Easy-To-Pack Snacks Are Frugal and Green for Families on the Go

Here's a scary statistic:  according to a study by Packaged Facts, a consumer research group, and reported in an article in the Dining section of Today's New York Times, Americans consumed $68.1 billion worth of packaged snack food in 2008. The article was actually an essay by a mother who has grown to resent the number of snacks she has to prepare for her children's extracurricular activities.

While the issue of snacks replacing meals in American diets is a big cause for concern, the amount of packaging surrounding those snacks really makes me cringe! Think about all those juice boxes and plastic straws; the mylar-like bags of potato chips and cookies; the foil pouches filled with trail mix or pretzels. How many tons of trash does that $68 million in snack money represent? How much do all those packaged snacks cost? And what kind of preservatives and non-food chemicals are used to make them?

Packaged snacks aren't frugal. They aren't green. And they may not be all that healthy.

How much extra effort is it to pack healthy snacks for kids (and busy adults) in reusable containers? I know every one is over-scheduled and always in a rush to get from school and practice to music lesson and dentist appointments.  But with just a little thought and planning, it's not that tough to put together tasty, interesting, healthful and filling snacks without creating trash.

Here are a few easy ideas:

First, make sure you have a good selection of reusable containers in lots of sizes, including those that are appropriate for drinks. Tupperware, Glad, Ziplock, Rubbermaid and other manufacturers make a huge variety of containers. Deli and take-out containers are useful too, and an inexpensive option. And look for insulated containers like the old Thermos types with screw on lids for packing hot snacks. Yes, these items are plastic, and we do want to reduce our use of plastic. But if you reuse these containers dozens or more times, their environmental impact is far lower than the snack packaging.

Baggies can also be rinsed out and reused. Some people use the waxed bag inside cereal boxes to hold snacks in lieu of a plastic Baggie or Ziplock bag. Also, look for utensils like forks and spoons at yard sales and on Freecyle. You don't want to send your good flatwear along with the snacks, but it would be another move in the right direction to rule out plastic utensils.

Finally, collect a few appropriate bags for carrying snacks - an old backpack; insulated lunch kits; small, reusable market totes; home-made bags fashioned from old denim jeans; there are so many options.

And here are some simple and mostly inexpensive snacks to prepare:

1. Cut up celery and carrots into convenient-size sticks and keep on hand in the fridge. Fill a reusable container with a handful as you are running out the door to munch on in the car or after practice.
2. Do the same with oranges slices. Or send along a whole Clementine, tangerine, peach, pear or a small bunch of grapes.
   
3. Slice some apples; put them in a non-disposable container; shake in a little cinnamon. The cinnamon adds great flavor and hides the slight discoloration apples get after they've been sliced.
   
4. Instead of buying individual-sized containers of cottage cheese, yogurt, applesauce or pudding, buy large containers and spoon it into small non-disposable cups with lids. Send along one of your inexpensive spoons with the snack.
5. Cut up your favorite hard cheeses into small cubes and dole it out in bags or lidded cups. Add a few crackers or a slice of crusty whole-wheat bread.
6. Heat up some leftover soup, stew, mac and cheese or spaghetti with sauce and pack it in an insulated container. Don't forget to include a spoon or fork.
   
7. Home-made cookies; or banana or pumpkin bread with a schmeer of cream cheese
8. Water with lemon and lime slices or iced green tea.

Making and packing these snacks are not as easy as buying big boxes of individually-wrapped snack foods. But it's not harder to shop for the items in bulk and only takes a few more minutes to pack. Aren't your children, and the future of their environment, worth it?

What are your snack plans? Please share.

Basic Tomato Sauce from Scratch

We eats lots of pasta with sauce. It's been a family dinner staple for ever. And I know we are not alone. According to the National Pasta Association, Americans consume about 29 pounds of pasta per person per year. I'm betting that a large percentage of that is eaten with sauce. Commercially-prepared tomato sauce is generally pretty inexpensive. I found that it ranges from $2.29 for a jar of Ragu to as much as $4.15 for one from Paul Servino Foods. Barilla, a brand I like, was recently on sale at $3.00 for two jars. The ingredients are fairly straight-forward, though quite a few are made with soy bean oil and dehydrated onions, garlic and herbs. I prefer olive oil and fresh herbs. Another problem is that the salt content can be quite high.

Even though commercial sauce can be a bargain, I like to make my own. It just tastes so much better. And in the summer months, when I use home-grown onions and parsley, along with fresh tomatoes from the garden, I know that the cost is pennies. In the winter, I use jars of home-canned tomato sauce that we "put up" at a big gathering of my brother-in-law's family over Labor Day weekend. The tomatoes are from local growers in New Jersey. I feel good about supporting area farmers and I know that the transportation distances for the tomatoes are relatively low. I know exactly what is in the sauce - tomatoes and home-grown basil, nothing more -  and I can re-use, not just recyle, the jars and ring lids (the flat lid get recycled as it can not be used more than once for safety reasons).

