A NOTE FROM LESLIE I t’s starting to warm up outside and we are all anxious to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine . Weather you like to garden , bake or clean; this issue has something or everyone.
Chef Kerry Dunnington shared three of her favorite recipes with us that are perfect for lighter eating.
We also have some cleaning hacks that will get you through your day and outside with a glass of lemonade. I’m enjoying sharing all these great ideas for a cleaner, greener lifestyle. tTank you for coming along on the journey with me. I’m thankful for each and every one of you.
Leslie
RED CABBAGE SALAD WITH MANGO, AVOCADO, FETA AND CASHEWS 4 cups shredded red cabbage 1 cup cubed ripe mango 1 ripe avocado, cut into bite-sized pieces ½ red pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces 2 scallions (green onions), thinly sliced ½ cup crumbled feta cheese ½ cup roasted, salted cashews Salt and pepper, to taste 1. In a large bowl, gently toss the cabbage, mango, avocado, red pepper and scallions. 2. Lightly coat the salad with celery seed dressing and toss to combine evenly. 3. Toss in feta cheese and cashews and season with salt and pepper.
Serve immediately. 4 to 6 servings
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Home cooking is the ideal way to nourish us: We can select healthy ingredients that support development, immunity, repair, and even detox certain toxic chemicals from our bodies. We can also have more control over materials that may contaminate our diet.
While there are benefits to our abundant dietary choices, the wealth of options can be overwhelming and create confusion about how best to eat. The tips below make how to nourish our bodies and minimize toxic exposures from our diet more simple.
Maximize your portion of plant-based meals and snacks. In addition to many studies that prove the benefits of a plant-based diet, certain toxicants are attracted to fat so their concentrations are higher in animals and their byproducts, as well as fatty seafood. So, by reducing your consumption of animal protein, you’re reducing your exposure to toxicants. By increasing your intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains, you’re also increasing nutrients that help your health’s resiliency. Maximize natural, whole foods; minimize processed foods. Minimizing processed foods will reduce your exposures to chemicals used as artificial additives and in packaging materials.
Organic is ideal. When prioritizing your
budget, items that are higher in fat—dairy, meat, and poultry—and the Dirty Dozen, a list by the Environmental Working Group of produce with the highest levels of pesticides, should be placed higher on the priority list.
Safer food and beverage containers are made of glass and stainless steel.
Chemicals from packaging materials, like plastics, can leach chemicals into your food and drinks.
Drink lots of filtered water. Use a filter that suits your water supply.
Beware of nonstick pots and pans. The nonstick formula may contaminate your diet (and our planet) with PFCs, a class of toxic chemicals that are estimated to be on our planet for decades
Sophia Ruan Gushée is the author of A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures, described as “a great guide for people to reduce their toxic exposures from consumer products” is available on Amazon.
A Miracle Whitening Formula for Your Laundry By Leslie Reichert Miracle Laundry Whitening Formula for a top loading washing machine ¼ cup powdered automatic dish washing detergent ¼ powdered oxygen bleach or liquid chlorine bleach ¼ borax ¼ liquid or powder laundry soap Dissolve the powdered ingredients in 1/3 cup boiling water (boil in a microwave safe container until it reaches a full boil). Mix in the liquid ingredients and add the entire mixture to the water in the washing machine before placing the pillows in the water. Make sure the entire mixture is evenly distributed in the water. Wash at the hottest water setting and the highest spin cycle. Remove and place the pillows in the dryer with four dryer balls to make them dry faster and come out of the dryer nice and fluffy. Miracle Laundry Whitening Formula for a front loading washing machine 1 T powdered automatic dish washing detergent 1 T powdered oxygen bleach 1 T borax 1 T liquid laundry soap Dissolve the powdered ingredients in 1/3 cup boiling water (boil in a microwave safe container until it reaches a full boil). Mix in the liquid ingredients and add the entire mixture into the laundry soap dispenser in the machine. Wash at the hottest water setting and the highest spin cycle. Remove and place the pillows in the dryer with four dryer balls to make them dry faster and come out of the dryer nice and fluffy.
