So I popped into one of the stores I don't usually go into much anymore since jumping onto this zero waste wagon, and I was tempted. I just happened to pass the shelving unit belonging to Hostess and her comrades. Oh my. I'm not much for twinkies, but the adjoining shelves were laden with... poptarts. Oh man. Poptarts are a pleasant thing from my childhood. My mom hardly ever bought them except for on the rare occasion as a special Saturday treat because they were expensive. And furthermore, nearly every little girl sleepover I had the pleasure of attending included these 'treats' in abundance.
I wanted a box. Badly.
Talk about the worst zero waste item though- the box, the plastic inside, and the wrapper around each treat are non recyclable. Not to mention the health- or complete lack thereof- of the hydrogenated-half-plastic-itself-poptart-of-goodness.
So I suppressed the temptation but walked away with longing... and lo and behold saw this magazine near the check out:
It is full of recipes, all pretty much zero waste accessible, all organic and most items only having about 6 ingredients believe it or not, for Hostess style cupcakes, twinkies, pretzels, sauces, ice creams, mozzarella sticks, little muffins... and make your own poptarts!
I already had the ingredients for the poptarts at home, and for the filling just used my strawberry jam I made and canned back in summer, so I know that stuff is organic. The recipe I used from this magazine booklet is at the bottom of this post. Here's my made from scratch, zero waste poptarts:
My daughter helped me with the sprinkles.
They turned out not looking quite like a poptart so the true test was to put one into the toaster. AH-MAZING! Tastes just like a poptart!! Probably better! And you can freeze a whole bunch ( just wrap them in organic wax paper and then put them in a freezer safe bag). I tried the success of the frozen poptart- putting a frozen one right into the toaster to go with my morning coffee, and voila- poptart mecca. The only thing I would caution is that sometimes some of the frosting melts onto the toaster- but what great poptart or 'toaster strudel' ( the elevated competitor to the traditional poptart from days of yore) for that matter didn't leave their own residue on our childhood toasters.