Fruits and Veggies

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on chemicals in food, hormones in meat, and all that fun stuff. I am shocked at some things I didn't know, like how bad storing and heating your food in plastic containers is for you. Granted I don't plan on going completely nuts as I know I will never be able to remove all of the chemicals/hormones without driving myself insane, but if I can remove even just a few I will. We switched over to glass containers for our lunch last week. I'm not quite sure how this will work when Rylee is in school -- but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I have known for a while the low calorie food that I am eating is full of chemicals, so I've been trying to change it over slowly, to foods that are more natural, even though they are higher in calories and cost. Things like yogurt for example. The yogurt with the least chemicals, highest fat, highest calories is also the most expensive. So this change has not been easy! I've definitely been taking more care to actually read the ingredients instead of just the calories, fat, fiber ect. 

For a number of months now I have not been buying certain fruits like grapes, blackberries, blue berries ect because no matter how much I wash them I can not get the awful pesticide taste off of them which leave my mouth feeling disgusting. I sure as heck was not going to be feeding that to my little girl either! 

I saw on Pinterest and then again on Facebook about soaking your fruits and veggies in the sink with 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water. Then rinsing them off and letting them air dry before storing them in the fridge. It says to keep berries in an uncovered glass bowl, apples in the fruit drawer not in a bag ect. It also says not to wash lettuce until right before you are ready to use it.

So I decided last night to give this a try. I bought some grapes, strawberries, and blueberries, along with my other usual fruit/veggies. I tasted them once I got home and instantly could taste the pesticides that left an awful taste in my mouth just as I had before. So I let them soak in vinegar and water. After rinsing them very well and air drying them I gave them a try. SO MUCH BETTER! I could still taste a tiny hint of it, so next time I would let them soak longer in hopes to remove the last little bit but I can't tell you how pleased I am with this result for such little effort. I know I am not fully removing the chemicals since they also go IN TO the fruit, but I feel much better knowing I am at least getting the majority off of them. This should even be done with organic fruit, because there are still preservatives that are used that are not healthy for you.

Along with this research I have been doing I've also been trying to come up with some new, healthy, no to low chemical food ideas for Rylee. So far my list is pretty good, but I can always use new ideas! If you have any feel free to leave a comment or shoot me a facebook message.

I am having some mama friends over this afternoon and we are going to talk about gardening as I would love to use the back space in our backyard to plant a huge vegetable garden this summer!!! I will probably start slow with a few easy vegetable until I get the hang of it the add a few more items each year.