Plastic-free Thanksgiving – Pumpkin Pecan Risotto, Brussels Sprouts, Winter Salad
I hope you all had a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We spent Thursday at a Thanksgiving potluck with friends and made sure that our three dishes were as plastic-free as possible. Below are links to the recipes, with info on ingredients. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the brussels sprouts after they were cooked as well as Michael’s salad.
Dish 1: Pumpkin Pie Risotto with Candied Pecans (From NPR web site.)
All the dry ingredients came from bulk bins at Whole Foods.
I followed the recipe per the NPR instructions, but I kind of feel like something’s wrong with it as written. The risotto tasted great, but it was much softer than expected, bordering on mushy. The procedure is different from most risottos, requiring you to put the rice and liquids all into the pot together instead of sauteeing the rice first and then adding liquid gradually.
Next time (and there will be a next time because I’m determined to get this right) I’m going to try sauteeing the rice in butter first and then adding liquid gradually. Since this is a dessert risotto with sugar and milk in it, I wonder how I can keep the milk and sugar from sticking. Any suggestions?
Dish 2: Pan-Browned Brussels Sprouts (from epicurious.com)
Until this weekend, I never knew that brussels sprouts grew on long stalks like this! I had always just thought of them as baby cabbages. So when I found a binful outside Whole Foods on Wednesday, I was immediately enchanted.
Dish 3: Autumn Harvest Salad with Persimmons (from NPR web site)
This salad was great fun for us to make together, full of unusual ingredients: persimmon, pear, pomegranate, pecan, Medjool dates (one of Michael’s favorite foods). It was the first time I’d ever cut into a pomegranate, actually. The next day at Trader Joe’s, we saw pomegranate arils (the beautiful red edible seeds) packaged in plastic containers, and we thought how much fun we would miss if we were still buying all our foods pre-packaged.
In all three dishes, the only unavoidable packaging came from the dairy products — milk, butter, and cream. Going vegan would solve that problem. But I’m just not ready to take that step. Maybe next year.
Hey, Hayley. I hope you will stop back and see my answer to your awesome comment. Thank you so much for posting. It’s not too long. It’s truthful, and that’s what matters.
Hayley, you can only do what you can do. You can’t change your parents. You really can’t change other people. Other people will change if and when they are ready to, and maybe not at all.
But what you can do is change your own actions. Educate yourself as much as possible. Read about plastic in the North Pacific Gyre, for example. Read the article, Plastic Ocean and pass it along to your friends. Read about other environmental issues. Then, decide that you will do and do what you can. Don’t beat yourself up if you slip up. Just keep trying the best you can.
Your example will help others to see what is possible as long as you are not “preachy” or self-righteous about it. Bring your cloth bags shopping. If your mom collects more, that is not your fault. Bring your reusable water bottle with you and fill it up. Turn off lights and other electronics when not in use. There are all kinds of things you can do personally.
Think your small actions won’t make a difference? They will. They will change the most important person — you. They will help you to more fully become the type of person you already are — someone who cares about more than her small self. Someone who realizes that she is connected to everything and that her actions affect everything around her.
What to do with those plastic bags — how about creating your own bag monster and then using it for a plastic bag action at your school. You could plan your own “Day Without A Bag.” E-mail me privately and I’ll hook you up with folks who can help. http://myplasticfreelife.com/contact-me/
HI Susy. I too use cloth bags for dry bulk goods. Organic Needle makes some, as “make a bag” mentioned, and you can also get them from reusablebags.com and ecobags.com. I believe my Whole Foods sells them as well. Make sure you let the checkout clerk know the “tare weight” to deduct so they don’t charge you for the weight of the bag. Cloth bags are heavier than plastic bags.
If you use them for anything sticky, be sure and rinse them out and hang them to dry right away to avoid mildew.
I also sometimes use brown paper bags that I reuse over and over (for coffee, for example), emptying it into a container when I get home.
For wet food (like hummus from deli counter, meat, etc.) I take stainless steel containers, like you can buy from likewithoutplastic.com or to-goware.com. The grocery store staff at Whole Foods and other bulk places are able to deduct the weight of the container from the total price.
And Green Cat, reusing plastic containers is allowed!
🙂