The Plastic-Free Pioneers Making It Easy to Create a Sustainable Kitchen

One of the longest-running missions we’ve been on at PrimaFoodie is to cut out the plastic in our homes, especially our kitchens. Continued research suggests that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen found in hard plastics, may cause certain cancers. Manufacturers have been producing plastics that are deemed “BPA-Free”, but research on the alternatives links them to similarly concerning health issues.

The workaround? We aim for glass and other non-plastic materials to store our leftovers, seeds, nuts, and any other food items. We’ve found that when you start in the kitchen, ridding plastic from other places in the home gets easier—and, thanks to these brilliant companies, even fun.

Package Free Shop

Since its opening in 2017, this Brooklyn-based online shop has helped to keep millions of pieces of trash out of landfills. Founded by Lauren Singer, the environmentalist known for the savvy blog, Trash Is for Tossers, Package Free Shop offers a range of non-plastic items from personal care to office supplies to pet grooming, all from independently owned brands aimed at reducing unnecessary packaging and waste. The site is a joy to peruse, and the kitchen section is abundant for its stainless steel containers, wood cutting boards, reusable straws, and the like.

Blisshaus

The Cadillac of pantry storage systems. Blisshaus, a collection of streamlined glass pantry jars and labels, is the brainchild of founder Wiebke Liu, a Germany-born, McKinsey-trained strategist with an intense passion for the intersection of efficiency and aesthetics. Liu created Blisshaus to be a multilevel option for creating a plastic-free kitchen. You can order their varied-sized jars to re-package your food items yourself. Or you can opt for their virtual or in-person kitchen makeover service, where a Blisshaus expert will walk you through the pantry organization process jar-by-jar.

Fillgood

More than a decade ago, Fillgood founder Stéphanie Regni took a class on recycling that changed the course of her life. She learned that the act of recycling, as well-intentioned as it is, is not a long-term solution for the copious amounts of plastics that end up in landfills. Her response to her realizations was founding Fillgood, an educational platform and online boutique that offers a range of plastic-free household items and refill options. The Fillgood kitchen section is an excellent resource for hard-to-find food storage staples like beeswax wrap, and welcomed discoveries including handmade dishwasher powder.

Honorable Mentions:

Zero Waste Store

The Refill Shoppe 

The Zero Market

The PrimaFoodie Short Guide to Creating a More Positive, Sustainable Home

“The home should be the treasure chest of living,” French architect Le Corbusier famously said. We agree. Our environments have an immense impact on how we feel and function. No longer do we create homes for mere shelter: Our surroundings are keys to our wellbeing.

In truth, however, creating a home that is both a sanctuary and a supporter of a clean lifestyle might seem like a challenge—but it need not be. The smallest steps can lead to a space that invokes calm and positivity and supports a cleaner planet. Just as we might meditate or eat whole foods to care for ourselves, incorporating certain details in our homes and making specific changes can have a tremendous impact on our wellbeing. Here are four simple ways to get started.

Editor’s Note: If you’re looking to learn more about how our environments impact our lives, join Nichole, Sarah Chavez, and Marina Mizruh for their conversation on “Creating Your Optimal Space” at our upcoming HEAL with PrimaFoodie Summit. Tickets are on sale for one more day. Details here.

#1: Vet Your Home Cleaning Products

Even with the proliferation of clean, environmentally responsible household products, it is still easy to get despondent over the detrimental chemicals (and plastics) that some companies continue to use. But rather than getting overwhelmed, we can choose to take steps in the right direction. One of the smallest changes that can have the biggest impact on reducing toxicity levels in the home is to break free from conventional cleaning products. Avoid bleach and formaldehyde and instead aim for simple solutions made of pronounceable ingredients like vinegar, essential oils, and baking soda. (Branch Basics makes an excellent line of plant-based cleaners.) 

