Kitchen Cleaner Series: Buying Produce and Washing It

A produce box from last summer

Whether you get your produce from a store or delivered to your door from the farm (like me!), it needs a wash!! At some point, it was growing, out of the ground, next to bugs and dirt, and goodness knows what else!!

Produce from the Store
If you don't have the privilege of shopping at a Farmer's Market or getting your produce in a CSA box of some sort, then, I'm sorry. Truly fresh produce is amazing, period. But, you have to live with what you have, right? Anyways, if you buy your produce at the store, I highly suggest organics. According to the EWG, two-thirds of produce samples recently tested by the government had pesticide residue in them!! AHHHHH!! Their full report explains that children are more susceptible to the toxins in pesticides, which have been linked to "pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems." Adults can suffer from similar problems, especially with prolonged exposure.  What can you do?

Sugar-Free Oatmeal Banana Muffins

At my house, we love muffins!! Recently, I've been hunting for tasty sugar-free muffin recipes, and I found one that I've adapted here from the Spokane Dinner Club. Why sugar free? None of us need the sugar in our muffins, especially my little one. Additionally, several of our friends and family members have been dealing with candida (yeast infection in the mouth/throat) which is spurred by sugar, so I want to cook stuff they can eat, plus cook food that isn't going to encourage this condition in myself or my family. These muffins are delicious, even without sugar! My picky little 20 month-old loves them!!

Peanut Butter Cups: Justin's vs. Unreal

I LOVE chocolate and peanut butter together. It's definitely my food weakness and constant craving. However, trying to eat more healthy makes it hard to justify eating a Reese's. Enter my new finds: less junky chocolate peanut butter cups! 

Packing Appeal

Justin's: Classic packaging for this brand. I love the use of different fonts. Advertising 80 calories per cup in the top corner is eye-catching. Slightly boring packaging though.

Unreal: The brand title is rather ironic because the ingredients are more real than that of other candies but the flavor is "unreal." I love their slogan: "Candy Unjunked." It's simple and say's it all; that hooked me. The black with bright, big yellow letters is very eye-catching. These were on the top shelf at Target, and I only saw them because of the letters.

Label/Ingredients Comparison

Justin's Fewer ingredients than Unreal and more recognizable. 80 calories per cup with 50 from fat. All organic ingredients, including dark chocolate.

Unreal: More sweeteners, but also only 80 calories per  up with only 45 from fat. Make with milk chocolate instead of dark and some organic ingredients.

Taste Test

Justin's: Stronger chocolate flavor than the peanut butter. Dark chocolate to-die-for! Mix the quality of the chocolate and the organic peanut butter, and it's heaven in your mouth! I definitely like these more, but would still eat the other if offered to me. If you don't like dark chocolate, then stick with the Unreal cups instead.

Unreal: Strong peanut butter flavor. Smooth chocolate, but I would like to taste the chocolate more. Definitely tastes better than Reese's because those taste like they've been in packaging for years. These taste pretty fresh.

Price Comparison

Justin's: $10 for a box of 28 at Costco or 28 cents each

Unreal: $4 for a bag of 12 at Target or 30 cents each

These are roughly the same price, but I would get Justin's hands-down since they're actually cheaper and my preference.

Costco Haul 9.4 and 9.6.13

I'm not sure what's going on at your Costco, but mine has gotten on the organic band-wagon. I ended up going twice this week because there were a few items I really needed and couldn't wait until the sales started on Thursday. I ended up spending $227 between the two trips, but wait until you see what I got! BTW, I'm so in love with my new Costco. I think I told you that already though. My old Costco had none of this stuff, but they did have Victoria's Marinara Sauce. Anyways, here's my haul for this week:

Organic Kale and White Bean Ravioli 2-pack for $11 (normally) but it was on sale for $8.60: This was delicious!! We had one package last night. It has a bit of a spice to it that you don't notice until you're a few bites in to it. I mixed a bit of alredo and mainara sauce to put over it. There was plenty in one package for three adults. We both had seven raviolis and there were six left over.

