10 Tips for Eco-Friendlier Fast Food Dining
Let’s face it, it’s the rare person who does not at some point end up in a fast food joint. As we’ve discussed here before, trying to eat healthy & organic while on the go can be a real dilemma.
The fact is, there truly is no Broccoli Heaven. So when you find yourself in a McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, or other fast food place off the interstate, don’t despair. Here are ten steps you can take to make your dining experience a wee bit more eco-friendly.
1. Bring your own cup.
2. If you didn’t bring your own cup, request a glass or regular cup — you know, the type that can be washed! Otherwise, odds are you’ll be given a plastic disposable cup or “kid cup.”
3. Remember that salad dressing will be brought to you in a plastic cup or pouch unless you request otherwise. You can skip the dressing, or ask for it to be poured directly on your salad. (You might want to ask for half the usual amount!)
4. They’ll bring too much stuff. Ask for just ONE condiment cup instead of TWO.
5. Go topless. Why use lids? Save the plastics!
6. Don’t take a “doggie bag” (often a Styrofoam container) unless you are really certain you will eat the leftovers. Do you really want all those extra calories anyway???
7. Tell your server that you don’t want a straw. No plastic straws!
8. Order vegetarian. Meat products are a significant contributor to global warming. Think pizza, fries, or a garden salad.
9. Bring your own napkins to avoid using paper napkins (keep cloth napkins in your car).
10. Don’t take more plastic cutlery than you need - you’re not setting the dinner table!
If it doesn’t work for you, talk to the manager. Customers have power!
Oh, and to answer my bloggy friends Gift of Green and Julie - with no Broccoli Heaven around, we went to Pizza Hut!
Popularity: 31% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Product Needs, Organic Restaurants | Wordpress Comments (5) |Broccoli Heaven
Ah, spring weekends – the time to hop in your fuel-efficient car and head out to the beach or parts unknown. But with kids in tow, you’re decidedly less footloose and fancy free than you used to be. We’ve had discussions here before about what a dilemma it is to be Organic & On the Go. Where do you find a decent place to eat off America’s highways?
This weekend, DH and I really thought we had the problem licked. A simple 2 1⁄2 hour trip and we were loaded and ready:
Organic Apples, washed, and knife – check
Organic Rice Cakes – check
Organic American Cheese – check
Organic Carrot Sticks - check
Home Made Organic Whole Wheat Bread - check
Biodynamic Cookies - check
One gallon water jug and BPA-free cups – check
Unfortunately, traffic lengthened our trip and before long we heard the incessant whine every parent dreads. The “I’m hungry!” kindergartner whine.
“Eat your rice cake,” was our response.
“No, I’m really hungry. For a real meal. Not these SNACKS. I want to go to McDonalds.”
“There are no McDonalds along this road, honey,” I responded.
“There’s only Broccoli Heaven.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a new organic fast food place where they serve broccoli. And you can get organic milk too,”I jested.
“I DON’T WANT TO GO TO BROCCOLI HEAVEN, I WANT TO GO TO MCDONALDS!”
“Well, we’re not going to McDonalds. Eat your rice cake.”
“You’re starving me!”
“Honey, we’re not starving you. Look at all this food in the car!”
“These are snacks. I want a meal at McDonalds. And besides, Broccoli Heaven doesn’t exist.”
“Really? Why do you say that?”
“Because broccoli doesn’t go to heaven.”
Boy’s got a point. Can’t argue with that.
Wonder how McDonald’s is coming along with their Organic and Eco-Friendly Happy Meals!
Happy trails!
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 30% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Product Needs, Organic Restaurants, Parenting | Wordpress Comments (2) |The $5 Loaf of Bread: Will You Keep Buying Organic Foods?
With food prices on the rise, it seems nearly everyone is reconsidering their organic purchases. And of course it’s all over the media – in Newsweek and even in local newspapers like this one. That’s one reason why OrganicMania is tracking some of the few remaining “good deals” on organic foods every Friday, and why we’re even gathering tips like these from organic grocers themselves.
