My green smoothie recipe (sort of)

I posted this photo yesterday of a green smoothie I created that contained 5 fruits and veggies (peaches, blueberries, kale, avocado, and bananas) plus probiotics, because I used my homemade kombucha in it:

I've been doing green smoothies a lot recently to increase my antioxidant intake during cold and flu season. If I start to feel a little worn out, I try a green smoothie and quick nap during the kids' nap rather than caffeine.

I'd like to post a single green smoothie recipe but honestly, my recipe changes every time based on what I have in my refrigerator and freezer. What I'll do instead is post a list of things that are in almost every smoothie and the ingredients that vary, to give a kind of formula for green smoothies that can be altered to fit your needs.

Every smoothie:

2 cups dark, leafy greens - Usually kale, but sometimes swiss chard, spinach, or even arugula.
Yogurt - Now that my son is dairy-free, I use cultured coconut milk yogurt. Leave out the yogurt if you are using kombucha for the liquid, those don't play well together!
1/2 cup frozen bananas - I buy "day old" bananas in a bag at the grocery store, slice them up, and keep them in the freezer so I can just grab a few. Because they are frozen, they work well in lieu of ice cubes, which helps the smoothie be creamier rather than watery. I wouldn't go much above 3/4 cup of bananas because using too many can make the smoothie too thick.
1/2 - 1 cup Frozen organic berries - Berries have great antioxidants, but since they aren't available year-round, I stock up during the summer months and freeze them. Blueberries freeze the best and are most cost effective for our area.
1 cup+ unsweetened fruit juice - Since I don't use ice cubes, I have to add a liquid. Most of the time, I use apple juice because it is the most cost effective. As I've mentioned, I have used kombucha in lieu of juice but you definitely have to add honey and/or peanut butter to balance out the tart-ness of kombucha.
Food grade lemon essential oil - The original recipe I started using for my green smoothies used lemon juice, but sometimes I don't have lemon juice. I always have lemon essential oil, and it's a lot more concentrated. I usually use 2-3 drops. Again, have to leave this out if you use kombucha because that would make the smoothie way too acidic/tart.

Optional/varying ingredients:

1 scoop flax powder - for protein
honey - when I'm using a more tart green, like arugula, or when I use kombucha instead of juice, it needs sweetening
peanut butter - if I end up with too many watery or tart ingredients, I'll need peanut butter to balance out the acidity
fresh fruit - most of the time I eat fresh fruit plain!
veggies - I particularly like to add celery to a kale and apple smoothie
different juices - I've used carrot juice, kombucha, cranberry juice, orange juice...
raw ginger - or other herbs/spices, but this is the main one that I use to settle my stomach
soaked cashews - I blame Stephanie for the fact that I frequently have this raw vegan staple on hand!

Here's an example of a typical smoothie without kombucha:

1/2 cup bananas
1/2 cup yogurt (or cultured coconut milk)
2 cups kale
1 scoop flax powder
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup apple juice
3 drops lemon essential oil
1 scoop flax powder
2 tbsp honey

I have a pretty good Black & Decker blender, so I just throw everything in and blend it all at once. I usually have to blend for around 2 minutes total.

Kids love to participate in making smoothies! I unplug the blender and let my toddlers throw the ingredients into the blender container. Then we sit down with our cups and drink the smoothies. If I have leftover, I pour it into silicon popsicle molds for special "treats" later.

What are your favorite green smoothie ingredients? Anything I'm missing?

How I make kombucha

Have you heard of kombucha? It's a fermented drink made from tea and a live organism called a scoby, which is a bacteria or fungus. It sounds gross, and I'm not going to lie, it looks kinda gross too...but it tastes good! And the resulting tea is full of good bacteria (probiotics) that can help balance your stomach and strengthen your immune system.

My husband thinks I am a little crazy because this is what the scoby looks like the jar:

So while it is brewing I make sure the cloth I cover it with is long enough to hang over the edge and cover the organism.

How do I make kombucha?

1. Get a scoby and at least 1/2 a cup of the kombucha it created from someone. If you are interested in making your own and live in the Dallas area, let me know -- my scoby makes a baby each time I brew, so I should almost always have one available.

2. Brew black or green tea with at least 1/2 cup of sugar per 1/2 gallon. I have seen people say use only white, processed sugar, but I didn't know about that until after I brewed my 2nd batch and I used organic raw sugar both times. I think the white sugar keeps the possibility of contamination lower so I will use that going forward.

3. Put the tea into a glass jar and it sit out overnight to reach room temperature.

4. Wash your hands with apple cider vinegar. If you wash using traditional soap, even soap made with essential oils, the germ-killing properties of the soap can also kill the scoby!

5. Gently place the scoby into the jar and cover with a cloth or towel secured with a rubber band. You want it to get plenty of air but keep bugs out.

6. Put the jar in a warm (70 degrees or above) place out of direct sunlight. A friend of mine keeps hers in the pantry, but I have no room in my pantry and my cupboards are all colder than the rest of the house, so I keep mine on the counter because it is not in the sunlight.

7. Allow the kombucha to ferment until it reaches your desired strength or taste. It is ready when it has formed a baby scoby on top of the jar, but you can let it sit longer if you'd like.

When you are ready to drink it, you can refrigerate the kombucha if you want or drink it room temperature. I have noticed that it gets bitter fast when refrigerated, and I don't like the way it tastes, but some people do.

Things that can go wrong.
I killed my first scoby, I think because I forgot to add the sugar and tried to add it later. Either bacteria from the spoon I stirred it with or the stirring motion itself must have killed the scoby. You can tell that you have failed if your jar grows any kind of mold. Mold is NOT what you want. You will have to throw everything out and start over with clean jars and new tea. The good news is, you can compost the scoby.

I recently read an article on WebMD that claimed homemade kombucha is rather dangerous. I had actually not heard anything about this before and, as you might have noticed from my Instagram and Twitter, I have allowed my children to drink it. I do dilute what they get with water (because fermentation can create alcohol in the beverage, the equivalent to what you'd get with any fermenting fruit), so they get a very small amount. But they looooove it and ask for it. Little Lady goes so far as to try and take the jar down from the counter sometimes.

Basically, kombucha is one of those weird things that crunchy people do because it might be healthy or not. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but it's nice for now. For more info on kombucha, my fellow Green Sister Tiffany Washko posted on NatureMoms about making kombucha also.

What do you think about kombucha? Yes or no?

A relaxing day with cheese

Since going dairy-free with my son almost 4 months ago, there is one thing that I miss a lot: CHEESE.
There was a time in my life when I could not imagine living without cheese. I used to buy fancy cheese and just eat it with crackers, all day long. Oh, glorious cheese.

