I thought it would be fun to do a “whats in our fridge” post here in mexico. Central America is rich and abundant in fruit and vegetables– and the prices are incredibly inexpensive compared to the states. So really, it’s pretty easy to feed a vegan family here in Mexico.

Butttt… this post will not be fancy or glamorous. In fact, some of it is downright dreadful. The amount of plastic products in the world is really crazy. And with us only being here for Β a short amount of time, we’re not really set up for the low waste lifestyle we live in the States. I didn’t even think we could bulk shop at all here. But in hindsight, I would have brought some extra bulk bags here to use. Now I know, if we plan to be anywhere for longer than a week: bring bulk bags too.

Ideally we’d live here full-time one day… and at that point we can have glass jars a plenty, but for now, we’re doing the best we can here. Though to be completely upfront: Alex and I have different view points on “the best we can for low waste.” He definitely strives to make a difference in the world, but I am about 200% more anal about it than he is. So what comes back to the house after the store can be wildly different if I go to the store vs if he goes to the store, haha.

Honestly, I see a lot of people turning to a “low waste lifestyle” and I never considered saying or claiming to be low waste— because I thought we didn’t / couldn’t count as low wasters due to our recycled products. But it turns out, recycled things are totally different in the world of low waste– they dont count apparently, haha. So technically, at home, we are low waste being 99%+ of our trash is food (pineapple peels, banana peels, avocado seeds, etc). And we compost that. Who knew? Not me apparently. Whatever, the title of being low waste vs not is irrelevant. What matters is just how much of an output you have in this world.

So yeah, we’re doing what we can here. Which means not using plastic when we can and re-using as much of the plastic that we can. After it carries our smaller bulk item products, it stores our fruit in the freezer. Andddd they’ll probably be used again to make sure things like our shampoo doesn’t spill all over our clothes when we pack. And of course we brought our large reusable grocery bags. I carry those everywhere we go. they’ve been across the world with us and back πŸ˜‰ And man oh man do they get used here in Mexico. Those little fold up bags are carrying their weight with our pineapple, guanabana, and papaya consumption πŸ˜‰

Anyway, part of me almost didn’t want to do this post because the amount of plastic in our home is horrifying for me. But at the same time, I didn’t want to not post to pretend that we’re living in some easy clean world over here. Again — we’re just people, doing our best. The upside is that at least Mexico does have a recycling program (yay!)– something that was definitely non existent in Guatemala (boo!). Β Baby steps… right?

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, haha.

What’s in our vegan fridge while traveling? Here we go!

On our counter– technically not the fridge, but I assumed you guys wanted to see all our food and not just a third of it πŸ˜‰ We always store our fruits (they go fast!) and tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Here theres pineapple, plantains, bananas, papaya, black sapote, passionfruit.
This is our current pantry situation. Β Again, not fancy. I dont think that outlet even works! We’re super lucky though, because Playa Del Carmen has not one, but at least 3 natural food stores where we can buy some luxury items to make our favorite foods.
Tamarind and dried peppers –flavor enhancers for sure! This is something I probably would have tried to not bag, but Alex did. But honestly, I’m trying to imagine getting them home without sticky tamarind in my purse or tiny pepper seeds hiding away in my bag, but I cant. He was probably right to bag these.
Rice noodles (for pad Thai),Β organic white and brown rice, and very pricey luxury items of gluten free brown rice noodles.
Peanuts (for Alex when we have pad-thai). While we have a whole cabinet for spices at home, we only have two here — oregano and cumin.
Organic tamari, organic apple cider vinegar, and “una de gato” te —you know, cats claw tea πŸ˜‰ It’s supposed to be anti viral and great for the digestion tract.
That tea again, with a half eaten chocolate bar sitting on top, coconut sugar, a bag of granola that we brought from home (for the plane ride mostly), and organic grated coconut.
Coffee of course. Though its not for me— just Alex.
Our freezer. It’s not much different from our freezer at home, except we usually have a ton of berries at home. Here we still load up on bananas and freeze a ton, frozen pineapple, and frozen guanabana. We still smoothie it up over here.
Plastic tupplewear– my nemesis. We usually store the more liquid thing in the pots and then put the dryer leftovers in the plastic.

In the fridge!

Top row: a bowl of veg– this varies depending on the meals we’re making that day. We’ve been doing daily grocery runs over here πŸ™‚ This week: zucinni, red pepper, red onion, ginger, and carrots. A leftover half cut mango, leftover rice, and I forget now what was in the pot– but probably soup or black beans.

Middle row: a tray of fruit that is better off refrigerated, leftover guanabana, bean sprouts, and a giant bag of kale.Β Β 

Bottom row: Organic arugula + basil, cabbage, avocados.
In the fruit tray (well, the baking tray that we use for fruit, haha) Β we usually have lines of mangoes for miss marlowe, and different varieties of passionfruit.
Veg drawer: celery, leeks, green onions, and radishes.

And voila! That is our current kitchen situation — It’s been really good and easy. I think our apartment is about 7 blocks from the main grocery store and the smaller fruit and veg market is just across the street. We’ve mostly been visiting the markets and then we pop into the natural store sometimes too.

Oh and not pictured! Coconut water in the door. And I typically have a tub of coconut yogurt too πŸ™‚ Alright friends! I hope you’re having a good week! We’re packing up our things today and heading out on a road trip. We’re bringing some of the dried goods with us and some fruit, but most of our fridge should be empty after todays meals πŸ™‚

I’m going to schedule all of this weeks posts today, as I don’t think we’ll have much wifi where we’re going, but we’ll see! I hope you guys are well and had a great weekend πŸ™‚ Cheers!

5 Comments

  1. Looks amazing!! Ahhh I have so much envy over all that fruit. Being that we live on a tiny blip (is that a word?) of land in the middle of the ocean, things can get pretty pricey here. The plastic situation is hard, especially when you’re traveling. I’m grateful that at least here the supermarkets take all the soft plastics back for recycling, but I’m still the weirdo with all my little cloth bags! x

  2. I love this post!! Love seeing what others buy because I’m clueless. Know a lot of this is in your What Marlowe Eats posts but it would be great to see how this stocked fridge translates into a week of meals. I am struggling to figure out how to use everything that I buy and to get through our groceries without wasting.

  3. Love your posts, this really made me realize how much plastic I use around my house.. scary! Anyways, welcome to Mexico.. oh! And it is not Central America, Mexico is actually located on North America..

  4. That was very interesting, thank you ! I especially liked the bit about plastic at the beginning.
    I think about plastic a lot these days, and because we eat meat, it’s a problem. It’s always wrapped in something, even if you buy it from the butcher. Well, food (aha) for thoughts.