20 Months Later and I'm Ready!

My son, Max is about to turn 20 months in 10 days and I am finally ready to start cloth diapering him. Most of my friends (and especially my husband) are sick of hearing about my cloth diaper research so I've decided that I will put it all here, in a blog post for people to read, or not read.

My biggest challenge with cloth diapering, and the main reason why I suppose it took me so long to decide to do it, was the whole poop aspect of it. I didn't want to be scraping poop off of cloth and into a toilet when I could more easily wrap it up tightly and drop it into my diaper genie, to be forgotten forever. But in all that time that I was wrapping up used diapers into neat little packages and dropping them to be sealed forever inside an interpretable blue bag I was thinking just that... I was dropping them into a bag that would remain somewhere forever, and if not forever, for a very very long time. Certainly, longer than I will be alive.

Another thought that would pop in every now and then would be the cost of the diapers that Max was wearing and using six of or seven of a day. Sometimes the diaper would be on his bum for 10 minutes before he pooped in it, then I would take it off and throw it away. What a waste of a diaper, I would think... I should at least get three hours out of each one before sending it to the landfill.

Still, with all the negatives about disposable diapers I was struggling with the poop thing. I know a diaper sprayer would make things easier and probably ease my mind, but I didn't want to attach one to my toilet. I needed to let the idea sink in a bit more before feeling like I could move forward. I decided to give myself as much time as I needed, which in my case, just happened to be almost 20 months.

Once I felt ready, the next step was to dive into the wide world of cloth diapers and to try to figure out which ones would work best for me. There are so many to choose from. This step took months in itself to complete. I used different sites to educate myself on the subject, but here is a video that I found especially helpful in making my decision, Different Types of Cloth Diapers. (If you don't know anything about cloth diapering, take 5 minutes to watch the video before reading the rest of my post)

Before I continue on to my decisions, I would like to share some of the "diaper math" that I did. I put Max in Huggies because they are the cheapest good diapers that I could find (Luvs are cheaper, but they are horrible). A case of size 4 Huggies costs me $58.95 and contains 104 diapers. That comes out to .55 cents PER DIAPER. Then, multiply that by 6 (which is the average he uses in a day) and it's $3.30 a day or $99.00 A MONTH!!! I SPEND ALMOST $100 ON DIAPERS IN ONE MONTH! This blew my mind. This doesn't include the cost of wipes or Diaper Genie refill bags. Once I did this math I was 100% certain that I was going to switch to cloth, or at least work my way there.

I decided to start out easy and wanted to try gdiapers (a hybrid). My girlfriend gave me a few along with a bunch of disposable liners. As a beginning this was a good place. I was half cloth diapering and I was able to sort of establish a washing routine and feel the whole thing out. For me, this wasn't scary, I could flush the poop so it worked for me until...

Until I did more math and realized that I would not be saving any money if I decided to gdiaper. The liners actually cost MORE than an entire disposable diaper!! Then add in the cost of a plumber for when you get a liner stuck in the toilet and your cost increases substantially. Saving money is high on my list of reasons to cloth diaper and if this wasn't going to save me money, then it wasn't going to work for me. I needed to get over my poop issue fast.

That's when I decided to just get over it. To just suck it up and forget about it. I read a few blog posts and got some ideas for dealing with poop (without buying a sprayer) and made the final decision to go ALL CLOTH. Oh, and I also made the decision that a pocket diaper, an AI2 diaper and a hybrid (with a cloth insert) would be the way I wanted to go. I would get a few different ones and use each when I felt it was appropriate. I also planned to get them all ONE SIZE that way we could use them again with baby #2.

