Mommy Goes Green

I don’t enjoy cooking all that much.  I do it, but not with much glee.  So I was totally surprised at how much I enjoy making my infant’s baby food.  It’ SO easy and I love knowing exactly what is in his food – which isn’t much – organic fruits, veggies and water.  I like the versatility that I can make changes when I need to.  At 6 months, I started with thin purees but quickly realized that my son could handle chunky so I changed the texture.   I also love coming up with new concoctions – and seeing my son squeal with delight – for a little guy, he LOVES to eat.

If you haven’t ever made food for your baby, I promise you it’s EASY PEASY.   I make a new batch of food every 2-3 days, it takes about 15 minutes.  Here’s the method I use:

1.  Buy fresh or frozen fruits and veggies.  You can make the whole process even quicker by buying pre-cut items like broccoli florets or baby carrots.  I’ve also found butternut squash at Costco that is already cut and sliced apples. 

2.  Cut into small chunks unless they are pre-cut.

3.  Put fruits and/or veggies in a steamer basket until you can pierce with a fork – depending on the item, it’s anywhere from 5-12 minutes.   Save the water used to steam the food.

4.  Put the steamed items in a food processor and puree them until you get the texture your baby needs.  The thinner the puree, the more water you add.

5.  When you’re done, pour it into ice trays and put into the freezer.  Once they are frozen, put them into a freezer bag or freezer container to store. 

6.  Take cubes of food out when you need them and defrost in the microwave or refrigerator.

There are a dozen or more ways you could modify this to make it work for you.  There are tons of recipe books, I reference one called The Petit Appetit.  Better yet, there are great websites dedicated to making baby food, like Weelicious.   You can also find tools made just for making baby food like food grinders and baby food mills but if you have already have a handheld blender, blender or food processor then there is no need to buy something new – any one of these will work.  There are many ways to store baby food from the simple, like ice trays to the classic, like jars.  Again, you can buy storage made just for baby food but I’ve found that ice cube trays are easy to find and inexpensive – just make sure they are BPA free.

I’d love to hear how you make food for your baby!  What works for you?

I finally feel like we’ve moved successfully from conventional products to eco-friendly products in our lawn and garden.  The icing on the cake was finding a safe way to control our weeds:

1. Water plants, not weeds.  We turned off the sprinkler heads in our garden beds and used a sprinkler head conversion kit to install a drip system.  It’s inexpensive and very easy to install.  Each drip is set to only water plants, flowers and trees, where necessary.  The rest of the bed doesn’t get watered, saving water (and $$) and keeping weeds down.
2. Use a thick layer of mulch or bark.  We’ve spread mulch too thinly for the past couple summers.  At only 1-2 inches, it thinned out quickly and disappeared before summer was over. It didn’t help with weed control.  This summer, we spread it 3 inches thick and it has made a huge difference.  Mulch also helps keep your water needs down (and $$) as it reduces evaporation by up to 50%.
3. Plant drought tolerant ground cover.  Ground cover acts similarly to mulch so it covers the dirt, keeping weeds down and reducing evaporation.  By choosing drought tolerant ground cover, you further reduce your water needs.
4. Use a weed killer, if necessary.  The final piece of our eco-friendly weed control puzzle was finding a weed killer that worked and WE. HAVE. FOUND. IT.  EcoSmart contacted me to see if I would check out a few of their new products and I was excited to try out their Organic Weed & Grass Killer.  I just hoped it worked and it does!   We have some weeds in a rocky area that are hard to hand pick so I started there.  It was a hot day and I sprayed all the weeds in the morning.  By afternoon, all the weeds were shriveled up and dead!  {I did a little happy dance} 

So the good news is that you don’t need a big bottle of Roundup to kill weeds particularly because I’m not convinced on any level that Roundup is safe.  For example, scientists in France evaluated the toxicity of Roundup on fetal umbilical cord cells. They found that every formulation of Roundup caused total cell death within 24 hours.  And they weren’t even testing with agricultural levels of Roundup, they were using levels that would be found in food or feed.   Roundup has also been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  If you think you are safe using it in your yard, did you know that it’s half-life is at least 47 days?  It also contaminates surface waters and is not readily broken down by sunlight or water.  Scary stuff, just say no.  Promise you, EcoSmart works just as well.  If I get one reader to stop using Roundup, I’ll feel better

A couple years ago we ditched the Round Up and chemical filled fertilizer for more eco-friendly alternatives.  It has taken some time to figure out how to maintain our lawn without chemicals but this summer we’ve found some great methods that are doing the job. I know it would be more eco-friendly not to have a lawn at all but we have two young children who love to run barefoot through it.   It doesn’t take any more effort than conventional methods to have a safer, eco-friendly lawn. 

