A Healthy *BANG* for Your Buck

Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody could afford to buy the very best foods for their family everyday? Changing your diet to include more healthful ingredients like organic produce, pastured meats, unrefined oils, natural sweeteners and raw dairy is a big slam on your grocery bill. This obstacle can deter the frugal minded and stand in the way of those whose budget has little play.

Here are some things I have learned that can help you out;

1. Know Your Organics

Some varieties of conventional produce receive/absorb more pesticides than others. When shopping for organic fruits and vegetables it is good to have a list of the “dirty dozen” with you. These have been tested and show the greatest amounts of toxic residue:

Peaches

Apples

Sweet bell peppers

Celery

Nectarines

Strawberries

Cherries

Blueberries

Imported Grapes

Spinach

Kale

Potatoes

On the flip side there is also a list of the lowest levels of contamination;

Asparagus

Avocado

Broccoli

Cabbage

Eggplant

Kiwi

Mango

Onions

Papaya

Pineapple

Tomatoes

Watermelon

While all the toxins from pesticides cannot be washed off because they have leached into the produce, washing conventional produce thoroughly is always a smart choice. Most pesticides are not water soluble, so when washing conventional produce, use a vinegar soak (equal parts water and vinegar) to remove chemicals from the surface.

2. Stick To What Is In Season

You are going to pay much more for a much lesser quality product when you buy in the off season. Don’t demand strawberries year round when they are a spring/summer crop. Instead of going with a list, go with some ideas and be flexible depending on what is looking at it’s peak, which is often the produce with the biggest bins and on sale.

3. Buy Less Meat

Good quality pastured meats are costly. It is not necessary, or even healthful to have large portions of meat at every meal. Learn to make a little go a long way and make the most of it by using the bones for stock.

4. Get Friendly With Grains and Beans

These are super nutritious, filling and have a great shelf life naturally, no harmful processing required. Items that are able to be stored for months at a time allow you to cost-effectively buy in bulk while on sale.

5. Stay Out Of Grocery Stores

This sounds absurd to many people, but it is amazing the deals you can finds through co-ops, farmer’s markets, friends/neighbors, online and special buying programs. Grocery stores tempt customers to buy processed foods with deceptive ads, prices and attractive displays. These processed foods are the opposite of a good deal; paying even a small price for something that is devoid in nutrition and increase health risks is a joke on us.

Health food/organics in grocery stores are usually quite pricey. Seek out what is available in your area, talk to others of like mind, buy in bulk and split between a few families.
links; Works for Me Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday

Kitchen Sanitation

It is good to have a clean and work area when preparing and eating food, but it is better to have a kitchen free of chemicals and toxic cleaners. Most kitchen clean up can be done with just water maybe a bit of soap for the really grimy stuff. You can actually extend the life of most kitchen items by washing less, if a towel can do the job there is no need for water, if water can do the job, there is no need for soap. Residue from soaps and cleaners make you sicker than crusty food.

I cringe when I see a teacher getting the table prepped for snack time. Out come the Clorox Wipes as the whole surface is disinfected—germ free. The fact is that those germs are much less harmful than a chemical-covered table. So now these little bodies are taking in denatured ethanol, dimethyl benzyl ammonia chloride, dimethyl ethyl benzyl ammonia chloride AND over processed cheese fish. Our poor kids!

I have a recipe for you. This is a powerful disinfected that is all natural, effective, smells nice, is safe to breath and won’t give you cancer or even a headache. Make up a bottle for your kid’s teachers as a start-of-the-year gift.

Disinfectant
2 cups water
20 drops thyme oil

Mix in a 16 oz. spray bottle, shake well before each use.

Another great cleaner to use in the sinks and refrigerator is a simple mixture of 1 cup baking soda and 5 drops eucalyptus oil. Shake it up really well, sprinkle on grimy surfaces, for added cleaning power spray with vinegar and scrub clean. This is also great for toilets and bathtubs.

What is your favorite safe-for-people cleaner?

To learn more about essential oils check out my guest post at Your Natural Baby & More.

For essential oils on the go, visit Addicted to Oils.

Mayonnaise

Bring out the mayo! Seriously, it seems to be in everything at the Fourth of July picnic. Like a lot of pre-made products, I have some beef with the common jar of mayonnaise and it is not with the fat--big surprise. It is that nasty soybean stuff that sounds healthy enough until you learn what is done to it; chemicals, heat, extreme pressure, preservatives, deodorizers. This bean is toast! Most vegetable oils, including canola are mass produced for efficiency not for quality or health. They process it until it is a clear, tasteless substance, then filter it,, add preservatives and deodorizers to lengthen shelf life and cover up the rancid mess. It can be found in almost any package of snack food on the market, which leads to an even bigger problem – the omega 6 content. It is high. Really high. With this oil being so prevalent, our bodies are becoming toxic while the label is claiming it is healthy, but what’s new? It is important for proper body function to have a balance of omega 6 to omega 3 (3:1 or better is optimum). Good sources of omega 3's include; wild fish, pastured beef, chicken and pork, sea weed, raw nuts and seeds…do you see the problem? These previously common staples have become hard to find, expensive commodities.

