This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Paper or Plastic
Nov
18
2008
One of the things my wife finds odd is that I prefer wax paper over sandwich baggies for sandwiches when I pack my lunch. No one in her family ever used wax paper for that, so she was confused/surprised why I did that. That’s how my mom made bag lunches, so that’s how I do it. And since I make my own lunches, my wife has no problem buying wax paper for me.
Wax paper is better than the plastic bag thingies. First of all is cost. One roll of wax paper is $1.29, and that is for 75 square feet. I use about 1 square foot of wax paper per sandwich, so that’s about 1.7 cents per sandwich. The sandwich baggies with the zipping-and-locking-type fastener run $1.99 for 50 bags, or 4 cents per sandwich. That more than twice the cost. And sometimes the sandwich won’t fit in those, so I would have to use the quart-size bags, at 5 cents a bag.
Secondly is size. Wax paper can accommodate various size breads without much hassle. I can’t use the non-zipping sandwich bags anymore because now all the bread is shorter and wider (low-profile bread) than the traditional squarish slices. So I can’t fit my sandwich into the bags that are intended to hold sandwiches. I suppose I could cut my sandwich into pieces and arrange them to fit into the bag, but why bother? Wax paper can be cut a little longer for larger bread or shorter for smaller bread. I have found that placing my sandwich at an angle, before folding the wax paper over it, allows for better coverage of the low-profile bread.
The only category in which the zip baggies are the winner is air- and water-tightness. But I am taking my sandwich to a desk job, not white-water rafting, so I don’t care much about water-tightness. And as for air-tightness, I have noticed that the bread does get a little stale after 36 hours in wax paper. If you are making a week’s worth of sandwiches at once, then that may be a consideration for you.
And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them.
Mark 8:14
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 10:10 pm and has been carefully placed in the Food category.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:06 am
I also like wax paper to reheat items in the microwave. You can reuse the same piece for multiple plates and you never have to worry about plastic wrap melting onto your food. Plus, reheating food in plastic just concerns me, especially with all the BPA fuss. But, then again, I am using a microwave.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Plastic bags do have a wonderful non-food use: they make a good cheap watertight iPod Touch case. I had to be out in the rain for two Chelsea football games this season, and I found plastic zip bags to be perfect: they keep the iPod dry, and they still allow it to function properly (the screen can still sense my finger through the bag). (Yes, I could buy a real waterproof case for my iPod, but I don’t need it often enough to justify the expense.)
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Hmmmm. Growing up with wax paper-wrapped sandwiches had the opposite affect on me: I put everything in plastic baggies now. I never liked how my sandwich didn’t stay wrapped in my lunch bag. I do use wax paper to reheat things in the microwave, but never for my sandwiches.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Affect? Effect.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Let’s do both! Æffect.