I tell ya, vegan-hood is not far away. We made this lentil loaf over the weekend and served it to a couple of friends. Let’s just say, there weren’t any leftovers. The only animal products were one egg in the lentil loaf and a bit of butter in the potatoes, which could probably have been omitted. You’ll see why.

Recipe 1: Red Lentil Loaf
(based on the recipe posted here: http://www.recipezaar.com/192628 ^[1])

• 1 cup dried red lentils (Purchased from bulk bin at Rainbow Grocery w/ my own bag. Zero packaging.)
• 1 cup rolled oats (Purchased from bulk bin at Rainbow Grocery w/ my own bag. Zero packaging.)
• 1 whole egg (Carboard egg carton. Usually I can return these to the guy at the farmer’s market when he’s there.)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa (Purchased from bulk bin at Berkeley Bowl w/ my own bag. Zero packaging. The original recipe calls for brown rice, but we were out and the quinoa worked out fine.)
• 1 cup grated carrots (Purchased naked. No bag.)
• 1/2 an onion, diced (Purchased naked. No bag.)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (Purchased naked. No bag.)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (Glass bottle with metal cap.)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (Metal can with plastic cap.)
• 1 teaspoon dried sage (Plastic container of dried sage that I already had. When this is used up, will buy dried sage in bulk and refill container.)
• salt and pepper, to taste (Cardboard box of salt. Bulk pepper corns from Whole Foods bulk jars.)

Cook lentils. (3 cups water to 1 cup dried red lentils. Stove top, 15 to 20 minutes.) Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil a loaf pan and sprinkle sides and bottom with a tbsp of oats. Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil. Whisk egg replacer and water until light and foamy. In a large bowl, combine the egg replacer and lentils with the remaining ingredients. Press mixture into loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Served with tomato garlic pasta sauce from a jar because I didn’t have time to make a homemade sauce.

Plastic: None that will go in my weekly tally. Plastic for a future tally includes the plastic cap on the soy sauce and the plastic sage container. A final bit of plastic is inside the metal cap and lid of the olive oil bottle and the pasta sauce jar.

Recipe 2: Turnip Mashed Potatoes
(Inspired by a dish our friend Kari brought to Thanksgiving this year, but thrown together without a recipe.)

• 1 large russet potato (Purchased naked. No bag.)
• 3 medium turnips (Purchased naked. No bag.)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (Glass bottle with metal cap.)
• 1 tablespoon butter (cardboard box and wax paper wrapper.)
• Leftover wasabi from my sushi birthday dinner (but you could just use regular horseradish) (Cardboard take-out container with plastic lid.)
• salt and pepper, to taste (Cardboard box of salt. Bulk pepper corns from Whole Foods bulk jars.)

Coat turnips with olive oil and bake in oven until tender. At the same time, boil the potato on the stove or in the microwave. When both are done, mash them together. Add butter, wasabi, salt and pepper.

The turnips will add a little bit of crunch if they’re not done all the way. You can decide if you want that or not. The butter wasn’t necessary. This dish was my solution for what to do with leftover wasabi. A few nights later, Michael used the leftover pickled ginger in a stir fry.

Plastic: The plastic lid from the wasabi container already included in last week’s tally ^[2]. A final bit of plastic is inside the metal cap of the olive oil bottle and whatever shiny stuff coats the outside of the butter box. Not sure if the waxed paper is actually waxed or coated with plastic. Will have to find out.

Rainbow Grocery sells bulk olive oil. You bring your own container and fill it yourself. I’m going to do that when this bottle runs out. I might be able to buy soy sauce that way too, but not sure about that. Plastic-free butter? I don’t think it’s possible, even if you make your own. Plastic-free tomato sauce? This is on my list of things to learn to make. For now, though, I’m collecting the glass jars to use for food storage despite the plastic lining the metal lids.