So here I was ready to go all cloth when I realized... holy shit, cloth diapers are expensive!! Trying to save money and spending hundreds on cloth diapers was not going to cut it. I needed to get all these diapers CHEAP! My first stop was Craigslist where I realized that used cloth diapers, ones that other babies, babies that you don't know, pooped in, are not that much less expensive than new ones. Some moms where asking only $2 less than a new diaper would cost! Some people were asking $15 a diaper! I decided right then and there that I would not pay more than $10 for any diaper. Next stop was Ebay, where I was unable to win any auctions that I bid on. Then I tried sites that sell "gently used" cloth diapers, nope... more expensive than Craigslist and then I was back to Craigslist. By this time I am obsessively monitoring Craigslist and calculating the savings of buying her diapers or his diapers and I stumble upon a diaper brand called Kawaii. Armed with this new information I went to one of my Facebook mom groups and ask about this diaper. It seemed too good to be true... a pocket diaper that has all snaps and is a one size for under $8 NEW!!!! Compared to all the others that were almost $20 new there had to be some sort of scam in progress... But apparently there isn't. According to friends, acquaintances and strangers the Kawaii diapers are just as good as their $20 competitors. I was sold. I wanted these Kawaii diapers and I found someone on Craislist who was selling them. I arranged to meet, but alas was stood up. This turned out to be a good thing. While he was asking almost $6 per diaper, I was able to find some on clearance on their site for $5 each. Yeah, that's right. You read that correctly, $5 each! Granted, they are hideous things yellow with princesses and teddy bears, but they will get the job done. (See photo, I think they are growing me... I'm kinda starting to like them.) Best part about getting them so cheap is that no one has pooped in them yet. Max gets to be the first! I bought the sale, which was 15 diapers for $75.

Knowing that 15 diapers wouldn't be enough I contacted a seller on Craigslist and purchased some more from her. As a bonus I received a Bum Genius for free from a Facebook friend.

Here is an inventory of what I was able to score along with what they cost new. I spent $175 for all the diapers, covers and liners listed below, (to be as consistent with pricing as possible, I took all prices from Amazon.com, with the exception of the Kawaii because Amazon listed them for $10 each)

8 One Size Bum Genius Diapers, two liners each (17.95 x 8 = $143.60)

1 Flip Diaper and liner ($16.95)

4 One Size Mother-ease diapers ($13.60 x 4 = $54.40)

2 Mother-ease diaper covers ($12.25 x 2 = $24.50)

15 One Size Kawaii Pocket Diapers (their site: $6.99 x 15 = 104.85)

2 Boosters (adds absorbency) ($1.00 x 2 = $2.00)

1 extra long Bum Genius Insert ($3.49)

4 extra short Bum Genius Inserts ($1.80 x 4 = $7.20)

NEW, all these diapers, covers and inserts would have cost me........... drum roll please...... a whopping $357. Remember, I paid $175. I saved 49% buying all my diapers used and on clearance.

What is the moral of this story, or otherwise, the purpose of all this ranting and bragging about how much money I didn't spend? The moral is... be thrify, shop second hand. Don't buy new stuff just because you don't want something that someone already pooped on. It's just going to get pooped on again so who cares? That's the moral.

Oh, and during the writing of this post, I cleaned my first poopy cloth diaper. It wasn't THAT bad and It's already been washed and smells fresh and is all white again. I think this is all going to be okay. And maybe now I can even cancel my BJs membership since I won't be spending $99 a month on diapers anymore :)

DIY: Art Dislay Clothesline

I made a fast, cheap & easy way to display art.

I love it when Max brings home artwork for me to display, but my fridge was becoming over burdened with all the paper. I wanted to buy him an art display wire like this,

from Pottery Barn, but they want $40 for it, plus shipping, since there isn't a kids Pottern Barn near me. I decided I needed to do my own thing. First things first I did some googling to see what was out there and this is what I found... This blog post on Positively Splendid which will show you how to make a rather complicated wire art display. I wanted something a little simpler, so I kept looking and came across, this... Just a bunch of photos on Pinterest and from there I began to draw inspiration. At first I thought I would buy the Ikea wire curtain rods and clips from Ikea, but they are $12 each and I wanted to do two displays on either side of my doorway. Buying two would bring my project total to $24 and that wasn't low enough for me. I also thought about just doing a magnetic strip across the wall and using cute magnets to display his work, but that would require me to paint and change the surface of the wall. I didn't want to do that. I didn't even want to put a single hole in the wall. So I started thinking and this morning while my husband lay sick in bed with a head cold, Max and I trotted out to AC Moore and Joann's Fabric and Crafts to get the materials we would need and here is how we did it.

-From Joann's Fabric and Crafts I purchased one 12 foot roll of round cording for approximately $2.00.
-From AC Moore I purchased 4 large clothespins for $1.19 each.
-Also from AC Moore I bought 3 bottles of acrylic craft paint on sale 3/$1.00,
-Two packages of Command Strips, $4.00 per package. (The command strips were used in the first blog post project that I came across. They can be found in the framing section of the store. I got the medium strips that can hold 9 pounds of weight each and will not leave any marks on your walls).
-And I already had the super crazy glue and the wooden clothespins that are holding the artwork, but if you needed to buy them you can get a whole package for $1.00 at any dollar store.