#2: Let There Be Healthy Light

Good lighting is one of the most impactful and affordable ways to breathe positivity into a home. By “good” we mean a mix of sources that are natural and sustainable. First, optimize natural light by keeping windows clean and unobstructed. A strategically placed mirror or glossy, non-VOC paint can also help to disperse natural brightness. Second, replace artificial light sources with LED bulbs. These use approximately 85 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and help to shave off 25 to 30 percent on electricity bills.  

#3: Aim for Glass and Cloth

Disposable materials, particularly plastics and paper products, are still nearly impossible to avoid. But until the giant corporations stop pumping out these products, the onus is on us to reduce the amount that enters our homes. We’ve found the easiest places to start are opting for glass storage and pantry containers, which don’t release any chemicals into food, and swapping paper towels for linen or organic cotton towels.

#4: Dedicate a Space for Calm

At PrimaFoodie, we view meditation as a vital practice for clarity, productivity, and overall self-care. The key to reaping the benefits is consistency—and what supports consistency is having a clean, safe, comfortable space to meditate. This doesn’t have to be an entire room. A quiet corner works just as well. Aim to keep any tools that support your practice, such as a meditation pillow, blanket, or mat, neatly in the area to avoid any obstacles coming between you and bliss.

For more ideas on creating a sustainable, healthy home, see ‘The Case for Keeping a Clean Fridge.’ 

Composting Can Be Easy—Here’s How to Get Started

By Julia Hirsch

I have a confession to make: I have never composted. City living is no excuse. I have city friends who save scraps in their freezer or compost in a bankers box under a couch. Many cities (New York City and Portland, for example) have composting programs, with drop off sites and compost bins collected by the sanitation department.

With a little outdoor space, the process can be even more straight-forward. For a glimpse of idyllic country composting, I have a friend who saves her scraps in an open bowl on the kitchen counter, then flings them out to her chickens every afternoon. For those of us who don’t have a gaggle of chickens, composting can still be a simple and accessible process. For the first time, I have some outdoor space, so I am ready to try. 

But first: Why should we compost? Doesn’t it all just break down in a landfill?

In the US, food waste accounts for the largest category of materials that take up landfill space. Not only does it occupy valuable space and require resources to transport, but it also breaks down without access to oxygen. When this happens, it produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

When we compost at home, that decomposition process can be harnessed to produce humus, a nutrient rich, organic fertilizer. Humus enriches the soil, facilitating a biodynamic process that retains moisture, cultivates beneficial bacteria and fungi, balances the pH of your soil, and suppresses plant disease. In fact, composting can actually help combat the effects of climate change. According to the EPA, an increase in just one percent of organic matter in the soil can triple the soils water retention capacity, reducing erosion. So, every little bit helps. 

Getting Started

First, you’ll need a place to collect your food scraps, and a container in which to compost. For my mission, I wanted to keep it as sustainable as possible, which meant no new purchases. For the scraps, this can be as simple as a staked-out pile with chicken wire, or as complex as a multi-step tumbling system. I was lucky enough to locate an antique diaper bin for a kitchen collector: a metal bucket with a tight lid. So far it has done the job keeping odors out. For the compost bin, I found an old trash can and poked holes in the bottom and sides to welcome the essential oxygen (and worms, should they decide to contribute). For extra credit, I can rotate the compost with a pitchfork as it begins to decompose, or strap the lid on and roll the can around the yard.

Now, if you want to simplify the process further and purchase your gear, there are many streamlined bins available that you can put on your counter, if you’re composting inside. (Many of these have anti-odor features.) If you’re doing so outside, consider a heftier compost bin or barrel.   

Getting Composting

The process is simple alchemy. You’ll need a combination of brown waste (dry yard scraps, cardboard, dead leaves, shredded paper), green waste (grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea leaves), water, and air.*

Combine equal parts brown waste and green waste. The brown scraps provide carbon, while the green waste supplies nitrogen.

Add water to moisten the mixture. This allows for the organisms to digest and move. And make sure there is a little airflow. Exposure to oxygen ensures the organisms break down the materials in a way that rids any terrible odors. Now, your compost is ready to brew.

