With plastics plastered all over the news I am working harder than ever to reduce plastic use in our home.
I thought I’d share some techniques that work for me in our home.
Use glass containers for food storage:
My favorite way to store leftover foods in my fridge is the 6 Cup Rectangular Pyrex dishes with blue lids – we have 8-10 of these and I love this system.
- Leftovers always look good.
- They are the perfect size, not to big, not too small.
- They stack nicely – so things look organized.
- They are clear so you can see what is inside them and you are more likely to remember what you have and finish it off.
- They can go in the freezer, oven or microwave.
- They can go from fridge to table for casual dinner service.
Insied the Diva Refridgerator
Additionally
- We use a round pyrex 10 cup bowl (with lid) to keep ready made salad in our fridge. The salad stays fresh for much longer in this bowl. Prepare your salad – leaving out anything mushy (in our house that’s tomatoes). I’ll often chop a few days of extra salad fixin’s, throw them in the bowl. The next day or two, all I have to do is add more (organic)mixed greens – Salad is done.
- I have a stack of 8-10 custard cups (a few with lids too). These are great for reheating small servings of food – they were perfect for warming baby food too.
Reduce plastics at your point of purchase:
When shopping, make glass packaging a criteria – you’ve been there. You’re at the store, you’ve studied the label. You are trying to figure out which product is the best choice – all things being equal – pick glass.
For example – not too long ago I was trying to decide between Ralph’s Brand and French’s Brand Worcestershire Sauce -the only 2 brands of Worcestershire I’ve found without HFCS (this is really my life). They still had a few unknown ingredients – but they seemed to be relatively equal. One in glass, one in plastic. I chose the French’s – it was in glass.
There are now many products that I routinely purchase in glass, Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, dressing, tomato sauce and such. Some things may be prohibitive to your budget (for most families I’m guessing Milk), but if you look you’ll find you have a choice more than you realize.
Re-Use the Glass:
I’m gearing up to start making my own beans (to avoid the can), so I’m saving all these glass jars and lids. Soon I will have enough to get cooking – in the meantime they fill in as food storage when I’m out of pyrex.
I keep the salad dressing bottles, they are good for storing homemade fruit or berry pancakes syrups & I have visions of making salad dressing… one day soon. Help me Martha!
There you have it. A few simple ways we are using less plastic in our home.
What’s working for you?
{ 14 comments… add one }
I am kind of crazy about this. I love my Pyrex storage containers and would love more of them. I save jars, oil bottles, glass cosmetic cases and salad dressing containers also. I simply like to use them for saving food in my fridge…it certainly doesn’t look as organized as your fridge Tan..but I love having the different sizes. Every other month for so I do have to go through my cupboard and reign in the stray lids and jars and recycle the ones I am not using. My hubby doesn’t really get it though!!Salad dressing recipe everyone loves ( picky teenage boy proof)Use your mini food processor or magic bulletolive oil-grape seed oil1 tsp of dijon mustard1-2 tablespoonsapple cider vinegar or fresh squeezed lemon1/2 tsp of agave or honey2-3 tbsp of plain yogurt or mayo if you prefersalt or Braggs to tastethis is a base you can add any fresh or dried herbs or spice to suitomit yogurt for a vinaigrette styleits so easy and eliminates Soybean oil and canola oil both which are often GMOs and just really bad for your health
I think these are really good tips. As long as we take some time and think ahead, most of these are really do-able. Even the beans!
Good reusing tips. I’m really inspired to phase out my plastic stuff, especially if my fridge will look as organized as yours
Thank you. I’m glad you liked them and are a little inspired!
I really had to stop myself from moving that pineapple. The picture would have looked better without it! I did make sure I caught it on a good day though!
Love it!!! I’m definitely going to use these tips. I want the pyrex with lids…how cool!!!
They really work well. Glad you like the tips.
I challenged my readers to avoid plastics here: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/05/26/monday-mission-rethink-plastic-food-storage-containers/ and to cut down on plastic bags here:
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/07/13/monday-mission-targeting-plastic-bags/
Love the idea of using glass instead of all the plastic containers. I wish more companies would skip the plastic and just put it in glass. My local refuse center recycles glass so it makes it really easy to choose glass and thus recycle it after use.
Unless a company makes a point of telling you if their plastic contains BPA, pthalates, etc., it’s just better to play it safe and choose glass. (Even then, you must determine if you believe their marketing in light of the SIGG bottle fiasco – SIGG admitted their “BPA-free” coating inside their aluminum bottles actually contained BPA after all).
I’ve been using glass canning jars to store leftovers or freeze foods in (as well as using them to can my own foods). They are inexpensive and easy to use over & over. For large volumes of food, like a pot of soup or a pot of beans cooked from scratch, I store leftovers in gallon glass jars in the fridge. I also save glass tea bottles and re-bottle my own water or juice for when I’m on the go.
My favorite glass containers for refridgerated foods are those old-fashioned (antique, even) glass refridgerator boxes. I like them better because they come with a glass lid instead of a plastic lid. You can pick up old ones at flea markets, garage sales, antique stores, etc. And K-Mart has a line of new glass refridgerator boxes from Martha Stewart.
Kathy
I’ll have to check out the Kmart Martha Stewart…
This is a great post. I didn’t even think about reusing our plastic jars that PB and other things come in. We do use some of my canning jars that are not in use with canned goods. I just need to find some larger containers. Pyrex bowls! Time to invest in some great new stuff.
I’m obsessed with putting my food in glass containers. I save all the glass containers from the food products I buy. I often go with the one that has the best-sized container for later use! I’ll have to get the square kind pyrex kind too because it’s a little difficult to put a chicken in jars;) I love the glass milk containers too…I use them for storing homemade citrus water or nut milks!
Great ideas, thanks!
Thanks for these tips, reducing, and whenever possible, eliminating, plastics from my home, and most particularly my kitchen, has recently become a priority of mine, and this is very helpful!