So when some of us Dallas Moms Blog contributors were invited by Cabot to sample some cheese recipes and relax with a little yoga at Central Market, I said YES, PLEASE!

Check out the amazing food they served us:





Since we met in the Central Market Cooking School space, we each got to make our own cheese-inspired snacks. My favorite was these little strawberry bunnies sitting on top of cheese. My kids loved them!





Then we took a little time for yoga...

Thanks to Valerie of Charmed Valerie for taking the pictures of me and Cassidy Phan, fellow Dallas Moms Blog contributor, doing our yoga moves!

We were also given some Cabot cheeses to take home as well as a cutting board and two mini cheese cleavers. And flowers from Central Market!

It was a great time of mingling and relaxing, reminding us all that being healthy doesn't have to be a huge effort. In the spirit of simplicity and health, I'm including a simple recipe from Cabot for a "Munch Bowl", which is actually a great snack to put in a reusable snack bag and take with you for a quick lift any time of the day:

Munch Bowl

Ingredients:
1/3 cup red or green grapes
1/2 ounce Cabot Mild Lactose-Free Cheddar or Monterey Jack, cubed*
Heaping tablespoon roasted almonds

Directions:
Combine in small bowl or take "to go" in a reusable snack bag.

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For more pictures of the event, check out Regan Jones' Google+ album of the Dallas #CabotRNR Event!

Un-becoming vegetarians: why meal planning is a beating

Our family of four is an insane mix of vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore. This is how it breaks down:

Me: I've been a lacto-ovo-pescatarian since 2003. I did it initially because I realized that when I ate meat, my stomach issues got much worse. When I stopped eating meat, I felt SO much better. I eat dairy, eggs, and fish but no meat from mammals.

My son, LS: Has consistently refused to eat meat or beans of any kind since he was about 9 months old. Yes, this includes hummus. And no, he has never actually tasted red meat or most beans, so it isn't a taste thing. He can somehow magically tell if there is red meat or beans in something and will not even put it in his mouth. Recently he has also stopped eating eggs, so we lost that source of protein. We also found out in the last few months that he is dairy and soy intolerant. Not allergic, but cow's dairy or soy products (including soy lecithin, which is in everything) make him sick to his stomach and cause him to have chronic diarrhea. He will, however, eat turkey hot dogs. Occasionally, since we took him off dairy and soy, I have been able to convince him to try chicken and some fish. Victory! Otherwise, he is basically vegan without the soy and beans. Thank God he's not allergic to nuts.

My daughter, LL: Eats nearly everything except soup. I can only get her to eat meat about every other day, though.

My husband: Eats everything except white things. For instance, will not eat anything that contains sour cream, yogurt, mayonaise, and completely forget Alfredo sauce. He will not eat leftovers of any kind, ever. The first time the meal is cooked is the only time he will be helping consume it. Anything that is not eaten might as well be thrown away. I have lived with the man for 7 years now and I can assure you that this is not going to change.

Let's review the things that my family will not or cannot eat:

• meat
• beans
• eggs
• dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
• soy (tofu, seitan, most Asian foods because of the soy sauce, most baked goods because of the soybean oil)
• soup
• anything with a white sauce or filling or topping
• leftovers
• fast food (well, at least we have that positive)

Do you see why meal planning is a beating for me?

What can I actually feed these people?

Lately I have been considering something along the lines of meat and veggies, actually. Which means I'll be completely disregarding myself because meat makes me feel sick. This week, with the help of Greenling and Pinterest, I cooked two separate meat dishes.

Meal #1 from Greenling meal kit - pork with roasted veggies and salad, I added the rice

The kids ate a few bites. I consumed both pork and chicken that first day. I immediately regretted it both times. Within 30 minutes of eating, the old heavy-stomach feeling of indigestion and bloating started up with my stomach. I will leave the rest to your imagination, but needless to say, my stomach is still not OK with meat.

Another disadvantage of the meat and veggies approach is that meat is expensive. We are pretty firmly committed to buying only meat that was raised responsibly -- no factory farming -- grass-fed or vegetarian-fed only, and organic whenever possible. Even going through local CSA's or buying directly from the farmer, this can be expensive, especially since we can't buy in bulk. We just don't have the storage space and only 2 of the 4 of us will even eat meat. Remember that my husband is the only person who actually consistently eats meat, and that he will only eat that first meal. Anything not eaten in that first plate is wasted. That is a LOT of waste. I would say that any time we eat meat, only about 1/3 of it is consumed. The rest is served and re-served to the meat eaters but they reject it repeatedly and it gets thrown out.

I don't have a great conclusion to this post about the challenges we're facing when it comes to meal planning and eating. I guess it's more of a venting. It's good to see the restrictions written out. I'm trying to really look at this from all angles and try to determine the best solution for our family.

Has anyone else faced these same challenges? What did you do?


NOTE: I was not compensated in any way by Greenling for any of my discussion of their products/service. They were kind enough to retweet a picture I put on Instagram and Facebook of their meal kits, but otherwise they don't really know who I am. I'm just a fan!

To Do List 2013

Happy New Year! As you might remember from previous years, I don't do "resolutions" but I stole the idea of a yearly To Do list from Jennie. Much more satisfactory. Here are mine for 2013.

1. Finally make those reusable snack bags.
   I bought some nylon fabric and coordinating cotton probably almost a year ago and still haven't attempted to sew snack bags out of it. I had some awesome Snack Taxi snack bags for years and this year they both went MIA. I am ashamed to say that I am using plastic baggies more now, and I hate it. I need to just sit down at a few naptimes and sew some seams to solve this problem.


2. Print family blog books.
   I have a woefully neglected family blog that I go and back-date-post so that my children will have some semblance of a scrapbook type thing for our family. In 2009 and 2010 I used Blog2Print to print books for the year and they turned out very nicely. All this year I have had "2011 blog book" on my To Do list. And lookee here, now I have "2011 AND 2012 blog books" on my To Do list. I really need to do this, it's ridiculous. I think the amount of editing it takes is a little intimidating.


3. Meal planning.
   I hate that this shows up every year. I hate meal planning for picky toddlers that can't have soy or dairy and won't eat meat or beans. I hate planning and planning and still going over budget and me being the only one that eats anything I cook. That is all.


4. Patch some giant holes in our walls.
   When we moved into this house over a year ago, the baby gate at the top of the stairs was installed backwards, so we had to rip it off and re-install it correctly. Then the screws fell out of the wall and we had to re-drill. What is left is a horrible, horrible mess. I need to get some fine sandpaper, some spackle, and the original paint from the walls and repaint it. What has been stopping me is 1) the idea of going to Home Depot and tracking down some moron who doesn't understand what I am looking for, and 2) digging through our 800 cans of paint in the garage to figure out which one matches the stairway.


