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Cow Dutch Oven Giveaway
We really do love our Dutch oven, the original slow-cooker!
Stove Top or Oven Recipe
A Plastic-Box Infestation
It’s hard for me to trash some stuff. Not because I think I’ll miss it, but because I imagine the landfill rounding up several inches. I get this vision whenever I hold an empty plastic box in my hands. I’m talking about those eternally sturdy containers with a “4” or “5” molded into the raised triangle on their bottoms.
So I’ve got a cupboard stuffed with those round plastic boxes—in all sizes—each of them waiting for a new assignment. About half the time the cupboard door doesn’t close tightly, it’s so full. When I start to nick up my knuckles getting a stack in or out, I finally take a bunch of boxes out and retire them to the back room of the basement—where teetering piles are gathering, mostly out-of-sight.
I’m a partly converted locavore, but one of the dark, dirty secrets of eating locally for me is this accumulation of untold numbers of plastic boxes. I shop regularly at our downtown farmers market, where the vendors hand me their produce either in plastic boxes or plastic bags (yeah, it’s almost as hard for me to toss bags as it is boxes).
I do carry my grandma’s wicker market basket (it’s at least 50 years old and still doing its job), and I do return empty egg cartons to the woman who sells me eggs. I’ve thought of coming equipped with part of my army of empty plastic boxes and bags and asking that the standholders put the chicken breasts and the fresh pumpkin in them while I wait. . . and while a restless crowd grows behind me as this whole operation consumes precious minutes.
Sometimes when I’ve cooked a big meal and have lots of leftovers, I pull out a raft of plastic boxes and fill them for my mother and daughters and son-in-law. I love getting those boxes out of our house almost as much as I like giving the food away.
Then my mother gives the boxes back. I tell her I don’t want them. She says she doesn’t either.
When I send food home with our daughters, I confess to chortling about handing off as many plastic boxes as I can. Two years ago, our older daughter broke her leg and needed a bit of help around the house. That’s when I discovered her cupboard of empty plastic boxes. I closed the door quietly and asked no questions.
Our younger daughter has been snickering at me for years about this practice of mine. She suspects that I do this more because I’m cheap than because I have an ecologically attuned conscience. She’s probably right.
She prefers buying storage containers with matching lids, thus saving herself lots of frustration and many minutes by not needing to search for lids that fit. I remind her that I did take a couple of hours a few years ago to organize and categorize my boxes and lids.
She’s not impressed. And then she grins and reminds me that she drives a diesel car.
Okay, here’s a recipe that’s so good, you shouldn’t have any leftovers to worry about boxing up in something. I could eat this recipe at least once a week. I think it’s the dressing. . .
Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette
Fix-It and Enjoy-It Cookbook, page 171
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes (if the chicken is already cooked)
Vinaigrette:
¼ cup chopped, seeded tomatoes
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. grated lime rind
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground cumin
¼ tsp. chili powder
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 garlic clove, peeled
Salad:
8 cups thinly sliced lettuce
1½ cups roasted, boneless chicken (a rotisserie chicken works well, or leftover chicken does, too), shredded or chopped fine
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup diced onions, optional
½ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups tortilla chips, partially broken or crushed
1. Combine vinaigrette in a blender or food processor until smooth.
2. Combine lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, onions if you wish, cheese, and black beans in a large bowl.
3. Add vinaigrette just before serving. Toss well to coat.
4. Serve with tortilla chips.
It’s interesting that you “earthy people” have never heard of “recycling”. We “evil” normal folk who understand that “locavore” is another word for “sneering elitist fad” generally RECYCLE all those plastic containers, rather than neurotically attempting to star in an episode of “Hoarders” by saving every single one we ever get from anywhere… Oh, well, I guess all those studies linking “Organo-nummie” food with brain damage are accurate.
