Two little questions for you:
1. Why are we so obsessed with snack foods? Convenience foods? And foods we can eat on the go?
2. Why can’t we take the time to sit down and eat a proper meal, thus reducing our need for quickity quick snacks?

While you ponder those queries, I will move on to my next point on the subject, What defines a snack food? Something sweet? Salty? Transportable? I think in order for eating on the go to be health supportive and also convenient, we need to change our thinking around what a snack food is. It doesn’t have to be a fruit wrapped in a peel or bullet shaped carrots. Invest in some reliable seal-able jars/containers, maybe a plastic bag for insurance and you are golden. Another thing to think about when dreaming up snack food ideas is to think about what you would take on a picnic. That is transportable yes? And even better, can likely be packaged in something you already own that doesn’t need to be thrown out after use.

You might also like to think about getting in the habit of carrying a spoon, fork and cloth napkin in your purse.

Here is a list of what I think are perfectly appropriate purse snacks (you just might need a healthy sized purse).

Meghan Telpner is a certified nutritionist and holistic lifestyle consultant with a private practice in downtown Toronto offering an array of nutritional and lifestyle services including group cooking classes to corporate programs and personal consultations. Eell recognized in Toronto for her colourful presence, with her bicycle covered in flowers and a flag on the back boasting the phrase, “Feel Good? Feel Great!”, Meghan uses her humour and passion to inspires people to start living their healthy dreams while her enthusiasm, charisma, and dynamism are truly motivating. More at www.meghantelpner.com

I wanted to share a recent experience I had with bringing my own take out containers to a restaurant. First, I should say that I live in an area where the idea of recycling is still somewhat new to some people and getting some people on board, is well, let’s just say a challenge. Knowing that we were going out to eat one night, I packed up some containers and off we headed to the restaurant to meet some friends. After enjoying a great meal, I brought out my own containers and wrapped up the food, which was to be lunch the next day. The best part about it is I could just leave it in that container and take it to work! The waitress seemed a bit confused but didn’t say anything about the meals my husband and I had packed up. Our friends did get their meals wrapped to go and their food came back packaged in a Styrofoam container and a plastic bag for each of their meals. The waitress also brought two plastic bags for our reusable takeout containers. It took some convincing and explaining but finally she realized that we didn’t want our containers in the plastic bags.

The key point we can take away from this experience is education and spreading the word to others. The useless waste of take out containers and plastic bags is out of control. Sure, it’s convenient, but convenience like this didn’t exist a hundred years ago, and that’s why landfill space is getting so crowded. In our busy, day to day activities, we almost never stop to realize the impact of what we are doing. While some people don’t understand the importance of preserving the world around us, others simply don’t know. It’s our job to start educating those people! The TakeOutWithOut website has been forwarded to all of my friends, family, customers and co-workers. This is an exciting idea and I am looking forward to encouraging more restaurants to participate. I think some people will be highly motivated to bring their own takeout containers if it means saving a few bucks, especially in this economy (be sure to check out the participating restaurants page on the TakeOutWithout website to see what I’m talking about).

Danielle Nihill is a Founding Consultant at Chartreuse Products (http://www.thegreenerearth.com) selling affordable reusable, organic, earth friendly products. She also blogs (http://ecogreenbags.blogspot.com) about current green issues and ways people can add a little green to their life!

There are times I don’t recycle when I could, I drive an SUV daily, and I sometimes feel like as a family of three, we make more garbage than we should. I want to be more conscious about my habits and I think about it a lot. But we all know thinking about something and taking action on it are very different things.

So I decided to start small, hoping that would up the chance for success. For a week we wouldn’t have any takeout – no coffees to go in paper cups, no lunch sandwiches packaged in Styrofoam, and no springs rolls and green curry delivered to our door in enough packaging to nearly fill our kitchen garbage. I planned a week of meals, went to the grocery store, and washed out my reusable coffee mugs. I broke the news to my husband, who really looks forward to his weekly Thai delivery, and got busy in the kitchen making our first dinner.

Truth be told, we didn’t suffer much this week without the ‘convenience’ of takeout coffee and food. We typically have one or two takeout dinners per week, so it wasn’t so much of a change I suppose. But the coffee thing was another story. I was so proud of myself for remembering my mug…except the day I ordered an afternoon café misto and realized half a block later it was in a takeout cup. It’s all about progress, not perfection!

All in all I figure we saved about $150 this week and at least a kitchen bag of garbage. Not bad for a small start! We just might have to keep this going…

Karma is a mom, wife, and writer who will hopefully never drink another coffee in a paper cup! www.sheshavingourbaby.blogspot.com