September 2010
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Jun

23

Announcing:…Grass Fed Beef Sticks and Jerky! No MSG, Nitrates, or Nitrites!

Filed Under Buying Grass Fed Beef, Consumer, Local-regional food, grass fed health

We’re excited to announce the launch of our newest products: Grass fed beef jerky and beef sticks, free of MSG, Nitrates, Nitrites, high fructose corn syrup, or gluten.

Our labels have been approved by the USDA, the product is made and packaged, now we are just waiting for the printed labels to arrive, and we will be ready to ship them to your doorstep.* Since they’re shelf stable, we don’t have to use insulated shipping containers and dry ice to ship them, so it’s inexpensive too.

The jerky and beef sticks are being manufactured by our friends and neighbors, Salazar Natural Meats. They went through the arduous and rigorous steps to develop a plant that adheres to the USDA’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) rules and regulations, and the plant recently received its HACCP certification.

For years, we’ve been looking for a 2^nd party to create jerky and beef sticks for us, but it was impossible to find anyone in or around our region who wanted to deal with HACCP certification. We are so grateful that the Salazars have taken the initiative to do it, and they’re literally in our own back yard. (Ok, well, 25 miles away).

Perfect for traveling, camping, hiking, biking, or any other endurance exercise, these grass fed beef sticks and jerky satisfy your need for clean, chemical free protein that is light, ready to eat, portable, and shelf stable.

You can feel good about a beef snack that contains no MSG, no nitrates or nitrites, no gluten, and no high fructose corn syrup, and is made with beef that is 100% grass finished, raised with no added hormones or antibiotics.

*We should have the products ready to ship by the week of July 5, 2010, but you can pre-order grass fed beef jerky and beef sticks now, and we will ship them to you the day we receive them.

Pre-order your grass fed beef jerky and beef sticks today!

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Technorati Tags: grass fed beef jerky, grass fed beef sticks, jerky with no MSG, jerky without nitrates, MSG free jerky, nitrate free jerky

Jun

2

I Learned a Lot From Our Meat Loaf Recipe Contest

Filed Under Contests, health

Entry deadline for our Meat Loaf Recipe Contest, the Non-Industrial Meatloaf Challenge, has passed and we have received some amazing looking recipes. But I am also delighted by some of the things I’ve learned.

Alternate Ingredients

Organic Valley makes ketchup without high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)! Annie’s makes Worcestershire sauce without MSG, and both Hain and Spectrum make mayonnaise without soybean oil. Hain uses safflower oil and Spectrum uses Canola oil. (Truth be known, I’m not that fond of safflower or canola either but they are not as harmful as soybean oil).

Homemade Bread

I also learned that apparently a lot of people still make homemade bread, as quite a number of entries included homemade bread crumbs from homemade bread. I was pleasantly surprised.

Entries were interesting and varied. One recipe even contains hard boiled eggs, pickles, and natural hotdogs as hidden “surprises.”

Ketchup substitute

Quite a few recipes called for tomato paste and a little bit of honey or other sweetener rather than ketchup, and many called for grains other than wheat, including oats, rice, spelt, and triticale.

This was our most successful recipe contest ever, with more than 25 entries submitted. We will spend the next two months cooking and comparing meatloaf recipes. Thanks to all who participated. Good luck!

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Technorati Tags: grass fed beef, grass fed beef meatloaf, meat loaf recipe contest, meatloaf recipe, non-industrial meatloaf challenge

May

6

Protect your digestive health - avoid high fructose corn syrup

Filed Under Consumer, Food Safety, health

We have written at length about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and its dangers, but I have just learned about another reason to avoid it. Your digestive health. This lesson came from my friend, who I will just call R. to protect his privacy.

R. never gave much thought to the food he consumed, and regularly ate the standard American diet (SAD). For years he has had digestive problems, and thought it was just a part of life. Within minutes after eating he would have to make an urgent trip to the bathroom, and it happened after every meal. R. never went for a diagnosis, but it’s likely he would have been labeled with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

However, most ironically, every time R. goes to Mexico his digestion straightens up and moves normally, which is absolutely contrary to all the clichés about eating and drinking in Mexico.

