Jack's Harvest

Green Cleaning 101 with Jack’s Mom, Heather

Yes, I know, the Pine Sol lady says that you can smell the clean if your home smells like the forest in the Pacific Northwest, but a really clean home really shouldn’t smell like anything – except clean!

An overhaul of your cleaning supplies is such an easy and economical change that you can make to your home. Most cleaning tasks (even the yucky ones) can be handled with a combination of a few basic tools. So how do you get started? For one thing, throw away – yes, just get rid of all the products you have in your home with Chlorine Bleach. It is evil and unnecessary and causes a host of health and environmental issues that we can all do without. [1]. Next, make a trip to your local buy in bulk store, dollar store or supermarket to stock up on the basics. Buy the cheapest kind you can because vinegar is vinegar no matter how fancy or plain the packaging is. Buy the largest size you can safely store in your home as well because these don’t go bad and you will use them often.

OK, here is your shopping list:

• Baking Soda – be sure to read the label as there are a million ways to use this product!
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Rubbing Alchohol
• Cheap Olive Oil – not the stuff you use for salads!
• Vinegar – white, household vinegar is all you need
• Phosphate free dish soap
• Spray bottles

You may also want to get fancy and buy some essential oils in whatever fragrance you prefer. They seem pretty expensive, but they go a long way and are infinitely cheaper than the pre-fragranced cleaners in the store. Add a total of 30-70 drops of your favorite Essential Oils to any of these recipes. The aromatherapy almost makes cleaning bearable – almost!

Cleaning Recipes

Window and Glass Cleaner

2 cups water
1 cup vinegar
1 tsp liquid detergent

Furniture Polish

My cousin owns a fine furniture store and was appalled to see me dusting with store bought spray. Evidently, all that stuff does is add a coating of wax to your furniture that attracts more dust! She recommends that you use a damp cloth (old receiving blankets are ideal for this purpose), add a little of this polish and buff well.
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup olive oil
25 drops Orange EO

All Purpose Cleaner

Kitchen and bathroom disinfectant – NOT FOR GRANITE
2 cups water
1 cup vinegar
2 tsp baking soda

Tub & Tile Cleaner

I just spray this after every shower and leave it on.
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
½ cup hydrogen peroxide
40 drops Tea Tree oil – a natural disinfectant!

Air Freshener

1 cup water
1 ½ ounces of rubbing alcohol
45 drops eucalyptus oil
45 drops orange oil

[1] Breathing in the fumes of cleaners containing a high concentration of chlorine can irritate the lungs. This is particularly dangerous for people suffering from heart conditions or chronic respiratory problems such as asthma or emphysema. And the risks are compounded when the cleaners are used in small, poorly ventilated rooms, such as the bathroom. Chlorine is also a highly corrosive substance, capable of damaging skin, eyes, and other membranes. Chlorine was listed as a hazardous air pollutant in the 1990 Clean Air Act, and exposure to chlorine in the workplace is regulated by federal standards.

As parents, we all know that tummy time during waking hours is important to our babies’ motor development. But did you know there is a different kind of tummy time that is just as important to your baby’s developing digestive system? It’s true. The benefits of infant massage are well-documented and have been used by other cultures around the world for generations. Fortunately, today more American families are discovering the powers of infant massage for themselves.

While there are many different massage techniques, the tummy stokes may be the most valuable because they not only promote early communication and bonding with your baby, they also encourage improved digestion and immune system functioning. The best thing about these stokes is they are simple and fun to perform with your baby. Tummy stokes are based on our anatomy, so by making gentle clockwise circle-strokes (tracing just below the rib cage at top / just inside the hips at sides / just below the belly button at bottom) around the center of your baby’s tummy, you can literally help move along painful gas and digestive material through your baby’s system. Research conducted at the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami says that this massage technique not only helps to reduce infant colic, it further breaks down food which relates to improved immune system functioning. Tummy stokes can be performed for 3 to 5 minutes at a time and the optimal time to perform these strokes may be during baths and before or after naps. Ironically, you must place your baby on her back to perform these stokes so don’t forget to practice that “other” type of tummy time when you are finished!

Marc Castelo, MPT, CEIM
Director
Play-2-Grow

Here is a great recipe for dinner it also makes a great chicken salad the next day.  My family likes things spicy so you can change up the mild chile paste for a medium or spicy.  I also like to use the light coconut milk – tastes just as good and less fat.

This week is Lip Smackin’ Sweet Potatoes.  We do some pretty special stuff to our sweet pots to make them so creamy and delicious.  I have had many requests for an adult line of our sweet potatoes to which I always say, it’s not just for babies!  We roast the sweet potatoes in their skin and they get caramelized and so sweet – the kitchen is an aromatic place to be on sweet potato day.  If that isn’t enough to convince you and your baby, we also add cinnamon and vanilla to the puree to make sure that is is delectable.  The sweet potatoes are great mixed with cream cheese and spread on toast for your toddler and I am also adding links to our sweet potato chicken nuggets and twice baked sweet potatoes for your bigger kids/husbands/neighbors….