The grand total for my project is $15.76!!! Well, actually less if you consider that I didn't use all the command strips or all the paint.

1. Take apart all the clothes pins so you don't get paint on the metal part and paint them as you like.
2. Attach Command Strips to the back of all the large clothespins.
3. Measure and mark your walls.
4. Press firmly to adhere your large clothespins with the Command Strips on them to the wall.
5. Figure out how much cording you need to go from one clothespin to the other and cut.
6. Using the super crazy glue, glue the cording in between the "teeth" of the clothespin. The pressure from the pin will help the glue to set and stay strong.

7. Wait a few minutes for the glue to dry.
8. Hang your artwork and enjoy.

Wow... Not even 10 steps!

There are many ways to vary this idea, but I really think that finding out about the Command Strips made this project a million times easier. I was really stuck on the issue of how I was going to attach the large clothespins to the wall and the Command Strips solved my problem better than I could of on my own.

Giving Jarred Foods as Gifts

Recently I discovered the art of canning and I am in love. I bought 15 pounds of blueberries and I set to work making jams, butters and syrups all with the intention of giving it all away as gifts. As a crafty person, a cheap one, and a lazy one, I am always thinking ten steps ahead of where I am presently. So, as I was cooking up my very first batch of blueberry jam in August I was already thinking of an easy and cheap way to package them as gifts. After some Google image searches and a trip to Target I came up with this, it's fast, it's easy, it's inexpensive and it will make your jars look like gifts instantly!

And here is the step by step tutorial.

You will need,
• Some jarred food that you would like to give as a gift (Sealed)
• Fabric remnants
• Gift tags (You can use anything, I bought these tags at Target, but you can use manila ones or plain white ones from Staples, or you can make your own with card stock and a hole punch. Because of the scrap booking craze you can get some beautiful patterned card stock at any craft store, or use plain for a simpler look. But remember to take into consideration the size of your jar. Larger jars look better with larger tags, smaller jars, smaller tags)
• A mason jar lid for tracing (the jars are sealed, so you need an extra for tracing)
• A Sharpie Marker (I used a thin for tracing and a thick for writing out the tags)
• String to attach the tags to the jars. (I used embroidery thread because I have a ton of it)
• Fabric Scissors
• Glue (Any kind of glue will work)
• A glass of wine (optional, but suggested)

Using a pen or thin marker trace the extra jar lid onto the wrong side of the fabric. If you are using really good fabric scissors you should be able to cut through 4 or 5 layers at a time. Cut out your circles of fabric.

Next you will need to remove the ring from your jarred food and apply a small amount of glue to the top of the jar and place the fabric circle in the center, pressing it down. Let it dry for a few minutes before putting the ring back on. Take a break and have some wine.

You can replace the ring immediately, but I always find that I have to take it right back off again when attaching the gift tag, so I suppose it is better to just let it be and continue with the rest of the jars.

Next write out your tags. I like to put the expiration date on the back of the tag and on the front, what it is. Don't worry about your handwriting. The penmanship is just part of the charm that is part of a homemade gift. So, go ahead and scribble scrabble away.

You are almost done. Now, using string or embroidery floss attach the tags to the jars (this can take some practice getting the string tight around the neck of the jar). Twist the ring back on, remember it doesn't need to be tight.

And VOILA! You have a beautiful, one of a kind gift. Take a break here and have some wine.

Happy canning :)

Primo is Primo

Yesterday Jeremy, Max and I had the pleasure of accompanying two good friends from NY, Tammy and Rocco, to Primo Restaurant in Rockland, Maine. Here is the story of the restaurant as written on their site,

"After 12 years, numerous awards, recognitions and two other locations, Primo - Rockland Maine has matured into what Chef Melissa Kelly calls a "Full Circle Kitchen," the ultimate farm to table experience.

What started with a garden, a few hens and a couple of pigs has now become an evolution of food; an endless pursuit to accomplish more. Primo is much more than a restaurant, it is about love and respect for food. It is also about creativity. Produce is grown & harvested here and the animals are raised on the property. Nothing is wasted – everything has its place. It is a continuous cycle that occurs throughout the restaurant with, the kitchen, the animals and the gardens. The kitchen uses and savors every little piece. Seasonal to the moment, it is actually the farm and the garden that make the incredible ever-changing menu.

