How To: Clean Your Produce!

Happy October everyone! I am so super syked for this month BECAUSE my husband might come home! I say might, because this is how the military works, they tell you nothing. So while October 17, he will officially have fulfilled his 180 day deployment (180 days is such a long time y'all!) I most likely won't see him until around November 1. Bummer. But that's better than December 1, right? Right. I have to take the little wins. ALSO (and I'm far less excited about this part) today I started my Whole 30 paleo challenge. 30 days of protein and produce, basically. So this morning I went and re-loaded on a bunch of fruits & veggies and I thought I'd give everyone a quick look at how I clean them so they are all prepped for the week.

I used to just give my produce a quick rinse with plain water and think I was home free, but of course now that I actually give significant thought into what I put into my body I realize the majority of produce is covered in a bunch of BS. SO this is what I do now:

Start with a clean sink, fill half-way ish with warm water. Add a full cup of white vinegar and stir. 

Dump all your fresh goodies in the vinegar/ water mixture and let sit for 10 minutes. This includes anything where you eat the skin or if it has a very thin skin. You don't need to wash bananas or avocados etc. that have a super thick protective coating. As you can see my haul today included 4 sweet potatoes (my obsession!), 3 apples, 2 pears, 2 zucchini, and a crate of grape tomatoes I just dropped in without even opening. :-)

Drain the water.

Give 'em a good rinse. Now all your goodies are ready to go all week! Yay! 

I am doing a chicken recipe tonight too that I will post tomorrow:) Mustard- balsamic chicken YUM! Everybody have a good night! Happy Monday!