Here is my recipe for home-made tomato sauce:

2 tbs. olive oil

1 med. onion chopped

1 (or more depending on your preference) garlic clove(s) pressed or chopped fine

1 qt. tomato sauce (just tomatoes, maybe with a basil leaf or two)

1-2 tbs. tomato paste (I used the kind in a squeeze tube - less waste than the small cans because you only squeeze out the amount you need; with the cans, there always seems to be a bit left in a can that disappears in the back of the fridge only to grow mold)

handful chopped parsley

handful chopped basil 

salt and freshly-ground black pepper

1/4 tsp (or to taste) red pepper flakes

freshly-grated Locatellli cheese (about a half cup)

Saute the chopped onion in the olive oil until soft and transluscent. Add the garlic and saute until it, too, is soft, being careful not to let it overcook. Add the tomato sauce,  paste  and basil to the onions and garlic; season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste and simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens.  Just before serving stir in the cheese and parsley.

Of course you can add meat to the sauce - pancetta, bacon, ground beef, sausage, leftover chicken or pork - but a simple tomato sauce is so satisfying on its own, it makes it easy, even a pleasure, to reduce your meat consumption.

The taste of pasta sauce made with home-canned tomato sauce can not be matched by anything store-bought. In future posts, we'll talk about growing tomatoes specifically for home canning, and about the canning process. In the meantime, mangia bene!

 

Let's Do Lunch

Eating a lunch prepared for you by a restaurant or take-out place can range from super cheap to downright  pricey. According to a recent report , the average price paid for a buffet lunch with beverage by U.S. restaurant patrons in 2009 was $7.85, though the price can go through the roof at posh city eateries.  Sandwiches from restaurants near my office cost from $4.50 for a grilled cheese to $10.95 for a Maryland crab melt. Salads are in the $7 to $11 range. Soup goes for $3 to $6 a bowl. A large pizza with 1 topping is about $11.00, while a slice goes for about $2.50. And at McDonald's, you can get a double cheese burger, small fries and a small Coke for a little over $3.

But, I'll bet you dollars to donuts (where did that expression come from?), that even if you gorge on McDonald's Dollar Menu every day, you would still save money - not to mention fat, calories and salt intake -  if you brought your lunch from home.

With just a little forethought, it's easy to plan and pack nutritious, healthy and tasty lunches for a fraction of what you have to pay for restaurant and take-out food. The bonus factor is that, when you pack your meal in reusable containers and eat with reusable utensils, you can reduce the amount of plastic you use and the amount of trash you generate. It's completely win-win.

Here are some suggestions for easy brought-from-home lunches and snacks:

* leftovers - this is a no-brainer. When you're cleaning up after dinner, pack some of the left-over spaghetti with sauce, macaroni & cheese, chili, stew, pot roast, soup, chef salad, potato or macraroni salad, whatever, into a container with a lid and put it aside for the next day. Most of these possibilities assume that you have a microwave available at work.
* home-made sandwich - how hard is that? Make one for yourself while you're packing lunch for the kids.
* veggies & salad dressing, hummus, dips or spreads
* cheese & crackers
* cut up fruit
* hot or cold cereal  - don't forget to bring along some milk
* nuts, sunflower & pumpkin seeds
* yogurt or cottage cheese
* leftover pizza (some people, my husband included, enjoy a cold slice from time to time)
* juices in recyclable or reusable containers

Another option is to organize group lunches. A few years ago, when I worked in a very small office, my colleagues and I would take turns bringing in lunch for the whole crew. The menu ranged from quiche and salad to winter squash soup and home-made bread to spaghetti and meatballs, and everyone pitched in for set up and clean up. The cost was far less than ordering enough pizzas to feed everyone, and when we used real plates and silverware rather than paper and plastic, we were pretty eco-conscious as well.

What is your favorite lunch-time strategy? Please share.

Save Money on Salad Dressing

Salad is an important part of just about every evening meal we serve. Sometimes our salads are simple - a few lettuce leaves, maybe some red onion or shaved red cabbage. But during the long gardening season, salads become really extravagant with lots of different lettuces, arugula, tomatoes, peppers, beans, summer squash...whatever veggie is fresh, crunchy and great to eat raw. And for me, no salad is complete without dressing.

For years we used the store-bought bottled variety - Kraft and Wishbone with coupons were inexpensive choices. Sometimes we would splurge on a bottle of Annie's Shitake. But once I started learning more about good food, reading ingredients more carefully, and being concerned about packaging and the carbon cost of food miles, these commercial products lost all their appeal. Now we always make our own salad dressing. It's easy. It's very inexpensive, even when made with the highest quality ingredients. There is very little packaging involved. I know exactly what's in it, and what's not - like preservatives, artificial flavors and dyes. And, the best part, it tastes fantastic.

The simplest vinaigrette uses only four ingredients: oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. A classic recipe adds a bit of Dijon mustard and minced shallots or garlic. There are thousands of recipes for home made salad dressings, with all kinds of variations, available in cook books and on the web.

My dear friend Nadine Frush has made it easy with her on-line Salad Success, where you'll find some great salad dressing recipes http://saladsuccess.com/recipes/french/sherry-shallots-vinaigrette/. 
Nadine also sells a clever salad shaker with a spout that makes whipping up a batch of salad dressing a piece of cake.