Okay, enough trash talking the white stuff in the jar, let's get to the real stuff. Homemade mayonnaise requires some patience and I have had enough bad experiences to know how handy it would be to just pick up some at the store. It is a skill that can be mastered however and I am determined. I have found the highest quality of oil that can be used is pure olive oil. Extra virgin becomes too bitter through the emulsification process, coconut has too much flavor and I opt for the low omega 6 slightly processed oil over the high omega 6 less processed expeller pressed canola oil.

*UPDATE; I got a tip from my friend Sonya, who made this recipe with excellent results in her kitchen aid with the wire whips. So I tried it in my Bosch and it was easy and fast as ever! The oil can be drizzled faster because of the greater surface area. Also I found this method requires less scraping down and can hold more oil if you want to do up to another 1/2 cup. I did it on medium speed and it worked great. This method saved me 10 minutes and seems like it will yield very consistent results!

2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon honey
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups pure olive oil

*Beginning with all ingredients at room temperature is important for emulsifying.

In mixer, blend yolks, salt, honey and mustard with wire whips. Combine lemon juice and vinegar in a separate bowl add half into the yolk mixture. Place oil in a container with a pour spout that can easily be controlled (I like to use a plastic condiment bottle, it fits exactly 1 1/2 cups oil). Start mixer on medium and add a slow stream of oil until the liquid seems to thicken and lighten a bit. Then, increase the oil flow to a faster stream. Once half of the oil is in add the rest of the lemon juice mixture. Continue adding oil until all of the it is incorporated. If you get distracted and dump the oil to quickly, the emulsion will break and get very runny. From here you can begin the process again with two new egg yolks and the broken mixture, starting drop by drop and moving to a steady stream. This recipe can also be done in a food processor, blender or whisking by hand. Store in a jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Wellington

A fancy pants main dish that is intensely rich. Though very simple to make, the presentation of this savory stuffed puff pastry is spectacular. Puff pastry is a dough made by layering butter in flour. When it cooks, steam puffs the dough while the fat makes it all crispy. The end result is buttery, flaky goodness. I get my puff pastry from Trader Joe's, it is made with real butter. Other brands are made with hydrogenated soybean oil, which I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

Now, this is not an A plus on the healthy meal scale; the pastry is made with white flour and the fat content is out of proportion, but it is made with real food. It is important, that even when indulging to keep your food real so that your body doesn't get all gunked up with toxins(hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup) and chemicals (food dyes, msg) from man-made "foods."

Chicken is a crowd pleaser, so this is what I have listed in the recipe. But salmon is divine.

2 sheets puff pastry (10x10)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
2 cups baby spinach
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces cream cheese
3 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 lb. chicken, cubed, cooked and drained of excess moisture
1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water (this is an "egg wash"

Thaw pastry sheets. Saute onion and pepper in olive oil, cook through. Add spinach, stir to wilt. Salt and set mixture aside to cool slightly. Mix cream cheese and mustard in a bowl.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Working on a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silicon mat, lay out 2 sheets of puff pastry. Spread chicken on half of each sheet, dividing evenly and leaving a half inch at the edges. Top chicken with vegetable mixture and spoon cheese mixture on top. Fold each pastry over, corner to corner, you may have to stretch the dough a bit. Fork around the edges to seal. Brush the dough evenly with the egg wash, gently cut 3-1 inch slits in each of the wellingtons. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes and cut each wellington in half for 4 large servings.

Health is More Than Just Food

My main focus here is nutrition, but enjoying good health has more to it than just food. Exercise is so important to maintain health, strength and avoid injuries that can lead to surgery, pain medicines and less exercise. Another side of enjoying good health is avoiding chemicals. Chemicals leach into food from poorly processed plastics, some metals and synthetic non stick coatings on pot and pans.

Chemicals also abound in cleaners from Windex to laundry detergent, bleach to hand soap. How many of you have started to feel nauseous, dizzy or a headache while breathing in fumes while cleaning? These fumes seep through their containers and contaminate the air in our homes. Think you are protecting your child from icky germs by wiping down his highchair with Clorox Disinfecting Wipes? Think again.

Next to cleaners, I am disgusted with the way doctors are trained to use chemicals disguised as medicine to treat every ailment known to man. There are so many natural remedies that are effective without the negative short term and long term side effects. The Enlightened Homemaker is an amazing blog that is dedicated to health as a whole. It’s author, Shari has such passions along the same lines as me. She is an advocate for everything good for you and shares tips, ideas and recipes that she has picked up through the years of raising her family.

While I am going to continue to focus on nutrition, I reserve the right to rant on anything in the nature of health.