Strawberry C Monster Odwalla Smoothies double-pack on sale for $4: My husband loves Odwalla drinks and with the beginning of school he's been feeling slightly under the weather, so I decided to get him these delicious smoothie drinks to give him an extra boost of vitamin C, among other things. Each one is 32 ounces which is four servings of 100% of your vitamin C needs for the day. It has strawberries, oranges, grapes, and apples in it along with a little sugar, and that's it!

Organic Artisan Rosemary bread 2-pack for $5: I got this once before already, and it is tasty! We love rosemary, and this bread features it nicely. I like that this is not already baked when you get it. It bakes for 8-10 minutes, and then there's fresh bread!! It also freezes well since they suck the air out of the packaging.

Alpine Valley Honey Wheat and Flaxseed bread 2-pack for $6.89: This is a little expensive for everyday bread, but since we're getting a produce box every week, we're eating less sandwiches and more salad, so this lasts longer. Additionally, this bread is on sale (now) this month for like $4-something. What I love about it is minimal ingredients with flaxseed, and it's sweetened with honey instead of some kind of sugar.

Justin's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups: 28 cups for $10 and 80 calories per cup. Also organic and made with Rainforest Alliance-Certified cocoa. I'm actually about to try these and will write a detailed post comparing these to another less-junky peanut butter cup I found at Target, so stay tuned for that!

I also got two dozen organic eggs and the Quaker Oats box of oatmeal during my first trip this week.

Here's a picture from my second trip to Costco this week:

Happy Squeeze food pouches are on sale! One dozen for only $7!! They were already cheap at only $10 per box, but this month they're $7 per box, so I got 20 boxes, yes, 20. My son loves these, they're cheap and good for him. I got 10 boxes of each flavor.

Honest Juice pouches on sale for $7 for 32 pouches! There's no sweetener in these drinks, just pure, organic juice concentrate. Good for *kids* of any age!

Seeds of Change Quinoa and Brown Rice 6-pack on sale for $8.10! I haven't tried this before, but I figured it would be tasty. There's garlic and other spices added to it, and it cooks quickly in the microwave or stovetop.

Nature Valley Pumpkin Flax Granoloa for $5.20 per box! I got this last month at Costco to try it out, and we both loved it, so I got a double-dose since it's on sale this month.

Last thing I got this week was this chicken on sale for $10. It's hard to keep cooked chicken available for little one, so this is a great option. Plus we can add it to our salads for lunch or dinner when we're in a pinch or need a little more substance.

I'm not sure if this Costco is a test site for organic foods or not, but everything organic is in stock and on sale there this month. Go check out your Costco for these tasty, healthy items! Let me know what your favorite finds are too!

Costco Haul at my new location

**Disclaimer: I wrote this post a couple weeks ago and thought I had already posted it. Apparently not.**

I have been to Costco 3-4 times since moving here; I have only been here three weeks, too! Costco is about two minutes away from where we're currently living, which is part of it. Anyways, I was impressed by the tasty and organic offerings the first time I went, but the organic section multiplied recently! This Costco has a green label for everything organic so you can easily scan for organic options. In addition to the organic chicken and baby carrots I have gotten before, this Costco also has organic grass-fed beef, which I have yet to get, but certainly will soon. This week there were several different types of organic greens, broccoli, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Here's what else I got this week:

Organic raspberries for around $4

Annie's organic mac and cheese; 15 boxes for $15

12 baby food pouches for $10

Giant bag of gluten free organic pasta for $7

Organic chicken for around $20

Sterling Chardonnay for $9

For comparison sake, a dozen organic baby food pouches on Amazon run $14-18. I purchased two boxes of Annie's organic mac and cheese on sale at Target recently for $2 each. I'm hoping the little guy likes cheesy pasta as much as he likes cheese!

