Day 1 of the Plastic Free Challenge

Day 1 was actually a pretty good plastic free day.  I came across quite a few plastic packaging problems, but managed to find a solution to every one.

It started with planning the evening meal this morning:

'ooo, I know, how about mushroom tagliatelle' I suggested this morning......... oh wait....... my homemade tagliatelle requires cream...... and cream comes in plastic pots... well thats the end of that one then.  Instead I concluded to have med veg with cous cous (already in a packet in the cupboard, but thats allowed) with pitta bread .... no wait, that comes in plastic packaging too, soooooo....... fresh non-cellophaned ciabatta, brilliant.  I managed to buy my red onion, courgettes, peppers and three fat and floury ciabattas from the Cambridge Market, with absolutely no plastic packaging at all.  SCORE!!! : )  Not only that.... by refusing plastic I am buying fresh food from local indepedent traders; supporting my insides AND the local economy. 

I think there is going to be more to this plastic refusal malarky than I thought.

On my way home, I was starting to get super hungry and when I get super hungry I get super crabby (friends and family can vouch for me here).  Usually and desirably I go and grab a packet of my favourite Walkers Max Paprika crisps, and/or an utterly scrumptious bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk Caramel chocolate, the crisps cost about 75p and the Cadbury's bar costs about 55p.  Obviously wrapped in 'super sexy, shiny' plastic, they are not permissable, so...starting to feel my ship sinking.... I popped into the Farmers Market Outlet at the bottom of Regent Street.  I purchased the most delicious, juicy, sweet and NUTRITIOUS Williams pear for a mere 25p!!!! 25p!!! That is incredible.  So now I am also getting more vitamins AND saving anything from 30p-£1.05, a day. 

Now the REAL issue came when I started to approach home and the smell and taste of a hot mug of Yorkshire tea started to make its absence known to my tongue.  Then I realised OH NO!!! We ran out of milk this morning AND milk comes in a PLASTIC bottle.  AAARRGH!!!  I was pretty sure I was out of luck on this one, but desperately tried the newsagents and the Budgens on the corner, JUST IN CASE they stocked milk in glass bottles.  I am afraid the ending is not a satisfactory one....... neither the newsagents nor Budgens stock milk in a glass bottle, plastic YES, glass NO.  So I had to resort to some old, just add water, hot chocolate powder, YUCK!! (without the tea, just the hot chocolate on its own).  'I canna be going without me Yorkshire Tea' I sighed.  So onto the net to contact my local milkman, to see if he can deliver fresh organic milk to my doorstep, tomorrow morning and thank goodness he can, otherwise I would be having some serious withdrawal symptons. 

So my local milkman, good old Maurice Reed of Milk&More, will have two organic pints on the doorstep in the morning.  Thanks Maurice.  

Other plastic abstenance successes today:

• Opting out of laminating articles for the display board at work (additionally removes glare from lights, double win).
• Choosing a paper packaged baguette over my usual cling filmed brie and cranberry sandwich from Annabelles (it was equally delicious).
• Saying no to plastic bags.  'No Thankyou.'

Cream, it seems, is the one that may be troublesome to source for making mushroom tagliatelle.  However we only use cream for that recipe, so maybe I could find an alternative or I could scrap the recipe, problem is it is top of the list in our house.

Any ideas of how to get cream without the plastic and without the purchasing of a cow, please let me know.

Love and hugs,

  Jade