Plastic Bags: Use Less at the Grocery Store

It was almost a year ago that I wrote a post titled Re-Use Your Plastic Bags.

Around that time, as a way to gather data for a book proposal based on this blog, I was sharing my expertise as a grocery shopping-cum-cooking consultant

One of glaring things I noticed shopping with people is the consistent and unnecessary over-use of plastic bags at the grocery store.

Above is a pic of one of my client friends looking very sheepish because I had gently admonished her; every time she picked up an item of fresh produce, she grabbed a plastic bag.

Whether it was ears of corn, a pound of apples, oranges or heads of lettuce, Amy, like so many people I'd shopped with, put her fruits and vegetables into plastic bags before depositing them into her shopping cart.

Now, you're probably thinking, "What's wrong with that?! I do it; I put all my fruit and veggies in plastic bags."

In response, I'm going to ask that you ponder why?!

I'm guessing your answer might be something along lines of "because they're there!"

Right above the vegetables, or over by the fruit, it's easy and it's convenient to grab a plastic bag from one of the dispensers for your lettuce, potatoes, lemons etc.

In fact, one of my clients said that the reason she used plastic bags is because she thought it would be more convenient for the check out person!

Yet, I've never found loose, un-bagged produce to be an issue at the check out.

In other words, I've never had a check-out person say, "Excuse ma'am, we need you to put all your fruits and vegetables in individual plastic bags; it makes our job easier."

Of course, the reality is it's not my responsibility to make the check out person's job easier or more difficult (and I don't believe grocery stores require that of me).

But waste, in particular plastic bag waste, is my responsibility.

In fact, it's everyone's responsibility, including the check-out person at the grocery store, to reduce the number of plastic bags going into landfills.

The title of the post I linked to above is Re-Use Your Plastic Bags, and if you read that post you'll note that I'm not suggesting you do away with bagging your groceries in the small plastic produce bags or the large plastic carry bags.

Rather, I'm advocating using recycled plastic, and fewer plastic bags altogether, and then keeping your plastic bags and reusing them again and again, in fact, until they fall apart.

As we move closer to Earth Day 2010 "use less plastic" will be the re-occurring message in this blog.

If like me, you're a visual person, and if you're serious about wanting to change your relationship to plastic bags, and thus your relationship to the environment, watch "Plastic Bag," an 18-minute indie film narrated by German film director, Werner Herzog.

Reminiscent of the French film "Red Balloon," it's a poignant story on the vortex in the Pacific Ocean where plastic bags swirl about for eternity.

Pork, Vegetable and Lettuce Wraps

After braising much of the red-tip leaf lettuce I received in my Mile High Organics starter bin, I still had some large outer leaves.

And despite that we're heading into the second week of April, here in Boulder CO it's snowing, so eating cold lettuce salad sounded unappealing.

With that in mind, I came up with a couple different ways to use the remaining lettuce as a feature in two hot meals.

Perhaps you've eaten out at a Thai restaurant and had lettuce wraps -- that's where I drew inspiration for the first meal idea (pic above).

Lettuce wraps are a wonderful way to eat with your hands: you spoon the filling onto the leaf, wrap it into a bundle, and then pop it into your mouth!

Traditionally, Thai lettuce wraps call for large iceberg lettuce leaves, but I used red-tip lettuce which isn't as crunchy as iceberg, but nevertheless it's colorful, and it tastes delicious.

Pork, Vegetable and Lettuce Wraps
1) Tear off the large outer leaves from the lettuce head, wash and drain.
2) In a skillet, saute a spring onion, some thinly sliced purple cabbage, and a carrot.
3) Toss in either ground chicken, turkey or pork -- I used pork.
Note: At Vitamin Cottage I found some locally grown and humanely-farmed ground pork which is incredibly flavorful and absent antibiotics and hormones.
4) Saute the ingredients gently, now grate half an apple and toss it into the pan. Put the lid on the pan and cook over low heat for about 10 mins.
5) Removing the pan from the hot plate, add chopped fresh sage and thyme (or your choice of herbs) to the mix, and then season it to taste.

To Serve: Lay lettuce leaves on large plates and spoon pork and veggie mix into the center of the leaf. Drizzle with seeded mustard, and then either eat as is with a knife and fork or wrap the lettuce around the filling and eat the bundle with your hands.












The second dish I made, (pic above) was inspired by old fashioned cabbage rolls, except I swapped out cabbage leaves for lettuce leaves.

1) Make the filling as above.
2) Boil a little water in a pot and quickly blanch several large lettuce leaves.
3) Lay the blanched leaves flat on a chopping board and then spoon filling into the center.
4) Wrap each leaf around the filling and place the lettuce rolls into a baking pan.
5) Pour either some water or white wine or chicken stock over the rolls to moisten them, and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 15 mins.

To Serve: Spoon a couple of rolls onto a plate, pour pan juice over them, drizzle with mustard mixed with either sour cream or mayonnaise, and garnish with apple slices and a fresh sprig of thyme or sage.

Braised Red-Tip Leaf Lettuce

Shopping online for organic produce (in fact, all your food) is not a unique concept these days. Google it and see for yourself.

However, I'm a visual and tactile person, which means I prefer to see and touch, sometimes even smell, vegetables and fruit before buying them.

Nevertheless, this past week I tried something different: rather than buy my produce at the grocery store, I ordered it online.

You see, I'd picked up a Mile High Organics coupon at an event, and once I'd checked out their website, I decided to give them a go, after all, their philosophy reads "delivering the Farmer's Market to you."

