Trying to get all the plastic out of the kitchen is really hard!!!

[big brown horse]

Inspired by freemotion...

I am painting and reorganizing my kitchen, in the process I am going through each cabinet and taking out all the plastic items that I want to replace.

NOT EASY!! Dishes, bowls and cups are the easy things to replace, but what about spatulas etc. I have some non stick pans that I don't want to scratch, what do you use? Wooden spoons came to mind, but I need a flat spatula for say, fritters and pancakes.

I have a bunch of large rubber bands that I have been using with wax paper to cover bowls full of left overs etc. I have also been wrapping my daughter's sandwhiches in wax paper with a bit of scotch tape to hold it together.

Another question: Is tin foil healthy to use?

Any suggestions?

BTW, Thanks to freemoton, I have all the family members drinking water out of swing top glass beer bottles, it is a sight to be seen!

 

[delia_peterson]

 

[enjoy the ride]

I have lots of flat spatula things in wood- they are not as thin as plastic ones but work pretty well.
I think you can get them pretty well anywhere.

BTW how do you get those beer bottle things clean? I have a bunch that I always wanted to use but they were too dang hard to clean.

 

[me&thegals]

I have some non stick pans that I don't want to scratch, what do you use? Wooden spoons came to mind, but I need a flat spatula for say, fritters and pancakes.

This isn't very helpful immediately, but I switched to all stainless steel. My nonstick wear kept coming off in our food.

 

[FarmerDenise]

BTW, Thanks to freemoton, I have all the family members drinking water out of swing top glass beer bottles, it is a sight to be seen!

I have been trying to figure out how to successfully and easily clean bottles as well. I reuse wine bottles and I also like reusing the swing top bottles. I might have to start drinking beer in order to aquire them.
So far I have found SO's fishtank tube cleaning brush very helpfull. It has a long handle and is wiry, so it bends in the bottle to get the crud out of the bottom. But it doesn't work well, if you really need to scrub.

As far as cleaning out the plastics in our kitchen. We decided to just try to avoid them as much as possible. I have a lot of wooden utensils (and they do make flat spatula style wooden spoons, they are used in wok cooking), and we're keeping the plastic spatula for the nonstick pan. We are aslo very carefull about the use of the nonstick pan, since we don't want to break the nonsticky stuff down either. For high heat cooking I use my cast iron pan. It is just so heavy, I have a hard time lifting and tilting it. But at I really prefer to cook with my cast iron pan for all other reasons. It even adds a little iron to your food.
Since we so rarely buy stuff at the store (when I do I stick to the perimeter as much as possible), we don't get many glass jars or plastic containers coming in. I don't care to give away my good jars, so when I do gift food stuff to people I really prefer to use plastic or reused store jars, whenever I can. I've been begging friends and family for their jars.

 

[big brown horse]

The swing top beer bottles, well I just put them in the dishwasher...after the beer is all gone, it only has water stored in them, so it is pretty easy to keep clean.

I have two of those caphalon (sp?) non stick pans and they weren't cheap! But I still have a stack of nice, old, well-seasoned cast iron skillets that I use most of the time...but eggs in a cast iron skillet...yikes!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I used to have a really well seasoned cast iron pan. It was no problem frying eggs in it. My husband had bought it for me at a garage sale. I thoroughly cleaned it. Then covered it in oil and set it in a warm oven for hours or overnight. Then wiped it clean and put it away. I wash my cast iron pans in the sink like any other pan, even soak it. I find the trick its to get them very dry after washing and occasionally doing the oil and oven treatment. Even putting on a light coat of oil after washing and putting it away, helps a lot.
I must admit I haven't been doing that with my current cast iron pan, since I do use the nonstick pans.

edited for typo

 

[miss_thenorth]

I used to have a really well seasoned cast iron pan. It was no problem frying eggs in it. My husband had bought it for me at a garage sale. I thoroughly cleaned it. Then covered it in oil and set it in a warm oven for hours or overnight. Then wiped it clean and put it away. I wash my cast iron pans in the sink like any other pan, even soak it. I find the trick its to get them very dry after washing and occasionally doing the oil and oven treatment. Even putting on a light coat of oil after washing and putting it away, helps a lot.
I must admit I haven't been doing that with my current cast iron pan, since I do use the nonstick pans.

edited for typo

After I wash my cast iron, I dry it on the stove--turn it on till the pan is dry, then re-season if necessary. I can cook eggs on it.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I still use plastics. for my kids school lunches I use reusable containers, as I cannot justify buying ziplocs or other disposable stuff. for drinks at school, they use SS bottles. I still store things in plastic, but never use in the microwave.

 

[FarmerDenise]

miss_thenorth, I'm with you on that too. I don't use plastic in the microwave.
Last night SO suggested I wrap the frozen tortillas in platic and steam them in the microwave. I used a covered ceramic pan instead.