7 Reasons why I love cast iron...and you should too!

When I first started caring about having a more simple, natural lifestyle, I began with the products I was putting on my body like deodorant, face wash, and lotion. I still think this is a great place to start! But the cool part about making one switch at a time, is that you just keep changing and improving your lifestyle until you branch into new areas! When I moved to school and had to collect pots and pans for the first time, I really dug into researching cookware. I had a hunch that the black coating on my frying pan (that flaked off into my pancakes) was prooooooobably not so great. And guess what? It's not! The best alternative I have found to teflon and other nonstick cookware is, by far, cast iron. (I don't intend to write an exhaustive research report on cast iron or the dangers of teflon cookware, but I'll put a few links at the bottom of this post.) Today I want to share a little bit about why I love cast iron cookware with you!

Here are the top 7 reasons why I love cast iron...

1. Cook on iron, eat iron. 
Cooking with cast iron actually adds iron to your food! This is great for anyone, but especially those who need to get more iron in their diets (women in particular tend to have this problem).

2. No toxins!
Cast iron cookware doesn't have any coating that is laden with toxins, and the material itself is safe to cook with. It is naturally non-stick, which is great since there few (if any) coatings that make a pan non-stick without including dangerous chemicals in the mix.

3. They can go in the oven.
Cookie skillets? Enough said. (Also shepherd's pie, apple oven pancakes, seared meat, fajitas, and about a bazillion other things!) But cookie skillets. For real.

4. Cost effective
The best way BY FAR to buy cast iron is second hand at a thrift store or garage sale. You can just re-season them for a fresh start (more on that in my next post on cast iron), which is also conveniently quite cheap!. I'm serious. The longer they have been around, the better they cook. Additionally, cast iron cookware regularly goes on sale, and even if it's regular price, you can easily find a skillet for around $20.

5. Durable
This is a follow up to the last point. They are nearly impossible to wreck, and you can pretty much always give them a second chance with a little re-seasoning. You can use sharp knives, metal utensils, high heat, and they will look like nothing happened (as for how the knives fare is a different story). You can take these camping, to the cottage, or even hang them up as decoration. It's a win-win.

6. You can pretend you are Rapunzel in Tangled
I don't really think this requires any further explanation.
NOTE: I rethought this statement, and I WOULD like to say that I am not suggesting that you should actually hit someone with a frying pan. I was more thinking playing movie clips on YouTube while using the frying pan and pretending you are awesome like Rapunzel. Not that that has happened at my house. OK, moving on.

7. They last forever.
This is generally a repeat of number 5. Cast iron cookware lasts FOREVER! Maybe even forever and a day. I dream of a cast iron skillet handed down from a great grandmother's farmhouse or something like that (I assume one of those farmhouses exists in my family, but I'm not actually sure). Especially if it had seen many days of bacon. Yes, they never get old, never go out of style, and you could even pass it on as a family heirloom if you were weird like me and that seemed cool.

Anyways, I feel like this post has gotten sufficiently weird and now is a good time to end. Moral of the story is, cook with cast iron.

Here are some more people with things to say about cast iron:
Dangers of Teflon Cookware - what you need to know
10 Reasons to Try Cast Iron - with a lengthy list of sources at the bottom
"Ever so humble, cast iron outshines the fancy pans" - NY Times article on cast iron
Does cooking with cast iron add iron to your food? - with links to research studies