If you want your Costco to carry stuff like this, put in your request and ask your friend to also. If your Costco doesn't carry Victoria's marinara sauce, request it!! It's the best sauce in a jar, anywhere! Seriously, you have to try it; it's make of like six ingredients, which is why it's so delicious.

Our First Produce Delivery Box

When I lived in Orange County, I never ended up subscribing to a produce delivery box because they all required me to pick it up farther away then I wanted to travel and/or I had no choice over what I would get. Since we moved to the Central Valley of California, the heart of agriculture in the US, I figured I could find something I would be happy with. Within a couple weeks of moving, I did a Google search for "produce box delivery [city I live in]" and found The Farmer in the Dale.

We received our first box of produce on Monday:

I particularly like this produce delivery company because much of their produce is organic, and it's local, of course. I got all this for just $20! One head of organic Romaine lettuce, three organic summer squashes, two bunches of organic carrots, three of the most beautiful organic broccoli bunches, Yukon Gold potatoes, and a bunch of white nectarines. 

We have tried everything except the potatoes so far, and we're pleased with all of it. It tastes great! The lettuce is a little wilty because it's so HOT here, but it tastes wonderful still.

If you haven't tried a produce delivery box before, I highly recommend it! Do a Google search like I did, and I'm sure you could find something, or ask around. It's much fresher than most produce found in grocery stores and it supports local farms. Check it out!

Garden update after moving

I brought five plants with me when we moved: basil, Romaine lettuce, green bell pepper, zucchini, and squash. The zucchini and squash seem to be slowly withering, while the others are thriving.

Anyone have any suggestions for the squash and zucchini? I took off the dead stuff yesterday and shook out the leaves, carefully. I also rinsed the leaves down on the top and backsides. I'm afraid they really might just need more space, but I can't plant them yet, unless our homebuilder would let me... The basil looks a little withered in the picture, but it just got water, so it was thirsty.

Garden Update Week #4

My plants have been growing so well!! Here's my lettuce:

The original lettuce is growing tall, and the one in the pot is growing fabulously. I don't think the others are getting enough sun. Here's my zucchini:

It's had four blooms on it, so I'm very excited for the fruit it will give us! Here's the squash:

A couple weekends ago I replanted the squash and zucchini into five-gallon metal paint buckets, and since then the squash has taken off! It looks like it will flower soon. I love the metal paint buckets because they look cute and they were under $3 each! My husband just punched three holes in the bottom of each one with a hammer and a screwdriver. Why buckets? We're moving soon, and I really wanted to take my plants with me. When I re-planted, I added a little 10-10-10 fertilizer, as suggested by Omar, and fertilized the rest of the plants in the yard also.

When I re-planted a couple weekends ago, I also planted green bell pepper seeds. I have kept it in the house though in a bay window in the dining room. Finally, this week I noticed a tiny green sprout!

I also grow green onions in clear jars in the bay window. All you have to do is change the water each day. I had no luck growing them from seeds in the yard.

A couple weekends ago, I also bought a large sweet basil plant and re-planted it in a metal bucket too. I have yet to take the time to use it in any of my cooking, but I have plans to make my own pesto in the future. In fact, I recently pinned a recipe for pesto to my Pinterest recipes. Check it out!

Lastly, here are a couple roses that bloomed recently. They're so beautiful, I had to share!

Garden Update: Week 2

My lettuce sprouts have been growing magnificently!

This week I harvested about six more leaves from the lettuce that's already been growing awhile. It seems to be growing more and more healthy.

My zucchini is looking fabulous! It has grown a lot this past week.

However, the squash isn't growing as well. I was told that maybe the roots are getting wrapped around each other, and I may have to pull it out and take care of that.

What are you growing? What do you suggest I grow that's easy and doesn't need full sun all day?

First Garden Update!