After his most recent trip to Mexico, R. mentioned to his father how his digestive problems seemed to clear up in Mexico, and his dad told him that he used to have the same problem until he realized it was being caused by high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Typically R. would have a soda pop with every meal, and almost all soda pop (non-diet) is full of HFCS, but in Mexico most sodas are still made with cane sugar. That was the difference that made his digestion better in Mexico.

Now that R. knows what Causes his IBS his has been vigilant in avoiding HFCS (which has caused a lot of other beneficial dietary changes), and now he can sit and enjoy the end of dinner and digest properly.

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Technorati Tags: digestive health, healthy eating, healthy food, HFCS, high fructose corn syrup, irritable bowel sydrome

Apr

26

Non-Industrial Meatloaf Challenge Recipe Contest - Finding the Right Ingredients

Filed Under Consumer, Contests, Food Safety, health

Our latest recipe contest, the Non-Industrial Meatloaf Challenge, is a contest that challenges contestants to come up with a winning meatloaf recipe that doesn’t include common, industrial, food supply poisons like; high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), monosodium glutamate (MSG), or soybean oil.*

This is a difficult challenge as typical meatloaf recipes include ingredients like ketchup, which is usually full of HFCS, packaged bread crumbs, which can contain HFCS, MSG, and soybean oil, commercial beef stock, soup mixes, or prepackaged spices. The list goes on and on, but it can be done!

If you find a particular brand of a certain ingredient that doesn’t contain the restricted items, simply list the brand name in the ingredients section of your recipe. For example, we have a received an entry that lists Organic Valley Ketchup, which apparently does not contain HFCS.

We have also received recipes that use bread crumbs made from homemade bread, thus avoiding the restricted ingredients.

* Soy

The contest doesn’t allow any ingredient that may contain soybean oil, because of the harmful effects of soy. I’ve seen meatloaf recipes that actually use mayonnaise, which is almost impossible to find without soybean oil. (I still have never found any. If you know of any kind of mayonnaise that doesn’t contain soybean oil, please let me know by leaving a comment below. Thanks).

* An exception to the contest rules are fermented soy products such as tamari or miso, the fermenting process renders the soybean less harmful, and so fermented soy products are allowed in the contest.

You can enter by clicking on this link and filling out the entry form, or you can email your entries to: contest@grassfedandhealthy.com or grassfedchallenge@yahoo.com.

Deadline for entries is May 31st, 2010. Good Luck!

Click here to enter the Non-Industrial Meatloaf Challenge.

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Technorati Tags: HFCS, MSG, recipe contest, soy, wholesome food

Mar

11

Does eating a vegetarian diet cause brittle bones?

Filed Under Consumer, grass fed health, health

Within the past month three vegetarians that I know of fell on the ice onto an outstretched hand and all three shattered the bones in their wrist in so doing. The orthopedists said of one that the bones in her wrist shattered like a china plate, which to me indicates some very brittle bones.

Conversely, last year I fell from my bongo board, (balancing-exercise board) falling from a height where my feet were over 6″ off the floor, onto an outstretched hand which resulted in severe swelling, bruising, and soft tissue damage, but x-rays showed no broken bones.

I don’t say this lightly

I don’t say this to disparage anyone’s dietary choices, but I really do think that over the years of eating vegetarian, these three people have compromised the health and strength of their bones. I’m just saying.

Just relating what I see

My observations are just that, observations, and obviously, not a scientific study with all of the necessary rigors and controls. However, I find it interesting that in my circle of association I suddenly have seen three vegetarians with the same injuries, shattered bones in their wrists from a fall. Yet my fall with outstretched hand onto a hard surface from a height higher than floor level resulted in no bone breakage.

The other important thing to note is that I am much older than any of the three vegetarians, (in fact one is a teenager who has been raised vegetarian) and I am in my mid fifties, an age when many women are experiencing osteoporosis and bone loss. The oldest of the three vegetarians is in her forties.

High quality meat, fat, and bone broth are the key

I am convinced that my bones stay healthy and strong because of the nutrient dense food that I eat, including lots of high quality meat and animal fat. I also believe that my bones stay strong and healthy because I consume so much bone broth (stock) from beef, chicken, and turkey.

