Eating out... Gluten-free Pizza pt.1

Great news for my gluten-free audience.  If you, like myself, just have a gluten intolerance, but are not highly allergic or celiac.  Prepared GF pizza just became more accessible.  In the past you had to search for a very specific pizzeria that would also make GF pizzas, now one of the largest pizza chains in the U.S. has created a GF option.

Dominos Pizzerias all over the world are offering a GF pizza crust at the 10" size, and the best things about this offer is that it's not insanely expensive.  Whereas GF pizzas can cost at times up to $20 for a personal size, the 10" small GF cheese pizza from Dominos is just about $10.

Here's a link to find out more: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-05-04/gluten-free-food-pizza/54793108/1. 

I will be reviewing this pizza for taste and quality in the near future, I'll keep you posted.

Tetra Pak... amended

So, upon a little more research prompted by the side of two almond milk cartons that specifically stated they are recyclable in certain areas.  I decided to look into recycling cartons again. I apologize that I have given information that was only partially true.  Tetra Paks are actually recyclable in part.

Here are the facts:
Tetra Pak makes their cartons on average from 70%-80% of paper.  Metals and plastics are combined with the paper to make the cartons aseptic.  You can see a diagram here. The recycling of these cartons removes the non-paper products then recycles the paper into tissue products.

While these packages are still recyclable it does seem that there is some waste.  It is seen in the two ways.  First, the Tetra Paks themselves do not use recycled paper, so any paper going into the production of these cartons does come from freshly processed trees in order to make a clean food-safe product.   Second, the non-paper products (that is 20%-30% of the packaging) get siphoned off, and don't seem to get recycled from what I can tell from the carton recycling process.

In fairness, while the production of these cartons is not completely waste free, Tetra Pak does work to reduce waste as much as possible, through forestry guidelines, reduction of carbon footprint at the factories, and recycling programs that turn their product into new paper products that don't need to be food ready.

There are other rumors about tetra paks that I feel need to be addressed.  I have heard and read that these cartons are neglected by most city/county recycling programs.  This could not be further from the truth.  As I looked into it more, I found that not only are these packages recyclable, but recycling programs that include them are more readily available than one would think.  In fact, there is even more information out there for recycling cartons and/or making cartons recyclable in your community than most people even have time to read.

So, in conclusion I would like to apologize for my lack of investigative journalism on this matter and provide you with some resources.

First, I would encourage you to check out these three websites for general information about recycling:

http://www.all-recycling-facts.com
http://earth911.com/recycling/
http://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycle.html

All these websites above provide some helpful information so you can make informed choices about what kinds of packaging you purchase your food in, to reduce waste.  For example, though I will now with ease of conscience purchase Tetra Pak cartons knowing that I have facilities available to me that do recycle them, I also found out that glass is the only recycled product that is 100% reused, in other words it is not wasted at all. So, I will still try to purchase as much as I can in glass.

Second, if you are still concerned about Tetra Paks and want to know more about the packaging that is so prevalent at your local supermarkets, then I recommend going to their website:

Environment
The Green Room
Our Commitment
Forestry Guidelines

I found these pages on their site to be extremely helpful and informative.

Finally, and possibly most important, find out if you can recycle tetra paks in your community by visiting:
http://www.recyclecartons.com

If your city or county does not currently recycle cartons check out this tool kit:

http://www.recyclecartons.com/resources/toolkit.pdf

You can use this information to petition to get your city recycling program to include cartons.  The best way to do this is to get 100 or more signatures of citizens in your town who want this recycling program in their community.  Then get on the agenda for an upcoming city council meeting (which is usually not difficult), then take a friend or two and present the petition to the city council.  The thing about politics is that changing processes take both time and money, so if nothing comes of this right away you just have to keep strong and continue to bug your city aldermen and your mayor, until they do something about it.

Anyhow, I hope that this clears the record for Tetra Pak cartons and I hope that you have found this blog post informative and helpful to your own sustainably culinary life style.

Going green... and the Tetra Pak

As you know, I am trying to change my lifestyle to become more green this year.  As a result, I have been looking into buying only humanely raised meats and eggs.  Yes, not only can this be expensive but it can even be difficult to find.  That said, on a daily basis I have been eating a lot more plant-based proteins.  In fact, this has become so normal to me that I have recently been considering going mostly vegan.

I started by picking out one daily thing that I consume and changing it to a vegan alternative.  Lately, I had been using cow's milk much more than I even used to, so I am starting there.  I am heartily against consciously adding any soy into my diet because soy is in just about everything, and since I already drink almond milk on a semi-regular basis I chose almond milk as my main milk alternative.

The only problem is the more closely I looked at what I was purchasing this week, I realized that I am now purchasing my milk exclusively in tetra paks, and when I was buying locally sourced milk it came in returnable glass jugs.  Now, I wouldn't be completely against making this switch permanent if tetra paks were recyclable.  Problem is though many people are under the assumption that this kind of packaging is made from paper therefore mistakenly throwing these containers in their recycle bins every day, they ultimately are a hybrid of paper, plastic, and in some cases even metal and are currently not able to be recycled.

So, I started to try to solve the wasteful packaging issue by possibly making almond milk myself. As I researched how to make almond milk from scratch I saw that it requires a high-quality food processor or blender and that it only lasts for about 3 days, unlike the store purchased almond milk which allows me 7-10 days to use it. Being a single gal that honestly doesn't always use a lot of milk shelf-stable almond milk has become a kind staple for me. Until now.

So, here I am at my first sustainable-living impasse of the year.  Do I continue to purchase cow's milk though it is sometimes expensive and ultimately I don't actually know if the cow's from that local farm are pasture-raised, or do I keep throwing tetra paks into the landfills?  Obviously, that is hyperbole, my intention is to do neither but that is why I need your help.

Today, I am not posing solutions or recipes as much as I am asking for your input.  I am still thinking about how to transition myself into a mostly vegan lifestyle (i.e. I may still eat eggs occasionally since I can buy those directly from the farmer, and I will on occasion eat meat that I know has been humanely raised, and I am never strict about what I eat when at another person's house).  But, I can't continue to use almond milk in good conscience knowing the packaging is simply going to the bottom of a landfill, and frankly I just don't have the high quality blender I would need nor do I have time every three days to make fresh almond milk. So, I need your help figuring out a solution.  Here are my questions for you, is there a way to can homemade almond milk in mason jars?  Do you know of any inexpensive sources for pasture-raised cow's milk?  Or are there uses for empty tetra paks, so that I can reuse them on my own?  I am open to any and all suggestions. Thanks for your help.