One of my favorite variations on basic vinaigrette has a raspberry twist:
1/4 cup vinegar - use the best quality you can afford, preferably made with red wine or Champagne, or use raspberry vinegar
3/4 cup high quality extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
4 to 5 raspberries (fresh or frozen - I freeze them in season to use all year long)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
Whisk the vinegar, salt and mustard together. Slowly pour the oil into the bowl and whisk continuously as it combines. (You can also do this in a food processor or even a blender). Try not to over-due the whisking. You want it to blend nicely but not be beaten up. Finally add the garlic or shallots and the raspberries mixing gently. Place the dressing in a container with a screw top and allow it to sit for a half hour or more so that the raspberry flavor deepens. Shake the container well to remix all the ingredients before using to dress your salad. Store it in the fridge but bring it up to room temperature before serving.

Taking...make that Making Stock

Not that long ago, I was pretty kitchen phobic. Sure, I made breakfast, packed kids' lunches and prepared family dinners, but it wasn't my favorite passtime. In fact, I really kind of hated that daily stuff. My only steller moments had to do with baby food from scratch and blue-ribbon quality strawberry jam (if I do say so myself). But a few years ago, around the time I started being interested in CSAs  (read more about these here http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ ), I also started cooking again. In contrast to the way my husband cooks - and he's truly skilled in the kitchen; we eat really well when he's in charge - I don't tend to use recipes. Instead, I peruse the fridge and pantry, check out what's on sale at the grocery store, Google a few recipes with those main ingredients and then whip something up combining ideas from several recipes. Most of the time I've been pretty successful. Often this technique yields soup. And most soups require some kind of stock as the base. Commercial stock (think Swanson's, College Inn, Progresso) is one of those pantry staples most cooks always have on hand. We particularly like the Swanson's organic type that comes in a box with a re-closable plastic spout. The organic part is good, I think. But the packaging isn't very green - it's not recyclable and there's plastic involved. Canned stocks might even have bisphenol (BPA - read more about it here http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/content/view/print/271046 )in the packaging. So I have learned how to make my own stock. It's easy. It's relatively inexpensive. And it's a more environmentally-friendly way to feed your family. Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything and The Joy of Cooking have great recipes that I sort of follow, but I improvise too. For example, I save chicken bones in a zip-lock bag in the freezer to use when I have the equivelant of a whole chicken, rather than buy a chicken just for making stock. The flavor won't be as rich, but it's still pretty good. I'll use more onions, garlic and parsley stems than the recipe might call for in a vegetable stock, just because I have them on hand. And I might leave out the parsnip because I don't have one in the fridge when I feel like making stock. Stock freezes well so I try to make a big pot of it and pour it into quart-size containers and ice cube trays for freezing. After the stock in the ice cube trays is frozen, I store the cubes in a freezer bag to add to rice, mashed potatoes, stir fry or leftovers for moistening. No preservatives or additives. If you've bought your chicken and veggies locally, or even better, grown them yourself, there are very few transportation miles involved. High marks for both frugal and green. And pretty tasty too.

Super-savings on Supper

This evening I had almost no cash in my wallet and it was my turn to make dinner. So I did what seems to come naturally... make something reasonably good out of almost nothing. Well...not exactly nothing. We keep the pantry pretty well stocked. There's always olive oil and plenty of dried herbs and spice. We try to have fresh onions and garlic on hand (still lots of garlic left from this season's CSA share). And there was a nice little head of purple cabbage along with half a Chinese cabbage in the crisper drawer (these were at risk for getting past their prime as they are also left over from the CSA's last pick up which was in mid-November). I found a small package of 4 Bell & Evans chicken thighs at the Super Fresh for $2.97. The Purdue thighs were cheaper but the Bell & Evans brand states they don't use any antibiotics and their chickens are strictly vegetarian. Both brands are heavily packaged with non-recyclable materials...sigh...So, I browned the thighs in some olive oil; put them in the LeCrueset Dutch oven (it's an old one, a wedding gift from 37 years ago); browned 2 garlic cloves in the oil and poured the oil and garlic on top of the thighs. This was followed by the juice of a lemon (the lemon was getting a little brown on the outside, but still perfect inside). Then into a 250 pre-heated oven for an hour and a half. Sides: plain white rice and a cabbage dish made from the red & Chinese cabbage, chopped; a sliced onion, one lonely leek that had been lingering in the bottom of the crisper drawer, and a handful of chopped fresh cilantro and parsley, both leftovers from a historical society party (they would have been tossed in the trash if I hadn't brought them home). A little salt and a tiny sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Sauteed the whole thing in a little olive oil. Outcome: quite delicious; very filling; just the right amount of food for the 2 of us. For frugal, I think I get a high score - the meal cost less than $5 and I mostly used items I had on hand. For green, maybe not so much. High marks for the veggies - mostly local, fresh and no packaging. The rice - it comes in a plastic container that can be recycled, but is definitely not local. And the chicken had too much stryo and plastic packaging, though it was antibiotic-free and relatively local. With winter here, our meals are going to become less and less green as we rely more and more on the grocery store. But there's still lots of stuff in the freezer. I'll just have to get creative.