organized in our house.
I've noticed a wealth of pyrex bowls, glass/ceramic casseroles, lids and whatnot at thrift stores I frequent. It may be cheaper and better to go this route of reuse/second hand. I really needed a kick in the pants to get my food out of plastic, so I took the path of least resistance and bought a durable set at Costco that I hope will last. Amazon carries the same set, and chime in if you've seen local retailers offering it as well.
The scenario described above has happened to me more times than I care to confess. So I went back to square one. I cleared out the plastic food storage containers and replaced them with glass. I bought a set of square/rectangle glass food storage containers with snap-on lids that I'd seen a lot of my friends using, and I told myself it'd be my Christmas present to myself. I'm kind of sickly excited about them, but it's taken some getting used to. The lids are plastic, so I don't want to use those as covers, nor do I want wax paper, plastic wrap or paper towels. Borrowing an idea from the French (and other countries?), the eating plates have gotten a promotion (note: it's a recession era promotion with more responsibility, but no pay raise) and now act as lids as well as plates. Especially the saucers that have sat in my cabinet, alone and forgotten like wall-flowers since my husband and I got married.
Meanwhile, the old plastic food storage containers have been put to reuse as pencil boxes and crayon containers. There seems to be no limit to the collections of small things that need to be organized in our house.
I've noticed a wealth of pyrex bowls, glass/ceramic casseroles, lids and whatnot at thrift stores I frequent. It may be cheaper and better to go this route of reuse/second hand. I really needed a kick in the pants to get my food out of plastic, so I took the path of least resistance and bought a durable set at Costco that I hope will last. Amazon carries the same set, and chime in if you've seen local retailers offering it as well.
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