Greening My Home, One Step at a Time…

I always try to tell people that greening your existing home doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Sure there is so much stuff to do and often times not enough resources (time/money) to fix everything in one fell swoop.

So rather than get overwhelmed, I treat this process like my workout routine, one day at a time, always striving for consistency, but definitely understanding I’m not going to get in shape or stay in shape in one day or one workout.

Here is what I did today. I got rid of of our not-stick pots and pans that had less that optimal cooking surfaces. Take a look..*

Pretty gross, huh? Well, during the past year, we have started to purchase new pans that are free of Teflon, mainly because we don’t want to eat it (Teflon, that is)! And looking at our old pots and pans, it is fairly apparent, we were doing exactly that, eating it (as well as potentially breathing in [during cooking] suspect perfluorinated chemicals used in Teflon’s production which have been associated with infertility, but have (to date) not been proven to cause cancer in humans). Not any more, here come the replacements (which we purchased one at a time)! Look at the difference.

These “newbies” (to our kitchen that is) have been working out well so far. They are (from left to right): stainless steel (a classic in any gourmet kitchen) by T-Fal, a scratch resistant ceramic-based nonstick interior from Cuisine Art’s “Green Gourmet” line (I’ve had this one for about eight months and still no scratches..), and cast iron by Lodge (a little more difficult to clean than the previous two, but I still use it all the time).

From everything I’ve read these “newbies” should grow very old in our kitchen, without scratching and without contaminating our food with Teflon. Like I said (and many before me have said), one step at a time is all it takes!

*Obviously new Teflon pans are not as bad (on the surface..) as my old ones, mainly because they are not all scratched up, but the reality is they eventually will be (scratched up, or even worse overheated **), and then what? Personally, I would rather invest in and use something that is less delicate, longer lasting, and healthy from start to finish! Now that’s green..

** Always remember to use the vent in your kitchen when cooking.

–Doug Cameron