Items to Make It Easier to Live Palm Oil Free

• Save me time
• Helps me shop, cook, and clean
• Keep me organized
• Give me a way to make products at home

Items to Make it Easier to Live Palm Oil Free

These are my favorite things. They have made a difference for me and perhaps can help you. Bookmark my tips to avoid palm oil as well. 

Dishpan for Baking Supplies

I bought two dishpans which I use to organize our baking supplies. You can find them at Target and Walmart and maybe the Dollar Store.

Did you know most all desserts you find in stores contain palm oil and palm oil derivatives? This is why I don’t buy premade desserts. After we learned about our son’s palm oil intolerance, we couldn’t buy pre-made confections and desserts anymore. 

Keep all of your baking ingredients in a dishpan. It’s easy to pull out when you bake.

Prior to this, my idea of baking from scratch was making boxed cake and boxed brownie mixes. I bought canned frosting. All of these contain palm oil.

So I learned to bake from scratch. At first, I had a mishmash of baking supplies. It was a stress to even make homemade pancakes. Now, I have a bin for random baking ingredients. I have another with ingredients for foods we make often, such as waffles, cakes, brownies, etc.

It’s a lot faster and easier to pull out the dishpan and have all the ingredients handy.

Belgian Waffle Maker

Buying a waffle maker was one of the best things I did. You do need room to store it which may not work for all households.

For me, it has been a great way to enjoy palm oil free waffles. Most all waffle mixes and pancake mixes in stores contain palm oil derivatives. Owning a Belgian waffle maker has been a great way for us to enjoy them at home. 

A double waffle iron doesn’t take much more room than single and makes waffles faster to make. Make palm oil free waffles at home easily.

The recipe book includes several recipes. I make these homemade chocolate chip waffles with Enjoy Life Mini Semi-Chocolate Chips. My son loves these homemade waffles. 

It’s also an easy palm oil free breakfast when we have company. I am so glad I bought the double one. It didn’t cost much more and enables me to bake them twice as fast. 

I can make the batter in 20 minutes. The batter sits for 60 minutes (with occasionally mixing). The batter makes about 12 waffles in our maker. I freeze the leftovers. They are easy to pull out for breakfast when we need them. 

Our waffle maker is: Cuisinart WAF-F20 Double Belgian Waffle Maker Stainless Steel. Remember, use pure maple syrup which won’t have Mono- & Diglycerides and other chemicals made from palm oil.

Vitamix

I use our Vitamix a lot to make smoothies. Buying frozen organic berries are economical and ensures we’ll always have them on hand.  I’ll use these berries with whatever else we have, including greens and a banana. 

In addition, we buy organic berries mixed with kale and spinach. It comes prepacked and is one of our favorite palm oil free Costco foods. We use this for when we are out of fresh spinach, spring mix, kale, etc. 

You can do so many things with a Vitamix. It really helps us make healthier foods.

There’s so much you can do with a Vitamix. I make applesauce in it as well as use it to chop onions, garlic, carrots, cauliflower, etc. It will help save you time and make it easy to eat healthier.  

One of our favorites is blending frozen bananas, organic vanilla extract, and 100% cocoa powder for chocolate “ice cream.” Before we learned to find ice cream without palm oil, we made this often. 

I also use it to make peanut butter fast.

Popcorn Popper

While you can typically find popcorn without palm oil in bags, popcorn-eating is more of a fun event when you pop it yourself. You can air pop it and then add salt, real butter, etc. for a palm oil free snack. 

Sometimes we toss in palm oil free candy such as Milk Chocolate M&Ms. Our popcorn popper is one from Hamilton Beach.

Once we melted marshmallows on the popcorn. It tasted like Rice Krispie Treats which is something my son hasn’t been able to eat with his palm oil intolerance.

Rice Krispies — like most cereals — contain Vitamin A Palmitate — a palm oil derivative. This means we can’t even make them at home. The pre-made ones in stores also contain palm oil ingredients.

See snacks without palm oil for other palm oil free ideas. When you know what you are looking for, it becomes easier to choose snacks and other foods without palm oil.

Cake Carrier Stand

I bake our own desserts because all store-bought desserts contain palm oil. The problem was when we baked cakes. We had cake pans and would leave them in the pan. They never looked as good as cakes out of the pan.

I also wanted to make 2-layer cakes with frosting for my son’s birthday. When we bought a cake carrier, it made all the difference. A cake stand with a cover would also work.

I like that ours is plastic and not glass. It’s easy for my kids to take out of the refrigerator and put it back. We wash it by hand easily.

It’s also so easy for us to bring homemade cakes with us when we visit relatives, etc. “We’ll bring dessert,” means we can bring a homemade cake that my son can actually eat.

We bought ours from Bed, Bath and Beyond. (I’m so sad this store closed!) It’s Sweet Creations 3-Piece Cake Carrier. It was less than $20.