With two greenhouses and acres of produce, each day harvests: honey, fruits, veggies, eggs, edible flowers, micro-greens, fresh chicken and house cured & smoked meats. What is not grown at the restaurant comes from other local and sustainable farms that Chef Melissa Kelly and Price Kushner are proud to support."

Before moving to Maine, and after watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, showcasing the restaurant, Jeremy and I were determined to make it happen. Rockland is 2 hours northwest of Portland and since we have a toddler who needs to nap, Jeremy took off first to explore the small town with Tammy and Rocco. I stayed behind and joined them later. Because we arrived separately, we both had to make the 2 hour drive there and back. Some may wonder if 2 hours to go to a restaurant is worth it. Heck, I spent more time getting to Rockland and home, than I did enjoying Rockland! But, it was worth it. Trust me.

They started off our dining experience with a basket of fresh bread, semolina, focaccia with onions, a plain white crusty one and some olive oil for dipping. Then, they served us each a small ball of pork belly covered in crumbs and atop a creamy white sauce, garnished with a little leaf of fresh greens. To our advantage, Tammy and Rocco don't eat pork so we both enjoyed two of the most scrumptious bits of pork belly. So good that I used my finger to lap up any leftover sauce on the plate.

Next came our first appetizer, a wood fired pizza with goat cheese and merguez sausage. It was delicious, and spicy. We also ordered Foie Gras Two Ways seared on a blueberry hoecake and chilled torchon on toasted brioche with bergamot jam. This was an interesting dish. I was looking forward to the foie gras and I was expecting a savory dish. This was quite the opposite. This dish literally tasted like breakfast. The foie gras was served on these little pieces of hoecake a toasted brioche, and topped with berries. I thought I was eating blueberry pancakes. It was amazing and odd at the same time. Although delicious I wished I had been better able to taste the foie gras. Next time we go I am looking forward to a savory dish.

(We plan to go again in late winter because that is when Anthony Bourdain went. We actually had the same waitress yesterday as he did. In the show he has a pig ear salad and pea soup with smoked ham hack. It is a dish they serve right before we close for the winter, so we will need to go back and try that one.)

Next was the main courses. (I forgot to take a menu last night, so I am relying on their site, but it doesn't have the same menu. I will do my best to provide accurate descriptions of the dishes)

Jeremy ordered the pork belly appetizer as his main dish. Here is his review, "The belly was the best pork experience I've ever had. It was thick, juicy, soft and tender. It was served with a giant slice of tomato, that on it's own, ate like a steak. The only way I can describe how good this tasted would be like skiing your whole life on one of the fabulous mountains in New Jersey and you love it. (This is bacon as you know it) Then one day, someone says, "Hey, get on my private plane" and they take you to Park City Utah or Colorado and you spend the whole day on fresh powder. On a real mountain. (This is the pork belly)."

I ordered a dish that is not on their online menu and I will attempt to describe to you. It was a pasta dish with long hollow spaghetti like noodles, braised beef ribs and topped with a broccoli rabe pesto. I must admit that the noodles did look like woms are first, but once I started eating it, it didn't matter. The beef was so fantastic, savory and just perfect. The mild flavor of the pasta and the bold flavor of the beef were delicately accented by the subtle flavor of the pesto.

After all that food we declined dessert. However, with our bill they brought us chocolate ginger truffles and homemade marshmallows. The truffles were to die for, while the marshmallows were not. Making marshmallows that taste good isn't easy and I have yet to have a homemade one that I didn't want to spit out. This one was no exception.

All in all the food was fantastic. The service delightful. And the atmosphere, unforgettable.

As we walked to our cars, ready to embark on a 2 hour drive home, I held Max in my arms. It was an hour past his bedtime and as he laid his head on my shoulder I watched the hens take up there spot in the hen house for the night. The greenhouse and garden lay to my right. Everything they need in one spot. This is the way food should be.

I Just Spent $60 on Blueberries

After moving to Maine I noticed a very obvious trend. Canning was apparently very popular in New England. I never thought about canning before. My sister-in-law makes this amazing raspberry jam and jars it for everyone to enjoy, yet it never even crossed my mind to do it myself. It wasn't until I started really noticing the displays in stores that I started to think about doing it myself. It was during my frugal week, so I went to the library and took out some books on preserving food. I read some and then thought about what I wanted to make. I thought for a good week before I decided that I was going to make blueberry jam. I'm living in Maine and most of my family and friends aren't. I wanted to give them all a piece of Maine. I set off on my quest to get the berries. I won't go into all the details because they aren't that interesting, so I will cut to the chase.