1. Know how much water your lawn needs.  Your lawn only needs 1 inch of water a week and preferably, all at one time.  This way the water gets down to the deep roots.  To determine  how much water your lawn needs,  put an empty tuna can in the middle of the yard.  Turn on the sprinklers and record how long it takes to fill the tuna can up. Once you know how long it takes, set your sprinkler system to water 1x per week for that length of time.  Remember, different parts of your lawn may need different amounts of water.  We water 30 minutes, 1x per week in our front yard and 1 hour, 1x per week in our back yard.
2. Don’t waste water.  Water in the morning.  If you water during the day, it evaporates before it hits the ground. We start our watering process at 5am.  If you have a sprinkler system, turn it on and watch how each sprinkler head is functioning.  Is it overwatering by spraying sidewalks or driveways?  Do you have too many sprinkler watering the same area?  The spray area on each sprinkler head can be modified, usually with a screwdriver applied to the top.  We have turned off about 25% of our sprinkler heads totally because they were watering areas that weren’t planted yet or were overlapping with other sprinkler heads too much.
3. Don’t mow too short.  Keeping your lawn about 3 inches long
4. Use free fertilizer.  By leaving your grass clippings on your lawn, you reduce your fertilizer needs by 25%.  To keep our garden beds grass clipping free, we bag the grass clippings while mowing and then empty the bag back onto our lawn.  You also reduce your trips to the recycling center to take grass clippings.
5. Get chicken manure.  According to SafeLawns.org, chicken manure is the best fertilizer so we picked it up.  This is the product that has made the biggest difference for our lawn.  It took a thin, yellow lawn and made it lush, thick and green in about a week.  As long as we remember to use it every month, the lawn is awesome.  We buy chicken fertilizer at Lowe’s – it’s not any more expensive than conventional fertilizer and it contains no chemicals.   SafeLawns recommends one called Chickity Doo Doo.  EDITED TO ADD:  We don’t use plain chicken manure, it’s an organic fertilizer where the primary component is chicken manure!

Using these methods, we’ve saved money on our water bills and have a safe lawn that I feel totally comfortable having my children play on.  For more tips, I highly recommend checking out SafeLawns.org.

Check in tomorrow for tips to keep your garden beds organic AND weed-free!

This is part of the Healthy Child Blog Carnival - an effort by Healthy Child Healthy World to help inspire a movement to protect children from harmful chemicals.  For great posts from other green mamas, check some of them out!

• The Most Expensive Egg We’ll Ever Eat by RookieMom
• Clean Food, Dirty Kids by Spoonfed
• Our Grass is Greener by Farmer’s Daughter
• Quick Spray to Save Summer Veggies by Easy Peasy
• How to Relax and Let the Kids Have (Non-Toxic) Fun by Almost All the Truth

I’m working on replacing  all of my personal card products with safer products.  Recently, I was looking to replace my face wash. I’ve used the same Aveeno face wash for years but is has parabens in it and a few other fun chemicals.  Fortunately, my search was short lived. 

My first try was with Burt Bee’s Deep Cleansing Cream.  I like creamy facial washes and it’s affordable at $8.   Unfortunately, it just didn’t do it for me.  Something in it made my eyes water and I never felt like my makeup was totally removed.

My second round was with Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash and I love, love, love it!  I definitely feel that it ‘thoroughly’ cleans my face, makeup and all. The face wash has a great rating on the Cosmetics Database- 1.  It contains castile soap, olive oil, tea tree oil and many other essential oils and plant extracts. It’s liquid and only takes one pump to wash my face.  I’ve been using it for a month and have used about 1/4 of the bottle.  At $10/bottle, that’s $30/year in facial wash ( or $2.50/month ) and I was spending about 2x that on Aveeno so this is a great win/win – saving my body from toxic junk AND saving money. 

