I'm a slow learner, yet I'm learning.

So the green streak continues, and we're doing pretty well. I get excited when I go out to the garage and find that the Mr. has broken down the laundry detergent box and even taken off the little plastic handle before placing it into our paper bin. We're all on board, and that feels good--usually I'm the one who gets branded a "liberal crackpot" for my environmentalist, hippy tendencies.

I'm trying to reuse as many plastics as possible, because in our area, most of the recycling facilities only handle the milk jug/soda bottle plastic. BUT, I'm really paranoid about using some plastics for food storage, and I adamantly refuse to microwave with plastic. This has been adding up to an extra step in my soup transportation and reheating process for lunch. I've been carrying leftover soup to work in a typical plastic food storage container, then transferring that soup to a ceramic mug for heating. In the afternoon, I bring home both containers to wash in the evening. Not ideal, but not too, too, terribly laborious.

Or so I thought until my brain kicked into gear and slapped me upside the forehead with a big ol' DUH moment last week. The Mr. and Alex finished off a jar of some of our favorite hot sauce and I immediately got to work removing the label and washing the jar for storage for who-knew-what. That's when it hit me. That jar is the perfect soup container. I filled it up with soup, screwed on the lid (no leakage after three days and counting of consecutive use!), removed the lid for heating, ate the soup from the jar, rinsed, carried home, washed and repeated.

I think it bears repeating: Duh.