This morning I picked up 15 pounds of wild Maine blueberries from Jordan's Farm. And then, after dinner, armed with An Idiots Guide to Preserving Food and a web video about making really fast and easy jam I set out to make some jam.

Before I started cooking I turned to Jeremy and said, "You know, I don't really like blueberries" as I watched him eat them by the handful from the box. Jeremy looked at me with that annoyed look he gives me when I admit to doing something ridiculous, like spending $60 on a fruit I don't even like. As I made the jam I thought about all my feelings that I have about blueberries and by the end, I was pretty sure that I understood it. Blueberries are great as long as they are cooked, raw... I'm not too crazy about.

I made a very small test batch, only about 10 ounces, and I really like it. Jeremy and I tested it on peanut butter and buttered toast and we cannot decide which we like best.

Here is what I did... I watched this video from The New York Times entitled The Minimalist: Fast Blueberry Jam and did exactly what he did. I added a tad of sugar and some lemon, other than that, it is all berries.

Then I jarred them and used a boiling water canner to seal the jars. When I was finished, I had two full jars and one half. But, now there is only one jar left :)

My Sport is Your Sport's Punishment

My sport is your sport's punishment? That sounds like a horrible sport; A sport I would never ever want to be part of. And that was true. A year ago today I thought running was the most insane sport and that only crazies ran. When I was about 16 years old, I tried to run, but as soon as I started, I would begin wheezing and coughing so hard that I thought I was coughing up blood. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I never tried again.

September 11, 2011 will mark my 1 year anniversary of running, a sport that I swore was for the mentally ill. What changed? What changed was that I gave birth. I had just packed on 30 pounds and now I felt I would be bound to my house with a newborn, probably eating my days away. I was a new mother, overwhelmed and looking to take short cuts. I ordered take-out for dinner several times a week and put off trying to get back in shape. When would I find the time? The energy? With little sleep and a new munchkin, it was easy to convince myself I couldn't do it.

Shortly after Max's birth, Jeremy took up running and decided that he was going to run the Philadelphia marathon. I thought he was crazy. I wouldn't run from my front door to the curb, let alone 26.2 miles. Regardless, I supported him and thought him insane only behind his back. Throughout his training, Jeremy exhibited great control over his work and family life. He was organized and seemed to have more positive energy than usual, and I thought... is he like this because of the running? Then my friend Gina started running too and started dropping the baby weight and then... she signed up for a 5K and asked me to do it too.

Gina was just like me, same height, same weight, and we both just had a baby. All of a sudden I felt like if Gina could do it, so could I. Immediately, without a further thought, I signed up for the same 5k she did and started to think about a plan.

Gina discovered running by using a program called the Couch to 5K Program. And it does exactly that... it takes you from the couch to running a 5k in just 9 weeks. But, I didn't have 9 weeks... I had 7.

My plan was to expedite the program. Instead of running 3 days a week and resting 4, I would run every other day. Some weeks I ran 4 times, some weeks I ran 3. This was my plan so I would be able to run the 5K. Running and not walking any part of the race was really important to me. And... the training began.

For those of you not familiar with the couch to 5k plan, it is a program designed to ease any non runner into running. The goal would be to get anyone to run 30 minutes straight. It starts out with a run that consists of 60 seconds of walking, 60 seconds of running, 60 seconds of walking, 60 seconds of running, for 30 minutes. It sounds quite easy, but I found it challenging. The next day they have you run for 90 seconds and walk for 60, until 30 minutes is up. That program continues to increase running time and decrease walking time until one day, before you know it you are running for 20 minutes straight and blazing through the center of town, feeling good.

And it was true, I wasn't just fooling or lying to make Gina or Jeremy feel better, I was really in love with running. It made me feel good. It gave me energy and improved my mood. Best of all, it took pounds off. I was, at that point, thinner than I was when I said "i do" the year prior. Things were good and it was all thanks to running.

On the 7th week of the couch to 5k program I ran my first 5K alongside Gina in Hoboken, NJ on October 30, 2010. I completed the 3.1 miles in 34:53:21 and did not walk any of it.

After that race, Jeremy went on to run the Philadelphia Marathon, which blew my mind. Jeremy was a marathoner. I could not have been more proud.

Running was invading our lives, taking us over and consuming time that would have been spent watching tv or arguing. This thing, that I hated and vowed never to do was making us happy. Then we started racing together and running together.