> Some places do not recycle things…unfortunately…they took the recycle bin for some items out of our local town, because wonderful residents were actually not rinsing items out, and this created garbage. So, some of us save these things, finding uses for them in many other ways. I am lucky to have a food bank that takes some items, such as egg cartons, and they recycle the plastic bags we receive at stores…this helps them, and helps me. The only thing recycled where I live are papers, magazines and cardboard. If I had a running vehicle, and money for the fuel, I could recycle in another town, but well…situation pending…have to get creative.
> The first phase of improving our ecology is reuse. Recycling is something in which I am actively involved. Recycling does involve the use of other energy resources. I use cloth bags at the grocery store 80% of the time. The plastic bags I do accumulate I reuse as garbage can liners.
> Why would you post something so nasty? There’s no reason to be so mean. The story was cute. That’s all. No need to be so nasty. The recipe looks fabulous and I can’t wait to try it.
> To BADKarma: I think the author of this article was just trying to give her elderly readers a tip for how they can save money and also help the environment by using grocery bags over and over until they get a hole in them. As for buying food locally, I know many who shop for fruit and veggies at local farmer’s markets because it is more affordable than what they find in the grocery store. These friends of mine are making minimum wage even though they are in their 40s and 50s. They lost their jobs because CEOs cut their jobs because these CEOs were making ONLY 10 million a year and that wasn’t enough for them. BADKarma, you’ve chosen a very appropriate nickname for yourself. Given what an angry person you are, people probably respond to you with anger and that makes you an even angrier person than you already are. Maybe if you stop being so angry, your life will go better and you will be as happy as the average person. If you want to call people “elitists”, why don’t you start with the CEOs who make more money in a year than most of us will earn in a lifetime.
> BADkarma
Wow, what a personality you have. Our town does not recycle plastic bags or plastic containers — only cardboard and paper. Those who reuse their plastic containers for other things are not considering themselves elitists by any stretch of the imagination. I reuse my plastic bags to bag up my dirty kitty litter box refuse. I also give many of my plastic bags to our local church which uses them to package food for those in need. I do use my own cloth bags when I shop except on those occasions when I forget to bring them with me. BADkarma try to think more positively and enjoy your life. You are wasting a good deal of it being so negative.
One of the homeless shelters in Little Rock, AR (I’m in South AR) weaves plastic shopping bags into sleeping mats for the homeless. Many food pantries can also use clean grocery bags for bagging up the food they hand out. Unfortunately, I’ve not heard of a use for the plastic boxes yet–although I tend to use mine for bringing food to catering gigs or when i bring food to my day job.
The next time your cupboard and back room get too full, give the art teacher at your local elementary school a call. They LOVE getting big trash bags full of yogurt cups and plastic boxes that the kids can use to either hold supplies like paint and glitter, or use to construct an awesome 3-D project like a space ship.
Not only is it environmentally friendly, it teaches the kids to reuse and recycle, and it helps the art teachers stretch their budgets a little bit further!
You’re right, Sandee, but not just elementary schools need them. High schools, senior centers, etc. can also use these items. I used to bring them to my pottery class – small containers were used to hold glazes and trims, and many were used as molds to shape pottery pieces; plastic bags were used to cover the clay to keep it moist between classes. Also, your used prescription pill bottles or diabetes test strip containers are great for storing beads, glitter, and sequins. Some grocery stores in my area have a large bin inside the front door where you can deposit plastic bags for recycling as well. (I recently moved to another state, and as I was packing I was trying to throw out most of my plastic containers and my cousin who was helping me was grabbing them and putting them in plastic bags to bring home with her LOL!!)
I’m with all of you on the recycling, and Sandee has the most creative and probably most appreciated form of recycling. Check with daycares and grade schools too – they can use art stuff too. I also have very few places to recycle, so when I know I am going somewhere that recycles, I tend to take a bag of stuff with me to drop off. It’s just another way to get stuff out of the house. I am also trying to find and use all the glass dishes that I have for food storage in the fridge as well. I have a ton of things that I got from my mom and grandmother over the years and it’s nice to have a reminder of them once in a while.
