Evidence of a Changing Kitchen

I’m making little changes. Just step into my kitchen, and you’ll see!

An empty, glass bottle of organic juice is soaking in hot, soapy water. I plan to remove the label and use it as a water bottle.

A glass pitcher of water sits on the counter. We pour our water in here from the Brita pitcher immediately after filtering, to prevent the plastic from leeching into the water.

2 bunches of organic bananas! I wanted to make sure we had more than enough. I’ll probably use some of them to make banana bread.

Let’s peek in my fridge! There’s some homemade chicken broth chilling – couldn’t let those free range chicken bones go to waste!

A gallon of organic milk and a glass jug of organic, unfiltered apple juice sit beside the broth, as well as an almond butter jar that is being re-used to store leftover soup.

On the bottom shelf, you can see the organic butter that I bought yesterday.

On the table sit two ripe, organic tangelos, waiting to be eaten. Beside them, paper bags full of organic oranges and apples sit ripening.

I have a long way to go, but it’s heartening to see the changes happening. When I notice these little differences, it warms my heart to realize that I am taking steps toward taking better care of my family and myself.

Cleaning My Kitchen With Food

I’m doing it! I’m cleaning my kitchen with lemon juice and vinegar!

I was very hesitant to try it, but now that I’m doing it, I’ll never look back.

First of all, I cannot possibly tell you the peace of mind that comes from cleaning your kitchen with food. I can make a sandwich on top of a freshly cleaned countertop without worrying about residue from cleaners.

And it’s so inexpensive that I can use it liberally without a second thought. I don’t just swipe a rag over my table now. I really clean it.

Is it effective, you ask?

Cosmetically, it’s definitely effective! The acidic properties of the lemon juice and the vinegar break down dried-on food and grease. I just spray, leave to soak for a few minutes, then come back and wipe for a clean stove-top. Cooked-on food wipes away like a charm!

In terms of bacteria, we need to first review the real idea behind cleaning. We’re not looking to eliminate ALL bacteria, just to greatly diminish their numbers.

We want enough to give our immune system some exercise, but not enough to make us sick. This is why, unless you have an immunosupressive disease, you should not use antibacterial cleaners on everything. The medical community widely agrees that overuse of antibacterials can lead to allergies, as the immune system seeks things to attack.

That said, lemon juice and vinegar CAN kill bacteria. They are not potent germ-killers, but they do kill some germs. Combine that with their ability to dissolve spills for easy clean-up, and it’s a perfectly safe, effective cleaner for kitchen use. If you really want something antibacterial, you can add a few drops of tea tree oil.

A convenient, unexpected side effect of my new, liberal use of this cleaner is that my kitchen rags smell cleaner longer! The vinegar seems to be preventing bacteria from growing on the rag as quickly. Nice! I go through so many kitchen rags…

To make the solution, you mix 2 parts water, 1 part vinegar, and 1 part lemon juice. It needs to be diluted because vinegar can harm some surfaces if left on them at full-strength.

I didn’t like the vinegar smell, so I added a few drops of sweet orange essential oil. That greatly decreased the smell. You could use any essential oil.

Gettin’ all Frugal-y and Organic-ish

So, I’ve been subscribing to a few frugal-minded blogs that I’ve found through various links, including Like Merchant Ships, Frugal Hacks, and The Budget Ecoist. And, while a lot of what they say doesn’t apply to me, I have also gotten some good tips, and have been generally inspired.

One of the blogs I was reading recommended a book called The Tightwad Gazette. I went online and ordered it from my library (yay, books are free!), and have been going through it over the last few days.

There are a lot of great ideas in here! Many of them will only save you a few cents, but they’re also really simple, so you might as well, right? All those pennies add up!

According to the USDA, Americans spent 24.2% of their income on food in 1930, but only 9.5% in 2004. You can imagine that the numbers would have been even higher before the industrial revolution. I have heard before that, about 100 years ago, it was closer to 50%.

Is it any surprise that Americans are so malnourished? Is organic food really expensive, or is conventional food just absurdly cheap?

If people in 1930 could afford to spend more than twice as much on their food as we do today, then there must be a way that we can do it. Enter my interest in frugal living.