WHERE TO BUY:  Find a store locally or buy it online here.

Do you have a favorite face wash?

Buying produce at the grocery store often requires those awful plastic produce bags that are hard to clean and reuse because they are so flimsy. There are many options to reduce your use – find one that works for you:

1.  Choose paper produce bags.

2.  Take a large basket, bag, or wagon to the farmer’s market and store produce there until you get home.

3.  Encourage your local grocery store to carry the BioBag– a biodegradable, compostable produce bag. Compared with plastic, they have a greenhouse effect reduction by up to 49%.

4.  One of choices I’ve made to get rid of plastic produce bags is to use reusable bags. I’ve been using Bag the Habit bags, courtesy of Abe’s Market, for several months now. They are heavy duty – they’ll hold several potatoes – without breaking or stretching. They have a wide opening for bigger items like a head of lettuce and a draw string to keep everything inside. Not only are they great for putting your produce in, but you can also use them for your bulk purchases like beans, raisins or pretzels. My only complaint is that I don’t have more of them!

5.  If you’re crafty, make your own reusable bags with these instructions from Mother Earth News or Instructables.

If you do use plastic produce bags, here are some options to reuse them:

• Packing material
• Pick up doggy doodoo
• Put in the diaper bag for dirty diapers
• Line garbage cans

If you don’t want to reuse them, make sure you dispose of them properly by recycling them. If your curbside recycler doesn’t take these bags, many grocery stores take them back like Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Whole Foods – search for local locations here. Every couple months, I drop off any plastic bags I have ( shopping, produce or packaging ). The collection bin is usually near the entrance.

It seems like lead in children’s products are all the rage right now.  Juice and fruit may be new news but lead in kid’s products isn’t new – it’s just getting more widespread. 

The Good Housekeeping Research Institute (the magazine’s product testing laboratory) released a report showing that kid’s jewelry from Target, Claire’s and Walmart all had lead in them.  And it’s not just the cheapy Dollar Store jewelry.  It’s jewelry labeled ’sterling silver’, licensed character jewelry like Disney, and jewelry labeled for children over age 7.  An earring set from Walmart had 124 times the lead limit and the Disney jewelry had 47 times the lead limit.   Remember, there is no safe limit of lead exposure for kids.  Most of the jewelry also contained cadmium.  The GHRI recommends that parents avoid purchasing any inexpensive jewelry for children.  

Unfortunately, lead has been found in hundreds (thousands?) of other products designed for children.  The Daily Green keeps a running list, with photos, that you can review to make sure you don’t have these products in your home.   It’s in everything from pacifier clips to glasses,  books, balls and hockey sticks.  Today’s recall was kid’s belts from Target.

So what’s the next step?  Do you dump all the jewelry and painted toys in your house?   Ban products from China?  Chill out and relax?

If you follow Mommy Goes Green regularly, you read last week that many fruit juices and packaged fruit have lead in them.  I sent the info to every parent I know and made sure to ask our parents to refrain from serving these things to our children.  Then I talked with the director at my children’s preschool and asked them to check into the food and drinks they served during snack time.  She said she would.  I also made reiterated my request to not serve juice to my daughter.   In the meantime, I noticed that Del Monte packaged peaches were sitting in the classroom for snack.  I was mildly relieved because my son doesn’t have snack at the school (yet).  HOWEVER…..there are many other children in the classroom that ARE eating these possibly lead filled fruits.

So the question is….do I pester the director again?  It’s been a week since I spoke with her and she hasn’t said anything to me.  If she decides not to do anything about it, do I say anything to the other parents?  I only *know* one of the other parents.  The other parents are acquaintances.  I don’t want to be the crazy mom but if I were in their position, I would want to know if my children were eating food that might be tainted with lead!

I need some Mom Advice – what are your thoughts?