So sorry it's been awhile since I posted! Craziness! I do work part-time, care for my child full-time, and help with all the household chores, so blogging becomes a last priority quite often. This past Saturday, I planted a new batch of Romaine lettuce seeds, and to my astonishment, I already noticed green seedlings popping up!! I'm so excited!! Here's a look at my garden:

Can you see the little green sprouts?! I planted some in a pot and others in the ground, for comparison.

Thank you, Suzy for starting this squash plant for me!!

And again, I thank Suzy for starting this plant for me!!

The following two photos are of my first lettuce seeds planted. I planted them in mid-February and have already harvested from the plant a couple times. I was having serious problems with rolly-pollies eating my lettuce, but I found a solution! I was in Lowe's looking at bug killers, and one of them said "contains Lemongrass: a natural insecticide." So I thought, "What if I just use Lemongrass essential oil mixed in water as my bug killer?" So, that's what I've done, and it works! I barely ever have bite marks out of my lettuce now!!

 

I also have rosemary, but I just cut it back a ton because it got scorched by the recent heat wave. There's still green on it, so I'm hopeful it will grow back nicely again as long as it's watered well. Additionally, I'm growing green onions, but not on the patio. More on that in another post though.

What's in your garden? Or do you have aspirations to grow a garden? 

Costco Trip 4.12.13

I didn't get a lot at Costco this week, but I did get a few wonderful items that I wanted to share.

From left to right,
100% Whole Wheat Bread from Oroweat: I like this bread because the slices and loaves are big, it freezes well, and stays moist. It does have added sugar, and I would prefer bread sweetened with honey, but at least it's not high fructose corn syrup like most breads. I also like Trader Joe's Sweetened with Honey Whole Wheat Bread, but the slices are smaller and it's drier. It is a little cheaper though. Overall, this bread is pretty good option.

Mary's Gone Crackers: These are organic, gluten free, and contain great ingredients like quinoa. I actually haven't tried them before, but Mama Natural raved about them on one of her videos as a favorite snack. These are on SALE right now for a few more weeks for only $5 per box! Normally $7.50. What a steal!!

Shredded 4-Cheese Blend: My Costco doesn't have organic cheeses, unfortunately, but I love cheese and lots of it :) I probably should eat less. They just started carrying this in two smaller bags, which is nice for storage purposes. I put a little of this on my salad, and we put it on burgers and crackers this way too. I did the price comparison to the same amount of cheese as a block at Costco, and it was about the same price, so since it's easier to deal with shredded, that's all I get now.

2 Dozen Organic Eggs: The price on these organic eggs is incredible. I love making veggie breakfast burritos for dinner with eggs; I just pull out all the veggies in the fridge, cut up a little of each, and throw them in the pan while I'm scrambling the eggs. Delicious! I also found this fabulous Avocado Egg Salad recipe recently, so I've made that a couple times when we got eggs.

Sweet Kale Vegetable Salad with 7 Superfoods: This has kale, some collards, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and some other tasty stuff. It also comes with dressing. We tried this last night and devoured it. We actually used some of the dressing we use for our normal salads instead of the poppy seed dressing this time. I'm a little hesitant to try different dressings because many contain vinegar which I'm not a fan of. This is great for when you want a salad but you're tired and/or it's late, so you don't want to fix your salad.

Chef's Knife: This knife that comes with a lifetime warranty and was only $40! It cuts beautifully and easily. This was from a road show going on at my Costco currently. Look for them at yours soon!

Peaches: Three pounds of organic frozen peaches! I'm making baby food for my 8.5 month-old son these days, and he loves his fruit. I haven't seen fresh or frozen peaches at Sprouts, so I grabbed this bag, which should last awhile. It's great too because I don't have to worry about them going bad or freezing them myself, and I can throw them in the blender frozen.

I also saw a 36-pack of microfiber towels for $15.50! I wish I would have seen those before I ordered a package off Amazon...oh well. If you're looking for towels to dust with and clean up wet messes, pick up a package for yourself.

What are your favorite Costco finds?