I’m not the only one who has resorted to buying the ingredients to bake bread, instead of shelling out $5 a loaf. Fact is, I’ve heard from several people who have started baking their own bread. And these are busy parents who have better things to do than to bake bread! If that’s not a sign that people are changing their buying patterns, what is?
But what about those items that you can’t simply replace with home made? Will you keep buying organic?
Most people who go organic do it out of health concerns for their children. Increasingly, women go organic during pregnancy. That’s not going to change. OrganicMania’s prediction is that USDA certified organic foods targeted at pregnant women and children will continue to sell well.
And of course, the main reasons – Organics’ Four Factors – haven’t changed. Buying organic is still the best bet for people concerned about avoiding chemical pesticides, protecting the environment and farm workers, animal rights and taste.
But with home values shrinking and gas and food prices up, for most folks, something has to give. And that something will include some organic foods. But as any parent knows, we’ll sacrifice something for ourselves before we deprive our kids. OrganicMania is betting that cut-backs in organic spending will not affect foods purchased for pregnant women and children. If anything, there’s more and more focus among women on going green and organic - which will offset any cutbacks on organic food spending for pregnant women and young children.
What do you think? Have your buying habits changed recently? Leave a comment and share!
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 37% [?]
Filed under Baby, Food, Organic Prices, Organic Product Needs, Organics vs. Conventional Foods, Parenting, Pregnancy | Wordpress Comments (2) |Green and Organic Savings Friday: Organic Milk, Bread & Tea
Rising food prices are all over the news these days. I was actually afraid to set foot in the store this week, nervous about just how high prices were going. Yes, I keep thinking about how blessed I am to even have the choice of organic food vs. conventional, but it still doesn’t help when you hit the check-out line.
So let’s go back to basics, and focus on some savings opportunities with organic milk, organic bread, and organic tea.
While I’ve always loved the taste of Honest Tea iced tea, I must confess I was not buying organic tea leaves for hot tea. Until the OrganicMania interview with Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea, I considered organic tea “nice to do” but not a necessary organic expenditure. But when I asked Seth how he became so interested in organics, he explained that it was his interest in tea that led him to discover organics. It turns out that tea is one of the most pesticide-laden products out there, and in some countries, really nasty pesticides like atrazine are used on tea plantations. Did it ever occur to you that tea leaves are not rinsed off until they hit the hot water of your tea kettle? (You can read the OrganicMania interview with Honest Tea’s Seth Goldman here).
With some great savings opportunities this week, now’s a good time to make the switch to organic tea. Allegro organic tea is on sale at Whole Foods, 2 packs for $7.00, a significant savings off the regular price of $4.99 a pack. And the Mambo Sprouts coupon book, available at the customer service desk or the check-out registers, includes a coupon for 55 cents off Good Earth organic tea. With the coupon, Good Earth tea is $3.44 at Whole Foods. Good Earth looks like a really sustainable green company – in addition to being organic, the tea bags are unbleached, and the packaging is 100% recyclable with soy based inks. Plus the tea bags are not wrapped in plastic overwrap, as so many tea bags are.
Now that you can relax with a good cuppa tea, what about the kids’ lunch bags? Lots of school kids pack organic milk in their lunch bags. My son drinks regular white milk – not chocolate, not vanilla, not strawberry – but I could never find the money-saving bulk containers of Horizon white milk. Finally, at the Tenleytown, DC, Whole Foods, I found a carton of 18 Horizon organic milk boxes for $13.79 – or 76 cents per package. This is quite a savings over the 3-pack packages which sell for close to $4. More savings on organic milk? Check out this link where you can register for Stonyfield Farm coupons, including fifty cents off a half gallon of organic milk.
