2010 Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen

The Environmental Working Group has released its 2010 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides lists of fruits and vegetables.

Dirty Dozen - 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

Clean Fifteen - lowest in pesticides

1. Onions
2. Avocado
3. Sweet Corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Sweet Peas
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Cantaloupe
12. Watermelon
13. Grapefruit
14. Sweet Potato
15. Honeydew Melon

What to buy organic ...

The Environmental Working Group has composed 2 lists to help you decide which produce is worth the extra money to purchase organic - The Dirty Dozen - the 12 foods with the most pesticide residue & The Clean Fifteen - the 15 foods with the lowest levels of pesticide residue. If you can't afford to buy everything organic, be sure at least to purchase organics for the foods that appear on the Dirty Dozen List.

The Dirty Dozen:

1. peaches
2. apples
3. bell peppers
4. celery
5. nectarines
6. strawberries
7. cherries
8. kale
9. lettuce
10. imported grapes
11. carrots
12. pears

The Clean Fifteen:

1. onions
2. avocados
3. corn
4. pineapples
5. mangoes
6. asparagus
7. sweet peas
8. kiwi
9. cabbages
10. eggplants
11. papayas
12. watermelons
13. broccoli
14. tomatoes
15. sweet potatoes

What to eat organic

Eating organic will reduce your exposure to pesticides, but can be expensive. In these tough economic times, buying organic foods can strain some families' budgets. What can you do? By purchasing organics for the 12 foods with the highest levels of pesticides, you can reduce your exposure to over 90% of the most commonly used pesticides. What to buy organic -

1. Apples
2. Bell peppers
3. Celery
4. Cherries
5. Grapes
6. Nectarines
7. Peaches
8. Pears
9. Potatoes
10. Red raspberries
11. Spinach
12. Strawberries

Why go veg?

Choosing to eat vegetarian is not just an ethical decision it is an environmental one. Factory farms use extreme amounts of water and grains and produce tons of CO2 emissions. How much of a difference can a vegetarian diet make?

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save 100 billion gallons of water, 70 million gallons of gas and 3 million acres of land. We would also eliminate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as what all of France produces!

Not ready to go completely vegetarian - make a difference for your family's and the planet's health by choosing to serve at least once vegetarian meal a week. Will this make a difference - you bet! According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads.

Celebrate Earth Day this week with a vegetarian meal. Looking for some great vegetarian recipes? Check out www.vegweb.com

Vegan Wheat Bread

Yesterday I made a delicious batch of homemade bread. It disappears pretty quick around here, but can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week. Enjoy.


Vegan Wheat Bread

2 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups organic whole wheat flour
2-3 cups organic unbleached white flour
2 tablespoon of yeast or two packages
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon salt

Mix water, yeast and 1 tablespoon of the molasses together in a large bowl. Pour in 3 cups of wheat flour and mix well. Cover the bowl with a towel and let sit for a 30 minutes.

Pour in the rest of the molasses, oil, soy milk and salt. Mix together. Begin adding flour, a 1 cup at a time. I mix the dough in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook until it is smooth and elastic, but you can also knead by hand.

Split the dough into two, equal parts. Shape them into loaves and place them into two greased bread pans. Cover pans with a towel in a warm place and let the dough rise until it doubles in size, about an hour to an hour and a half.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Should you preheat your oven?

As the holiday season rolls around, many people increase the use of their home's oven. Most recipes will call for you to preheat the oven, but is this step really necessary? Preheating the oven uses a lot of energy to heat up a small amount of air which then escapes when you open the door to put your food in. When older recipes were developed, wood & coal ovens were slow to heat, therefore preheating made sense to our ancestors and early cookbook authors. With modern electrical or natural gas ovens, preheating may save some cook time but wastes a lot of energy in the process. When cooking remember these energy saving tips:

1. Don't preheat your oven.
2. While your food is cooking avoid opening the oven door to peek at your food.
3. Cover your pots when boiling water.
4. Consider turning off your oven a short time before the food is done. With the door closed, it will retain the heat.