Green AND Frugal kitchen

[jdp]

I was reading the blog of Nature Mommy this a.m. and I liked her post on replacing kitchen plastic with glass but I know a lot of my friends bemoan the cost of glass. So we had a great summer hitting up yard sales, thrift shops and second hand shops to wisely buy glass pieces to replace plastic in our kitchens.

If you get a little creative in WHERE you are spending your money you can sometimes be green and frugal.

Looked around for another thread to add this too and couldn't find one.

[lucille]

I have been gradually ditching plastics out of our kitchen. My initial frustration was that they simply didn't last. Things were breaking, warping or otherwise falling apart. Meanwhile my mom still has the same glass mixing bowls and glass measuring cup she had when I was a kid.

I don't mind Pyrex for fridge storage or heating something in the microwave. I won't use them anywhere near a stove or oven anymore though. I had one explode in my hands a long time ago. It was fairly hot coming out of the oven and our kitchen window had a bit of a draft and it was dead of winter. The drastic temp change made it blow up.

What we have been doing to move things over to glass is to save just about every glass jar we bring home. I already had some of the big glass pickle jars and someone gave me more via Freecycle. She had saved them from church functions and had a pantry full of them. I use smaller glass jars for storing things like lentils. We also moved much of our kitchen gear over to metal. Metal bowls, metal spoons and spatulas.

We did get mice in our house when the weather turned cooler. So I spent the weekend packing everything in the pantry into glass jars or storage containers. Due to needing to put everything in containers I will probably start looking closer at the thrift stores for more storage jars.

[Megan]

I'm also trying to move to more "lasting" kitchen items. My mother has her grandmother's old flour, sugar, and coffee canisters. They're metal with plastic knobs on the top, and while they're a bit beat up, they're still very much in use decades later. That's the sort of stuff I want in my kitchen.

I have a lot of glassware that I bought at an estate sale, and I'm looking for more glass and metal mixing bowls. I do have a huge cabinet of plasticware though, and I'm going to use that until I can't use it anymore - no sense in just tossing it if it still functions.

I love the practice of using Mason jars as drinking glasses. I miss the days when jellies would come in jars that were designed to be drinking glasses after the jelly was gone. What a great way to reuse packaging!

[gt0163c]

Originally Posted by Megan

I love the practice of using Mason jars as drinking glasses. I miss the days when jellies would come in jars that were designed to be drinking glasses after the jelly was gone. What a great way to reuse packaging!

I've been using mason (and other) jars for drinking for years. Most of my glasses were once either salsa or peanut butter jars (glass and about pint size and shape). They're the perfect size for me, offer a classic, relaxed look, I can put a top on them if I need/want to and, if I take one somewhere and leave it or break it, I know that I'm just a jar of salsa or peanut butter away from having another.

[AlmostFrugal]

Most of our glasses are from mustard jars. Here in France they intentionally package things like mustard, mayo and nutella in glasses with reusable plastic lids. They even make kids versions with funny drawings on them.

I've been buying coffee in metal cans, then leaving the beans/rice whatever in the bag and storing it in the can. I label the outside too and I find it's a great way to store larger quantities and not worry about bugs.

[amandajane]

I recently was given six 1 and 2 litre food quality glass jars from freecycle too. I'll most probably get some more. They are ideal, the flipping moths are back now spring is here (as are the other insects, lol) so it's essential to have airtight storage. Try freecycle.org if you haven't already - it's a great way to go :0)

[Johansen8]

I basically buy everything generic.
Pick up inexpensive plate hangers from the hardware store and hang the saucers from your good china around the back splash, or as a border. Don’t have any china? Visit garage sales and thrift stores this weekend to pick up a bunch of sweet little plates for a song. (No, they don’t have to match, or be fancy!)
Save empty bottles and fill with colored water to set on the windowsills, or line up the bottles and fill with one flower each from your garden.

Grow plants from seed on your windowsills! Even grass seed has become very vogue.
Above all, invoke your family into the place where you spend the most time. I’ve heard some designers say you should keep your refrigerator clear to prevent clutter, NO MAGNETS! But honestly, what would my kitchen be without my kids drawings stuck all over the door? It wouldn’t be the place I want to spend most of my time. I even have a couple of framed photos of my kids, right on the kitchen counter! So make your kitchen YOUR home, and have fun doing it!

[amyschiff]

This post got me thinking about what I have that's plastic in my kitchen and it actually isn't much at all. No plastic cups/plates/bowls etc. The main plastic things I've got are small reusable plastic containers for leftovers, a batter bowl, and spatulas.

My mom and great aunt went to a flea market and found my sister and I a lot of nice corningware baking dishes of various sizes. The patterns are mismatched but they all have lids so that's great. No need for pyrex stuff really.

As for mixing bowls, I use 4 hand-me-down glass ones (graduated sizes so they fit inside one another) that have been in my family for a long time. I love them and I can't even begin to count how many batches of cookies they've seen.

I'm also looking towards building a spice collection that uses glass or metal jars.

[purplefdu]

I've had more corningware break on me than Pyrex, which is never for the Pyrex-not even in the lab where we abuse it like nothing. I've never had an issue with rather drastic changes. We normally pick up glassware and cast iron when Kohl's does the holiday giftcard bonus. Spend $50 get $10. Plus whatever sale or clearance you can find.

We do still have plastic plates (Ziplocware) but only because the dinnerware we registered for after a long search was discontinued and we haven't found anything we like and can afford. We do have plastic storage containers as well, mostly Rubbermaid and some Tupperware but we've had those since we got married or longer (some are from 1998 or before as they were mine in college). My dishware is from 1998 as well actually. I wish I'd bought some more ahead of time, it wears well and got discontinued. We have lots of metal utensils since we don't have non-stick pans (lethal for the parrot) although a few plastic ones I had ion college are around, and my silicone spatulas.

We will probably work harder on switching to less plastic and such when we get our new place. I wish we'd bought more of the Pom tea when they were in pretty glass jars. Maybe I'll drop by Goodwill and see if they have any. They were nice and rather tall and slim.