Fresh organics delivered to my door sounded enormously appealing, especially since it read as though the produce is sourced from local farmers -- though there is a statement on the website that says "local when available."

I was excited to receive my starter box containing a small bunch of bananas and carrots, a pound each of oranges and d'Anjou pears, 2 tomatoes and a red-tip leaf lettuce (despite that none of these items were grown locally).

The contents of Mile High Organics "starter bin" are fixed. In other words I didn't have a choice of fruit and veggies and also, I wasn't allowed to swap out any items for something else.

If you've read my blog, you'll know that I do my best to shop and eat by the seasons -- that's what I advocate for budget, health, and sustainability--therefore, if I'd had my druthers, I would not have picked oranges, nor the bananas and tomatoes (all of which were grown outside the US), given that we're barely into spring and these items are summer fruits.

Anyway, the goodies arrived on my doorstep late in the day. Normally the "starter bin" with delivery is around $19, but with my coupon it was a grand total of $5.95 so upon opening the tub and seeing several pounds of fresh produce, it felt like Christmas in April.

Unpacking the contents I noted that the bananas, pears, tomatoes and oranges would need to sit out for a few days since they were far from ripe: the bananas were dark green as were the pears, and the tomatoes were an insipid yellow-red, while the oranges were as hard as a tennis ball.

I snapped off a carrot from the bunch, washed it and ate it immediately; it was deliciously sweet with a full-bodied carrot flavor. The head of red-tip leaf lettuce was enormous. I washed it, left it to drain in a colander, and then wrapped the leaves in a linen kitchen towel, storing the bundle in the fridge.

I doubted that I'd eat the whole lettuce in salads before the leaves started to brown around the edges and so I decided to braise it and eat it as a hot vegetable.

Drawing from the classic French dish, braised lettuce and peas cooked in chicken stock and finished with cream, I improvised and created the following:

Braised Red-Tip Leaf Lettuce
1) Wash and drain a head of lettuce (use half a head for this recipe).
2) Wash and chop a couple of spring onions and toss into a pan with either a dab of butter or some light oil like olive or canola.
3) To the pan, add your choice of spring vegetables i.e. carrots, asparagus, peas -- such as snap peas, snow peas, or frozen shelled peas.
4) Gently saute on med a few minutes, then add washed and drained lettuce; saute a few more mins.
5) If you have stock on hand, pour in about half a cup or enough to gently simmer the veggies and lettuce until they're just soft. Use water if you don't have stock, or if you have an open bottle of white wine, use half water and half wine.
6) To finish the veggies, add a slurp of cream (optional) or simply season to taste.

To Serve: This makes a great side to fish or chicken, or spoon it over a grain such as millet or quinoa or your choice of noodles.

I love this dish since it's a great way to prepare lettuce if you have an abundance on hand but don't fancy eating lots of cold salads. And this week I made it twice in the effort to use up the red-tip from Mile High Organics.

The starter bin was an interesting exercise in purchasing organic produce online. Because I had a coupon it was certainly economical, but without a coupon, I wouldn't do it again.

Online shopping is convenient, and it's not as stressful as in-store shopping, yet it can't satiate my preference to eye, touch and sniff produce before buying it.

Plus, if like me, you place a high value on buying local and thus shopping and eating by the seasons, there's no guarantee that produce purchased online is going to either local or seasonal.

Meatless Monday

I'm late writing my Meatless Monday post because I've been distracted watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Hulu.

Jamie's a very personable celebrity chef who's been entertaining British and Australian audiences for years with his accessible and fun approach to cooking simple, healthy food.

It will be interesting to see if he can now motivate American audiences to change their habits and patterns around food.

In the episode linked to above, he initially comes up against some resistance in the West Virginian school system, where he's trying to implement his Food Revolution lunch program.

However, by the middle of the episode, Jamie's motivated a group of Huntington high school kids to cook a fund-raiser dinner for 80 local dignitaries and potential sponsors of his program.

By the uplifting end, you can't help but shed a few tears over the stories the kids share about what they've learned and how they feel Jamie's Food Revolution will improve their lives and the lives of other kids.

But change happens slowly, particularly when it comes to changing the way we eat, so I'll be tracking the progress of Jamie's Food Revolution as I'm curious to see if he can make a difference where it's most needed -- in the lunchrooms of American schools.

Meatless Monday is a fun and innovative way to make changes to the way we eat. By making the first day of the work week meatless, we're encouraged to think out-of-the-box regarding our food choices.

For some, eating three vegetarian meals may mean putting a little extra effort into meal preparation; for others, it may be a simple process of elimination.

Either way, Meatless Monday is an exercise in intention: the intention to give up meat for a day--though I prefer to consider it less about giving up something, and more about giving my body and liver a break from digesting the saturated fat present in animal protein.

In other words, going without meat is a chance to eat lighter, less fatty fare for a day.

The meal idea I have for this meatless Monday makes the most of the humble chic pea, a legume with gourmet potential. (My recipe behind this link includes ham, but you can easily leave it out).

Red Curry Chic Pea Casserole (pic above) is all vegetarian and it includes a number of spring vegetables including beet greens, however, any leafy green like chard, kale, dandelion greens, or spinach will work.

If you're feeling reluctant to cook with dried chic peas, because of the lengthy soaking and boiling they require, you'll find the power soak method a quick and easy alternative to using a pressure cooker and or overnight soaking.