It comes with a cake server as well. You can thread a ribbon on the bottom of it to suit whatever occasion. It really makes our cakes look nice and gives us a way to store it in the refrigerator. I absolutely love it.

Icing Spatula aka Frosting Spreader

Another thing I was happy to purchase was an icing spatula set. I ran out the morning of my son’s birthday party, the first time I was ever making a cake and homemade frosting from scratch for an event.

I bought it from Target. It’s OXO 2-piece Icing Knife Set. It comes with a small spreader and a large spreader.

They also sell icing spatulas at Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond. 

These have made all the difference with spreading our delicious frosting recipe on our cakes and cupcakes. It works much better than a knife.

Breadmaker

Our son doesn’t eat processed bread except for Dave’s Killer Bread for French toast. The bread maker helps us live without palm oil.

Owning a breadmaker makes it easier to live palm oil free. You can make bread, rolls, dough, cakes, and more.

Most store breads contain palm oil. There are a lot of chemicals in breads to make them shelf stable. Even breads “fresh baked on-site” often contain palm oil.

By baking breads at home, we don’t worry about palm oil derivatives. We make pizza dough, rolls, and loaves of bread. 

We just follow the recipes in the booklet. It’s easy and fun to make palm oil free breads from scratch. 

We owned this product before we learned about our son’s palm oil sensitivity and have baked breads dozens of times. The one we use is Oster CKSTBRTW20. 

Products Which Make it Easy to Live Palm Oil Free

Norwex cloths

It’s difficult to clean without palm oil because so many of the chemicals in cleaners contain palm oil. Using Norwex cloths means I don’t need them. 

In the kitchen, I use Norwex EnviroCloths. I have different color towels for cleaning the bathroom. I use Norwex clothes to wipe down our door handles and our cell phones.

Clean windows, counters, bathrooms and kitchens. Norwex cloths are our go-to cleaning product. It makes living without palm oil much easier.

To clean our windows, I use their EnviroCloth and Window Cloth which enables you to wash windows without spray cleaners. I also have the dust mitt for dusting. 

Using these cloths eliminates the need for cleaners. It also means I’m not using paper towels which makes it more environmentally friendly.

At some point, I hope to get the Norwex floor mopping system, EnviroWand, Optic Scarves, and their entry rugs.

In the meantime, I’m using a Swiffer floor sweeper — but not the Swiffers. I’m not sure what’s in them. I wrap a damp microfiber cloth around the Swiffer sweeper base, and use it for our floors. 

See palm oil free cleaning products. There are a few!

EcoLunchbox 

There are times we need to take food on the go. EcoLunchbox containers make it easy to do that.

We have a set of three containers from EcoLunchbox we pack for school lunches. These enable my son to bring real, whole foods easily. The containers are made from food-grade stainless steel and are leak-proof.  

Food-grade stainless steel containers in larger sizes make it easy to pack salads, leftovers, sandwiches, and more.

It’s easy to pack healthy foods when you have the right containers.

For school lunch, he brings two containers filled with fruits and some vegetables. Often I will put watermelon or pineapple in one. In the other, I will put a variety of produce. Some examples: 

• Cut apple, snap peas, and pepper
• Peeled mandarin and snow peas
• Cut up strawberries and blueberries
• Carrots and peppers

I am happy I can wash these in the dishwasher. In addition, I’m thrilled they aren’t plastic. While most of the plastic containers available now are BPA-free, etc., I still much prefer his food in stainless steel.

He doesn’t usually bring the larger one to school because he doesn’t eat sandwiches, and he doesn’t bring leftovers to school. However, we use it a lot when we are out. I’ll pack salmon or ham and lettuce with peppers. I refrigerate the metal container overnight or for at least a few hours, to get it cold, to keep the food colder longer.

We use these to pack nuts, homemade trail mix, and blueberries. They are the perfect size for condiments.

LunchBots Dips

In addition to the above containers, we also have a set of LunchBots Dips. These are perfect for our son to bring to lunch as well. They are leak-proof, lightweight, and don’t take up a lot of room in his lunch bag. They are easy to open and close. In addition, they are dishwasher safe.

They come in a set of three. Some of the things we use them for are:

• Blueberries
• Nuts
• Figs, dates

Our son doesn’t use ketchup or dressing but these are an easy way to pack ranch dressing, etc. for your child’s lunch or to bring to work.

Easy-to-use containers to pack healthy snacks and foods for when you are away from home are essential for us. They make it easy to not have to rely on restaurants and fast food.

Lotus Produce Bags

Now that we’ve been avoiding palm oil, I buy more fruits and vegetables than ever before. But we don’t want to have to use the disposable plastic produce bags from the stores.