What products are you using that contribute to poor air quality?
RI eco educated
When Providence-based journalist Frank Carini and marketing strategist Joanna Detz launched the nonprofit online news organization ecoRI News in 2009, they dreamed big but started small. Born of a perceived lack of reporting on environmental and social justice issues in southern New England, ecoRI News has quickly become the go-to environmental news source for Rhode Island lawmakers, policymakers, educators, scientists, activists, and citizens alike.
"The region is facing so many big challenges related to climate change, food security and land use," said Detz, who is ecoRI News' executive director. "It is our role as journalists to give people the information they need to become better stewards of the environment and to hold policymakers accountable for the decisions they make." As the news organization grew, Carini and Detz decided they wanted to do more than just report on the environment. They wanted their organization to have a direct impact in Rhode Island communities through education and outreach. In 2010, they created a public outreach arm of ecoRI, which they charged with offline/real-world education. As part of this effort, staffers conduct educational presentations at schools and businesses about relevant environmental issues. In 2012, the organization gave more than 100 presentations to school kids about how to reduce waste at home by recycling and composting. In 2013, ecoRI launched a residential food-scrap collection program called ecoRI Earth that has diverted roughly 70,000 pounds of food scrap from the Central Landfill to small urban farms where the material is used to grow more local food. These outreach programs work in tandem with the news side of the organization to give citizens the information and the tools they need to become better stewards of the environment. ecoRI News, with a full-time staff of just four, is still small, but it is making a big difference in southern New England. Learn more at ecori.org.
Water: we can’t live without it. In fact, we can’t be without it: the human body is approximately 70% water. Every single cell, tissue, and organ in our bodies needs water to function properly. Whether it’s delivering oxygen to the cells in our blood, helping to flush out toxins, aiding in digestion, or protecting our vital organs, water is undoubtedly the most essential compound on Earth. Unfortunately, access to fresh, clean, healthy water is anything but universal. Even in the United States, where public water sources are among the cleanest in the world, comprehensive laboratory analysis has found over 300 dangerous chemicals in the common tap water we all have in our homes. Most infamously, the entire population of Flint, Michigan—over 100,000 people—has been exposed to dangerous levels of lead and other toxins through their drinking water. The forthcoming government effort to rebuild the Flint infrastructure and restore a healthful supply of tap water to the city’s residents is projected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and will take years to be completed. When it comes to poor quality water, Michigan is not alone. According to the U.S. EPA, there are over 100 potentially damaging chemicals and 12 microbes that are known to commonly occur in public water systems, but these chemicals are not yet regulated. A few of these harmful contaminants include: Disinfection byproducts (carcinogens) Perchlorate (rocket fuel) MTBE (gasoline additive) Prescription drug residue like Anti-Depressants; and Hormones from birth control. Some of these chemicals have been linked to cancer, bone disease, hip fractures, and even lower IQ; but because the U.S. Government does not require any testing for drugs in the water supply or set safety limits for drug contamination, it may be decades before we know the long-term effects of consuming tainted tap water. And yet, research published in the Journals of Clinical Oncology found that the more water someone drinks, the less likely they are to develop bladder, colon, and breast cancers. But how can we drink more water, if every time we turn on the tap we’re afraid of what might come out? In search of a consistent source of dependably great drinking water, many consumers are forced to turn to the massive bottling conglomerates. These bottled waters are frequently expensive, cumbersome, and of no better quality than water produced by the average tap filter. The AquaTru water purifying system, on the other hand, is anything but average. It’s a breakthrough countertop water filtration system that, with its unique and comprehensive process, leaves other filtration products way behind. The Competition There’s no doubt that many off-the-shelf filters can produce cleaner, better tasting water than the average American tap (which isn’t saying much). But they all suffer from one problem: they are painstakingly slow. That’s because