Eating Green While on Vacation

A little food for thought...

For this post, lets just talk about food packaging.  It's something I've been thinking about not only for vacation, but in our daily lives as well.  My husband and I both work full-time.  We have two little girls, the oldest who chooses to participate in soccer, ballet, & gymnastics.  Our nights are crazy and sometimes (though I cringe at the mere thought of where the food comes from) we get fast food for dinner.  My girls are good eaters and Meira loves to get a salad, apples, juice box and sometimes fries.  I think they switched Morgi at birth because she likes a plain old hamburger patty, apples and milk.  You can get this typical combination of foods at pretty much any drive-thru.  But once I read about how a fellow blogger was able to get rid of her garbage service, I started to take a serious look at our habits.  And wow, fast food really fills up the can FAST!  So I thought I'd throw out (ha ha) some tips on how to eat out a little greener, especially on vacation, when not cooking is part of the fun!

Think about the containers.

Can they be recycled? Does your community/hotel recycle their number?

Do the kids meals come in paper that you can recycle? What about what the food is wrapped in?

Think about condiments.

Pack bottles of mustard/ketchup/salad dressing for the trip and decline the packets handed out at the drive-thru.

Think about utensils.

Again, pack your own reusable silverware.  Pass on the plastic wrapped plastic forks,etc. If they toss them in, hand them back. It gets easier the more often you do it!

Take it one step forward.

Does everything need to be packed in individual bags? Think kid's meals.

(And do they really need the plastic TOYS?)

Condense the food order - have the kids share nuggets, drinks, salads, etc.  Sometimes it's actually cheaper to buy adult size and split it.

Think about what the food comes in, from each place.  Qdoba puts practically everything in something plastic, Taco Bell is all wrapped in coated paper, Burger King/Mc Donald's use lots of paper bags and boxes, Chipotle wraps in aluminum foil - catch my drift?

The picture above is a lazy Friday night dinner.  Had I made it myself, I'd have 2 less pizza boxes, 1 less breadstick box, 1 less plastic salad container, no packs of dressing or utensils or non-recyclable marinara sauces.  But as far as trash choices go, it's almost fully able to hit the recycling bins.  On the road, it's the lesser of evils.  At home, I'd be better off mixing up my own dough and chopping up our own salad. It's always good to know where your food comes from!

So have fun on vacation, but don't forget that you can still make good environmental choices when eating on the road!