You can read more about the health benefits of bone broth or stock at the Weston Price Foundation’s article: Broth is Beautiful.

Our American society has been duped for decades into believing that eating vegetarian is the healthy alternative, but common sense, experience, and yes, scientific evidence refute that notion.

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Technorati Tags: brittle bones, osteoporsis, vegetarian, vegetarian diet

Mar

7

Easy and delicious leftovers

Filed Under Consumer, Home food prep, Household Tips, Local-regional food

Last night’s leftover chicken, wild rice, gravy, and asparagus became today’s chicken, wild rice, and asparagus stew

You can turn leftovers into wonderful, savory, and delicious meals that will delight the whole family, and do it within minutes, with very little effort.

The meal

Yesterday morning Mike said he had hankering for a slow cooked chicken. So he went out to the freezer and got one of the pastured chickens we buy from our friend, Cath, and I unwrapped it, oiled the bottom of a roasting pan, salt and peppered the frozen chicken, put it in the pan and filled the bottom of the pan with water about 1 - 2 inches deep.

Then I stuck the covered roasting pan in the oven at 250 degrees F, at about 10:00 AM, never to check on it again, throughout the day. By 2:00 PM the aroma in the house was enough to make your mouth water.

At 5:30 Mike put on some Minnesota wild rice, brought it to a hard boil, covered, an put on low heat. At 6:30 we put some asparagus on to steam. (We used the wild asparagus that grows on the ranch, which I picked, blanched, and froze last May, but you could do the same with fresh).

By 7:00 we took the chicken out of the oven, and placed the savory stock from the bottom of the roasting pan into a sauce pan, added a roux (flour and water), and thickened for gravy.

Then we tossed some greens and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. By 7:15 we had a scrumptious, gourmet meal that took almost no effort.

The leftovers

With plenty of leftover chicken, wild rice, and asparagus, I simply tore the chicken and asparagus into bite size chunks, added them and the leftover gravy to the wild rice, and heated for about 10 minutes on medium heat. (I ended up adding a little milk to the mixture as the gravy was quite thick).

We dished up the stew into a bowl, and placed the leftover salad greens on a plate and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar again. It took all of about 3 minutes to prepare and about 10 minutes to heat, and we had a wonderful lunch!

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Technorati Tags: Add new tag, easy leftovers, leftovers, quick easy meals, slow cooked, slow food

Feb

25

Grass Fed Alternative to Corned Beef for St. Patrick’s Day

Filed Under Consumer, Grass fed beef specials, Home food prep, Local-regional food, grass fed health

Try slow cooked grass fed beef Brisket instead

March is around the corner, and everyone’s favorite party holiday approaches, St. Patrick’s Day. The proverbial meal for that day is corned beef and cabbage. We would like to suggest you simply braise a grass fed beef brisket to go with your cabbage, potatoes, and beer.

Before the age of refrigeration, “corning” beef was a method of preservation that had nothing to do with corn. The name is derived from the chunks of salt that were used, which were approximately the size of corn kernels. People back then used the large salt, brine, and pickling spices to keep the meat from going bad.

Modern corned beef is full of chemicals

Almost all corned beef you can buy in stores today is full of MSG, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), dyes, and some salt peter for pink coloring. It is characteristically made from Brisket

The healthy alternative is a grass fed beef Brisket

Most corned beef is made from Brisket, and if you substitute a grass fed beef brisket, slow cooked in its own savory juices, The meat is fork tender, succulent, savory, and delicious, truly complimenting your cabbage and potatoes. You can feel good eating only wholesome grass fed beef Brisket, with your favorite seasonings, and not the hormone and chemical saturated commercial corned beef.

Slow cooked, savory tenderness

Simply rub the brisket with olive oil, salt and pepper, then sear the outside on medium high heat on all sides either on the grill or in a frying pan. Heat each side only as long as is necessary to sear it, you want to slow cook the meat inside.

