It happens several times a week - I'm standing in the kitchen trying to wrap up leftovers, lunch for the baby boy's day at the park, or a snack for my subway ride into Manhattan. I'm confused. What is the cheapest, safest, most responsible way to wrap up food?
Self-seal plastic bags are amazing for their ease and versatility - but they aren't sustainable. Even if you rinse them out and use them several times (which some doctors claim is unsafe either because of possible bacteria contamination or the plastic degrades over time and rubs off onto your food) they have to be thrown out eventually. It's initially cheaper to buy a box of Ziplock bags, but it's cheaper over time to buy a few sturdy glass containers of various size that come with plastic lids.
Reusing plastic bread bags is a step in the right direction - at least I'm not creating more garbage like when I bought that box of Ziplock. Right? But the plastic cross-contamination question keeps popping up - am I bathing my food in petroleum when I store hot, liquid or fatty foods in plastic re-used containers?
Foil works for some things, but isn't good for creating an air-tight seal - plus there are questions about the safety of wrapping aluminum around your food. Is there an increased Alzheimer's risk from over-exposure to this metal? Yet, it's recyclable. Argh.
Sometimes I use one of the many glass jars that I have painstakingly cleaned, removed labels from and stacked precariously in a top shelf away from the 2-year-old hands. But glass breaks (sometimes in the same Whole Foods store 3 times in one week, under the glaring eyes of resentful employees) and you can't really stuff a sandwich in an old salsa jar.
So what do I do? A combination of everything, trying to be as mindful as possible with each individual portion, trying to save pennies and the earth simultaneously.
Rather than have fatty foods (like tofu, cheese, etc) rest next to plastic bags (which some science says absorbs the nasty chemicals from plastic better) you can wrap them in parchment paper first and then rest it inside plastic which can be washed and re-used later.
Parchment paper is made of trees, granted, but you can get unbleached, dioxin-free paper at health food stores.
Or store everything in little glass mustard jars and be super organized in your fridge, remembering where everything is located, using the oldest foods first and NEVER dropping the fragile little suckers at the playground or on the F train.
What do you do? Any tips to share?
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3 comments:
My Texas grandmothers used sturdy
pyrex storage containers that kept
foods fresh even in old fashioned
'ice boxes'. These have lasted for
decades and can still be found at
garage/yard/stoop sales and secondhand stores throughout
the country.
Probably there are new ones available
too, but hey, if you can find them
second hand, go for it!!
I have always traveled with lotsa food.
Being an "unschooling" Mother of three - whew, thank the universe that two now have their own apt. and the youngest is a teen - we were always having to deal with how to pack food. No matter what I may have tried, I always went back to glass, which has its difficulties when carrying food for four and oft times it was for breakfast/lunch or lunch/dinner.
Did I say "whew" before ?
What I did do when the
"childrenses" were younger and continue to do now, is rarely pack sandwiches - ya know, that sandwich-in-salsa-jar quagmire -
I would create and carry all sorts of meals and store them in glass.
When we did enjoy sandwiches, I would store the sandwich "fixins" in one container and wrap the bread in cloth.
So often sandwiches made, stored and carried, just become soggy anyway. I came across this wonderful article in the August 2008 issue of Gourmet entitled, "Picnic In The Glass, 'bout "layering" meals in jars that presents the idea of rethinking what they refered to as "alfreso dining".
Wax paper works great and you can get natural wax paper baggies and rolls of wax paper that does not have the harmful junk they just have to put in stuff. I also use glass for so many things. I love canning jars, all sizes all shapes. Hey love this blog! WooHoo!
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