Let me start by saying that NO LEVEL OF EXPOSURE TO LEAD IS CONSIDERED SAFE. So it was incredibly frustrating to read the news this morning that the Environmental Law Foundation “ELF”, found lead in children’s fruit juices and packaged fruits. And not just in one brand or a few brands, but in a lot of brands and many of them organic!   Unfortunately, there is likely lead in many other products containing fruit but these are the only ones currently tested by ELF.  Even more frustrating is that while by buying organic, we may avoid pesticides, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re avoiding lead.  UGH.   This is the kind of stuff that just makes people give up.  No win situation.

At this point, it doesn’t sound like anyone is saying where the lead comes from.  It could be the fruit or the manufacturing process. When we know more, we’ll pass it on.  In the meantime, stay away from the products listed below and pass this information on to your family and friends.  You could also send an email to your favorite brands expressing your concerns.    

 APPLE JUICE    

• Beech Nut 100% Apple Juice
• Earth’s Best Organics Apple Juice
• First Street 100% Apple Cider from concentrate
• First Street Apple Juice from concentrate 100% juice
• Full Circle Organic Apple Juice
• Gerber 100% Juice Apple Juice
• Great Value 100% No Sugar Added Apple Juice
• Hansen’s Natural Apple Juice
• Kroger 100% Juice Apple Juice
• Langers Apple Juice 100% Juice
• Minute Maid Juice Apple – 100% Apple Juice
• Motts 100% Apple Juice
• O Organics Organic Unfiltered Apple Juice Not From Concentrate
• Old Orchard 100% Apple Juice
• Parade 100% Juice Apple
• Raley’s Premium 100% Apple Juice not from Concentrate
• Safeway 100% Juice Apple Cider
• Safeway 100% Juice Apple Juice
• Stater Bros. 100% Juice Apple Juice
• Sunny Select 100% Apple Juice
• Trader Joe’s Certified Organic Apple Juice, pasteurized
• Tree Top 100% Juice Apple Cider
• Walgreens Apple Juice from concentrate 100% juice
• Walnut Grove Market 100% Apple Juice

GRAPE JUICE  

• 365 Everyday Value Organic 100% Juice Concord Grapes
• First Street Grape Juice from concentrate 100% juice
• Gerber 100% Juice – White Grape Juice
• Great Value 100% Grape Juice
• Kedem Concord Grape Juice 100% pure grape juice
• Kroger Grape Juice 100% Juice
• Langers Grape Juice (Concord)
• Langers Red Grape Juice
• O Organics Organic Grape Juice from concentrate
• R.W. Knudsen Just Concord Grape Juice
• R.W. Knudsen Organic Just Concord
• Raley’s 100% Grape Juice
• Safeway 100% Juice Grape Juice
• Safeway Organic Grape Juice
• Santa Cruz Organic Concord Grape Juice
• Stater Bros. 100% Juice Grape Juice
• Stater Bros. 100% Juice White Grape Juice
• Sunny Select 100% Grape Juice
• Trader Joe’s Concord Grape Juice made from fress pressed organic concord grapes
• Tree Top 100% Juice, Grape
• Valu Time Grape Drink from Concentrate
• Walgreens Grape Juice from concentrate 100% juice
• Walnut Acres Organic Concord Grape
• Walnut Grove Market Grape Juice
• Welch’s 100% Grape Juice (from Welch’s Concord Grapes)
• Welch’s 100% Red Grape Juice from Concentrate

PACKAGED PEARS  

• Best Yet Bartlett Pear Halves in Heavy Syrup
• Del Monte Diced Pears in Light Syrup
• Del Monte Pear Halves in Heavy Syrup
• Del Monte Pear Halves, Bartlett Pears in 100% real fruit juice from concentrate
• Dole Pear Halves in Juice
• First Street Diced Pears
• First Street Sliced Bartlett
• Full Circle Organic Bartlett Pear Slices
• Gerber 3rd Foods Pears [Baby Food]
• Great Value Bartlett Pear Halves in 100% Juice
• Great Value Bartlett Sliced Pears in Heavy Syrup
• Market Pantry Diced Pears in Light syrup
• Maxx Value Pear Pieces in Light Syrup
• Polar Pear Halves in light syrup
• S&W Natural Style Pear Slices in Juice
• S&W Sun Pears Premium
• Safeway Lite Bartlett Pear Halves in Pear Juice
• Safeway Pear Halves in Light Juice
• Sunny Select Pear Halves in Pear Juice
• Trader Joe’s Pear Halves in white grape juice
• Truitt Brothers Pacific NorthWest Bartlett Pear Halves, in pear juice from concentrate
• Valu Time Irregular Bartlett Pear Slices
• Walnut Grove Market Natural Pear Halves in Heavy Syrup