5. Repaint other messed up paint...or do something about it.
   When we moved in last year, the painters put latex paint on top of oil-based paint in our living room, which is a big no-no. As a result, pieces have been flaking off or been rubbed off. I have no idea how to fix this, but someone should. SOMEONE.


6. Do something about the front yard.
   We have giant bushes covering up our porch and half of the bushes are dead, it looks terrible. My first impulse was to rent a chainsaw and go at that stuff but I don't think Christian was super excited about that idea. Also, whatever it is needs to be pretty much FREE.


7. Go to the dentist.
   Without dental insurance since I quit my full time job in 2011, and having moved to the suburbs away from our former dentist practice (it was just a dentist-in-a-box anyway), I actually have not had my teeth cleaned or looked at since I was pregnant with Little Lady. I really need a teeth cleaning.


8. Take Little Sir to the dentist.
   Oh geez. I am dreading this way more than going to the dentist myself. Mostly because it is bound to be super expensive to go to a pediatric dentist without insurance. I freaking hate going to doctors that I feel are unnecessary so that they can tell me or my children that "everything looks fine". And that will be $1,000, thank you very much. uuuuuggh.


9. Try again with the garden.
   I have to keep trying, I guess.

There you go, I'll do posts about any of these things that I accomplish and update you again at the end of the year! What's on your to do list for 2013?

To Do List 2012: How did I do?

Oh look, it's almost 2013! Time to look back at my To Do List from 2012 and see if I accomplished any of it.

1. Eat better.
To make this a little more measurable, I'll just say that I want to get back to eating at least 5-7 whole fruits and veggies per day.
Sort of done. I have been doing a lot better as far as cutting out the extra sugar and carbs but I'm probably still not up to 5-7 veggies a day. Mostly because I give all the fruits and veggies in the house to my kids, and there are rarely any left for me. Those things are expensive! But I am still drinking my NingXia Red, which is packed with antioxidants, so I think that helps.

2. Resume meal planning.
I did pretty good with this probably 6 months out of the year, off and on.  At one point, I got depressed about how much money we spend on groceries and stopped even trying. Then we found out that Little Sir is dairy and soy intolerant and that threw another wrench in the planning because I can't use Food On The Table or eMeals since they all contain dairy ingredients that I can't always substitute. I am currently off the wagon. This is going to show up on the 2013 list again, dang it.

3. Regular exercise.
I want to aim for 3 days a week.
Oh thank God, one that I can actually cross off the list. Thanks to becoming a Lagree Fitness instructor at Ultimate Pilates Plano, I am now in better shape than I was before the kids. I actually do have six-pack abs, not lying. I would love to take pictures but that seems really indecent for a family-friendly blog. OK, I did take pictures in the mirror once but I haven't shown anyone. However, this is not bragging because it is very hard work and continues to be very challenging. It's not like I am saying "oh look, I have magically great abs! Whee! Be jealous!". Nooooo, I write routines that are specifically heavy on moves targeting my transverse abdominal muscles and my obliques, and I do those routines for 50 minutes, at least 3 times a week. And I must mention, I teach these routines in my classes so if you want to work on your post-baby body like I did...you know where I am!

4. Attempt monetization of this blog
"Attempt monetization" is not a very measurable goal, but let's just say I'll research and apply for some ad networks and work on ways that I could increase my readership. Such as participating in blogger link-ups.
First of all, I would like to give yet another shout-out to my wonderful sponsor Tanya of Happy Feet, Healthy Body who has an Etsy shop selling handmade bath and health products that are completely free of toxins but also provide the natural healing powers of essential oils. Please consider supporting this blog by purchasing her products! She has an excellent headache remedy and an amazing lavender lip balm that I use every night. And if you are in the Dallas area, she can even arrange for local delivery rather than paying for shipping.

I feel like I have done some positive work in this direction. I have also joined up with a number of other green bloggers via The Green Sisterhood and some closed Facebook groups. I actually don't participate in a ton of link-ups, but that is because I am very picky about my topics and I don't do a lot of giveaways. I feel like I am heading in the right direction and I'm looking forward to 2013!

5. Start potty learning with my son
This is pretty much done! Now that we've addressed the stomach issues of dairy and soy intolerance and provided both negative and positive incentives (positive alone did not inspire him), he has very few pee or poop accidents. Well, thank goodness that only took about 7 months.

6. Decorate the kids' rooms
I think they look a lot less bare now. I put the animal and letter decals up in my son's room and hung his name picture and handprints, and he accumulated a number of additional toys and books to fill up some of the extra space. I put up a lovely tree decal in my daughter's room and bought some curtains. She also got a bookcase with bins like brother's and a bureau for her clothes. I am sure I could do more but there's not a ton of space. I like what we have right now!

7. Plant a garden
Hahaha, that was pretty much a failure except for the bell peppers, but there is a good reason that I didn't specify that it had to be a successful garden. I ended up getting enough bell peppers that, when chopped, fill up a plastic baggie (I know, PLASTIC, I lose my green cred yet again) in the freezer. That is a significant crop considering how small they were. But they died in the snow on Christmas Day, so that's done. Since we have such a nice raised bed setup now, I'll try again next year.

Green find: Squooshi reusable food pouches

When I saw my friend Calley post pictures of a new reusable baby food pouch on Instagram a few months ago, I practically heard angels sing! As you may or may not be aware, at least one of my children is an extremely picky eater and a) will not eat fast food or restaurant food, and b) has trouble eating his veggies. Not saying who it is. Our solution for the last 3 years has been to buy the disposable baby food pouches and carry them along whenever we go out to eat so that he has some kind of nutrition other than rolls or rice (the only other things he'll sporadically eat while out). It's also a good way to sneak in some extra quinoa protein or amaranth grain. I would wait for the pouches to go on sale at $1 apiece and buy them in bulk. I always have a stash in my pantry.

I'm sure you know where this is going...oh, the guilt over throwing away plastic pouches with big plastic lids that are never, ever going to biodegrade! I would throw them away and cringe, thinking "I am sorry, earth!". But even though I'd tried a silicone version of a reusable pouch (HORRIBLE), I could not find an alternative.

Then...Squooshi!

I am totally in love with these adorable reusable food puree pouches! What is even better is that they come in completely plastic-free packaging:

There are four adorable characters in The Animal Series and two sizes: 4 oz. and 6 oz.

Of course, the #1 question is: do they leak?
I have been using them for about 2 weeks and my answer is NO! I even put (goat) yogurt into them for our car trip over Thanksgiving and no leaking at all. The bottom is sealed by a VERY STRONG ziplock-type zipper. The trick is to make sure that you swipe away any puree from the zipping mechanism before closing. This tip is included in the insert that comes with the Squooshi pouches.

