How to Prep Your Fruits and Vegetables

According to the Environmental Working Group (2013), pesticides are toxic chemicals that are aimed at killing living organisms and have been associated with brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone disruption, and skin, eye and lunch irritation.  

As a person who is majorly concerned with the threat of pesticides due to the connection between pesticides and Multiple Sclerosis, I always make sure to clean my produce as much as possible.  The New York Times wrote about a study comparing the washing methods to clean your produce.  You can read about it here.

Here's how I clean my fruits and vegetables to the best of my ability:

Step 1: Wash your sink with hot soap and water. (Your kitchen sink can better dirtier than your toilet)
Step 2: Fill up your sink and add one cup of white vinegar.
Step 3: Let your produce soak for 10 minutes.
Step 4: Rinse off your produce under running water and make sure that you scrub them to ensure that you get off the vinegar and pesticides off.
Step 5: Dry off your produce and store properly!

Enjoy your freshly cleaned produce!

Giraffes

Just because everyone needs giraffe salt and pepper shakers in their life at one point or another.  Enjoy! : )
  

What's In Your Kitchen: Freezer

It's that time!  Here is what hangs out in my freezer, just waiting for a lazy afternoon.

Bread Products
- Gluten Free Bread

Protein
- Hormone Free, Free-Range, Organic Chicken Breasts
- Turkey Sausage Patties
- Turkey Sausage Links
- Ground Turkey
- Salmon
- Medium/Large Shrimp
- Ground Burger
- Steak

Produce
- Frozen Berries (great for smoothies)
- Frozen Bananas (great for breads and ice cream)
- Frozen, Cooked Black Beans
- Frozen, Mixed Vegetables

Ice Cream
- leftover shakes (don't throw those away!  Place the excess in a tupperware container and it becomes ice cream. Half-priced large Sonic shakes never tasted so good!)
- Banana ice cream

Wanted List
- Taco Meat (already prepared)
- BBQ chicken (already prepared)
- Lasagna
- Turkey Pot Pie

I'm working on it!  What's in your Freezer?

Heart Stopper

Confused:    The moment when your eye lid begins to twitch, but you don't realize what is happening.

Scared:  The moment when you realize that your MS could make this a normal thing to start happening.

Distraught:  The series of potentially blinding eye squeezes you perform to stop this madness!

Hysterical:   The beginning motions of poking your eye to get the twitching to stop.

Thankful:     The moment where you realize you just spent 30 seconds flailing like an imbecile.

Embarrassed: The moment when you realized if you had only stopped freaking out, you would have noticed that your eye twitched once.

Moral: Step back, re-evaluate your potential problem, create a plan (preferrably one without flailing arms, violent eye blinking, and dizzying eye pokes), and then attempt to fix the problem (which probably seems a lot less difficult/deadly/impossible now).  THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting stated.  The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." -Mark Twain 

What's In Your Kitchen: Pantry

It's the time again!  What time is it? Game Time! It's What's In Your Kitchen: Pantry Edition!  Without further adieu, here are my staples in the pantry.

Oils / Dressings / Condiments
 I like to keep a spare of all my condiments etc. in the pantry at all times.  It's helpful so that I don't have to run to the store in the middle of making dinner.

- Soy Slender Chocolate Milk

- Almond-Coconut Milk

- Chi Latte Concentrate

- Classico Pesto

- Jar of jalapeños

- Lime juice

- Lemon juice

- Sriracha

- A1 Steak Sauce

- Ketchup

- Hellmann's Light Mayo

- Applesauce

- Honey Mustard

- Olive Oil

Baking Ingredients

- Sugar

- Powered Sugar

- Brown Sugar

- Gluten Free Flour Mix

- Brown Rice Flour

- Chocolate Chips

- Coconut Strips

- Dried Fruits (Craisins, Raisins, Mango, Apple, Coconut)

- Cocoa Powder

Canned Goods

I typically try to stay away from canned goods due to the increased sodium content.  If I do happen to use canned goods, I make sure to rinse them off before consumption.

- Black Beans (both dried and canned)

- Tuna (in pouches)

- Soups (any soup with rice as a good lazy meal)

Grains

- Brown Rice

- Cous-cous

- Quinoa

- Steel Cut Oats

- Assorted Gluten Free Pastas

Nuts (A great quick snack)

- Almonds

- Pine Nuts (for pesto sauce)

- Pistachios

That's pretty much it for me!  What's in your pantry?

Silly Memories With Friends

Some of the best parts of life include doing absolutely nothing with friends.  Cherish these, you never know if these moments will keep happening. Example: inventing words that make no sense, baking cookies, randomly driving with your windows down but your heat blasting!  Share your fun memories that will make you smile and, literally, laugh out loud.

What's In Your Kitchen: Refrigerator

Let's play a game called... What in your kitchen?!  What, you don't think it's going to be fun?

Vegetables
- Greens (I really like to differ what types of greens I buy based on what's in season)
- Tomatoes (I really like roma tomatoes because they are generally the cheapest option and have the best flesh ratio)
- Green Peppers (the best snack. ever)
- Carrots (large, not baby carrots)
- Celery
- Onion
- Garlic
- Seasonal Vegetables

Fruit
- Bananas (once they turn black they move into the freezer for Banana Ice Cream)
- Berries (depends on what season it is)
- Citrus (oranges, tangelos, tangerines, lemons, grapefruit, whatever!)
- Apple
- Melon
- Seasonal Fruit

Protein
- Organic Eggs (From free range, organic chicken)
- Bacon!! (well, low sodium turkey bacon)

In My Door
- Soy Slender Chocolate Milk
- Almond-Coconut Milk
- Chi Latte Concentrate
- Classico Pesto
- Jar of jalapeños
- Lime juice
- Lemon juice
- Sriracha
- A1 Steak Sauce
- Ketchup
- Hellmann's Light Mayo
- Applesauce

Dairy Drawer
- Soy Yogurt (not really dairy)
- Munster Cheese
- Provolone Cheese
- American Cheese (fat-free)
- Cottage Cheese
- Brummel & Brown Yogurt Butter

What's in your kitchen?