As for bread, who can resist home baked bread? I was indulging that weakness with the delicious breads at the Spring Mill Bread Company located in my local MOM’s. Yet with the price of a loaf of fresh baked organic oatmeal bread hitting nearly $5 a loaf, and many loaves well past the $5 mark, I decided it was time to call it quits on this little luxury. Instead, I picked up some basics – organic whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, and white organic flour. For about $1 a loaf, we now have freshly baked organic bread that is even better than the bakery’s bread. And it’s not at all hard to bake. More on that in another post!
Happy shopping! Do you have any great organic or green savings to share? Please leave a comment!
Carnival/Mr. Linky Update - Still working those darn MIS issues to get Mr. Linky working properly. Hopefully we’ll have everything ready to go next Friday to start our own mini-carnival on Green and Organic Savings!
In the meantime, OrganicMania is participating in the Festival of Frugality for the first time.
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 64% [?]
Filed under Coupons, Food, Organic Prices, Organic Product Needs, Organics, Organics vs. Conventional Foods, Product Recommendations, Savings Tips, Sustainable Packaging, Where to Buy Organics, Whole Foods | Wordpress Comments (6) |You Read it Here First: School Lunch Controversy on TV
This post about school lunch attracted the attention of a TV reporter, who came out to interview OrganicMania about the state of school lunches. You can see the results here. (Just go to the segment filmed on 8 April, 16:05 minute mark.)
At the close, the reporter notes that school officials said they will not introduce organic food because of the expense.
I don’t know of a single parent who approves of the school lunch program. Why won’t school officials consider creative ways to improve school lunch, rather than dismissing suggestions because of cost?
Here are some ideas:
- What about getting “Big Organics” companies to subsidize organic milk? Other companies subsidize their products in an effort to target a growing market, so why not engage the dairies in an attempt to get hormone-free milk in the schools?
- How about charging a subsidy on top of the organic lunch to subsidize the Free and Reduced Price Lunch Program? Parents who disapprove of the nutritional content in school lunch are already paying a premium to make lunch at home. The school system could use its purchasing power to negotiate discounts on higher quality ingredients that would match what parents are making at home. Not only would parents pay less, but they would gladly save themselves the time and trouble of making lunch at home if their children were assured of healthy, nutritious, fresh meals with organic ingredients where they count most (the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” plus milk and carrots would be a great start!)
- What about rallying behind the innovative “Farm to School” program, which connects schools with local farms to deliver farm-fresh food to the public schools?
If you live in Montgomery County, Maryland and would like to learn more about nutrition in the schools, please attend a Montgomery County Council of PTAs meeting on nutrition and physical activity, to be held April 22nd from 7 pm to 8 pm in the auditorium at the Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville. Kathy Lazor, MCPS Director of Food and Nutrition Services, will talk about nutrition issues and MCPS initiatives. (She is the official interviewed in the TV segment).
OrganicMania will report on this meeting, because the issues discussed there will be relevant not only to Montgomery County, but also to parents facing these issues in their local schools.
What do you think of school lunch? Please leave a comment and share!
And for more info, check out these older OrganicMania posts here, here and here and this great post from Expatriate’s Kitchen.
(And speaking of Expat, she’s running a great carnival at Eat.Drink.Better).
– Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Popularity: 26% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Prices, Organic Product Needs, Parenting, School lunches | Wordpress Comments (3) |McDonalds on Eco-Friendly Happy Meals
Every parent knows that being stuck on the road with a hungry kid is a dilemma. It’s so hard to find healthy fare on the road that even some Green Eco-Moms find themselves in McDonalds. More importantly, most American kids eat at McDonalds. Think of the huge environmental impact McDonalds could make by greening the Happy Meal and replacing the Cheap Plastic Crap Happy Meal toys with an eco-friendly alternative toy!
The Wall Street Journal recently published a report about McDonalds Corporate Sustainability Blog. I wasn’t familiar with McDonalds environmental initiatives, so I checked out their blog, and left a comment suggesting McDonalds could do even more for the environment by introducing organic Happy Meal selections and eco-friendly Happy Meal toys.