Place seared brisket in a roasting pan, Dutch oven, or in a stove top Dutch oven, with enough water to fill the pan half way up the brisket. Add garlic cloves and shallots to taste, with a little bit of vinegar, salt, and pepper. If you really want the corned beef flavor add pickling spices, but be sure they don’t contain MSG.

Cover and cook at 250 degrees F. for 9 to 12 hours

The cabbage and potatoes

Here is a simple but delicious method for faux corned beef and cabbage: After the grass fed beef Brisket has slow cooked for 8 - 10 hours, add whole potatoes, and carrots and let cook about 1 hours or until tender. Then add 1 or 2 whole cabbage(s) cut into wedges and let cook for about 15 - 20 minutes until cabbage is tender but succulent.

Be sure to cut the white, tough, bitter tasting core out of the bottom of the cabbage before adding it to the Brisket. For tender, juicy cabbage leaves try blanching the whole cabbage in boiling water first for just a few minutes before cutting up and adding to the Brisket.

Grass fed beef Brisket special

For St. Ptrick’s Day we have a special on or premium grass fed beef Brisket. Enjoy wholesome dining with your commaradarie and beer, Order by March 8th to receive your shipment in time for St. Patrick’s Day

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Technorati Tags: alternative to corned beef, corned beef, grass fed beef, grass fed beef brisket, grass fed corned beef, saint patrick's day, st. patrick's day

Feb

17

“Bad Cholesterol” lowered from eating grass fed beef!

Filed Under Benefit, Consumer, Home food prep, grass fed health

Replacing commercial beef with grass fed beef lowered his LDL levels

Recently one of our customers, who prefers to remain anonymous, just told me that last summer his “bad cholesterol,” LDL, level was in the “high normal” range, causing him and his doctor some concern.

After recent testing his LDL level is now exactly in the middle of the normal range, and the only dietary change he has made was to switch from eating commercial beef to grass fed beef. (Mostly our Diamond F Brand 100% grass fed beef).

This is great news, and the really fabulous part, as he said to me, is that there was “no change in eating habits, no sacrifice.” Think about the implications of this for American society and its health crisis. If you can reap those kinds of health benefits from just buying beef from a different source, how easy is that? Granted, you will pay more for grass fed, it can’t be helped, but how much do you pay for those cholesterol lowering drugs?

If one simple change like replacing commercial beef with grass fed beef can create those changes in blood chemistry over a few months time what other healthy changes are taking place? My guess is that our customer has much less inflammation (the real precursor to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer) in all of his tissues.

We’ve seen the plethora of studies indicating that eating grass fed beef can reduce bad cholesterol but it’s nice to see direct results manifest in our customers.

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Technorati Tags: bad cholesterol, grass fed beef, health benefits of eating grass fed beef, lower bad cholesterol, lower cholesterol

Feb

12

It’s good to be prepared for blizzards and natural disasters - Don’t get caught short

Filed Under Consumer, Home food prep

Blizzard conditions shut down much of the Eastern Seaboard this week

You never know when a natural disaster or even a blizzard will hit and create an immediate void in the local food supply and leave you short. If you keep a well stocked larder you can rest easy knowing that even if transportation is cut off, you can still eat well. With Washington D.C. and much of the northeast Atlantic coast shut down this week due to blizzards many people are stuck at home without adequate food.

We laughed at Y2K!

Remember when the world was going to end as the infrastructure collapsed because of two digits of computer code?

We chuckled as people rushed the stores in late December of 1999. It was no big deal to us because we always have a full larder and are prepared for temporary loss of power.

None of us bought into the doom, but we did buy a couple of extra cases of wine, just to be on the safe side.

But blizzards are no laughing matter!

Blizzards shut down all traffic in and out of Denver countless times a few winters ago, leaving people, stores, hotels, restaurants, and the airport without food for days.

Some Denver residents we know walked to a nearby convenience store to try to get some food, but most of their neighbors had beaten them to the milk, cheese, nuts, jerky, or any other source of protein you can find at a convenience store. All that was left for them to buy were chips and tic-tacs. Thankfully they had a functioning system of potable water, because all bottled water had been sold out.

Things can shut down in a hurry!