What did my kids think?

They both give Squooshi a thumbs-up!

One more item to address: yes, Squooshi pouches are made of plastic. However, at this time there is no plastic-free alternative to the not-so-disposable pouches and in my opinion these are the BEST as far as functionality for reusable options. The plastic used in these pouches is BPA-free, phthalate-free, PVC-free, and lead-free. In addition, since you will always hand-wash these pouches, they will not be exposed to the high dishwasher temperatures that could facilitate plastic chemical leaching.

For an additional viewpoint on Squooshi, surf on over to my friend Nancy's blog, Surviving and Thriving on Pennies.

If you're ready to let go of the "disposables" and take a step toward environmentally friendly nutritious snacking on the go, you can head on over to the Squooshi store and pick up some cute stocking stuffers!

NOTE: I was given the four pouches show for free in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fluffy wheat bread with a bread machine

It's been several months since Ashleigh found us a bread machine for $5 at a garage sale, and now we've transitioned to completely homemade bread. At first, I used her recipe, but then my husband started buying store bought bread on the secret. When I asked him why, he said he missed how fluffy store bread is. He just didn't love the density of wheat bread in the bread machine. So I went on a search for a lighter, fluffier wheat bread recipe.

Wheat bread is, by definition, a denser bread because the flour is ground from a more complete kernel. White bread is lighter because density (and vital nutrition!) has been removed from the grain before it was ground. So really, you can only make wheat bread so "fluffy".

I ran across this recipe for fluffier bread machine bread on AllRecipes.com. Using the comments, I made a few tweaks to it and substituted wheat flour. The trick with this bread is actually allowing the yeast to grow a little in the machine before baking. This is a big "no-no" with bread machines, typically, but in this recipe it works! I promise!

Important for cooler temperatures/climates: I made this recipe for the first time since it got cooler here in Texas (in the 60's, woo hoo!) and the yeast did not work as it did during the summer. I ruined an entire loaf. The yeast should be frothy and bubbly after 10 minutes.

Ultimately, I ended up popping the bread machine inner canister into a warm oven for a few minutes before adding the warm water/yeast and that seemed to fix the problem. My recommendation is that you do warm the inner canister of your machine if it's any cooler than 75 degrees inside your home when you are making the bread.

Fluffy Bread Machine Wheat Bread

1 cup warm water (I microwave 45 seconds)
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp yeast (I use Bread Machine Yeast)

Add warm water and honey to the bread machine and stir until honey is dissolved. Add yeast and stir a little. Close bread machine (not plugged in) and let ingredients sit for 10 minutes. Set a timer. Letting it go too long can also cause problems.

1/4 cup oil
1 cup Better For Bread flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour OR wheat flour (white will be fluffiest but that's a lot of white flour! I typically use half white and half wheat for this final cup)
1/2 tbsp sea salt

I use my white bread setting for this loaf. 2 hours and 40 minutes to light, fluffy wheat bread. Yum!

I'd love to hear if you try this recipe and how it turned out for you!

7 Quick Takes Friday #45

--- 1 ---

Haven't done one of these in a while! My first random thing is: we have been taking Little Sir to the chiropractor to investigate some tummy issues he is having that might explain why he still won't poop on the potty after being pee potty trained for around 6 months. Also, we are about to get kicked out of preschool if he can't learn.

The chiropractor has pinpointed that he seems to have a sensitivity to soy -- all soy, including soy lecithin (which is in everything) and soybean oil when used in a food. We also think he might be having trouble processing cow's milk. He's not lactose intolerant, but cow's milk and cow's milk products, especially cheese, seem to really make his tummy react. So we are going to try to go soy and dairy free for 2 weeks. This is way more difficult than I thought with him being in some kind of childcare or preschool for at least an hour up to 4 times a week. He has already been fed Goldfish (cheese) twice at church.

--- 2 ---

To try to solve this issue, yesterday we took a trip to the craft store and made this Pinterest inspired allergy bracelet for him to wear.

--- 3---

Speaking of things that Pinterest made me do, we also made these fun owl rolls last night!

I used Immaculate Baking crescent rolls which are soy and dairy free, and used soy-free dairy-free Enjoy Life chocolate chips for eyes and raw cashew halves for the beak.

--- 4 ---

Do you have any idea how many things contain some form of soy? This is disturbing considering that most soy is a GMO.

--- 5 ---

I could do a whole All The Drama On The Internets about how people suspect that Whole Foods is wavering in their support of Proposition 37 in California (a bill to label GMO's), even though their latest newsletter seems to indicate otherwise. I do hope they stand firm, since there is literally no viable alternative for me to find this depth of soy-free dairy-free products outside of Whole Foods. I can't really boycott them right now, guys. Sorry.

--- 6 ---

Another note regarding advocacy: there are a ton of great petitions and green actions going on right now within members of The Green Sisterhood, but I don't publicize them all on this blog. I know a lot of my readers are just beginning on your green journey and I am not going ask you to sign a petition protesting something every day. However, I would highly encourage you to visit the Green Sisterhood web site or Facebook page to get more in-depth information that I often provide on this blog. Also, if you ever think I'm a little overboard with my "green" lifestyle, check out those ladies -- they're way more green than me!

--- 7 ---

I got a massage at Massage Envy yesterday and found out just how much my shoulders are jacked up. Whee! All those wheelbarrow and other Pilates moves that put all the body weight on the shoulders and neck have done some serious damage, moreso even than during my pregnancies when I worked 10 hour shifts at the computer. Moral of this story: make sure you keep your shoulders away from your ears when doing Pilates, folks.

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Well that's all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.

Green my Routine: Mornings

I have been thinking for a while that I'd like to document the steps I've taken so far to "green" my daily routine. Not just how I've made our lives more eco-friendly, but how I have tried to make it healthier by avoiding trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and phthalates specifically. At the same time, I need to acknowledge where I am failing and still need to take ground. As I thought through this in my head, I realized that a post like that would be reeeally long, so I think I'll make this a regular feature called Green My Routine. If you have your own blog, feel free to join in by linking up!

Today's Green My Routine is: Mornings

Showering
For bathing, we use two options: handmade soap bars from Whole Foods (to avoid phthalates, parabens, and sodium laurel sulfates) or Kirkland Body Wash from Costco which is surprisingly also free of those things, has a great citrus smell, and is very cost effective.

For shampoo, I have a Green Fail so far. I have such a dry scalp that I've been unable to find an eco-friendly shampoo that doesn't leave me with itchiness and flaking. I'm currently trying the Hugo brand but it isn't looking any more promising. For conditioner, I use Aveda Dry Remedy Moisturizing Conditioner.