most of the filters in those products are gravity filters—meaning they rely on the water in the reservoir ever so slowly dripping through the purifying filter into the dispensing area below—a process that can take hours to produce just a couple of gallons of filtered water. On top of that, these filters are just that: filters. They’re products designed to remove simple chemicals (i.e. chlorine), but for the most part, they’re unable to do anything other than make your water taste better. What you want is better-tasting and safer water. By contrast, the AquaTru system purifies water at lightning speed using reverse osmosis technology that also removes toxic elements down to single-digit parts per billion levels. The AquaTru is able to speed up the traditional purification process by using a small, silent pump that accelerates the water through its comprehensive four-stage filtration. Incredibly, the Aquatru’s TruPure 4-stage filter removes more than 30x the contaminants of the best-selling pitcher water filter. The AquaTru manages all this while still maintaining its compact, attractive form factor that looks fantastic on any kitchen countertop. And it’s completely mobile, so you can have clean, pure water at home or on the go. Despite its advanced technology, the AquaTru system requires no plumbing whatsoever—a first among systems in its class. For perfectly filtered water, simply add water into a removable tap water reservoir, place it in the standalone base, and the AquaTru filters the water automatically. This unique, streamlined process produces ultra-clean water in a BPA-
free receptacle that can easily be detached and refrigerated on its own. After it’s been properly chilled, the AquaTru has its own dispenser for convenient serving. Best of all, the AquaTru system removes over 100 toxic chemicals and heavy metals from tap water, and through its unique filtration process, is able to significantly reduce the concentration of many, many more. According to a recent lab test, the AquaTru system eliminated over 98% of eight toxic elements most commonly found in polluted water sources. Lead = 99.90% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Cesium = 100.00% ELMINATED with AquaTru Arsenic = 99.90% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Cadmium = 100.00% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Copper = 99.79% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Mercury = 100.00% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Strontium = 98.80% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Uranium = 100.00% ELIMINATED with AquaTru Aluminum = 92.99% ELIMINATED with AquaTru AquaTru is so strong, it can even turn Diet Coke into pure water. Of course, it would be easier to simply open the tap...But that’s how powerful the AquaTru really is. Thanks to AquaTru, we can now make our own better-than-bottled water for just pennies a gallon. Even better, we avoid contributing to the extraordinary pollution caused by plastic water bottles (and their copious packaging) ending up in our landfills and waterways. It’s a total win-win. But the environmental benefits don’t end there. With the petroleum used to create those plastic bottles alone, we could produce enough fuel to power 1 million cars for an entire year; include the fuel necessary to transport that water all over the country and we’d no doubt fuel thousands more. When you get down to it, it just makes good sense to purify your own water. It's less expensive, more environmentally sound, and—as the science proves—it produces better quality water. But before AquaTru perfected its reverse osmosis filtration technology, water purification was a time-consuming, inefficient process. No longer. The AquaTru system is the perfect combination of speed, filtration effectiveness and usability.Plus, its minimal energy usage (about $2.00 a year for the average family of four) means it’s super-affordable, too. That means the high quality, delicious drinking water that our families (and even our pets) deserve is totally within reach, more than ever before. And no matter how the water quality provided by local sources keeps plunging, better-than-bottled water will always be available from the countertop AquaTru system. That’s because it: - Requires no additional plumbing - Filters out heavy metals, fluoride and toxic elements - Conserves water compared to traditional RO systems - Filters water FAST - Is virtually silent - Removes pharmaceuticals, chlorine, pesticides, fluoride, bacteria and much more…
How do you get it? Well, the AquaTru water filter system is so new that it's currently in preproduction, but it will be shipping to pre-order customers before the end of the year. Clean Green Living readers can get a special discount of 40% off on orders placed before July 12th via this link. Don't wait! The pre-order price will NOT stay this low for long!
Yes, I want perfectly clean water for my home!