Amy Dacyczyn suggests making a notebook of food prices. Each sheet of paper is for one specific food. On the page you list both the retail prices and the sale prices that you find in various stores. This way, you know not only where to buy the food cheaply when you need to re-stock, but you also know when a sale is REALLY a killer sale, and can stock up.

Stocking up is what enables you to feed your family on so much less money. She used her methods to bring her food bill way down – I plan to use it to bring my food quality way up.

For example, I bought some organic blueberry applesauce at Grocery Outlet the other day, and Ariel LOVED it. She couldn’t stop talking about how yummy it was, and she’s consumed almost a whole jar in two short days! So I went back and bought 7 more jars.

Then I made a sheet for applesauce in my new food notebook. I wrote the date of the sale and GO for Grocery Outlet in the margin. I also wrote the price, number of ounces, cost-per-ounce, and a short description of the specific product. Next time I see a sale on organic applesauce, I can compare it to this one to see if it’s really worth stocking up on.

Applesauce wasn’t the only thing I bought up! Grocery Outlet is a great place to go for organic foods if you’re not shopping from a list. You never know what will be there, but it will probably be a good deal! In addition to jars of blueberry applesauce for $1.29 each, I’ve stocked up on cans of organic diced tomatoes for $.69 each, organic animal crackers for $.99 a box, organic nuts for $.99 a bag, and 54 ounce boxes of organic granola for $4.99. SCORE!

According to Dacyczyn (pronounced “decision”), this costs a little bit more money the first few months, but quickly becomes inexpensive as more and more of your food comes from your inexpensive bulk stores instead of from weekly trips to the grocer.

I’m really excited to be making the switch! There are SO many reasons to go organic, and if you’re reading this then I probably don’t need to tell you them, but suffice it to say that the peace of mind that I have when I pick up an organic item from a grocery store shelf is worth the high price. Well, except at Grocery Outlet, where there’s no high price to worry about. Then it’s more than worth it!

in response….

i was the first girl in my class to get a bra and get my period (4th grade).

the bra was a little exciting because it made me feel girly and i knew i was the first one in the class. plus, i think that for many, many reasons developing breasts are a right of passage. it’s the first change from child to woman. and let’s face it, we live in a society where breasts are glorified and easily become a woman’s identity.

as a woman, i think breasts are really beautiful. i think that even flat chested women can have beautiful breasts. and i also think that a breast cancer survivor who’s had a double mastectomy is incredibly beautiful! there’s something heroic about her.

my period was a different story. i was completely embarrassed and overwhelmed. i was only ten for gosh sakes. i was still learning about basic hygiene. this was a whole other realm of horrors. my mom was great about *trying* to make it exciting, but i was horrified and deeply embarrassed. i think the worst part was that my mom made this ridiculous “rule” that we couldn’t get our ears pierced until we got our periods. as an adult, i still can’t see the reason behind that “rule.” it meant that all of my girlfriends knew exactly what happened when i came to school with little opal studs in my ears. there was no way i wasn’t going to get them pierced that night though. i had waited my whole life for pierced ears so i was ready to take on the snickers and giggles when i walked into the classroom that day. if i was going to be made fun of, i was going to make sure that i was at least going to look like everyone else on the outside.

these stories and life experiences are part of the reason why we’re making the lifestyle changes that we are beginning to implement. the other reasons are the obvious health risks.

and really, i don’t think that they’re going to be tons different from their peers anyway. it seems like most of the families we know are either organic or vegetarian or both. if we end up putting the girls in the co-op or the waldorf school, i think they’ll be in exactly the same place as the other girls in their class.

i feel like if we can make healthier, better choices for our girls, then why wouldn’t we?
if i can stall their developing breasts and everything else that puberty encompasses…
if i can stall the unwanted looks and advances from men and mischievous boys…
if i can make girlhood last just a little longer and help to put off the adult decisions that go with a developed body…

i have to try.

Here’s a funny thought…

As I am starting to eliminate plastics that contain estrogen-mimicking compounds from my kitchen, I find myself contemplating something:

Will my daughters resent me if I succeed in preventing their early puberty?

I mean, I was the last girl to go through puberty in my class (and, somehow, all the other girls knew it – hurray for private school?). So the girls already have bad genes against them. I mean, socially bad. There’s no real advantage to going through puberty early from a biological standpoint, but the girl with the biggest boobs does tend to be the most popular…

In fact, when you consider how early girls are going through puberty, and how late they are expected to marry, no wonder we have so much promiscuity in the Western world!