PACKAGED PEACHES    

• Best Yet Yellow Cling Peach Halves in Heavy Syrup
• Del Monte Freestone Peach Slices in 100 % Juice
• Del Monte Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in 100 % Juice
• Del Monte Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in heavy syrup
• Dole Diced Peaches, Yellow Cling in light syrup
• First Street Yellow Cling Peaches in heavy syrup
• Gerber 3rd Foods Peaches [Baby Food]
• Golden Star Peach Halves in Heavy Syrup
• Great Value Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches
• Libby’s Yellow Cling Peach Slices No Sugar Added (Sweetened with Splenda)
• Market Pantry Diced Peaches in light syrup
• Polar Peach Slices
• Raley’s Sliced Yellow Cling Peaches in Heavy Syrup
• S&W Natural Style Yellow Cling Peach Slices in Lightly Sweetened Juice
• S&W Premium Peach Halves Yellow Cling Peaches in light syrup
• Safeway Diced Peaches in Light Syrup
• Safeway Yellow Cling Peach Slices in Pear Juice
• Simple Value Yellow Cling Peaches in light syrup
• Stater Bros. Yellow Cling Peach Halves
• Stater Bros. Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches in heavy syrup
• Sunny Select Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches in Pear Juice
• Trader Joe’s Yellow Cling Peach Halves in while grape juice
• Valu Time Yellow Cling Peach Slices
• Walnut Grove Market Natural Peaches Sliced Yellow Cling in Light Syrup

FRUIT COCKTAIL  

• Best Yet Chunky Mixed Fruit in Pear Juice
• Chef’s Review Fruit Cocktail
• Del Monte 100% Juice Fruit Cocktail
• Del Monte Chunky Mixed Fruit in 100 % Juice (peach, pear, grape, etc.)
• Del Monte Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup (peach, pear, grapes)
• Del Monte Fruit Cocktail No Sugar Added
• Del Monte Lite Fruit Cocktail in Extra Light Syrup
• Dole Mixed Fruit in Light Syrup
• Eating Right Fruit Cocktail packed in Sucralose
• Eating Right No Sugar Fruit Cocktail
• First Street Fruit Cocktail in heavy syrup
• Golden Star Mixed Fruit in Light Syrup (peach, pineapple, pears)
• Great Value No Sugar Added Fruit Cocktail
• Kroger Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
• Kroger Lite Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice
• Kroger Value Fruit Mix (Peaches, pears, grapes)
• Libby’s Fruit Cocktail No Sugar Added (Sweetened with Splenda)
• Market Pantry Mixed Fruit in light syrup
• Maxx Value Fruit Mix in Light Syrup (peach, pear, grape)
• Mrs. Brown’s Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup (peaches, pears, grapes)
• Polar Mixed Fruit
• Raley’s Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
• S&W Natural Style Fruit Cocktail in Lightly Sweetened Juice
• Safeway Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
• Safeway Light Sugar Fruit Cocktail
• Safeway Lite Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice
• Stater Bros. Fruit Cocktail in Heavy Syrup
• Sunny Select Fruit Cocktail in Juice

With the exception of detergents, my laundry routine was eco-friendly before I even wanted to be eco-friendly.

WASHING

I sort all the laundry into piles in the following order:

1. Adult or child
2. White, dark or color
3. Gentle or Heavy

While the sorting in itself isn’t all that eco-friendly, I do make sure that the piles are large enough to fill up the washer. No use in running half a load. If they aren’t, I’ll combine piles to make a load big enough.

I wash almost everything in COLD water. It saves $$ and energy and IT WORKS. Promise. The only things I wash in hot water are sheets, towels and anything with poop on it (thank you to my kiddos).

