Cheap Green Tip 3: No More Corn Syrup

I love to cook. Love it, love it. I bake my own bread. I freeze meals made ahead of time. I insist my kids at least try the arugula pesto, which they love.

But I've also been known to give my girls cereal for dinner. I love the planet and all, but seriously, I'm not giving up Cheerios.

Prepackaged food is hugely wasteful. It's more expensive then the home-made counterparts, uses unnecessary packaging and has unpronounceable additives.

Here’s a little trick that'll let you have it both ways: Get rid of high fructose corn syrup.

Food companies add this sweetener, thought to be a key source of the obesity epidemic, in everything from bread to yogurt. Banning it in your household still allows for some kid-friendly foods like Triscuit crackers, only-fruit jams and applesauce.

Jarred spaghetti sauce, which almost always contains high fructose corn syrup, doesn’t make sense when the simple concoction of canned tomatoes, garlic and olive oil tastes infinitely better, is cheaper and doesn’t have a bunch of mystery ingredients.

Tip: Save the containers from food you buy (like Parmesan cheese and cream cheese tubs, and yeah, I like cheese) to use as snack containers. This cuts down on additional waste from plastic baggies.