I also use hair conditioner on my legs to shave, so I don't buy shaving gel. I have another Green Fail when it comes to razors. Before kids, I removed hair using homemade body sugar, but now I don't have the time to keep up with it and I'm back to disposable razors (horrible, I know). According to Beth Terry, my best option would be to buy an old fashioned safety razor and refill the blades. I really want to do this!

Body care
After spending years and a ton of money on expensive organic and not-so-organic body lotions, I recently gave up on commercial body moisturizers and decided to try to make my own. I have been using this recipe for homemade coconut oil lotion bars to make my own solid lotion for the last few months and it works pretty well. I add some Peace and Calming essential oil blend for scent. I also have some Hugo Naturals body lotion as an option for when I'm in too much of a hurry to apply the coconut oil bar.

I've done a few posts about natural deodorant and how to use crystal deodorant, so that's what I use to control odor. I rarely wear perfume of any kind any more because it is all phthalates, phthalates, phthalates. When I do want fragrance, I use Aveda's Pure-fume which is specifically blended for me using essential oils.

Hair care
If I washed my hair, I apply a little Aveda Smooth Infusion Style Prep Smoother when it's wet. I blow dry and finish with Aveda Control Paste and, if I am doing a zig zag part, Aveda Control Force. I just realized that I am an Aveda whore. It's true. They are not paying me to talk about their products, but clearly I am addicted.

If I didn't wash my hair, I use my homemade dry shampoo. I got some free commercially made dry shampoo at BlogHer 2012 and after using it 3 times, my scalp reacted so badly that I had to invent my dry scalp mask treatment to restore the balance. What do they put in that stuff?! It can't be good!

Breakfast Food
Since my son recently exhibited a sensitivity to the organic cereal he was eating every morning, we have mostly cut cereal out of our morning food. Right now, I typically have oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins, and sometimes banana. Sometimes Christian makes steel cut oats with chia seeds in our rice maker overnight.

The kids have yogurt, which is a Green Fail because they will only eat naturally flavored yogurt (no HFCS or artificial colors or flavors, but they want it fruit flavored), which only comes in individual containers. It would be much greener if I could buy large containers and spoon it into bowls, but there is currently no brand that makes large containers of organic fruit flavored yogurt. WHY IS THIS?! What is so difficult about that?? I tried making my own yogurt but the kids absolutely hate plain yogurt. I tried flavoring plain yogurt with honey and fruit but they hated that too. Somehow they knew that it wasn't fruit flavored out of the container. I have given up. We kill the environment every day with those stupid individual containers.

In addition to the yogurt, they eat eggs from our backyard chickens and Costco. Another favorite is "honey toast", which is toasted homemade bread from my bread machine spread with coconut oil and local honey. My son would eat waffles every single day if we let him. To save money, I make my own. It was somewhat of a Green Fail for a while because I was using the Bisquick Heart Healthy mix which contains a lot of preservatives I didn't love. Still, it was the only Bisquick mix that didn't contain trans fats. Then I found this recipe for wheat waffles on Weelicious and we've been using it lately. I make a batch and freeze whatever we don't eat that day. I'm going to have to start making double batches because these kids can EAT in the mornings. We put maple syrup (cheapest at Costco) on the waffles, or even honey because conventional Aunt Jemima-type syrup from the store is made primarily of high fructose corn syrup and has artificial colors. No, thank you.

I have to admit that I do use a Keurig for my coffee. I didn't buy it, it was given to me by a family member who didn't like it. Since I am the only person in the house who drinks coffee, it's very convenient. It could be a Green Fail except that I use a reusable cartridge, which I fill with Trader Joe's Fair Trade Organic coffee, instead of K-cups. I only buy K-cups for guests, and I make sure that the coffee in the K-cups is also Fair Trade. When they finish with the K-cup, I peel off the top, dump the grounds into my compost, rip out the biodegradable paper filter, and recycle the plastic part. Hopefully that makes up for the evil of using 4-5 K-cups per month.

I could still take some ground here with breakfast. Honestly, most "green" moms don't allow their kids any sugar so the waffles and yogurt should be right out. And many consider wheat of any kind to be bad. That pretty much leaves eggs and oatmeal. I have not yet convinced my children to eat oatmeal. Yesterday my son told me, "Oatmeal is for Mommy and Daddy and LL. Oatmeal is not good for me."

How about you? Any suggestions for my Green Fail areas? Any other questions I can answer about our mornings?

Easy Cool Whip alternative

If you're as adamant about avoiding trans fats as I am, you might find you've had to give up a few things altogether. For example, I haven't made a recipe requiring Cool Whip for years, because that stuff is full of hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. Occasionally, I got a little bummed about it. Never so much as I did when it was still 90 degrees here in September but I found this amazing recipe for an iced pumpkin coffee drink!

Of course, a great alternative to Cool Whip is to whip regular whipping cream, which you buy in a carton much like you'd buy milk. You then whip it with a mixer and, if you want it to taste just like Cool Whip, you add some sugar and vanilla extract. It tastes great and avoids trans fats and HFCS. I'm not promising it's more healthy, because it contains plenty of its own natural fats and, well, you just added the sugar so you know that's in there.

The main thing that kept me from using whipped cream in lieu of Cool Whip was the inconvenience. First, just having to add that extra step of making sure I had whipping cream in my fridge (I never do, because I make desserts so rarely) often required an extra trip to the store. Then, having to whip the ENTIRE container and use it up before it went bad just never happened. And it definitely goes bad, because it is dairy and doesn't have all the preservatives in it that Cool Whip does.

At first, I researched buying a stainless steel cream whipper thingy. Those things are super cool, they use CO2 to poof up the whipping cream on-the-fly. They are also around $100 and you have to keep buying CO2 cartridges. Also, you still have to dump an entire carton of whipping cream into it and then use it up before the whipping cream goes bad. So really, it didn't solve any of my problems but it sure did look cool.

Then I thought, hey...Cool Whip is stored in the freezer and thawed when you need it -- can't I just do that with whipped cream? Duh. I have no idea why I didn't think of that sooner. I did it and it works great. It thaws well, just make sure you remember to set it out ahead of time (just like you would with Cool Whip).

So there you have it: a perfect alternative to Cool Whip's convenience with no trans fats or high fructose corn syrup.

To make: use heavy whipping cream to make whipped cream. The typical ratio from most recipe sites for whipped cream is to use 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract for every 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. Whip the cream until peaks form and then add the sugar and vanilla.

Freeze in a container with a tightly closed lid. I prefer glass because we're phasing out all-plastic containers at our house.