I am looking forward to seeing how this experiment goes. By the spring, maybe there will be enough compost to start a small garden. 

Wishing you the best in your composting journey. Start small and see where it goes.

A Few Helpful Notes: 

·   Be sure to avoid composting any dairy, bones, fats, oils, and pet waste as these materials can attract vermin or contain harmful bacteria.

·   For a full list of items to compost (and to avoid), see this EPA Guide.

·   There are a few helpful composting resources that offer specific step-by-step guidance. These include: Rodale Institute’s Backyard Composting Cheatsheet, Modern Farmer’s 7 Secrets to Perfect Compost, Compost Junkie, and the New York Times Step-by-Step guide.

The Case for Keeping a Clean Fridge

When doing an overhaul of your life, and deciding to eat differently, your refrigerator is a good place to start. A clean and organized fridge eliminates the frustrating clutter of expired food, and reduces the number of decisions you have to make when mealtime comes around. Everything—from produce to meats to homemade sauces—will be fresh, clean, and in their place.  This will be the difference between slamming the door and saying “forget it, let’s order takeout,” and feeling inspired to cook a healthy meal.

There are so many other reasons to keep a tidy refrigerator and freezer, all of which go way beyond my love for an organized space. A streamlined fridge impacts your health, your bank account, and the Earth. It also supports family members with allergies, food sensitivities, or healing diet protocols.  As I unveil below,  a clean fridge is an anchor to a clean and conscious lifestyle.

Reduces Food Waste and Increases Money Savings

Wasted food is one of the biggest problems facing our food supply. According to the FDA, the United States is the global leader in food waste. Nearly 30- to 40-percent of the food supply is not eaten and eventually thrown away. Food is the single largest component taking up space in our landfills. 

Closer to home, not eating everything you purchase is not just bad for the environment, but it’s an expensive habit. High-quality ingredients cost more, and poor meal planning or storage results in throwing money away. In my house, we have a zero-food waste goal, which keeping an organized fridge helps me to achieve. An organized fridge allows you to see everything you have. This means you won’t accidentally buy the same thing twice. It helps with meal planning, making it easier to have a specific purpose for each item, including meals, snacks, and even leftover ideas. I store all homemade sauces, dressings, nut milks, and leftovers in glass containers and label them with expiration dates.

Protects Gut Health

An organized fridge also cuts down on overcrowding, which allows for air to properly circulate around your food, extending its shelf life and keeping it as fresh as possible for longer. Spoiled food can grow both bacteria and mold, which is an airborne fungus with spores. Mold can make you sick—one group of mold is a mycotoxin, which can cause cancer—and can also trigger or intensify other health issues. Bacteria and mold cause the rest of your produce to decay faster, leading to food and money waste. Spoiled food is a culprit in food poisoning. And the introduction of harmful bacteria to your gut creates an imbalance that burdens your digestive system, which is already working  hard to keep you healthy. 

The Clean Fridge: A Step-by-Step Guide

#1. The Clean-Out

The first step to a clean fridge is deep cleaning it, which means removing everything and thoroughly cleaning it inside and out. You don’t need strong chemicals or bleach to do this. Use a 1:1 mix of water and white vinegar, adding ¼ cup of baking soda for every quart of hot water if you need to scrub it. You can also use a natural cleaning product—but remember, food absorbs odors, so it’s best to use unscented products. Many fridges allow you to turn off the open-door indicator, so check your instruction manual before you start and you won’t be annoyed with the beeping. 

Begin by gathering your supplies. You’ll need a cooler bag or ice chest, plastic bags, rubber gloves, cleaning solution, sponges, and microfiber cloths. Take out everything from your fridge and store highly perishable items in a cooler while you clean. Check the expiration dates on all store-bought products, throw out anything expired. Make a note of things expiring soon so you can use them. Remove all shelves and drawers, wash them in the sink with your cleaning solution, rinse thoroughly in hot water, and wipe dry. Don’t forget the refrigerator door seal, which is frequently missed. Repeat this deep cleaning every six months. 

