I've been gradually working towards being as new-plastic-free in my purchases as possible, and I'm still not there. Let's face it - it's hard.
One of my goals this year has been to find a sandwich bread recipe that is virtually no knead, like my other seed bread recipe Busy People's Bread. I have failed to find one, so this week I have bought a new-to-me bread machine. The first loaf was pretty good, and I'm on track to save bringing home 26 bread bags/year. I'll still be making the seed bread, four loaves at a time in the oven. A plus with the bread machine will be easier pizza dough.
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| My lovely helper holding the container - labels on the underside |
A new thing here is being able to take a container to the supermarket and they'll make a bit of a drama about taking it away to clean it, then we can get items from the deli packaging-free.I'm loving buying feta and gouda like this. Just ignoring the drama..("have you got any other shopping to do...I'll be 5 minutes cleaning this" kind of comments). So I got them to put three things in it. It's a bit dearer to buy like this, but the feta's nicer than what I was getting.
My next change for P-F July has been making my own custard powder. Yes, I know you can make it with eggs etc, but it has to be sustainable and I'm not the only cook. The bulk bin custard powder was horrible so we reverted to packaged Edmonds. My challenge was to make something convenient that had to be as nice...success...recipe follows.
DIY Custard Powder
1 cup of icing sugar
1/2 cup of cornflour
1/2 cup of milk powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
Grind all to a fine powder with a stick blender or similar. Store in an airtight container.
Use as for regular bought custard powder, but I did find I needed to use more. I'm going to try adding more cornflour to the next mix. You can also add a couple of drops of yellow food colouring if you want it to be more like the bought stuff.
Our last innovation, which isn't a plastic-free one, has been to change most of our light bulbs to LED. They have come way down in price recently (now only around $3-$4/ bulb) and should pay for themselves quickly with energy saving and they'll last longer, plus they don't give off heat. If you haven't done yours yet, look into it. #money-saving
Thanks for sharing your plastic free ideas. I have changed a lot of plastic for glass in my pantry but still haven't used the bring your own container to the supermarket deli section. I do take mesh bags for fruit and vegetables at the supermarket. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Rosie. I'm looking forward to the day when it's the norm to take your own produce bags like you do. We're still very much in the minority - but it's a growing trend.
DeleteYou are doing so well in eliminating plastic and i know what a challenge it is. I have one little success to report, which is that we have a new butcher in town who is willing, if you call in advance, to wrap meat in paper (and not the plastic lined butcher paper either, plain paper!) and string! Now, we don’t eat much meat but what we do we pay more for to buy it there and thank him for the option of not receiving it on a styrofoam tray with plastic stuff that soaks up the juice and all wrapped in plastic film.
ReplyDeleteEvery small change feels like a big win doesn't it Cynthia. We all just need to keep plugging away at it. Good on your butcher. I know it is much harder to go plastic free in the USA, especially in the provinces.
DeleteI can’t believe they wash your containers! We have a bulk food store in my town and they let you use any visibly clean containers to buy their goods. Sounds like resistance disguised as policy to me 🙄
ReplyDeleteI just took the plunge and converted to No Pong deodorant. No plastic packaging and made from natural ingredients. I was nervous about it’s effectiveness, but so far it’s great, no problems at all. I’ll have to wait to see how it works in our hot humid summer!
Small things done often = change 😍
Yes I know the container washing is tiresome, plus my butcher and bulk food place don't do it either. I'm giving them a moment to settle in then will be writing a letter.
DeleteI haven't tried a commercial plastic free deodorant. After my DIY one suddenly failed, I've used citrus juice, which worked, but isn't for sensitive skin people, also went back to an aluminium crystal that I had, and that works, plus I made a magnesium solution, and that works too, so I swap between them. But yeah - summer is a whole different story isn't it.