This post is in partnership with MightyNest, the online retailer with a positive mission: providing the natural, organic, and non-toxic products that families seek for their homes while also giving back to schools. MightyNest is sponsoring the giveaway and provided a set of the materials to me for review.

True confessions: When MightyNest first contacted me about teaming up for a giveaway of stainless steel food storage containers, my first response was, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Don’t get me wrong: it’s not that I don’t like stainless steel. All the many reasons that glass is superior to plastic for storing food in your kitchen hold true for stainless steel: stainless is inert, dioxin, phthalate, and BPA-free, durable, reusable and overall vastly more environmentally-friendly than plastic. In addition, stainless steel is non-breakable, and hence more durable than glass or ceramic, more lightweight and portable than glass, and safe for use in the oven, on the stovetop, or even over a campfire.

Why, then, was I down on these containers? Well, stainless is not without a couple of drawbacks. One, it can’t be used in the microwave: since I work from home, Tai is the one who needs portable, leak-proof food containers for workday lunches and Picky Husband Man can be surprisingly particular about what constitutes an acceptable commuter lunch pail. I assumed (in my wifely way) that he’d be too lazy to want to transfer the contents from a stainless steel container to a microwave-safe bowl at lunchtime. Secondly, stainless is not transparent: in my never-ending battle to minimize food waste in my kitchen, non-see-through food storage containers seemed like a bad idea. Lastly, there was one more reason that had nothing to do with stainless steel in general or even these containers in particular: space.

Life in a 64-square-foot kitchen is challenging at the best of times, but, as happy as I am to have replaced the majority of my plastic food storage containers with glass, there is no denying that glass takes up more space. And space, she is at a premium here, folks. So my initial response to MightyNest was along the lines of, “I can’t fit one. more. thing. in this kitchen. Not even a thin mint.”

As it happened, life got busy, and my box of Life Without Plastic stainless steel containers shipped before I sent out my plea for No. More. Stuff. So, the containers arrived, and I unpacked them, and wouldn’t you know it? Picky Husband Man fell in love. “They’re really very nice,” he said, wistfully, looking at me like he’d just come home with a stray puppy. And, I have to admit: they are. Heavy-grade stainless steel, bomb-proof, airtight, leak-proof, clamp-down lids, stylishly minimalist design. Sizes ranging from 6 oz to 6 cups. And shiny! So shiny. But perhaps the best part? They nest.

So, the stainless steel containers, they’re here to stay. And I’ve put them through their paces: stews, salads, taco fixin’s, even a thick white bean & garlic soup over an open fire. I’m happy to report that the performance has been excellent: cold food stays cold, hot food stays warm, fresh food stays fresh, and nary a whisper of a leak. The inevitable blackening from cooking over open fire cleaned up easily with a Brillo pad, and even the burnt-on-white-bean soup came off in a jiffy. Important safety tip: soup left unstirred over an open flame will burn to the bottom of any pot. Just so you know.

GIVEAWAY RULES

You, too, can own a 5-piece set of these lovely stainless steel food containers, rated “really very nice” by Picky Husband Man. Simply click on the picture below (or follow this link) and enter via Facebook or your email address for a total of 5 possible entries. MightyNest will provide the winner with a free set of 5 Life Without Plastic stainless steel containers, one in each size, as pictured below, and will donate $100 to the school of your choice.

Giveaway closes on May 11, 2015. The winner will be contacted for a shipping address prior to any shipment of prizes. US residents only, please (sorry, rest of the world!). Good luck!

Disclosure: MightyNest provided me a set of Life Without Plastic stainless steel food containers free of charge for purposes of review, and will provide and ship one set to the giveaway winner. No further compensation was provided by MightyNest for the production of this post, and opinions remain my own.