I use eco-friendly detergents like Seventh Generation or Earth Friendly Products. I don’t add fabric softener to the cycle but if you wanted to, Seventh Generation makes an eco-friendly version. I rarely use stain removers or bleach and if I do, they are…you guessed it. Eco-friendly stain removers or bleach. If I think something might be stained, I wash it at least once or twice to see if it will come out on its own. It generally does. If it won’t, I will use a stain remover, like BabyGanics or an eco-friendly bleach like Seventh Generation and voila – almost everything comes out.  We do occasionally having a clothing casualty but it’s rare.

DRYING

Almost all clothing gets thrown directly into the dryer for 10 – 20 minutes of light drying, enough to take out the excess water and wrinkles. I never use fabric softener sheets. Then I hang *almost everything* on a drying rack or on a hanger. I consider this to be the most important part of my laundry routine for several reasons:

• I rarely have to iron since everything is dried hanging and comes out wrinkle free.
• Clothes don’t shrink. Believe me, I’ve compared brand new dried in the dryer pants to brand new dried on the hanging rack pants and there was a whole size difference.
• Far less wear and tear. Colors don’t fade. Dark blue jeans stay dark blue. The fibers don’t get as ruffled and worn looking.
• There is no static cling.
• We save tons of energy and less wear and tear on our dryer.

I’m not going to lie, this does take more time than just throwing everything in the dryer but seriously, most of our clothes are wrinkle free and I could pass down my kids clothes for years because they stay in such great shape. I’ve even had friends comment on what great condition their clothes are in.

For sheets and towels, I use Seventh Generation Fabric Softener sheets. They are paper so once they are used, I can recycle them – LOVE THAT! I also dry sheets and towels in the dryer all the way. If I had the space for a laundry line outside, I would definitely put them on the line outside. The sunshine dries whites whiter!

There you have it – my laundry routine. Not as simple as most but has lots of great benefits! What is YOUR laundry routine?

Several months ago, Earth Friendly Products sent me their products to try out and  I’ve incorporated many of them into my daily routine.  The Dishmate Dish Washing Liquid is made with purified water, 100% natural anionic coconut kernel oil-based surfactant, salt, almond and cherry oil.  It comes in 4 scents – all created by essential oils – but I prefer the Free & Clear which is scent free.   It works just as well as any other dish washing liquid I’ve used and I’d buy it for regular use in our home.

I have mixed feelings about the Parsley Plus All Surface Cleaner.  It does work well on many surfaces. I’ve used it to clean my car, tables and granite countertops.  It doesn’t leave streaks on the dark countertops – something I can’t say about every green countertop cleaner I’ve used.  The parsley scent has grown on me.  At first, I was overwhelmed by it but now I’ve come to like the scent, it’s ‘fresh’ and it’s a nice change from the traditional lemon or orange scent.  The one thing I don’t like about this cleaner is how sudsy it is.  Even if I use just a little, it takes a lot of wiping and rinsing before all the suds are gone.  I don’t find this to be an issue with other cleaners I’ve used.

Earth Friendly Products has a laundry detergent specifically for babies. I don’t usually wash my kid’s laundry in separate ‘baby’ soap.  I always use a mild, non-toxic, eco-friendly laundry soap anyway so I feel safe washing my kids laundry with the same soap I use for the rest of the household laundry.  But, I know some moms use a conventional laundry detergent and then wash their children’s clothing in a safer, non-toxic detergent like Earth Friendly Products,  Baby Laundry Soap.  The liquid soap is lavender scented and I’d personally prefer a scent-free version since I’m not a big fan of scents for household products but it’s not overwhelming so if you don’t mind scented laundry soap then I wouldn’t pass this by.  I rarely use stain remover and wash almost everything in cold water so the  laundry detergent I  use has to do most of the heavy lifting.  The Baby Laundry Soap does not disappoint. I haven’t had to re-wash anything as it has easily removed spit up, poop, grass stains and marker.  If I did regularly use baby specific laundry detergent, I would use this product.

If you are looking for affordable, eco-friendly household products, give Earth Friendly Products a try.  They are easily found in local mass retailers and tend to run on the lower end of pricing for green cleaning products. For extra savings, print out coupons for $1 OFF most of their products..