Sandee,
I love this idea for recycling those “4″ and “5″ containers! Thanks! The only thing I would suggest is, before choosing to purchase, check the number, if one container is a “1 or 2″ and one is a “4 or 5″ I will choose the “1 or 2″ item and recycle it.
I used to tease my husband’s grandma about the same thing when I would do her dishes and now I find myself saving them too! I actually like saving them, because when I take in a meal to a neighbor, friend, or someone in our church family, then I don’t have to worry about labeling/getting my pans or dishes back! I also like the idea about donating them to art teachers and your kids elementary teachers to re-use. My neighbor is a Jr High art teacher and I will have to ask him if he would like some since he does a lot of ceramics with his students. Thanks for the post and I will have to try this salad for lunch! Looks delicious! I am trying to incorporate more salads into my diet to lose weight and this is one I will definitely add to my recipes!
Mellissa Simmons
American Fork, Utah
I am slowly, slowly trying to cut down on plastic in my kitchen. When I shop at a farmer’s market, I put the produce directly into my cloth bags and bypass the plastic bags. At home, I bag it myself – inevitably I buy stuff packaged in plastic bags from less flexible stores. I do wash and reuse the bags until they get holes. I even have a spice vendor who will put his bulk spices directly into my containers for me.
You may call me a locavore, but I learned most of these tricks from my grandmas, who ran kitchens back when everyone was thrifty and plastic wasn’t around for home use yet.
My friend runs a creative reuse shop that collects lots of “trash” that is useful for other people for crafts. Teachers lover her store, especially. I was amazed at the crafts people make with plastic milk jug and juice lids (which are normally thrown away when their bottle is recycled) – holes punched in them and strung together to make little toy people.
One of my favorite memories of my Grandma was looking in her storage room and seeing nice clean glass jars, sturdy cardboard boxes and carefully cleaned containers in various sizes and shapes. Not a hoarder, just a woman who saw the value of reusing things. She was ahead of her time! I do the same now; and love to pass along homemade goodies to family and friends in clean repurposed containers. Not trying to be anything but a responsible steward of our beautiful world!
Our town gave up recycling because people were putting their *junk* in there. But I also save plastic containers and freeze left overs. I also re-use the store plastic bags in my small trash containers.
My game is to see which is fuller on trash pick up day the recycler or the trash container. It is important to recycle as much as possible. In our community we save the bag that our newspaper comes in and we give them back to the person who delivers our paper. it cuts down on their cost and I think it is a good thing to do!
that newspaper bag is a great idea! I’m going to do that.
>I’ve been reusing the plastic bags that the newspaper comes in for kitty litter duty! They work great!
>Sandee, also vacation Bible schools, churches with children’s ministries or art programs, nursing homes with arts therapy. Can’t tell you how many project ideas I had to scrap when working in camp ministry because we didn’t have a stockpile of containers to recycle. And I really hated to spend program money on things like paint trays and roll paper (because our facility required us to protect the tables with some kind of covering, and we couldn’t get anyone to donate newspapers). This was 25 years ago, when recycling wasn’t as easy in our city, and it’s even harder to get those donated items now that we have curb-side pickup of most paper, plastic, and glass. A cache of plastic food boxes would light up the day of any art or craft teacher. Most of us would even come and pick it up.
gosh BADkarma, I feel bad for you – your personality certainly fits your “nickname”. Yes, your post was mean-spirited and petty… life if too precious to waste time fuming over recycling. I’m worrying about a dear 9 yr old with cancer; now that’s worth fuming…
Items with a “6″ on the bottom can be used as shrink plastic for crafting. (Remember shrinky dinks?!) I bet a lot of local crafters or churches with large children’s programs would LOVE to have the plastic for crafts. You could also Freecycle them. But I would have a hard time throwing them out too. I’m lucky that I can recycle all plastic where I live. It makes it easy.