Your friendly neighbourhood pusher

No, normally I wouldn't endorse a whole heck of a lot of materialism, and my blog (hopefully) doesn't tend to read like an infomercial. But today, you're getting a dose of it. I'd like to introduce you to three products that I think are the bomb. The shiznat. The cat's pyjamas, nay, the cat's lingerie! Let's just get down to it, shall we?

• Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
  

My sister told me about this product when she was preparing her apartment for viewing to be sold. I was all, "yeah, yeah, yeah" until the burnt food stains on our gas stove finally got to me. Picked up a Magic Eraser with heavy skepticism, after investigating the product's environmental rating, and holy cats. Like, seriously, Batman, holy cats! Fairly light swiping of the stove top actually did erase the stains that months of elbow grease and other household cleaners couldn't shift. I called Rocco into the kitchen and without even giving him a hint as to what to look at, he exclaimed, "Wow!" We've used this little white wonder on the bathtub (friends, your children can safely bathe in our tub now and I won't need to feel ashamed!), on my Macbook (it's ok, dad, I read reviews of the process first), and on random wall scuffs. Nothing stands in its way.
The Skinny: Magic Eraser is made out of industrial grade sound insulation (!) that someone discovered is a primo cleaner when water is added. The product degrades with use so eventually all you throw out is a blackened, twisted little smudge of material waste though traces of the product will be rinsed away every time you use it. Environmentally, folks concur that it is essentially non-toxic. There was a bit of kerfuffle over whether or not the product contains harmful formaldehyde, but that was due to a misreading of a minor ingredient (formaldehyde-melamine- sodium bisulfite copolymer) that is not at all harmful and does not 'pose a safety risk'.
The Phat: Works like magic with little to no residue and keeps our environment squeaky clean (don't tell my colleagues I'm using this 'clean' language - they'd lynch me), plus it's super cheap, like $3 for a box of 2 erasers.

• E-Cloth

My friend Nicki told me about E-Cloth products that she found at our local hippie-go-happy grocery store (Capers). The basic 'cleaning system' is two cloths, one textured with microfibre hooks and whorls, and one smooth polishing cloth. The textured green cloth is a general surface cleaner that works on ceramic, stainless steel, countertops, etc, etc. The polishing cloth cleans mirrors, shines stainless steel after washing, polishes glass, and on and on. Their claim is that the "clever fibres" (yes, they do actually use 'clever') take hold of surface grime and lock it into the cloth. No products are necessary at all - no products! - you just wet the cloth, wring it out to be damp, and scrub/wipe/clean away. When it's done its job, you toss it in with your regular laundry and it even goes in the dryer. Apparently it lives through 300 laundry cycles. You're thinking, yeah right?! But guess what, it made this list because it truly works. No, if you're really into killing helpless little bacteria and ridding the world of the little bugs who save us from the super bugs, then you're probably not going to be satisfied by the E-Cloth.
The Skinny: In our house, the E-Cloth does a super job of cleaning and polishing every bathroom surface (except the floor) and various glass and mirror surfaces in the rest of the apartment. Really, it does! The basic kit with the two cloths was around $13 and we've been using them for almost a month now so we've saved that much product. It makes sense that every once in a while we'll haul out the spray bottles and give the whole place a douse of environmentally friendly chemicals, but for everyday, regular cleaning, the E-Cloth appears to be all you need. My hands and my eczema are so thankful!
The Phat: Better living through chemistry, they say? Pfft. Better living through clever fibres! LOVE this product. And I'm happy to bring them back to AB if some of you can't find them around there.

• Green Giant Broccoli & Cheese Sauce - Low Fat

Yes, he's back! The jolly Green Giant is still around, still pushing green on the kids, still making handy dandy convenience foods that also tend to be relatively healthy. For whatever reason, I can't for the life of me find the actual product I'm writing about as the Internet only seems to know about the original products, not the low fat versions available now. The low fat bags of broc and cheese have a red banner beneath the blue title banner that makes the low fat claim. For 1 cup of low fat broc and cheese mix, you get a mere 50 kcalories and 1.5 grams of fat. Even if you're not counting calories, this is a super deal! It's the easiest, tastiest, most guilt-free snack you can find after water since you throw a measured cup into a bowl, cover the bowl, microwave for about 3 minutes, stir and chow down. It is also delectable as a side dish to accompany your Helen's Kitchen tofu steaks or Schneider's Oh Naturel! meatless chik'n cordon melt. Admittedly, the treat is super tasty because the sodium level is cringingly high, but the taste is so satisfying and the goods are so gooey that in that moment, it just doesn't matter.
The Skinny: I'm so addicted. I realized today that Rocco hasn't even tried this product because I ate the whole bag before he got around to having any! Egads!
The Phat: Skinny broc and cheese! Microwavable! The bag is resealable! Not so organic nor independently produced... but ah well. Who can resist the Green Giant?