Take a look at McDonalds response via this link. And let me know what you think by leaving a comment below!
And by the way, their response came 13 days after I left the comment! (The date doesn’t show up on their blog, but I have it via email).
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 57% [?]
Filed under Cheap Plastic Crap, Eco-friendly toys, Food, Green Ideas & Stuff, Marketing, Organic Product Needs, Organic Restaurants, Parenting | Wordpress Comments (5) |“It’s Not Organic, But It’s Made in Vermont”
“What does that mean?” I asked DH who returned from a jaunt to Whole Foods where he was tasked with picking up some organic, fair trade chocolates.
“I don’t know! I’m in OrganicManiac Hell!,” he sighed in exasperation. “Doesn’t ‘Made in Vermont’ mean its good”?
What a brand image for the state! Kind of like “Paris fashion,” perhaps?
So I checked out the label on the Lake Champlain bunny he brought home. He’s right – it’s not organic, but there are no hydrogenated oils or corn syrup, and no preservatives.
Maybe it’s true – if it’s made in Vermont, it has to be good!
– Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Popularity: 28% [?]
Filed under Food, Holidays, Organic Product Needs, Parenting, Tips | Wordpress Comments (2) |Organic “Kid Marketing”– Feeling the Onslaught?
So long, Tony the Tiger. Hello, Peter the Probug.
I’ve posted here about how my son recognizes “Kid Marketing” at the grocery store as the hydrogenated oil and sugar-laden processed treats that are major no-nos.
Suddenly, it’s getting a lot harder to say “no” to “Kid Marketing,” because my son also recognizes the USDA Organic Seal. Now he says sweetly, “But Mama, it’s organic! It must be good for you even if it is Kid Marketing.”
And most times, he’s right…the “Organic Kid Marketing” products may still be good for him, but they often cost several times the price of conventional organics, which are already expensive enough!
I imagine that if my kid wouldn’t eat anything healthy at all, I might welcome the overtures of the organic kid marketers. But since he was doing fine with regular old organics, the organic kid marketing hype is an annoyance.
Is anyone else sharing my feelings of resentment at the onslaught of Kid Marketing at the organic grocers? It used to be that organic shops were a refuge from Tony the Tiger, Lucky the Lucky Charms Leprechaun and all the other Kid Marketing icons. I could take my son with me to the organic market, buy a carton of yogurt, some bulk oatmeal, and be done with the shopping with a minimum of fuss and whining.
But I knew I was in for it last week when my son breathlessly told me after school one day, “Katie has the coolest yogurt at lunch. I want some! It’s orange and it’s ORGANIC!”
At the organic market that afternoon, he pointed at a garish orange four-pack of Lifeway Organic Probiotic Whole Milk Kefir Cultured Milk Smoothies. That particular day, I was too tired to say no …it was after all organic and it was just yogurt.
But later I realized that I already have several large containers of biodynamic yogurt in the fridge, courtesy of our CSA. And he liked that yogurt just fine. So why was he so insistent on this yogurt?
“Well, it tastes good,” he responded.
I reminded him that we had plenty of yogurt in the fridge that tastes good.
“It’s ORANGE. My favorite color,” he announced.
“And?” I prodded.
“And it has an alien on it too!”
So I’m buying more yogurt with more packaging because my son wants orange packages with aliens? (Actually, it’s Peter the probiotic bug, according to the packaging).
Look, this story is a bit embarrassing to tell, but I know I’m not alone here…am I? Tell me, what’s been your experience with “Organic Kid Marketing.” Are you starting to feel the onslaught too?
Or is it just the products that has me down? Perhaps. Why don’t the frozen vegetables come with aliens on their bags? Works for me!
– Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Popularity: 31% [?]
Filed under Food, Marketing, Organic Product Needs, Organics | Wordpress Comments (4) |What to Buy? Organic Olive Oil?