Sweet and Sneaky Brownies
Add 4 oz. of lip-smacking sweet potatoes to your favorite brownie mix. Bake and enjoy! Our sweet potato puree adds a nice bit of sweetness and Vitamin A. It also makes the brownies moister and no one knows they are eating their veggies!

Twice Baked Sweet Pots
Put lip-smacking sweet potatoes in ramekins sprayed with organic cooking spray. Set out mini marshmallows, brown sugar, raisins, salsa, cheddar cheese, scallions, broccoli and let your kids choose their toppings. Place on foil lined baking dish and put in oven for 7 minutes or until bubbly.

Lip-Smackin’ Chicken Nuggets

24 organic chicken strips
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons organic butter
2 organic eggs, scrambled lightly
2 bags of Jack’s Harvest Lip-Smacking Sweet Potatoes (24 oz. thawed)

DRY INGREDIENTS:
2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup organic flax seed meal
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Add the butter to a pyrex dish and put in the oven. The butter should be browning and bubbly before the chicken is put in the dish.

Ok, so I’m not Oprah, but I do have a list of some of my favorite things both here in Atlanta and nationally.  A lot of the companies are mama-preneurs like Connie and me and all of them make incredibly cool stuff!  We are going to be featuring some of our favorites in the upcoming weeks and wanted to start with one of our and Cheryl Crow’s favorite lines of kid’s clothing.

1. Tiny Revolutionary http://www.tinyrevolutionary.com/ - with organic T-shirts that say things like War is Poop (my fave) this hip, adorable line of clothing is fast becoming a staple of our kid’s wardrobes.  I think they say it best so I’ll butt out and let Bree Ann one of the owner’s talk about her product in her own words.  Tiny Revolutionary offers the most unique, cool, organic baby tees on the web. Most of our tees are Organic and all are Sweatshop Free and printed using Water-Based Inks which mean no harmful chemicals and a soft hand feel. With inspiring, unique messages of peace, hope and love, Tiny Revolutionary baby tee’s are the most unique baby gifts you will find anywhere! Plus, the fabrics are the best you’ll ever feel. Whether you’re buying for yourself or looking for a unique “wow” gift for a loved one’s baby, you will find something great in our store. Plus, $1 from the sale of each tee goes to children’s charities like Engineers Without Borders and Ethiopian Orphan Relief. Tiny Revolutionary baby tees truly are the gifts that keep on giving!

I don’t know about you, but I get really tired of thinking about that questions week after week and unless I have time on Sunday to pull out the cookbooks, plan our weekly menu, go shopping, prep the produce, etc.  we do tend to get in a rut.  Fridays are pizza night and we usually order from the pizza place across the street, but last week we decided to make our own pizzas and they were amazing.  I even got to sneak in some veggies and no one noticed (or cared!).  Here is my VERY simple pizza recipe.

• Pizza dough (I just get mine from Whole Foods – they have whole wheat and it is easier for me)
• Pizza sauce http://www.jacksharvest.com/NoSassSpaghettiSauce.html
• Cheese (I like mozzerella and parm)
• Favorite toppings (we love mixed peppers, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and pepperoni)
• 5 defrosted JH Yummy Bunny Carrots

If you have a pizza stone put it in the oven at 500 and let it get really hot.  Flour your counter space and start working the dough.  Don’t be afraid to throw it in the air like at the pizza place  -  it is really fun and the kids think it is so cool.  Once you get it to where it is sort of round (mine are all a bit oblong) pull out your pizza stone, stretch the dough on the stone CAREFULLY it is so hot! and spread the carrot puree (I use the bottom of a ladle), then spread the pizza sauce, add your cheese and toppings and bake for about 12 minutes.  It is the best pizza you have ever had and the kids have a ball helping out with this one.  I serve with a salad or some broccoli and then movie night can begin.

Yet another reason to either make your own baby food or buy Jack’s Harvest.  The estrogen-mimicking chemical bisphenol A is widely found in baby food sold in glass jars in Canada, according to a survey conducted by Health Canada that found the compound in about 84 per cent of samples.

Although Health Canada said the amounts were too low to be a health concern, the highest levels detected were similar to the readings that last year prompted the federal agency to ban the chemical from polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and to direct infant formula makers to cut the amounts in liquid forms of their product.

The survey was posted on a Health Canada website earlier this week and is one of the most extensive conducted to date on the bisphenol A content of baby food from glass containers. Although glass doesn’t contain BPA, a plastic making compound, it is often used on the liners of metal jar lids.

Some scientists have expressed concern over BPA because it is a chemical never found in nature and is able to act like estrogen in living things, leading to worries that its presence in food means people are getting an extra dollop of the female hormone. Experimentals with test animals have linked it to breast cancer and other hormonally induced medical conditions, some at doses to which humans are exposed.

Our bags do not contain BPA and we use silicone molds when freezing our products so there is no risk of feeding your baby this harmful chemical.  As always, if you microwave our food use glass or ceramic.  

In speaking with a new Jack’s Harvest fan this morning I realized that we probably don’t toot our green horn loudly enough so to put all my green moms and dads at their ease here are the policies we live by at Jack’s Harvest.