Once you give your fridge a deep clean, it’s easier to keep it clean. Once a week, wipe down the interior, including bins, and the exterior of your fridge. This can be part of your regular housekeeping routine. You can use a 10:1 water and alcohol mixture, or a 1:1 water and white vinegar solution to clean it. If you work through most of your produce weekly, it’s easy to pull out the few things that last longer and quickly wipe each drawer and shelf. 

#2 Categorize 

Take a look at how you like to eat and cook, then designate certain areas or shelves to the most important categories. Leftovers can take one to two shelves. Your family will quickly learn to look here first when they open the fridge. Store produce in the bins. For the most part, vegetables generally last longer in a high-humidity environment where there is little airflow, and fruits do better in low humidity environments with more airflow, so store them in separate bins with the appropriate humidity setting. Keep ethylene-producing fruits (those that continue to ripen after being picked) such as bananas, apples and avocados separate from other food, as ethylene can cause other foods to spoil more quickly. Keep snacks for your children in an easy-to-reach spot. I’m not a huge fan of snacking as an overall rule for anyone, but sometimes we do need a snack. Having a designated refrigerator space for kids is a great way to cut down on negotiations and encourage independence. Treat your fridge like your personal grocery store. When you make or buy a new nut milk or bone broth, put it in the back and move the older ones in the front, which ensures the oldest will be consumed first. Most importantly, keep things visible. When you see food, you’ll eat it. When food is hidden, it can sit in your fridge until it goes bad. 

#3 Acknowledge Food Restrictions and Special Diets

Dealing with food limitations can be difficult for people on restrictive diets. That mental burden can be even heavier when food restrictions cause conflict in families who don’t all want to adhere to the restrictive diet. You can make it as easy as possible for everyone with a few simple processes. First, have a conversation about “tricky foods” with all family members, housekeepers, and nannies. They are more likely to follow the procedures if they understand why they are essential. Next, dedicate a corner of a shelf or a row on a door for a family member with a special diet so they can easily find their food. Finally, label food with something quick and easy to write. We mark our food with removable tape and write an “N” with a circle around it and a line through it, so everyone knows it is not okay for Nichole to eat. When you have houseguests, walk them through your food storage protocol or print out a laminated cheat sheet in a visible location in the kitchen. 

At first, cleaning and maintaining an organization fridge may seem like a mundane task, one that you don’t have time for. But once you make it a habit, opening your refrigerator will no longer bring you frustration—it will be a satisfying moment that offers a well of cooking possibility. 

With Love,
PrimaFoodie

How to Meal Plan: Meal Planning Basics

Meal planning will save you time and help minimize food waste, but even more than that, it’s the first small step you can take to alter your food journey and change your life for the better. If you’ve been wanting to change your eating habits, to eat real, whole food, to have the greatest health possible and give your body the best chance possible to heal or just feel good, this is where to start!

I’m going to break down the powerful impact that small, consistent daily disciplines can have on your overall physical health and mental wellbeing. But before I launch into the details, I want to take a moment to encourage you - you have what it takes to do this no matter where you are now.

The small disciplines and actionable steps below may seem insignificant on their own, but when you apply them consistently over time and celebrate the “small wins” of making each choice, they’ll compound over time to transform your body and your mind. You can achieve real, wholistic health that makes you feel good, energetic, and free of foggy brain and daily exhaustion. And the empowerment that comes from making these choices transforms every aspect of our lives, contributing to harmony and balance in life.

You can do this, and as you start to make these small changes, you too will feel the missing pieces of your health start to fall into place in the most natural of ways.

DINNER

When I start planning, I like to start with dinners and fill in the rest of the week’s meals around those.

Choose 3-4 dinners for the week. Start with your protein, or entrée, and build sides around it. Sometimes, I build my sides based on the specific plants I want to work into our diet that week.

