Reusable lunch gear

Last week Fischer and some of his friends went on a tour of the landfill. I will say that this was my idea for playgroup and there were not too many moms who thought that it would be fun... so attendance was low. However TWO other brave mommies did come... and Sheila sent BFF with me so that she wouldn't miss out. Anyway, I found the tour incredibly informative and eye-opening. In my state, recycling is voluntary. Therefor we saw mountains of cardboard out on the landfill that will never be recycled... too bad. In fact our landfill will be full to capacity by the time Fischer is 52 year-old. Then what??

So what to do? We already recycle as much as possible at our house. Our family has broken the bottled water habit with reusable bottles. But there is still so much more that we could be doing - after all, I have a pretty heavy addiction to zip-lock bags!! So I have been in search of some solutions. And I thought I'd share a few of the really great ones:

• Let's start here with Martha and her reusable oilcloth lunch bags. They are cute and practical and would be great to send lunch to school or work or on a picnic. She has all of the instructions here.


• OK now I have my cute lunch bag, what do I put my sandwich in? There can't be any better solutions that a zip-lock bag, right? Ah, but there is! The Wrap-N-Mat keeps your sandwich fresh and provides you with a place mat to boot! All perfectly washable and reusable. You don't even have to make it, you can buy it at reusable bags.com (that site has tons of reusable solutions for sale).


• OK now I have my lunch bag and my sandwich bag and even a place mat, but what about my snacks? What about my napkin? Thank you for asking. Jill over at Life with Nature Girl has two fabulous tutorials on how to make your own reusable snack bags and napkins. Too fabulous!!

Now, I just need to learn how to sew! I'm just going to have to go over to Sheila's and start practicing. I really want to make these things. She doesn't know it yet, but she really wants to make them too. My other obstacle? Getting Andy to let his food touch fabric... I think he'll gag.

Hey, does any one know of any fabulous replacements for my zip lock freezer bag problem?