Once upon a time, there was a young guy, let’s call him “R,” who was courting a beautiful lass we’ll call “B.” She invited him to her house for dinner and cooked him frozen broccoli smothered in Cheez Whiz. It was love at first bite. They got married and had 5 kids, the oldest of whom believed for many years that veggies came from the freezer and that everything tastes better with cheese. She’s learning that veggies come from the ground and that she won’t die without cheese. But it’s a process and she’s still taking baby steps in the slow food department.

Why did I start with that story? Because a few weeks ago, The Biscuit Queen, who is also blogging about her quest to live plastic-free, asked to see a list of everything I eat for a week because she’s having trouble finding the types of plastic-free bulk foods that I have access to here in the Bay Area. And my first thought was, “Oh, great. Now everyone will know what a poor eater I still am.” I don’t eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables. If Michael didn’t make veggies for us every night, I’d rarely eat them. And I have a huge sweet tooth and caffeine addiction, indulging in way too many chocolate treats and coffee drinks.

But the purpose of this blog is not for me to seem like I’m perfect, but simply to document the journey of an ordinary person who is trying very hard to live plastic-free and environmentally responsibly and who struggles with the same temptations and weaknesses that everyone else does. So, here goes. My food for one week (Sunday, Feb 24 through Saturday, March 1) with a new recipe. Please keep in mind that I don’t have kids and that Michael and I often eat separately, so my eating situation may be different from yours.

Sunday, 2/24:
Sunday we attended the annual Oscars-watching potluck party at our friends’ house. I was tired and couldn’t get it together to make a dish from scratch, so instead I ordered a whole mess of butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter sauce from Pasta Pomodoro and brought my own Pyrex dish for the restaurant to serve it in. (If I hadn’t, they would have used a plastic throw-away container.) It wasn’t the healthiest food at the party, but it disappeared mighty fast. Everyone loves butter, right? There’s a photo of the cook after filling up my dish.

And here’s a close-up of the dish itself. Mmmmmmmm…. At the party, I ate anything I wanted. I maintain a kind of “Don’t ask; don’t tell” plastic policy at parties. If I don’t see any plastic, I assume the best and enjoy myself. Here’s the rest of what I ate that day:

• Water from the tap
• Gen Maicha green tea (loose from Whole Foods bulk jar)
• 1 navel orange
• Leftover squash/tomato dish from last night’s dinner
• Handful of tamari almonds (purchased from Berkeley Bowl bulk bin in my own container)
• Mocha in my stainless steel travel mug at Pasta Pomodoro while I was waiting (caffeine and chocolate addiction, remember?)

Monday, 2/25:
Monday, I created a White Bean, Tomato, & Olive Bread Gratin. The recipe is at the bottom of this post. Here’s a photo of how it turned out. I thought it was delicious. It was a bit too soft and carb-loaded for Michael’s taste, so I ended up making 4 meals for myself out of it. I don’t need to eat something different every day.

I also baked a cake. Just a simple yellow cake based on this recipe from Food Musingswith plastic-free ingredients that I already had. It was basically something to hold Hershey’s chocolate syrup that I wanted to use up. (You’ll see the container in this week’s plastic tally.) Yep. Addict here. So, here’s the day’s list:

• Water from the tap
• Gen Maicha green tea
• 1 navel orange
• Handful of tamari almonds
• White Bean, Tomato, & Olive Bread Gratin (pictured above)
• Soy chai latte from Starbucks in my own stainless steel travel mug
• Steamed broccoli and yellow bell pepper with homemade hummus (made from dry bulk garbanzo beans, lemon juice, lots of spices)
• Cake with chocolate syrup (see above)
• Almond tea from tea bag. Once it’s gone, I’ll replace with loose tea from bulk bin.

Tuesday, 2/26:

• Water from the tap
• Earl Grey tea (loose from Whole Foods bulk jar)
• 1 banana
• Handful of tamari almonds
• White Bean, Tomato, & Olive Bread Gratin
• Raw carrots with homemade hummus
• 2 Pieces of cake w/ chocolate syrup (morning and night)
• Almond tea from tea bag
• Too many mini Reese’s peanut butter cups from dish at work. They are wrapped in foil, not plastic. It’s no excuse. They’re still wasteful. It’s cheap chocolate. Nothing redeeming about them at all. And when they’re around, I can’t resist.

Wed 2/27:

• Water from the tap
• Mocha in stainless steel travel mug at Hudson Bay Cafe (after vet visit)
• 1 banana
• 1 navel orange
• White Bean, Tomato, & Olive Bread Gratin
• Steamed broccoli with homemade hummus
• Mini Reese’s cups
• 1 finger of Power’s Irish whiskey & water because desperate times call for desperate measures

Thur 2/28:

• Water from the tap
• Gen Maicha tea
• 1 banana
• White Bean, Tomato, & Olive Bread Gratin
• Raw carrots with homemade hummus
• Mini Reese’s cups
• 1/2 spicy bread stick from a local cafe & butter

Fri 2/29:

• Water from the tap
• Gen Maicha green tea
• 1 banana
• Handful of tamari almonds
• 1/2 spicy bread stick & butter
• Swiss chard sauteed with garlic, oil, and Trader Joe’s Bolognese spaghetti sauce from a glass jar (Is that better than Cheese Whiz?)
• 1 navel orange
• Cake & chocolate syrup
• Whiskey & water

Sat 3/1:

• Water from tap
• Waffle from the Waffle Man at Grand Lake Farmer’s Market
• Dinner w/ Michael and two friends at Cafe Colucci Ethiopian restaurant before seeing a movie. We shared two vegetarian combo platters and one meat platter. I brought containers for carrying home leftovers, but there weren’t any. We scarfed up everything.
• Ice cream sundaes and coffee with these same friends at Fenton’s Creamery after movie, where we sat down to have our ice cream instead of carrying it out. The only possible plastic were individual packets of half and half, which we returned to the server, opting instead to put whipped cream from our sundaes into our coffee!

So, there you have it. I am not an example for how one should eat. I could add many more fruits and vegetables to my diet (which come naturally plastic-free) and eliminate quite a bit of chocolate and coffee. And of course, I do realize that the soy chai latte I bought from Starbucks contained soy milk from a carton with a plastic spout. I confess I haven’t made my own soy milk in a while and should get back to doing it again.

Now for the recipe:

White Bean, Tomato, & Olive Bread Gratin

• Cooked white beans, 3 cups (from 1 cup dry)
• Cooking liquid from the beans
• 4 ripe tomatoes & their juice
• 1/2 loaf of Acme olive bread cut into 1″ cubes (of course, you could use any flavorful bread that is starting to go stale.) I buy Acme bread directly from the bakery at the SF Ferry Building and have it put in my own bag. Otherwise, it comes in a paper bag.
• 1 tsp Better Than Bouillon
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• Thyme, dried, 1/8 teaspoon
• Bay leaf
• Olive oil, 1 tablespoon
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Make a spicy broth by placing bean liquid, tomatoes with juice, thyme, bay leaf, Better Than Bouillon and olive oil in the sauté pan. Simmer 20 minutes or longer to develop flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, mix up the beans, bread cubes, egg, and tomato broth thoroughly. Then place in a baking dish.

Bake about 1 hour. The top will be nice and brown and the inside consistency will be like a savory bread pudding, creamy and delicious.

Plastic in this recipe: plastic coating inside lids of Better Than Bouillon jar (which I’m still using up) and olive oil. Plastic thyme bottle, which will be replaced with bulk spice after it’s used up. Zero plastic waste for last week.