The thing about running is, it is great as long as you are doing it, but as soon as you stop, forget it... it is really hard to start again. You keep thinking that you can do things that you just can't any more. It's hard to understand that you have to start slow and increase your miles gradually. Even if you ran a marathon only a few months prior, with time off, you are going to have to start with fewer miles than you want. We all stop for different reasons. For us, it was the move from NJ to ME. Packing, Traveling, Moving, Unpacking... it all takes energy and time. We decided to take the energy and time that we were putting into running and stick it into moving for the time being. And with that, we lost the running.

On July 14, 2011 I turned 30 and Jeremy and I ran 3 miles, together with Max (in the stroller) alongside the crashing waves of the ocean in Maine. We had been in Maine for 3 months and that day was our wake-up day. That was the day the excuses stopped and the running hiatus ended. We vowed to one another, on that beach that we would run again.

I am currently signed up for a 10K on September 18, 2011, almost a year to the day I started running. I was hoping that this moment would have come sooner, but in some ways I am just happy to know that this moment is finally here. Jeremy will also be running. We have set up a training schedule and are following it as ridgedly as we can. Right now, the farthest we ran has been 3.5 miles. We have to make it up to 6 and I have no doubt in my mind that we will do it. We take Max with us on most of our runs and he seems to really love it. We hope when he grows up he will want to run. Cause, why not? Anyone can be a runner.

14 Days of Frugality- DAY FOURTEEN

Phew! We made it. It is day 14. It has been hard, but worth it. We will be making plans to extend the project and I am planning to continue to post recipes, our progress and frugal tips at least once a week. In phase 2, the rules will change slightly, for example we are adding weight lifting to our daily exercise and adding a treat fund so we can get something small we want several times a week like a cookie or ice cream. Also, starting tomorrow we will only be allowed to spend cash. This way every dollar we spend is touched. We hope this will help us connect more with our money and in turn, spend less.

Today we took a ride to Willard Beach, the last free beach in South Portland. It is a quiet, hidden beach that not many tourists visit. While there, we planned on straying from the spending rules as a kind of celebration. I purchased a BLT from a local organic market (most expensive place to buy a BLT in the world) and then we hit up the ice cream shop on the way home to indulge in a root beer float. Today's celebration cost us $19.

On a typical Sunday, before the project started, it wouldn't have been unusual for us to spend $19 at the beach on sandwiches and ice cream, and probably after getting home from a day in the sun we may feel entitled to take out. I estimate that dinner from our favorite Brit-Indi restaurant would run us $30. That's $49 on just a Sunday afternoon. Do that or a variation, 3 times a week and it's $150 a week or $600 a month! Everyone could use an extra $600 a month.

I know there are still ways for me to save. I have been dabbling with the idea of switching to some conventional produce and all natural meat instead of all organic. Organic often costs double what natural or conventional costs. But, some produce is so heavily sprayed with pesticides that it is better to buy it organic. I found this interesting bit of information from The Environmental Working Group and plan to follow their chart. I will buy the produce listed in "the dirty dozen" organic, and I will opt for conventional when it comes to the produce in the "clean 15" category.

"As a general rule, skinless or soft-skinned fruits and vegetables pose greater pesticide risk than produce with thick skins, shells, or peels that are not eaten. According to The Organic Center, imported berries, grapes, leafy greens, and other highly perishable foods have pesticide-residue scores as much as two or three times as high as the same domestically grown foods, so it’s worth noting where produce items come from."

Dirty Dozen (best to buy organic)

1. Celery

2. Peaches

3. Strawberries

4. Apples

5. Blueberries

6. Nectarines

7. Bell peppers

8. Spinach

9. Kale

10. Cherries

11. Potatoes

12. Grapes (imported)


Clean 15 (fewest pesticide residues)

1. Onions

2. Avocado

3. Sweet corn

4. Pineapples

5. Mango

6. Sweet peas

7. Asparagus

8. Kiwi fruit

9. Cabbage

10. Eggplant

11. Cantaloupe

12. Watermelon

13. Grapefruit

14. Sweet potatoes

15. Honeydew melon

I suggest that EVERYONE do a version of this project. If only for a week. It will open your eyes to what you spend and to what you think you need.

In addition to fattening our wallets, we shrunk our waist lines. Eating only homemade and doing 30-60 minutes of cardio a day yielded 5 pounds lost for Jeremy and 4 pounds lost for me. Yay!