What will you use your whipping cream for this fall?

Green Sisterhood: All about arsenic in rice

Last week I briefly mentioned a new story about arsenic in rice, but didn't elaborate. It's a very important issue to our family, though, because we do eat a fair amount of rice. As you may or may not be aware, I've recently joined forces with some amazingly powerful green female bloggers, most of whom I met in person at BlogHer 2012 this year in NYC. We have joined together to form Green Sisterhood, a collection of green bloggers who work as a unit to create change and promote green living. One of these bloggers is Anna Hackman, who is kind enough to guest post today to give my readers more information about arsenic in rice and what we can do.

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Anna Hackman is the organizer of the Change.org arsenic in rice petition and thanks everyone who signs and gets the word out about the petition. She is also a sustainability consultant, co-founder of the Green Sisterhood, editor of Green Talk a green living and business blog, and obsessed gardener. But her most important job is being a mom of four boys.

Arsenic in rice is back in the news again. The latest report is from Consumer Reports’ study that revealed dangerous levels in both rice and products containing rice. The Consumer Reports study joins a long list of several prior studies, which includes the recent Dartmouth study. Despite all the studies, the FDA and the European Union have failed to act. This inaction prompted a petition calling on the FDA and EU to regulate arsenic in rice and by-products. We are all at risk. It is not simply a baby, gluten free or ethnic food but its byproduct is in many foods.

How did Arsenic get into rice in the first place? Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the soil. However, inorganic arsenic is found in the soils that were contaminated by arsenic based pesticides and fertilizers, industrial districts or mining areas, municipal waste, or contaminated water.

Eighty percent of the rice is grown in the US is from the south central area on lands that were previously sprayed with arsenic pesticide to reduce cotton boll weevils. In addition, arsenic laden manure has been used as fertilizer. Arsenic remains in the soil. Due to the nature of how rice is grown in flooded waters, it sucks up the arsenic from the soil.

What is the danger? According to the EPA, the ingestion of inorganic arsenic can lead to cancer of the skin, bladder, liver, and lung. There are no studies of low levels long term arsenic exposure in food; however studies relating to low level arsenic exposure in water have shown increased likelihood of diabetes 2 and poorer neuropsychological functioning.

According to Michael Harbut, M.D., chief of the environmental cancer program at Karmanos Institute in Detroit, he suspects “there is an awful lot of chronic, low-level arsenic poisoning going on that’s never properly diagnosed.”

Why should YOU be concerned? You might be thinking, “I don’t eat rice so I can’t be affected.” Not true, since many products contain rice and its by products. Look for rice flour, brown rice syrup, and simply rice in the crackers, cereal, cereal bars, baby food, gluten free food, energy bars, and energy drinks just for starters. Worse yet, babies eat a lot of rice products such as cereals and needless to say, they are more sensitive to chemicals like arsenic.

Does it affect all rice? No. However, 80% of all rice grown in the US comes from areas where inorganic arsenic is an issue. However, this takes some legwork to know which rice products are safer than others. And It doesn’t matter if you only eat organic rice since arsenic is already in the soil before rice is planted.

What can you do to reduce Arsenic level? Consumer Reports recommends certain guidelines to limit your rice intake. But simply, wash your rice first and cook it in 6 parts water to 1 part rice. Read here for more tips, different grains to source, and how agricultural changes can reduce the problem.

But we need to change regulation by urging FDA to change the standard. Sign the petition asking for regulation. We should not have to agonize over the ingredients so that we don’t exceed the daily rice limitations recommended by Consumer Reports. And please share the petition with your friends and family (ten per day) right on the petition page. You can also share on Facebook, Twitter, and email. It takes a village.

All the Drama on the Internets Episode #3

Every so often I like to give you a bulleted list of some recent "green" stories in the news and why half of the people are excited to hear about the news or study and the other half are super offended by it for some reason. DRAMA ENSUES. Almost 100% of the time, I am somewhere in the middle. I just figured that some of you might want to know what's out there and read for yourselves. Just in case you aren't already immersed in social media 24/7 like I am...

Rice found to contain arsenic - Kind of a followup to the story a while back about how brown rice syrup used in toddler formula contained arsenic - great article about arsenic in rice at that time by Anna at Green Talk. Now Consumer Reports has confirmed that there are really high levels of arsenic in both white and brown rices, and they say that we should definitely be limiting our intake. Which sucks because my kids love rice. Then CR said that well, what if you just rinse it? So I have no idea. My family is probably full of arsenic. Probably the only thing we can do is sign my friend Anna's petition to the FDA to set limits on the arsenic levels allowed in rice.

BPA connected to obesity in white children - I don't think anyone in the "green" community is surprised that BPA exposure continues to turn up more and more negative effects. What I find depressing about this study is that even after all the evidence we have about the dangers of BPA, it has still not been banned in the U.S. And there are some arguments that the replacement chemicals in lieu of BPA are even worse than BPA because they are relatively untested. Companies wishing to ingratiate themselves to green-minded consumers removed BPA but substituted pretty much any random chemical they could find in their products just so they could slap "BPA free" on the label. For myself, I get discouraged at the slow process of banning such a damaging chemical, because it makes me worry how long it is going to take to remove other dangerous chemicals like phthalates. Are we going to have to go through this 10 year process of arguing whether or not every single chemical is "dangerous enough" before we stop marinating ourselves and our children in chemicals??

EWG releases "Green Cleaning Guide" - The same non-profit organization that provides us the Skin Deep Cosmetics database finally released a guide to cleaning products that rates them based on toxicity. At first, everyone was like, "Hooray! Now we have a definitive guide!". But now, all the green folks are all, "Hey, this guide is crappy because conventional (not "green") companies are getting good scores!". I think I have mentioned before how I feel about the EWG's rating system. I actually don't agree with their assessment on many of the cosmetics products, because they tend to assign ratings to products which also get the label "not enough data to determine". If you don't have enough data, don't assign a rating! On the other hand, if a conventional company makes a product that has fewer toxins than, say, Seventh Generation -- great! I am glad! I am not going to get mad because a big company "wins". It's a win for everyone if all companies remove more toxins from their products. I'm not going to be elitist about it, I just want the freaking chemicals gone, people. On a side note, I am making more and more of my cleaning products from essential oils, vinegar, and baking soda so this guide applies to me a lot less.

There you have it, now you're up to date on everything that I know for the moment. I'm sure by the time I hit "publish" there will be all new drama, and I'll be back with another update when there is!

Organic Cage free eggs vs backyard chicken eggs

Before we got our chickens, we heard other owners of backyard chickens tell us how the eggs from their chickens were so different from the eggs they'd been buying at the store: tasted better, looked better, etc. We were maybe a little surprised to find there wasn't much difference for us, because it turns out we'd been buying {relatively} responsible eggs all along.

