Plastic Free Cooking

I'm a foodie. Seriously. I love food. I love making it, eating it, and going out to restaurants to enjoy it. If there's one place in my budget that I am willing to splurge, it's food. Forget shoes, clothes, make-up and techno gadgets. Give me high quality food and I will pay the price. I am not one of those people who does not see value in a $3 locally grown organic apple. Organic, locally grown food tastes better and is better for the environment and the local economy. It's worth the price.
If you're a foodie like me then you've probably discovered that it can be a serious challenge to avoid plastic when purchasing some common gourmet ingredients. Is it possible to balance our love of the planet and our love of decadent gourmet foods? With a little creativity, a little extra work (only a little, I promise!) and a whole lot of love, I think it is more than possible to have great food with (almost) no plastic.
With that in mind I am going to start dedicating a weekly column in this blog to a plastic-free recipe complete with advice on how to get your ingredients without plastic. While a certain amount of consideration will be made for convenience there will be some recipes given that take a more complete home made approach which may require a little extra time and effort but will surely result in a more fantastic eating experience. This is going to be a learning experience for me too. (Is it possible to purchase local goat's milk cheese without the plastic? What other items that usually come in plastic can I discover in plastic free form? Is it possible to make my own glass noodles?) I'll be scouring some food blogs and Googling my heart out as well as connecting with some foodie friends who can probably help even though they've never thought to worry about whether an ingredient is plastic free.