Plastic
So, there’s been a little activity rolling around in my pseudo-possible-hypochondriatic mind lately around the idea of plastic.
See, Suz and I eat lots of soup. This is one of the happy places in our relationship where similar interests intersect. We both like to eat soup, and Suz is exceptionally good at making it from scratch, from ingredients we often buy locally at the farmer’s market. It’s tasty, healthy, and environmentally happy.
Add to that, in most cases soups are highly convenient. Suz makes mostly ones that freeze well (the few that she makes that don’t are, of course, some of my very favs. Bacon potato, and oyster mushroom veggie–mmmmmmmm), and so the usual way of things is that we go out and buy all the ingredients at the market. Suz then whips up a huge batch of yummy soup, we portion it out, have some for dinner, and then freeze the rest. On work days, I commonly grab one out of the freezer, and take it to work for lunch. Eating soup at the office that’s home made by Suz makes me happy. The whole thing is made of ‘win’.
Except for the plastic. See, we use either Ziplock containers, or the no-name equivalent. Over the years, we’ve amassed a massive collection of them. It’s sorta silly. Thank god, they stack well when not in use, and we have a decent chest freezer. But the soup goes from the pot to the container hot, then gets frozen in it, then goes straight into the microwave at work to heat and then into my little human ecosystem. All of these temperature changes and stuff have me worried. I’ve been aware of the whole bisphenol A stuff in the news, and the types of plastics that are ’safe’and all that for a while. Normally, I’m not too concerned.
But I got to thinking that given there’s virtually no research that can say it’s all safe, no matter how much companies swear in blood that the plastics don’t leech carcinogens into the food, that I might be wise to at least minimize the plastic. I eat soups many days a week like this, and I have started to wonder. Plastic is one of those things that humans made–it’s not a happy substance, in spite of the fact that it’s absolutely everywhere and stupidly useful.
I mean, for the first time EVER, cancer showed up in my family last year. I cannot escape the thought that it has to be environmental. We just don’t get cancer.. at least, we haven’t ever before, so why now? My family is more a heart attack-stroke group of people by way of shuffling off the mortal coil.
The solution then seems simple enough. Go for glass. Pyrex makes wonderful containers that are exactly the right size that go from freezer to microwave. We sought some out and bought a few. They’re pretty damned expensive comparitively, but seriously, they’d last many, many times longer than the plastic ones. I don’t mind paying for something if I get my money’s worth. They work like a charm.
The problem is storage. These things stink for that. The plastic bowls nest into one another and take up very little space when not in use. These glass ones need to be stacked on top of one another. Two glass ones take up the space of 12 plastic ones when not in use. That’s a pretty high premium to pay when one considers my home doesn’t have much by way of kitchen storage. If I replaced every plastic bowl with a glass one, I’d need many cubic feet of storage, just for the bowls alone.
So, I have a dilemma. How can I get good, safe food storage that goes from freezer to microwave and gets the heck out of my way when not in use?
If anyone has any bright ideas, I’d love to hear them.
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
Suggestion: you don’t need so many. Therefore, you don’t have a storage problem.
But but but!
Yes, but see, if you’re storing 12+ of these things at a time, that says to me you’re not using them. If you are, you’re producing a huge batch of soup at once to fill them all, then working through that soup and generating a whole lot of storage need.
Make smaller, more frequent batches of soup, requiring you to store smaller amounts and requiring fewer containers.
This method might get you more cupboard space – and more space in the freezer for soup ingredients instead of the soup.
Just a thought
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 am
Hm. It’s an interesting idea. I do know we currently have at least four varieties of soups in the freezer (barley bean spice, carrot curry, roasted red pepper & black bean, and butternut squash — I’m developing cravings now), so we do have a need for a lot, but I don’t know if Suz can adjust the recipes to make less soup at a time. Usually, she goes on a flurry of soup making and then sits fallow for a time. I know we don’t usually cook soup weekly or anything.
Not that it isn’t a good idea–it is. Hmm… Will consider. Thanks!