We were buying cage-free organic eggs from Costco. Why Costco and not a local farm? Because my kids eat 3-4 eggs per day. That is 21-28 eggs per week even without using eggs for recipes and cooking. I cannot afford $6 per dozen at local farms. Two dozen of the Costco cage-free organic eggs cost $6.99.

First, it's important to know the types of eggs you can buy at the store.

Cage-free: just means that the birds weren't in a cage. This doesn't mean they had access to the outdoors or that they were not overcrowded, just that the place in which they were contained did not have wires. It could be a barn or a warehouse or anything. And there is no certification, auditing, or established overseeing program to verify that the chickens are truly cage-free. An egg producer can put "cage-free" on the package and it can be a complete lie.

Organic: mainly specifies the type of feed the chickens were given, and that they were not given antibiotics which would have allowed them to survive infections from overcrowding. If the eggs are certified through the USDA (the ones we bought were certified), the chickens were also required to have access to the outdoors, but there is no requirement about how long they are "allowed" outside per day or even if it is daily. However, the USDA does audit and verify the conditions of facilities who are given this certification.

Our eggs also had a "Certified Humane" seal on them, a program certified by Humane Farm Animal Care. I did some research on this and had another blogger back me up -- it actually does seem to be a pretty legit program. It is third-party audited and verified.

Labels that mean pretty much nothing at all when it comes to buying eggs: vegetarian fed, natural, free range, free roaming, and cage free.

Why do those labels mean nothing? Because there is absolutely no regulation on who uses them or verification in place to prove the label is accurate.

A great source for more info on egg labeling: EggIndustry.com

When it came to the eggs we were buying from Costco, we lucked out, though!

The two Plymouth Rock hens that we have in our backyard are truly free roaming. They roam all over our yard from sun up to sun down. They put themselves to roost in their coop at night, but the door is open so they wander out again first thing in the morning. When I leave to teach Pilates at 5am, they are always up already! They scratch on the ground to eat bugs and we give them leftover green table scraps. We also feed them organic layer's mash once a day or so (sometimes every other day), because we don't seem to have enough bugs to fully satisfy their appetites. We also add oyster shell to help their eggs' shells be sturdier because we experienced a few "soft" eggs that one of our hens laid with no shell! It's the weirdest thing.

Anyway, back to the Costco eggs versus the backyard chicken eggs. Here is what the two eggs look like in a frying pan:



The egg at the top is the Costco egg, while the egg at the bottom is from our chickens.

The main difference is that with the backyard chicken egg, you can see more distinctly that there are 3 parts to the egg. I say "more distinctly" specifically because there are still 3 parts to the Costco egg -- it's just a little more difficult to see in the picture and in real life. The 3 parts merge faster with the Costco egg. This 3-egg-part phenomenon is supposed to be characteristic of a free ranging "happy" chicken.

The taste: pretty much the same. We have done this experiment again and again, always with the same results. The backyard chicken eggs usually have a little different flavor, but I think that's mainly due to whatever table scraps we've given them most recently. No matter how well the Costco chickens were treated, they probably didn't have kale and strawberry scraps in addition to their feed! :-)

Other small differences: the Costco eggs are slightly larger and the shells are much thicker. Since we started giving our chickens oyster shells, their shells have become harder but still not as hard as the Costco eggs.

Right now our chickens give us 1 egg a day each. We have 2 chickens. Our current coop can only hold the 2 of them, so we aren't in a position to buy more at this time. We do still have to buy eggs from Costco to supplement. But after doing this comparison for several months, my thought is that of all the places we could be buying affordable eggs, this is a great compromise for us when it comes to price and the humane treatment of the chickens. From what I can tell, in my unprofessional observation, Costco is doing a good job of providing responsible eggs at a good price.

Whole food workout snacks at Pilates training

As I mentioned previously in one of my 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, I'm currently training to teach at Ultimate Pilates Plano! All of us new trainers had the opportunity to do 3 days of training this weekend, working on the machines off and on the entire time. That is a LOT of working out, especially with the butt-kicking capacity of the Megaformer machine. A lot of calories I would burn! So obviously, I would need to bring snacks.

I am not a huge fan of nutrition bars because they tend to have a lot of really long unpronounceable ingredients, including corn syrups and sometimes even trans fats. I prefer to stick to ingredients I can recognize as much as possible - close to the natural state of food. I also wanted to keep the disposable packaging to a minimum, although I did have to use some plastic bags and wrap.

I thought about it all week and this is the variety of less processed snacks that I ended up putting together for a full day of working out:

Here's the breakdown:

1. OK so this is the most processed food - crackers. I needed them because I typically need some carbs in the mornings. These are whole wheat without corn syrup or hydrogenated oils. You can find crackers like this without engineered ingredients at natural food stores. If you really want to be natural, you can go with seed crackers but I have found that actually those do not fill me up enough.
2. Organic grapes and snap peas
3. Carrot slices and hummus
4. A seed, oat, and dried fruit "energy bar". I buy these at Costco, actually. All the ingredients are things you could find in your pantry.
5. Hard boiled egg
6. Little piece of cheese
7. Peanut butter oat protein balls (recipe here)
8. Honey roasted peanuts (to combine both sweet and salty!)

This variety of snacks kept me going all day long! 

What are your favorite whole food workout snacks?

My garden: more things dying and some things getting huge

I promised a garden update on Saturday, but I lied. I should stop promising to update on Saturdays, that is insanity.

Well, the kale is dead. It looked good for about a week but then just gave up, plant by plant.

The tomatoes and bell pepper plants are HUGE but producing nothing. Wha? Is that supposed to happen?

In case you cannot tell, these tomatoes come up to my nose when I'm standing next to them.

The mint and chocolate mint, and parsley and basil are GOING CRAZY. I don't even know what to do with them, they are so huge. Anybody need some mint??



The fennel...what the heck is fennel for, anyway?

There is a beet plant that is pretty darn huge-looking but I am not sure how big it actually is underneath the leaves so I am afraid to harvest it. How do I know when to harvest it?



Here is the one tiny strawberry that grew from my strawberry plants.



This post has far more questions than answers.

A less sugary PediaSure alternative

At some point, it seems like all kids turn from a baby who eats everything to a toddler who will eat very few things. Little Sir was particularly bad about this since he has never eaten meat or beans of any kind, from the very beginning of his life. I don't mean that I have never fed him meat or beans - I offer them to him constantly, even hiding them in things sometimes. But he KNOWS. He knows there is meat or beans in something and he won't touch it. It does not matter what meat or what kind of beans. To my knowledge, he has never actually tasted a bean, so how does he even know he doesn't like them?!