1.  No chemicals.  We clean with baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, steam and lemon juice.  That is all.

2.  Green Pest control.  Northwest one of the pioneers and leaders in green pest control uses botanicals to keep our kitchen pest free and we NEVER see a bug.  It really has amazed our landlord as he wasn’t sure it would work.

3.  Stainless steel pots and pans.  No aluminum, no leaching.

4.  Silicone molds to freeze our product in.  BPA is released from plastics whenever the there is a severe change in temperature – so freezing as well as heating plastic will release this chemical – we don’t like it and won’t have it in your baby’s food.

5.  HACCP certification requires that we document EVERYTHING.  We joke that if someone sneezes, the time of the sneeze, duration, who witnessed the sneeze would all be in our paperwork.  We know where we get all of our raw goods, keep the farms’ organic certificate on file, know the lot number of the raw goods and all this is documented and filed.  We keep track of each bag of baby food made – we know what raw goods were used to produce it, when it was made, who made it and where the bag ended up.  We also monitor freezer and cooler temperatures through the day, clean and disinfect between each batch, change our aprons and gloves between batches and wear gloves at all times.

6.  We recycle and compost almost all the trash in this kitchen we have a small bag of trash at the end of the day and we like to keep it that way.

7.  Our bags are BPA free and recyclable.

8.  We wash our dishes with phosphate free dish cleaner and wash our aprons in all natural detergent.

9.  If the produce isn’t perfect we don’t use it.

10.  We take pride in our facility and welcome visits anytime if you are in the area, please come and see us.

I’m sure that I am missing something, but please know that food safety is number one here and we know that it can be done in a green, sustainable way.  Thank you for trusting Jack’s Harvest with precious babies, we take that responsibility seriously.

We love the flavor What A Pear, what we don’t love is the absolute race for time that it requires to keep the pears that gorgeous white color we all love.  We have the whole team here racing around like crazy people trying to get the pears from pot to puree to mold in light speed.  We are finding that it is harder and harder for us to do that so while the color of your pears may be a bit more ecru or tan than white please be assured that the quality and taste have not been compromised in any way.  We like for the pears to be ripe before we make them so they are extra sweet and juicy for baby.  We just aren’t willing to use green pears that aren’t quite ripe in order to make the color white.  Flavor and quality come first here PERIOD.  So, if your next batch of pears is a little tanner than usual don’t worry, the recipe is the same, the amount of cinnamon is the same, and most importantly the taste is the same.

There are a lot of buzz words in the green/sustainable world but a newish concept is that of clean eating.  Put quite simply it is consuming whole foods without artificial anything, no trans fatty acids, no high fructose syrup, nothing that is made in a factory in New Jersey.  The nutritional label on clean food would be easily read and all the ingredients recognizable and easy to pronounce.  In essence your food would be made for the most part by your family and would contain organic, local produce as well as hormone and additive free protein.  Easy enough, right?  Well, not always.  We are a busy society and as the fast food moguls of the world well know it is hard to plan menus, shop, cook, clean up every night, but the benefit your family will see by trying to eat clean MOST of time are truly impressive.  Here are some ideas to help make clean eating convenient eating.

1.  Slow Cooker – I love mine – we bought a slow cooker recipe book and a couple of days a week my husband or I fill it with something great and forget about it.  What a joy to come home to a house filled with the aroma of Pot Roast – OMG!

2.  Salads – not the boring iceberg lettuce ones.  Fill yours with fresh veggies (cleaned and chopped the day before), chick peas, feta cheese, chicken from dinner the night before and dress with olive oil, lemon juice salt and pepper.  Serve with some crusty bread from the local bakery and dinner is served!

3.  Soups – even in the summer I love soup.  Gazpacho is amazingly easy to make and since it is served chilled make a batch ahead of time and serve with the salad above and bread and I dare anyone to not love dinner. I also make big batches of Chicken Noodle, Potato Leek, Minestrone and other faves and freeze them so dinner is always just a few minutes away.

4.  Spaghetti Sauce – brown some organic all natural turkey, chicken or beef and add a couple of cans of organic sauce serve over whole wheat pasta and Voila – as always, make a lot extra and freeze. I also always add three or four Jack’s Harvest cubes of peas and carrots to my sauces.

5.  Get the grill out on the weekend and grill a bunch of fish, chicken and beef so that all you have to do is make the veggie and starch to complete your meal.  We are big on CousCous at my house mostly because it takes about 5 minutes to make.

6.  Make your brown rice and oatmeal ahead of time as well and put into single serving dishes and you won’t be waiting for hours for your rice to cook.

7.  Enlist your whole family’s help in this new way of eating.  You will need help, prepping, cleaning and cooking dinner and there is no reason why the kids can’t get involved.  My girls help set the table, clear the table and a couple of night a week put the dishes in the dishwasher.  They are learning important life skills and I don’t feel so overwhelmed.  We also all enjoy a meal together whenever it is possible so if they help it happens more often.

Convenience doesn’t only come from the drive-thru. With a little planning, some help from the family and a slow cooker, you can eat clean and not break the bank or your back to do so.