Food Storage

Last night I wanted to steam some foods for my 7.5 month-old to try this week, but I knew they wouldn't keep all week, or even for several. So, how do I steam foods for my baby to try without wasting the extra?? I will eat some of the steamed foods, but I don't need to steam my pears to eat them!! Ick! Like anyone in a situation like mine, I did a Google search for "freeze sweet potatoes." And I stumbled across this amazing website called Still Tasty.

That's a snapshot of it just to give you an idea of what's there. Well, I did learn that I can freeze sweet potatoes and pears after steaming them. I think I'm just going to eat the leftover pear that's not steamed though. The sweet potatoes can be frozen and kept for up to a year in an airtight container or bag.

This site is user-friendly with helpful charts and easy-to-use, concise instructions. The "Keep It or Toss It?" section of the site is an alphabetical index of the information I've been describing, or you can search the site for a food you want to know about. Additionally, each food is broken down by whether it's raw or cooked. Below is an example of the storage information for fresh and cooked yams.

Additionally, I love the "Your Questions Answered" section of the site. It has quick answers to questions like: How can you tell if a watermelon is ripe? Should I store my bread in the fridge or on the counter? Do spices ever go bad? Can you freeze raw eggs for later use? Lastly, the "Shelf Talk" section has articles related to food and storing them, which I found interesting. Did you know that pure honey never goes bad?! And you can "thaw" it by running it under warm water. Too bad I just threw away some!

Reusable Lunch/Snack Bags

A couple weeks ago we ran out of sandwich bags and Costco was out of them too when I went to buy them.  I have long been aggravated by the idea that I'm throwing away so many plastic bags after just one or two uses, so then I remembered that there are companies that make reusable lunch/snack bags!  I remembered seeing some Planet Wise ones at Grow Natural in Fullerton.  At this point I decided I would do some Amazon research on reusable bags.  I bought three different brands of top-rated bags, and all have very different features.  Here's a photo of them all:

First, on the far left is a set of three Lunch Skins bags.  They feature tough Velcro all the way across the bag and flap.  The fabric is used by professional bakers, though I'm not sure what for, perhaps also for storage.  They're toxin free.  They're supposed to be dishwasher safe, but I ran them through and the Velco is a little crumpled, so I will probably rarely do that.  I will likely just turn them inside-out to wash like the other bags we got.  What makes these even more awesome is they're sewn by a local family business in the US!  I purchased the set of three off Amazon for $25.

Second, the black bags with the green monster flaps are Re-Usies.  They're cloth on the outside, so if that gets wet while washing, they'll take longer to dry than the other two sets I got.  The flap has the Velcro running vertical across it and the bag, so there's less closure to the bag than the Lunch Skins.  The flap can wrap around to the back where there's another piece of vertical Velcro, which is helpful for wrapping up very small snacks.  These are also free of toxins, but aren't dishwasher safe.  The label says you can throw them in the washing machine, but the fabric may fade, it warns.  These bags also come in an abundance of different fabrics!  I got the set off Amazon for $16.

Third, I wanted to try a wrap, well, I want Joseph and Sarah to try a wrap because I rarely take any food to go right now.  Anyways, on the far right is the Food Kozy by Kids Konserve.  As you can see it's circular and has vertical strips of Velcro on it for closing the wrap.  It can double as a place mat, which is pretty cool.  It's also toxin free, and is easy to wash, rinse, and dry.  It seems like this would be best to use with sandwiches and not snacks, though.  I got this set of two (because they're orange) for only $8.01 off Amazon.

Now, I'm also wishing I got zippered snack bags because Joseph likes to take oats, granola, and craisins to put in his yogurt, which wouldn't stay in one of these bags well.  I'm going to look into those for my next Amazon purchase.  I'll update you the verdict of these three reusable options in a few weeks.

Of course, another alternative to this is plasticware, commonly known as Tupperware.  If you have a lot of it already, use it for your lunches and snacks!  We don't have a ton of plasticware, so I decided to get some of these bags.  The bags are also less bulky too.