Cranberry and White Cabbage Salad -Kerry Dunnington 5 cups white cabbage, shredded 1½ cups sliced celery, ¼-inch size pieces 1 large apple, chopped ⅓ cup dried cranberries ⅓ cup toasted sunflower seeds In a large bowl, combine cabbage, celery, chopped apple, cranberries and sunflower seeds. Toss the salad with the Apple Cider Celery Seed Dressing with just enough dressing to coat the ingredients. Serve immediately. 8 servings
Celery Seed Dressing ⅓ cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1 teaspoon freshly minced onion ¼ cup apple cider vinegar 1 cup canola or neutral oil 1 teaspoon celery seeds In a medium bowl, combine sugar, salt and dry mustard. Add onion and apple cider vinegar and whisk until sugar has dissolved. Slowly add oil and whisk until dressing thickens. Add celery seeds and whisk until well blended.
Transfer to a 2-cup jar with a tight-fitting lid and serve immediately or refrigerate until serving time. Allow the dressing to come to room temperature before using. Shake well prior to using. Yield: About 1½ cups
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Outdoor clea
To start this project remove all your deck or patio furniture, grills, and pots from the area. It’s so much easier to clean an open area than trying to work around things. Once you’ve removed everything, use your leaf blower on a gentle setting to remove leaves, dust, and dirt. Then grab a stiff broom and sweep spider webs and dirt from windows and outdoor walls. Next, we will work from the top of the area to the flooring. Using two microfiber cloths, wash and dry the exterior windows near the area. Then, using a gentle cleaner and a few tablespoons of oxygen bleach, we will scrub the walls and rails to remove any mold or mildew. After a long dark winter your hard surfaces may have a green mildew that may need to be power washed. If you are using a power washer be very careful to avoid damaging the surface with a high powered water stream. Now that the area is cleared of the winter dirt, we can start to work on the furniture. Each type of furniture needs to be cleaned in a specific way. Here are the types of surfaces that you may have to clean: Plastic furniture is made from either PVC or PD plastics. These plastics are made to withstand the weather with additives that help withstand sun and fungus. But even with these additives your furniture still need a good cleaning in the spring. Use a gentle cleaner and a scrub brush to remove built up dirt and grime. To remove stains or mildew use a few tablespoons of oxygen bleach in a bucket of hot water and scrub the surfaces completely and rinse thoroughly. Fabrics need to be cleaned with great care. If you have a weather resistant fabric on your pillows and covers you can pop them into the washing machine on a gentle cycle using a simple laundry soap and warm water. Harsh detergents and hot water
Power washer
aning
Stiff bristled broom Microfiber cloths Hose with adjustable nozzle Petite rake Blower Scraper Touch up paint Stiff bristle scrub brush Hair dryer Spray paint Gentle dish soap Bucket
can affect the protective coating on these fabrics. If the fabrics come out of the wash with mold or mildew stains, you can treat them with a solution of oxygen bleach and water, scrub them with a stiff brush, then run them back through the washing machine. Avoid using chlorine bleach as it can break down the protective coating and fade the colors in the fabric. Metal furniture can be power washed - if it is extremely dirty or you can wash it with a gentle soap and a microfiber cloth. Rust spots can be brushed with a metal brush or sandpaper, then wiped clean and treated with a rust preventive paint to treat the damaged areas on the metal. Make sure the metal is clean and dry before painting. It’s best to wait for a warm, dry day before trying to paint the metal as humidity can affect the paint. Wood furniture is usually made from a wood that naturally resists decay. You can use a sealant to protect the furniture, but it will affect that “worn” look that most people love in wooden outdoor furniture. Instead of sealing it, just wash it with a mixture of soap and oxygen bleach to remove stains and mildew. Tough areas can be scrubbed with a scrub brush and rinsed with a gentle setting on your hose. Extreme stains from metal screws in the wood can be sanded and then rinsed. The areas will have a different hue to them for a while but will weather just like the rest of the piece. Wicker furniture tends to need attention every season. Because it is made from an expandable fiber, paint or coatings tends to crack during freezing and thawing periods. Start by brushing off any large debris with a stiff bristled brush. Then using a metal brush, scrape off loose paint. Use your blower or even a hair dryer to get into tight spots in the wicker. Once the loose paint is removed, use spray paint to spot treat the bare fibers. If it was a very bad winter you may need to repaint the entire piece. For more cleaning tips, visit www.greencleaningcoach.com