Reinventing the Way We Pack Lunch

About a year and a half ago, I decided to rid my life of as much disposable plastic as possible. I was sick and tired of constantly hearing about our country's dependence on foreign oil and how much plastic was not getting recycled or even ending up in a landfill, but strewn across the land and  in our natural bodies of water, endangering animals.

I had already ridden our household of plastic grocery bags by switching to cloth ones and we'd switched to aluminum water bottles sometime ago.....but I knew there was something bigger I was missing. It hit me when my husband spent one of several weeks out of town for work. he decided to pre-pack several days worth of lunches to save money and also because he didn't know what was available.  My husband is a very tall guy and has a big appetite. I watched him spend an hour making PB & J sandwiches, portioning pretzels and stuffing all of it into those little plastic bags. He was using about 5 of those bags a day for one lunch. It drove me nuts thinking about the fact that  he spent several dollars on something that was going in a trash can as soon as it was no longer protecting his sandwich...several hours later. We tried gladware for sandwiches too, but I still wasn't happy about it being made of plastic and the possibility that even though I chose to place it in my recycle been when it outlived its life it may not actually get to where it was supposed to go.

About this same time, I had started planning my wedding. Knowing my passion for living as green as possible, one of my mom's friends had given me a gift that she saw in a new eco-friendly store in her town. It was a reusable sandwich bag (they call them lunchskins), by a company called three green moms. Genius! I thought what a great wedding favor......that was until I researched the cost on this little bag. These bags are easily cleaned just turn them inside out and place them in the top rack of your dishwasher.

I decided that even if I didn't use these for the wedding, I needed to track down more of these and at a better price point.  The other disadvantage of my first bag was that it was too small. We like big sandwiches and it just didn't hold them without smashing the sandwich. When I have something in mind that I'm searching for that doesn't seem to be available in conventional stores, my go to place is Etsy.

When I searched for reusable sandwich bag I had thousands of hits. I went through several tries finding just the right size and type of bags and now hopefully you can benefit from my trials and errors. Here are my criteria for a nice sandwich bag
1) Material
In trying to avoid plastic, I don't really like the use of oilcloth on the inside of these bags.  I've learned that wraps and bags made of cotton on the outside with nylon on the inside work really well. I also like ones with multiple layers of cotton.  Both of these types can be thrown in the washer with my other kitchen towels if they get dirty. I definitely prefer velcro or snap closures as opposed to the snack bags with zippers as well.

2) Size
We've learned that for our hearty sanwiches we prefer using a sandwich wrap instead of a bag.  They are big enough for one of my husband's gigantic sandwiches.  They also double as a placemat on your lap while noshing on your sandwich.  For our snacks the snack bags are good for little things, but the "sandwich size" bags work better for bigger things like chips.

3) Fun colors and prints

There are hundreds of different bags and wraps on Etsy, handmade by a ton of very talented people. You can even look up to see if any of them are in your local area. So, not only can you pick fun prints that suit your personality, you can also support the US and potentially your own local economy.  Kids (and your inner kid too) love all the fun colors and prints. It really makes their lunches personal. (My husband especially loves his batman wrap and his smiley faced one.) I think his next one will be a Pittsburgh Steelers wrap.

Now that you may be thinking, These are pretty cool, where do I find one?, never fear I've got some links to my favorite etsy shops. Definitely give them a try you won't be disappointed. I also recommend looking at lots. For example, one of my favorite shops Mada's Place, offers discounts if you buy 5 sets at once, you pick the prints from the choices she has in her store. I ended up doing this  and getting a different set for each of my bridesmaids in my wedding and it saved me a ton of money! A few more good choices include:
-Zenbot baby they have a wide variety of prints and styles, including some cool modern looking ones, also where I found my cool tiki one... I love tikis!
-Moja Creations
-RKEM designs

I hope this gives you some ideas on where to look if you think this solution to "greening" your lunch is for you. In the coming weeks look for a post on how to make packing lunch fun again. I kind of miss the fun notes and cool things my mom did when packing my lunch, don't you? here's a hint:

Phineas Sandwich from Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook for Kids

In the meantime, be good to yourselves...