5 Eco-Friendly Ideas for Thanksgiving Dinner

This Thanksgiving why not include Mother Nature when giving thanks and choose planet-friendly alternatives for your holiday dinner? It's easy – with just a bit of planning – and will make this day of thanks even more special. From buying locally produced, organic foods to setting the table with reusable napkins, there are plenty of eco-friendly ideas for Thanksgiving. Here are five of our favourite ways to green your Thanksgiving table.

Prepping food with natural flat wraps reduces waste and the potential for chemicals leaching into your food.

1. Plastic-free food prep. There’s no talking turkey when it comes to food and plastic. Avoid the use of plastic wrap and you'll be avoiding potentially risky chemicals leaching into your Thanksgiving dinner, not to mention reducing waste heading for the landfill. For reusable, plastic-free food prep and storage, these Flat Wrap Covers for Food tick all the boxes. Natural, non-leaching and compostable, these innovative Canadian-made covers are easily molded to wrap up fruit, vegetables, bread, cheese, bowls, platters and even your cooked turkey! They also make a useful and unique hostess gift.

2. Add eco-chic colour to your table. Add a splash of colour to your Thanksgiving table with these stainless steel dishes hand painted by Kashmiri craftspeople. These beautiful cups and bowls are non-leaching and unbreakable – perfect for some festive eco-chic decor and ideal for withstanding any potential damage done at the kids’ table!

3. Nature makes for easy, elegant eco-friendly decor. Decorate your table and beyond with colourful fall leaves, branches and nuts. Go chestnut picking and fill tall vases and glasses with these richly hued autumn gems for seasonal accents on the dining table, mantle and throughout your dining and living room. For warm ambiance, place a candle inside the vase first and chestnuts around and up about a third of the candle's height.  For eco-friendly place cards, write guests' names on leaves or stones with a felt tip pen. A gold metallic pen works well on yellow/green leaves and silver is ideal on dark grey stones. You can even have a few extras on hand and ask guests to write down what they're thankful for, then place these thanking stones on display in the centre of the table.

4. Leftover layaway plan. Plan for leftovers and avoid unnecessary food waste. Storing them in stainless steel is a smart choice, not just for the planet but for you too. Stainless steel is highly durable so any stainless steel food storage containers you use, will probably outlast you. Stainless steel is also non-leaching, so there's never any worry about nasty chemicals leaching into your leftovers, whether wet or dry. This sleek trio of leak proof, square stainless steel nesting containers is long on practicality and short on taking up storage space. For smaller quantities of food, perhaps cranberry sauce, try these round leak proof steel containers and if leakage is less important, the Lunchbots eco food container with a steel lid is ideal.

5. Be sure to use your leftovers. Sometimes the best laid plans... Keeping leftovers doesn't always translate into eating leftovers and trust us, the result can turn out to be something akin to a science experiment. Keep an eye out now for recipes you want to try. With them on hand, you'll be more likely to use your Thanksgiving dinner leftovers post-holiday. For starters, check out this collection of 5 Must-Try Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Recipes.

Top 3 Eco-Friendly Ways to Store Thanksgiving Leftovers

Cranberries and pumpkin filling are front and centre in the grocery stores which means Thanksgiving isn't far off. Much time is spent planning and cooking our spectacular turkey meals, but what about post-feast? Historically, we've not given this aspect of Thanksgiving dinner too much thought until lately, when we've started considering the downside of storing food in potentially toxic plastic containers, using oodles of disposable plastic wrap and far-from-eco-friendly tin foil. This year, why not try a few reusable eco-friendly food storage alternatives? Instead of covering bowls with plastic wrap or foil during food prep, try these flat wrap covers for food. Made of beeswax, tree resin and jojoba oil infused in a washable hemp/cotton fabric, these innovative compostable covers are ideal for wrapping vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese, bowls and platters. Glass containers are one of our favourites for leftovers. Not only is glass 100% recyclable, non-leaching and easy to clean, but you can actually see what's inside - and the state it's in. These smaller glass cube containers with leak proof locking lids are a great option for small quantities. Finally, for durability you can't beat stainless steel food storage containers. These too are non-leaching, recyclable and they'll probably outlast you!

Natural Flat Wrap Covers for Food are a great alternative to disposable plastic wrap.

Super Easy Cool Berry Snack for Summer

Finally we're enjoying some sunny summer daze in Vancouver and naturally with the sun, comes the warmth – something us west coasters aren't entirely used to! Pretty much by accident, we stumbled across a healthy cool treat to beat the heat and keep the kids happy. It's simple and maybe you've discovered it, but we thought we'd share it: throw some fruit in the freezer. We were worried about our meager crop of fresh homegrown raspberries going off, so put them (along with a few strawberries) in the freezer, in the stainless steel Lunchbots container we picked them in a few days ago. (Stainless steel is great for freezer storage.) This weekend we came across the container and as it was hot, passed them around to the kids. Have you ever popped a frozen raspberry in your mouth? Yum, to say the least. The outer bit melts right away for a zingy raspberry taste while the centre stays frozen for a cool treat. The kids loved them. Try it yourself with raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or pretty much any fruit you can lay your hands on and at this time of year, there's plenty to choose from. Enjoy!

Freeze berries for an easy icy treat to help you keep cool in the summer heat.

Kids love these tasty all natural frozen treats.

Stainless Steel Stackers are Sick

Some people say their food doesn't taste the same in stainless steel. We say, if you're looking for durability without toxicity, stainless steel is a great option for food storage on the go or in the fridge. American company Kids Konserve have introduced two new colourways for their leak proof stainless steel nesting trio containers and we couldn't be happier. Now in addition to the Moss three-pack with BPA-free lids in neutral orange and green, you can choose more feminine-coloured Sky lids of pastel pink, yellow and blue or a more boy-themed Ocean pack featuring red, blue-grey and green lids. These new colours are great for kids keen on 'cool' -- or as we've been told by our eight year-old, 'sick' -- colours with shall we say, discerning taste. Made of high quality 304 grade stainless steel, the containers themselves are fantastic not only because they fit inside one another for easy storage but because the lids, while easy enough to get off and on, are leak proof. For more details, click here.