But anyway, my point is, if all their peers are currently being exposed to all these hormone disruptors, and I succeed in limiting the girls’ exposure to them, how will they actually feel about this? I mean, I’m lowering their chances of breast cancer, but teenagers don’t generally care about stuff like that.

Not that I’m considering changing my mind about all this. I’m just sayin’. Cuz I can totally imagine an argument with one of my girls in which they express extreme displeasure over the fact that I did not bombard their body with toxic chemicals, when all the other moms were doing it.

Parents! They just don’t understand!

Meet My Scrub Brush!

I just can’t stop posting…

This is my scrub brush. I use it for all my hand washing, which includes every one of my pots and pans, as well as for prepping dishes for the washing machine. And I scrub vegetables with it.

How old would you guess it is?

Look at the straightness of the bristles, the color…

Have a guess yet?

Ok, here’s the answer:

3 1/2 years old.

That’s right, I got this brush as a wedding gift. The $20 price tag was attached, and I remember thinking, Twenty dollars for a brush? Why would anyone spend that much?

Of course, by now, I probably would have spent at least $20 replacing cheap brushes. Meanwhile, my fabulous brush continues to look just as good and scrub just as well as it did the first time!

You can buy replacement heads, but who knows when that will be necessary!

It can be purchased here.

10 Reasons to Buy a Quality ____

1. You’ll likely spend less over time, because your _____ will last.
2. Fewer _____s will end up in landfills, since you won’t have to throw them away constantly.
3. Your _____ will look/feel/perform better.
4. Your _____ is less likely to be made with particle board, cheap plastics, lead paint, etc.
5. It is much more likely that the people manufacturing your _____ were paid a decent wage.
6. You can take pride in your _____ when others see it.
7. You have an incentive to take good care of your _____.
8. When you have more spare change, you can spend it elsewhere because you won’t feel the need to upgrade a cheap _____.
9. You will teach your children about delayed gratification – that some things are worth waiting and saving for.
10. When you die, your child can keep the _____ that they so fondly remember you using, and can use it themselves for years to come.

Plastics and Self-Drive

I found this article fascinating…

Remind me why I don’t go to Goodwill more often?

A few days ago, I bought a glass pitcher at World Market for $11.99.

Yesterday, I bought the green pitcher at our local Goodwill. Today, I bought the two clear pitchers at the Clackamas Goodwill. My total for the 3? $9.97.

Guess what I’m going to be returning at World Market?

And of course, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be ditching our plastic pitchers. Dan even suggested that we pour our filtered water into one of them instead of leaving it in the Brita pitcher! Maybe my daughters can wait until they’re in the double-digits to go through puberty!

Buying Organic Dairy Inexpensively

I have found that buying organic butter and cheese at Safeway is significantly cheaper than at other stores. Their O Organics line includes butter and cheese sticks for much less money than Horizon typically retails for. One pound of butter is $4.49.

Several stores, including Albertsons and Fred Meyer, sell Organic Valley milk by the gallon for $4.99. Much cheaper than buying half-gallons at over 3 bucks a pop.

From my observations so far, it seems like New Seasons has the best prices and selection of organic yogurt. I think that the Aussie brand (I don’t remember the name, but it has a kangaroo on it) tastes the best, and if I recall correctly it also has the least sugar. Of course, I’m talking about the individual cups – I haven’t priced the big tubs.

When money is a little tight to be buying organic yogurt, I pick up Tillamook yogurt at Winco, often on sale for $.35 each. Obviously, I’m not avoiding all the problems with conventional dairy products this way (that is, the presence of antibiotics, growth hormones, pus, and pesticides from the heavily treated grains that the cows consume), but at least I’m buying local. I try to buy a greater number of the strawberry and mixed berry flavors, since Oregon strawberries are dying out for lack of a market.

It’s important to keep in mind that all the toxins that our bodies accumulate are stored in our fat. This is also true of animals. Therefore, butter, cheese, milk, and fatty meat are going to contain an accumulation of all the pesticides that a cow or other animal has consumed over the course of it’s life.

Have any better sources, or anything to add?