Comments on: Plastic Challenge: Suzanne in Davis, Week 1

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:07:53 +0000

Hi Lis. Actually Better than Bouillon does have an organic version. That’s the one I get, although it might not be available everywhere.

By: Lis

Lis — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:38:10 +0000

Ooh, I second the Better Than Bouillon suggestion– that stuff is delicious. Thanks to Amy for opening my eyes to that product. It isn’t organic… but let’s not be too picky. Suzanne, you might be suggestioned-out, but I’m so inspired by your post here (and your naked sharing of the plastic-truth), that I’m going to offer up one of my weirdo techniques for kid medicine: just give them what you take. I literally break ibuprofren tablets in two, to get a 100 mg dose or what have you. The kid even kinda chews it. It works, and that is one less bottle I have to buy. Plus, I can buy those absurdly large bottles of pills… etc. etc. I just skip the tylenol altogether. Of course, this is not that satisfying of a solution, especially when it comes to antibiotics and other stuff… I wonder if we could order ibu. and other stuff “in bulk”-of-sorts from the Compound Pharmacist in Davis? xox

By: Suzanne from Davis

Suzanne from Davis — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:27:48 +0000

Beth, thanks for posting my challenge (with its enormous stack of plastic!) and thanks for the gracious comments and suggestions.

[Danielle, I like the "plastic-free cooking" section on your blog and it's nice to read about living plastic-free with kids, as that has it's own special challenges.]

I just bought “Better than Bouillon” and will try it – thanks for the tip! I will also try making the chocolate syrup from scratch, that’s something I can do.

Thanks for the inspiration to take some action on the bread front. I will investigate some options and see if we can do something that will meet our kid-lunch needs and is plastic free.

Similarly on the puffed rice. My kids love oatmeal. The puffed rice is for variety (they also eat it with the yogurt in glass jars we buy, which is a nice nutritional boost for breakfast). But again… we can do better. I will mull our options.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:12:57 +0000

Don’t know how this would go over with the kids, but have you tried plain old oatmeal? I’ve become a total addict, especially on cold winter mornings.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:19:21 +0000

Hey! Love the PITA acronym!! I said that I was going to make bread for nearly 2 years before I actually committed to it…. I picked up The Bread Bible (old one out of print) at the library and finally figured out how to make bread that my kids LOVE… and since I throw it in my bread machine… it’s not quite the PITA ;) Or, like Beth said…when I forget to make bread, I purchase whole unsliced loafs and slice myself. It works really well. If the end of the loaf gets stale, I just make bread crumbs with it.

I also use Better Than Bouillon. It’s my back up to making fresh. When I ate chicken and would roast a whole chicken I would save the carcass (you can freeze it or use it right away) and made stock with that. I’d make a batch.. use what I needed and then freeze it. (I do this now with veg stock as well). It’s super easy… if you need a recipe… I’d be happy to send you one. :)

Cereal: When we did our plastic-free food week back in Sept/Oct… I stopped buying cereal. My kids whine sometimes, but then we go to the bulk section and I let my kids pick out granolas. My kids now eat a better breakfast than they used to… granola, fruit, an egg, oatmeal, muffins or smoothies are now are go-to breakfasts. And they’re all plastic-free :D

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:39:59 +0000

Hi Suzanne. Thanks for taking the challenge. I have some thoughts for you.

First, that Netflix strip is actually coated with silicone, not plastic. I know because I checked with them a while back. :-)

For broth, I use organic “Better than Bouillon” which comes in a glass jar. http://www.superiortouch.com/retail/products/better-than-bouillon/organic-bases

For chocolate milk, have you considered making your own “Hershey’s syrup”? It’s very easy to make and plastic-free if you have access to bulk cocoa. Here’s the recipe. It’s sooo good. http://myplasticfreelife.com/2008/12/homemade-chocolate-syrup-delicious/

Regarding bread: it stays fresher longer if you don’t buy it presliced. It doesn’t take long to slice-as-you-go. Also, a bread box works really, really well for keeping it fresh. I found a stainless steel one at Target which works better than the popcorn tin I had been using. Of course, it’s made in China. But I intend to have it until I die. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/182-5462563-1769231?asin=B0014ZR0W6&AFID