Shape Sorter Wooden Bench by Maple Landmark
Made in US with locally-harvested unfinished maple hardwood, $19.80
Made in US with locally-harvested unfinished maple hardwood, $19.80
Heirloom Wooden Toys Giveaway and Review
Do You Have Wall-to-Wall Carpets?
Wall-to-wall Carpets: Cozy Contaminant Collectors
Four years ago we rented a home with hardwood floors by chance. We lived in that home for the first year of my first baby's life, which was when I started obsessing about toxins and such. During my research, I came across a lot of unfavorable information about carpet, like this quote from The Green Guide:
Green Cleaning - DIY Cleaning Recipes
Homemade 100% Whole Wheat Honey Bread (without a bread machine)
A few months ago, once the weather turned colder, I decided to try making my whole wheat bread with a standing mixer
and oven instead of a bread machine. Now that I had proven to myself that I was actually going to make all of our own bread, I was willing to invest in some equipment. Making my bread using a mixer and oven has several advantages over making bread in a bread machine: - My bread machine was one of the final holdouts of Teflon in my kitchen, and its nonstick coating was already showing signs of wear. Now I make plastic-free bread by mixing the dough in a stainless steel bowl and baking the bread in my glass Pyrex loaf pans
.*
- By using a mixer
- I can make several loaves of bread at once (and freeze most of the loaves), instead of a loaf of bread every few days.
- A loaf of bread made in a loaf pan in the oven is just more aesthetically pleasing than the loaves that come out of the bread pan of a bread machine. And now that I have mastered the mixer/oven method, it will be easy to use the dough for other things, like rolls.
Heirloom Wooden Toys (Plastic-Free Fun)
I love wood toys! As part of Plastic-Free February, I wanted to feature one of my favorite toy stores: Heirloom Wooden Toys. I first found this store several years ago while looking for wooden vehicles for my son. I've purchased several toys from them over the last few years. They have an amazing selection of wood toys and great customer service.
one of the owners of Heirloom Wooden Toys.
Etsy Reusable Sandwich Bags Giveaway and Review (12 Stores, 6 Winners)
After reading this post, you will never have to buy Ziploc bags again.
Since I gave up disposable baggies, I have reviewed a few commercially- made reusable food bags and wraps. But as a devoted Etsy fan, I decided I also should feature some Etsy products. Go on Etsy’s website and search for sandwich or snack bags and you quickly discover that there are A LOT of Etsy stores selling reusable food bags. All those sellers, all those materials and fabrics, all those designs and prices – it can be overwhelming!
Lucky for you, I have spent hours browsing these stores and now present to you some of my favorites. I have personally tested bags from each of the stores (each store sent me at least one bag free for review). These stores were selected for their competitive prices, awesome features, and lovely fabrics. I also deliberately included stores that would demonstrate the variety of designs available. If you don't have an Etsy account, you might want to make one now, so you can add some or all of the stores below to your "favorites."
Do I Need to Become Vegan to Live Plastic-Free?
As I did my grocery shopping this week, I realized how much plastic packaging is involved in the selling of animal products. My raw meat comes on a styrofoam tray and shrink-wrapped plastic. My deli meat comes in a plastic bag. My yogurt comes in plastic cartons. My milk comes in plastic jugs. My blocks of cheese come shrink-wrapped in plastic too. My buttermilk is in a plastic-lined Tetra-pak container. At least my butter is plastic-free (I think). Even if I were vegan, it would be difficult to eat entirely plastic-free, but unless you raise your own livestock, I think it is well nigh unto impossible to live plastic-free while eating meat and cheese.
Goodbye, Teflon. Hello, Le Creuset.
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| Making pancakes with Le Creuset enameled cast iron skillet (left) and Lodge Logic preseasoned cast iron griddle (right). |
Raise your hand if you own cookware with a Teflon nonstick coating.
You're not alone. Nonstick cookware accounts for about 60 percent of all cookware sales.
But there are reasons to do without it. Particularly if you are trying to not eat plastic. Even the new-fangled "green" pans have their issues. It took me many years, but I now no longer use any cookware or bakeware with nonstick coatings. The final step in this long, long journey I took just a few months ago when I said goodbye to my Teflon skillet. My 10" Cuisinart nonstick skillet
, which I used every other day to make scrambled eggs.Plastic Alternative: Wool
Wool is truly wonderful. Wool is
- antibacterial
- anti-fungal
- flame retardant
- cool when it's hot
- warm when it's cold
- absorbent
- warm instead of cold and clammy when wet
- nearly waterproof
10 Ways to Replace Plastic with Wool:
My Plastic Rules
As part of Plastic-Free February (a.k.a. Plastic Awareness Month), I thought I would share with you the Plastic Rules I use to help guide my plastic purchases and usage. Just like Rodale's Plastic-Free Rules, I break these rules plenty often. These rules are based on what I have read about using plastic safely, and especially about limiting my children's exposure to plastics.
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