Preparing Food for Winter

Maybe you aren't a canner or you just don't have anymore more room for cans. Try freezing some of the excess from your garden! I just finished some tomatoes to freeze and it was so simple. You have to prepare the tomatoes just as you would for canning. Peel (which is easier if you put in hot water til skin starts to peel then place them in cold water and peel) then chop them up however you would like them and place into freezer bags.
You can even freeze fresh herbs! Place in freezer bags chopped or whole depending on how you think you will use them, make sure the air is out of the bags and place in freezer. I have even seen where some people freeze basil in ice trays with water then when frozen they take them out and put them in a freezer bag.
The amount of food you can freeze is pretty easy to judge just by what you can buy frozen at a grocery store. Obviously lettuce, cucumbers and celery wouldn't do well but carrots, peppers, tomatoes, peas...and the list goes on can be frozen. Who wouldn't want to eat the produce from the garden over produce bagged, froze, shipped, and from the grocery store. I'm going to need a bigger freezer!

Green Nursing

So as the time draws closer for baby, the more I am looking into what can be reused and recycled with breastfeeding. I went to the store to find somethings that are reusable. Unfortunately, they don't offer these at just any store. So I did some research into what I may already have around the house.

Some nursing containers that you can find in the store can be made of PVC and can leak toxins into the milk, such as BPA. They are getting better at making storage bags that don't do this but think of all the plastic waste by the time you are done breastfeeding. The chemicals that can leak into the milk have been associated with hormone disruption, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and other health concerns. Plastic bags made of polyethylene show no chemicals leaking but have shown that some nutrients from the milk cling to the plastic instead of going into the bottle where you want them to be.

Glass canning jars, which are already in my kitchen, can be cleaned out in high heat and be a perfect way to have a cheaper and greener way of storing breast milk. The jars can be bought in many different sizes. Only fill them a little over halfway and store in the fridge. They can be put directly into hot water to heat the milk too.

If you have a large amount of breastmilk and want to freeze you should check out milk trays at www.sensiblelines.com. They aren't too expensive and you can freeze breast milk in 1 ounce cubes. After putting the milk in the trays and freezing, pop the cubes out and place into freezer bags which are probably already in your kitchen and then date it. Now the tray is ready for another use.

Hopefully this helped you as much as it helped me. Now to find out what else I can make reusable to save money, waste, and make safer for the new addition.