I recommend starting with just 1 new entrée a week and keep building on that. Trying to cook something different every night while you’re overhauling your diet and learning to cook with new ingredients can quickly cause burnout.

Refine 2-3 sauces/dressings. Start with one recipe a week and then try different versions of the same thing (pesto, green goddess dressing, cilantro lime, barbeque sauce, etc) until you land on the perfect version. I store mine in mason jars and label them with the name and “made on” date. Since the labels change constantly, I prefer these easily removable adhesive rolls. Many dressings will last 7-10 days in the refrigerator.

*Tip - If you make a sauce for a particular recipe, double the sauce and save the extra for the rest of the week. That sauce can transform bland vegetables into a delicious side dish or dipping sauce for your kids’ lunch.

Take into account leftovers. Think ahead about the viability of working the leftovers for a particular meal into your breakfast or lunch for the next day. For example, an egg over easy on top of leftover roasted pumpkin or butternut squash with vegetables is delicious, nutritious, and gives you steady, slow-burning energy until lunchtime.

BREAKFAST

When you’re thinking about how to meal plan for your family, it’s all about finding ways to save time and minimize waste, and finding creative ways to use leftovers throughout the week is one of my favorite ways to do just that! So once I’ve decided what’s for dinner, I plan breakfast for the week based on the leftovers I know I’m going to have.

Making breakfast from leftovers makes our mornings run more smoothly – and it can do the same for you!

No prep work. You don’t have to think about what to make every morning or worry about whether it’s a balanced, healthy meal because you’ve already put the time into planning for it ahead of time.

*Tip - enlist the help of your kids! My daughter loves to be a part of our meal planning. It’s amazing how much more cooperative kids are when they get to be involved! Here’s an example of a list she’s made:

Monday – oatmeal (soaked overnight)

Tuesday – hash (with leftover veggies and bacon, sausage, or a leftover dinner protein)

Wednesday – cereal (there are one or two brands I buy with only 4-8 grams of unrefined sugar that are organic and made with only 5 ingredients – to be eaten in moderation)

Thursday – omelette

Friday – porridge

My daughter knows I have the final stamp of approval, but when she’s been part of the decision-making process, then it’s her list. She can look at it throughout the week and not be surprised or disappointed, which has cut down our morning arguments about what’s for breakfast to almost none.

Mix it up and plan for variety. If she had her way, my daughter would have toast for breakfast every morning! By creating a plan and allowing her to help, I can make sure we aren’t eating the same thing every day. When we eat the same thing every day, our bodies start to develop food sensitivities, and we minimize and narrow down the amount of nutrients we take in.

LUNCH

The last step in my meal planning process is lunch. I used to plan the whole week in detail but, because I’ve been doing this for a while and can throw my daughter’s lunch together with “nothing” now, I don’t plan it out at all.

However, if you’re just getting started, planning out every meal for the week is the best way to go. It’ll be helpful in letting you know what to fill in from the grocery store.

When I shop, I usually hit the farmer’s market and place a small Instacart order on Sunday, and then one more small Instacart order later in the week.

As for my lunches, I often make salad out of the remaining dinner leftovers, so no additional planning is required.

Keep it Simple

This sounds like a lot when you’re first learning how to meal plan, and it may seem overwhelming or time-consuming. It is more work up front, but that time is concentrated – as you go through the rest of your week, you’ll find that you’re saving a lot more time overall.

And, as with anything, the more you meal plan, the better and more efficient you’ll get at it! I used to spend a lot more time planning out detailed weekly menus. Now, I spend about 10 minutes between breakfast and leaving for the farmer’s market on Sunday morning writing our weekly meal plan on a large yellow sticky note.

It doesn’t have to be pretty, and it’s okay to make mistakes! Learning how to meal plan doesn’t have to be complicated or perfect. Stick to the principle of simplicity, remember the power of making small, consistent changes, and you will be amazed at how something as simple as meal planning can start to change everything.

With Love,
PrimaFoodie