DH’s question was ever more insistent: “Are you sure you want the organic olive oil?”
It wasn’t until I visited Whole Foods that I realized why he was asking. Organic olive oil is $12.99 a bottle versus $7.99 for the conventional, store brand 365 Everyday Value line of olive oil. At the rate we plow through olive oil (close to two bottles per month), that’s a price premium of $120 per year for organic versus conventional olive oil. And with recent price increases pushing the price of just a half gallon of organic milk to $4.19 at our local Giant grocery store, it’s important to make sure we’re spending money on the right types of organic foods.
That’s when I was reminded of a fantastic resource: the Environmental Working Group’s list of the “dirty dozen” most pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables - the ones you should always buy organic. Olives don’t even make the broader list of 43 fruits and veggies surveyed. That made my decision easy - pass on the organic olive oil and save the money for our ever increasing organic milk bill!
Check out the “dirty dozen” and the “cleanest 12″ lists here - you can download a wallet card to carry with you to the market.
– Lynn
Popularity: 37% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Prices, Organic Product Needs, Organics vs. Conventional Foods | Wordpress Comments (6) |Healthy, Organic & On the Road: A Dilemma
The holiday season really got me thinking about how to maintain a healthy, mostly organic diet while traveling. The traffic down Route I-95 reminded me that I’m not the only one with this challenge.
Sure, you can pack healthy snacks to combat hunger while on the road. But when traffic pile-ups occur, or fatigue sets in, there’s no substitute for pulling off the highway and into a restaurant. But where to go? Even those who normally avoid fast food will confess that fast food restaurants can seem like welcome outposts off a major interstate. So it’s at these roadside McDonalds, Denny’s and Pizza Huts that you will find the bewildered vegetarians and organic foodies, desperately looking for something - anything - healthy to eat. And while some of these fast food restaurants have made great strides in offering healthier options, the food is not organic or locally grown. Sometimes it doesn’t even taste fresh!
Following is a listing of the best options I’ve found for organic on-the-go eating that should be easily accessible from most major interstates. What’s been your experience? Leave a comment and share!
Panera Bread – Panera features two kids’ menu items with partial organic ingredients – a grilled organic American cheese sandwich and a “Kid’s Deli” sandwich, which is organic cheese with your choice of roast beef, ham or turkey. Both items are served with Horizon organic milk* and Stonyfield Farm squeezable organic yogurt.
Target – Yes, Tar-zhay! The in-store cafes feature a Kids organic mac n’ cheese meal, which is served with Stonyfield Farm squeezable organic yogurt and Horizon organic milk. True confessions: as our local Target overlooks busy railroad tracks, which my 5-year-old son adores, I am a frequent diner at Target. This is how I know that they are often sold out of the squeezable organic yogurt. This poses a problem when the well-meaning clerk asks if my son would like “fruit snacks” instead – as in the high fructose corn syrup, GMO variety. Of course, he would like some of this “special treat” – some GMO corn syrup and sugar to go with his organic meal! Arrggh….
Chipotle – While Chipotle does not have purely organic meals, some of its beans are organic, and its chicken and pork are sourced from non-factory farms. Chipotle also recently announced that it would serve only rBGH-free sour cream at its more than 530 restaurants. For a cool graph that shows where Chipotle’s “naturally raised” meats are available nationwide, click here.
* You may have heard of claims that Horizon milk is not truly organic. There is a controversy about the amount of time Horizon cows have access to pasture, as lawsuits allege that the cows are not being treated in accordance with organic standards. However, the suits do not allege that the cows have been treated with growth hormones or antibiotics or fed unnatural substances, as can be the case with conventional milk. Given this, Horizon organic milk is a better choice than the conventional milk available at these fast food outlets.
Popularity: 39% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Product Needs, Organic Restaurants, Organics, Product Recommendations, Tips, Where to Buy Organics | Wordpress Comments (2) |
My StumbleUpon Page
