CSA: Week 1

Week 1 of our CSA share has FINALLY arrived! I picked up our share at noon and then made quick work of washing up our produce and getting it stored away. It was so exciting to unpack the box – a few of the veggies were completely foreign to J and I, but with a bit of googling and some help from Facebook friends we eventually deciphered everything that came in our box. Here’s this week’s rundown:

CSA veggies for the week

  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Swiss Chard
  • Tokyo Bekana
  • Fennel
  • English Cucumbers
  • Picolino Cucumbers
  • Funky Carrots
  • Celeriac
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Strawberries

 

To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure what we’re going to do with some of those, haha. BUT I’m sure trusty Google will provide us with some new and exciting recipes to try. Tonight we stuck with salads using the lettuce and naturally dug full force into the strawberries as well :)

Since I transported our goods home in cloth grocery totes, the cleaned veggies needed somewhere to be stored more permanently. I recently purchased some mesh (think lingerie bags) and linen bags to store fresh produce. They work like a charm and wash up great – not to mention they are much more eco-friendly than the plastic options at most grocery stores. We’ll be sticking with these handy reusable options when we hit up our regular stores as well.

produce bags drying on the laundry line

I’ll let you know how we end up using all of these “mysterious” veggies this week! Can’t wait to get to work :)

Carrots, apples and lettuce straight from the winter market! 

Carrots, apples and lettuce straight from the winter market!

Vegan Edamame with Spinach Linguine

J and I tried a new vegan recipe tonight that I found on Pinterest – Spinach Linguine with Edamame Pesto. I pretty much followed the recipe as is except for a slight variation on the fresh herbs I used. The recipe was quick, easy and DELICIOUS! And guessing by the two big bowls that J ate, he agreed :)

We’ll definitely be making this again! Love finding new recipes on great blogs. If you’ve never checked out Post Punk Kitchen, I’d highly recommend it! Happy cooking – and eating ;)

How perfect would this meal have been for St. Patty’s day?! Ah well, there’s always next year!

I went shopping today with the best intentions. And we all know how that turns out…

I went shopping today with the best intentions. And we all know how that turns out… here’s what went down:

I mentioned awhile ago that I wanted to find an alternative to plastic baggies for food storage. Since then, I’ve pinned all sorts of goodies that I *thought* would be the perfect solution. I narrowed it down to one particular craft template that used oil cloth to create sandwich bags. I made my list, printed my coupons and headed out to purchase the supplies I needed. All the while thinking, “Wow, I’m so smart, savvy and eco-conscious. This is going to save us so much money in the long run. Why don’t more people do this?” Ha.

I get to the section of the store with the oil cloth and see a warning listed on a nearby bolt of material: “The state of California recognizes this product as hazardous and may cause birth defects.”

Wait, what? I thought I was being a genius and duping what modern convenience had convinced me to believe. It was on Martha Stewart for goodness sakes! I decided to use my phone to do a quick google search on the safety of using oil cloth for food storage. It took all of 5 seconds to get a firm answer on that question: NO! It is NOT safe for food storage.

Cool. Needless to say I scared myself into leaving the store empty-handed. Since then I’ve done amore extensive search on what options truly exist for the everyday consumer to make their own leakproof food storage. There doesn’t seem to be one, general consensus on a truly perfect product on the market. I did, however, find a couple of vendors who sell pre-made reusable bags. I’ll probably end up purchasing from LunchSkins or snackTAXI.

It wasn’t a total loss – I ended up learning a lot from this experience and will never leave the house without doing my research again!

Am I over thinking this? Do you have any suggestions on materials that I can use to create a comparable item myself?

Clean Green

So now that my plastic free kitchen is in full swing, I decided to take the next step and revamp my cleaning routine. I’m astonished by how many chemicals I’ve gotten used to using in my daily life – dusting spray, bleach, shower cleaner, swiffer floor cleaner, fabreeze, disinfecting wipes, the list goes on and on…

I took all of the old offenders, put them in a box and vowed to never let them back into the house.

So, now what? My cupboard was empty and I still had a house to clean. I mean people must have done something in the “old days” to get the job done, right?! Here entered my green cleaning plan. After visiting a number of websites and reading up on the old standbys for cleaning your home naturally, I began assembling my arsenal. Here’s what I came up with:

Clean Green Toolbox:

  • Distilled white vinegar
  • Washing soda
  • Baking soda
  • Lemon Oil (used fresh lemon as well)
  • Tea Tree Oil
  • Lavender Oil
Simple right? (That’s kinda the point)

I also bought these awesome mixing/juicing/spraying containers from Amazon. They’re made by Full Circle, and I highly recommend them!

So now you must be wondering how exactly all of this works. I know you’re probably not convinced, because to be honest, I wasn’t sure this was going to work either. Well I can tell you that after mixing up just 2 different natural concoctions, my entire house was fresh and clean. From dusting our wood furniture to scrubbing the stovetop, just two different sprays handled the job!

To give you one example, I’ve been battling to keep my shower clean for months. I had run the gamut with all sorts of other cleaning products and eventually resorted to bleach for some particularly tough stains – ugh, it still didn’t come clean. This time I mixed together 1 part vinegar, 1 part water and 10 drops of lavender, sprayed it in our shower and wiped with a damp cloth. It worked wonders! 100% clean. Naturally! I seriously couldn’t believe it.

The Full Circle containers came with a booklet of “recipes” for cleaning naturally, but you can find great resources online as well. One area I haven’t made the switch is laundry detergent. Does anybody have any foolproof methods they’d like to share? What changes are you making to clean your home more naturally?