Reduce palm oil consumption and be plastic-free when you use Lotus Produce Bags. Use them when you buy produce instead of taking plastic bags.

We try to bring Lotus Produce Bags with us when we go to the grocery store. They are mesh bags that list the tare weight on them as well. 

You can store your vegetables and fruits in them at home too. They allow for airflow which is helpful when storing produce. They are machine washable so you can use them as cheesecloth and for other purposes.

Soap Holder ~ SoapStandle

If you have access to a 3D printer, you can make one of these. If you don’t, buy something to air out your bar soap and shampoos.

You may surprised to learn how common palm oil is in self-care and personal care products. We only use bar soap because all the liquid soaps we found contained multiple palm oil derivatives.

We love using SoapStandle to extend the life of our bar soaps, shampoos & conditioners.

When you buy soap, shampoo, and conditioner in a bar or block, it has a better chance of not containing palm oil. 

The issue, however, from these blocks is that they sit in water when you are done using them. This leaves a mess — but even more importantly — it breaks down and disintegrates your soap bar. Your soap and shampoo won’t last as long when it’s sitting in water.

The SoapStandle is a small plastic that rests on your countertop. You keep your block of soap, conditioner or shampoo on it so that it can be lifted out of the water and so that air can circulate around it.

We have a SoapStandle at every sink and in every shower of our home. 

Stainless Steel Water Bottle

For sports and other activities, our son can only drink water. Once, a sports drink with a palm oil derivative made him so sick with the glycerol esters we don’t even read the ingredients on them anymore. He just knows to not have them. 

Therefore, having a water bottle is important for him at school, when we are out, on vacation, etc. Everyone in our household brings them.

Coffee Pot and Coffee Tumbler

While our son doesn’t drink coffee, the adults in our house do. Having a coffee pot means we can make our own coffee at home. In addition, having a stainless steel coffee tumbler means we can take it with us.

Many “naturally flavored” coffees — such as Vanilla Creme Brulee, Caramel, etc. — can contain palm oil derivatives. The creamers and whipped cream do as well. They are usuallly in the form of Mono- & Diglycerides.

When you make coffee at home and take it with you, you have a better chance of having less palm oil and less impact on the earth in general. 

List of Palm Oil Derivatives

This is one of the most helpful items to make it easier to live without palm oil. We are forever grateful for this list. We have a condensed version you can bookmark or print.

It’s been a game-changer for our family so we wanted to share it with you in case you or someone you know suffers from a palm oil allergy or palm oil intolerance.

This list of the ways palm oil is in foods and non-foods has helped us learn more about the ways companies use palm oil.

It’s helped us to be able to read ingredient labels to know what not to buy.

The International Palm Oil Free Certification Trademark Programme (POFCAP) has a list of palm oil derivatives which helped keep our son safe when we didn’t know all the ways palm oil was hiding in foods and non-foods.

It took me about three years of referencing this list to feel comfortable without it. It’s a great reference.

Companies continue to find ways to hide palm oil in products so we reference it often. Learn palm oil uses and products that contain it so you can learn how to avoid it. 

Palm Oil Free Aapps

We love the SpoonGuru app. While many palm oil apps note the foods that contain sustainable palm oil, SpoonGuru filters out the foods that contain it, even in the form of palm oil derivatives. 

With our son’s palm oil sensitivity, this app is helpful to verify we didn’t miss one of the hundreds of names for palm oil derivatives. When he gets older and gets a phone, it will help him as well.

Please note, we don’t rely on apps, especially because we are avoiding palm oil for health reasons. However, we use them to double-check we haven’t missed an ingredient.

Products to Make it Easier to Live Without Palm Oil

We do our best to live palm oil free. These items to make it easier to live palm oil free. Palm oil is more common in foods now because the FDA banned artificial trans fats from foods. Many companies turned to palm oil as an alternative.

Why? Palm oil is trans fat free and it is inexpensive.

Learn: What’s the problem with palm oil There are the environmental concerns with deforestation. There are consumers who avoid palm oil because they have reactions from it or other palm oil health concerns.

When you avoid palm oil, you most likely end up living a less-wasteful, healthier life overall. Remember, palm oil isn’t in fresh foods. Here are ways to use less palm oil.

Reading labels is a great start. Be loyal to companies who make products without it. See our list of products without palm oil.

If you are interested in trying to live without palm oil for environmental reasons or health reasons, choose one category of food or self-care products to focus on. Then, add another. 

Here are palm oil free lists of what our son eats and the personal care products he uses.

It’s a lot easier to live palm oil free when we have these items to help us.

While it’s certainly challenging to reduce your dependence on palm oil, there are products you can use to make it easier. They can help with making food, storing ingredients, shopping, making products last longer, cleaning, etc.  

See related: Vegan Pantry Staples Without Palm Oil

All image credits ~ Dawn Head