As this country’s infrastructure continues to deteriorate, it is only reasonable to expect that we will see an increase in power outages and incidents of stalled transportation. It’s a very secure feeling to know that in those instances, which by their very nature you can never predict in advance, you can thrive and maintain.

Always be able to fix a hearty, wholesome meal!

When your pantry is always well stocked, it’s so easy to whip up something to eat that is wholesome and nutritious. If you’ve taken a few hours here and there to freeze some of your leftovers or home-made dishes you can have a hot meal in very short order.

Members of Grass Fed and Healthy can download an every day items checklist consisting of frozen food and items with fairly stable shelf life, like seasonings, oils, condiments and other ingredients that you want to always have on hand.

Members can also download our weekly shopping checklist as well as our weekly meal planners to help you plan and shop so you can be sure you always have the ingredients you need to keep well nourished even if you can’t get to the store for a while.

Re-stock shelf stable items when you do your weekly shopping for fresh food

It’s so easy once you get in the habit! If you are eating according to our Pro-Pro^TM system you will want to shop weekly for fresh items like produce and dairy. When you shop simply fill in your fresh shopping list with the items from the Every Day Ingredients checklist that are running low.

Remember you can order our Diamond F Brand 100% Grass Fed Beef online at any time.

Security is a stocked pantry!

Don’t get caught short!

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Technorati Tags: blizzard, food security, natural disasters

Feb

9

First Lady’s program to combat childhood obesity

Filed Under Consumer, Food Safety, Grass fed weight loss, Local-regional food, grass fed health

Today U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama is rolling out her program to combat childhood obesity through her “Let’s Move” program. Concurrently, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is spearheading a campaign to reduce junk food in schools and get more kids eating school lunches and breakfasts.

Intentions are good but solutions probably won’t be

While I applaud the concern and intention of the First Lady and the Secretary, I also know that our government is so tied into and in the pockets of large agribusiness (I’ve always called Vilsack “Monsanto Boy”) that I don’t see how any real and substantive reform can be enacted.

Junk will be replaced with more junk

While they may remove candy bars from the vending machines, my suspicion is that those candy bars will be replaced with so-called “healthy alternatives” like granola bars which will boast their whole grain content but will still contain the unhealthy, detrimental, genetically modified and destructive ingredients like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and soy.

The food they really need won’t be allowed

I don’t see how there will ever be an opportunity in the schools to serve raw, grass fed milk, which is known to boost health and cure any number of ailments. In our modern, life-o-phobic FDA culture it would be impossible.

The destructive low-fat paradigm is still in place

To make matters worse, there’s a good chance that what will be considered “healthy” for the schools will be low-fat commercial milk. The enlightened few who know better know that our children need plenty of good fat for their brain development, and that we have been raising generations of children who’s brain development has been compromised because they didn’t get enough fat in their diets as they grew.

The mainstream has been soy hoodwinked

My guess is that this new initiative will try to push soy protein over animal protein. I have gone into the dangers of soy consumption in previous blogs, but the Weston Price Foundation has a wealth of information on why excessive (or even moderate) soy consumption is dangerous.

The meat will still be commercial

Then, if they do serve any kind of meat, I’m certain it will be the same old commercial, USDA commodity crap that contains beef fat washed with ammonia from countless animals and slaughter plants throughout the country, and there will be no distinction as to the quality of meat - grass fed, hormone free, as opposed to grain fed, pumped with hormones and antibiotics. The poultry served will also still be full of hormones and antibiotics.

The added produce will still be full of chemicals

The good news is, that there will probably be more fresh fruits and vegetables offered, but once again, they will be full of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, with no attention paid to the distinction between large commercial crops and wholesome growing methods.

Our society has been duped for generations

I don’t want to be a cynic, but our society has been sold a bill of goods for decades regarding food and nutrition, and I don’t see those paradigms and mindsets going away any time soon, especially in regard to school lunches and nutrition.

At least kids might get to have some movement in their daily lives

At least the kids will be getting some exercise, and that’s a positive thing.

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Technorati Tags: childhood obesity, first lady, get moving, junk food, junk food in schools, michelle obama, school nutrition, tom vilsack

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