In My Lunchbox...

I have found one of the hardest places to reduce my plastic is my lunchbox. I typically like to have a sandwich type thing, a couple bits of fruit, and then something sweet and sugary to see me through til home time. I ditched the sandwich bags and wrap anything bready in the cloth that comes with President Camembert. Camembert and chips is a favourite treat dinner of mine, so I had a couple floating around. I was going to use them for something but they work excellently as sandwich wraps. I thought they would be a good temporary fix until I bought or made beeswax wraps, but they survived being washed up so I reckon they will do for a while!

Sandwich wraps

 

I do sometimes mix things up a bit and have hummus with bread. Currently, I am buying the hummus pots, but my mum has a recipe for hummus which I am meaning to borrow. I think I am going to struggle making it without a food processor, but if it's something I am going to do often then it may be worth investing in one.

Now, the fruit was easy. I never wrapped them anyway - they come with built-in wrapping! And I buy loose fruit and veg now, hurray for Morrisons' paper bags! On days when I open up and finish around lunchtime, I usually just chuck some fruit into my backpack for my break. Just loose among everything else and they are fine. Isn't nature the best?

Oranges and Granny Smiths, my favourites

 

The big problem area is the something sweet. Everything comes in plastic, wrapped individually, and usually only cost effective on BOGOF offers. Now an answer to this would be to do the ecobrick route - clean it and cut it, then stuff it into a bottle. Which would be great except I generate next to zero bottles in my waste. I say next to zero, there are a couple bottles of oil which are nearly empty and plastic. So, honestly, I don't want to hoard a load of plastic for an initiative which doesn't suit my lifestyle needs.

I'd rather explore other options.

I like to bake. I am not good at it, but I like to do it anyway. A recent love for Christine McConnell has got me wanting to bake more than once every two and a half months. And I have so many cookbooks! So when I was last doing a food shop, looking for something to go in my lunchbox, it occured to me: why don't I just make something? While I can't make pumpkin pie into Cinderella's carriage, I can make flapjacks, cupcakes, and cookies.

Recently, I have been feeling a little lack lusture with everything - I don't know if it's the cold weather or what, but it's making it difficult to feel enthusastic about anything. So I thought it'd be best to ease myself into a regular baking lifestyle go start with something easy, quick, and with only a few ingredients but potenial for variation. To me that says one thing: flapjack.

I have a really good recipe for flapjacks and a few extra ingredients to jazz them up a little bit. I like fruity flapjack while my partner likes chocolately flapjack. I had enough oats left to do double quantity, the stars were aligning! Last night, we made lots of flapjack!

Measuring out the golden syrup

Being conscious of what packaging I do buy, I try to opt for the recyclable plastics when it is unavoidable. Until one of those refill supermarkets opens in my town, there is always going to be some plastic in my shopping trolley. A recent discovery that Quorn packaging can be recycled with carrier bags has lead to me buying more Quorn than meat. So looking at the back of packaging I have found that Morrisons oats are the same! My flapjacks aren't entirely plastic free but they are at least recyclable!

Recycle with carrier bags!

And it's the savers oats!

I never knew there was such a thing as reusable baking sheets, but it was jut something my partner always had. I use them whenever I bake or cook, in lieu of greaseproof paper and foil. We even bought a second one recently. They are brilliant and don't bake onto the food, which I always found with greaseproof paper, and they are easy to clean as well. If I do making baking a regular thing I may even get a couple more!

Craisin mix and chocolate mix.

The recipe I used is from Lisa Faulkner's Tea & Cake:

175g (6oz) Butter, plus extra for greasing (not needed with resuable sheets!)

125g (4.5oz) Demerera sugar 

2 tbsp Golden Syrup

350g (12oz) Rolled oats

Melt the butter, sugar, and syrup together over a medium heat. Pour into the oat bowl and mix. Spread into a 20cm square tin (I just used a baking tray) with greaseproof paper or reusable sheet. Cook at 160C (320F) for 25 minutes. Leave to cool in pan so they retain shape for a while. Remove when set and cool further. Cut into as big or as small a square you want.

I added craisins and chocolate to mine. I can't say how much I added, I did it by eye. The mix is buttery enough to cope with any amount of added ingredients.

Ready to be stored in the fridge.

That is my something sweet sorted for the next few lunchboxes!