It was out of concern for his nutritional health that I started adding PediaSure Sidekicks to his milk a few times a day. It started some time after he had stopped formula and transitioned to cow's milk. Yes, as I have blogged before, we drink cow's milk. I lose "green" points for that, but obviously I lose even more "green" points for giving him PediaSure, which is full of sugar. I know it was full of sugar, but the guy is a little skinny fellow and hardly meeting his weight requirements. I had a newborn baby and didn't have time to figure out anything else to do.

Unfortunately, since we were using the chocolate PediaSure Sidekicks, he got very attached to what he called "brown milk". He now refuses to drink white milk. Oh, I tried. I endured several days of tantrums, and he never swallowed a drop of milk the whole time. I can't afford to let his weight drop even more, so I had to find a more natural alternative to chocolate PediaSure.

It turned out to be a 2-part solution.

Part 1 - healthy chocolate milk

Things I tried that did not work:

• chocolate syrup (worked, but had just as much or more sugar)
• cocoa powder (too bitter, didn't mix with the milk)
• Amazing Grass Kidz SuperFood Powder, Outrageous Chocolate Flavor (he hated it. HATED IT. Then I tasted it, and I didn't blame him.)
• Amazing Grass Amazing Meal, Organic Chocolate Infusion Powder (same thing, HORRIBLE stuff. Gah!)

I kept running across chocolate almond milk, but we know from our previous experimentation that it gives him diarrhea. Then I found it: Chocolate Coconut Milk! Sure, it has some added sugar but not much and it's at least organic.

Coconut itself has a ton of great health benefits, so I am feeling good about this so far. If you know of some horrible side effects...well, I guess you could tell me but I am going to be super depressed about it.

UPDATE: We do only add only a bit of coconut milk to his regular cow's milk, just enough to turn it "brown" I do this mainly to save money but also because our pediatrician told us that coconut milk doesn't have all the same nutrition that cow's milk does.

Part 2 - more nutrition, somehow

The #1 suggestion I hear from crunchy sources such as the Natural Parents Network is the green smoothie. I say, it doesn't even have to be green - any smoothie can be helpful because you can add flax powder and essential oils with antioxidants, such as Lemon Essential oil.

We've been making it fun by letting Little Sir come into the kitchen with me and stand on a little stool next to the blender (which is unplugged) while I put things into it. Then he gets to watch while I (plug the blender in and) start the blender and blend the things!

Here's a common iteration of our smoothies, although they vary almost every time:

green (kale, spinach, whatever I have)
blueberries or strawberries (frozen, from Costco)
plain yogurt
banana
celery (if I have it)
1 scoop flax seed powder
a few drops lemon essential oil or 1 tbsp lemon juice
apple juice (organic, no sugar added)
honey (optional)

He likes to put it in a little silicon cup with a straw and drink it at his table.

Sometimes, when I have greens that are on the verge of wilting, I will make a larger batch of smoothie and freeze it in these silicone popsicle molds. Then I'll ask him after naps "would you like a popsicle"? He almost always says yes and it keeps him busy for quite a while!

Have you had nutritional challenges with your toddler? Share your solutions in the comments!


*NOTE: I was not given any of these products for free, I spent my own money on all of it until I found something that worked. The links, however, are affiliate links so if you buy any of the products I get 2 cents or something. Hopefully you can learn from my experimentation and save yourself some money!

Strawberries, peaches, and grapes make me sad

It's more or less summer already here in Texas, and with the weather comes the fruit season. I just love peaches and strawberries! Of course, when these fruits are in season, they go on sale all the time. I have seen strawberries for as cheap as 2 cartons for $3! My kids absolutely love strawberries.

What depresses me the most about prices like that is: they don't matter. Those are conventional strawberries. As in, non-organic. I have mentioned before that I refer to the EWG's Dirty Dozen list and pretty strictly avoid buying non-organic in the 12 fruits and vegetables with the most toxins, especially when it comes to my kids. I am flexible when we eat out, but I do not bring non-organic versions of those top 12 into our house.

Strawberries? #3

Peaches? #4

As in, #1 is the most toxic.

So I'm stuck still paying $5-$6 per carton for organic strawberries, and $3-$4 per lb for organic peaches - exactly the same price I'd pay during the winter months. It seems organic doesn't go on sale much more than 50 cents at any time. At those prices, you can imagine how far our grocery budget goes. I can only afford to buy 2-3 containers of strawberries a month and only 2 small bags of 3-4 peaches if I can catch them on sale ($3/lb is a sale).

I usually let my kids eat all of those fruits and my husband and I do not eat any. I want them to get the most health benefits that they can while they're still growing by eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and if I can only afford that many, they will all go to my kids first.

Another annoyingly difficult food is grapes - #7 on the list. Have you seen how many bentos contain grapes? And they're such a great fruit to pack as a snack, or freeze and eat when we're at the splash park during the summer. But lately, I haven't been able to find organic grapes AT ALL. Not at Whole Foods, not at Natural Grocer, not Central Market, not even Greenling has them (Sprouts has never carried organic grapes at all)*. I have pretty much give up on them altogether. If you ever do see organic grapes at a store here in the Dallas area, please make sure you post it on my Facebook wall!

This is the time of year when I get really bitter about the state of our agricultural system. Why do we need to dump so much crap into our food?! When I was Googling the results of the EWG tests, I found that those test are done on fruit and vegetables that have already been washed. That means that strawberries and peaches have the most toxins even after being washed. Not cool, USDA, not cool.

There really isn't much of a point to this post except that I wanted to vent. I realize that there is nothing anyone can do about this situation. Dumping craptons of chemicals on the produce is a super cheap way to make a higher profit for the agric-business that own the farms that produce the crops. I get tired of going into the store and seeing how we could buy 2 tons of strawberries at Costco for the same price as a tiny container of organic, if only we were OK with cramming a bunch of toxins into our family. 

No, thanks.


*NOTE: My out of town readers might suggest a farmer's market - unfortunately, the Dallas Farmer's Market does not sell organic produce. At all. There is one farmer who tends to use a lower amount of chemicals although he is not certified organic. He does sell peaches, but only a few times a month. I haven't been able to make it down to the market during the times he's been selling lately (it's a 25 minute drive one way). The rest of the produce at the Dallas Farmer's Market is from Mexico, and it is conventionally grown. It's actually the exact same thing you'd buy in the stores. It's even labeled Del Monte and Chiquita brands. Richardson does not have a Farmer's Market at all (too small of a suburb). I have heard the McKinney Farmer's Market is awesome but I have never been there - it is a 45 minute drive for us.