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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!
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
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.
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-ProTM 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!
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.
Feb
8
Temple Grandin Movie
Filed Under Animal Welfare, Consumer
I highly recommend the HBO docu-drama about Temple Grandin, the autistic animal scientist who changed the face of the cattle industry and slaughterhouses, so much for the better.
Because of her autism, and the way her mind works, Ms. Grandin was able to fully empathize with the cattle on her aunt’s ranch in a way most humans could never identify with. She could see what caused stress in the animals and designed systems to reduce that stress and keep them calm and happy.
In one scene, after viewing a film about lions killing their prey, Temple makes the comment about slaughtering cattle: “I don’t want a lion eating my guts out, I’d rather die in a slaughter house that was done right.”
The other truly memorable quote from the movie was when she said: “Nature is cruel, but we don’t have to be.” The previous quote follows on the heels of another quote: “We owe them our respect!”
Those quotes sum up how most of us in animal agriculture feel. We love our livestock, and acknowledge the numerous services they provide for us. We have the utmost respect for them and do our best to show them that level of love, care, and respect.
Not only has Temple Grandin revolutionized the cattle, livestock, and slaughter industry, she has raised awareness about autism and provided hope and inspiration to parents and their children who are afflicted with this disorder that has become so prevalent in our society, and been heretofore so misunderstood.
HBO has done an excellent job, and actually purchased a herd of cattle to film the movie. It is well done, and deserving of the highest honors in film-making.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I would have enjoyed it even if I weren’t involved in animal agriculture.
Jan
29
Libido, abdominal fat, hormones, and blood sugar are all tied together
Filed Under Grass fed weight loss, grass fed health
Simple changes in how you eat can get them back in balance
If you have a large midsection with a lot of abdominal fat there’s a good chance your “spare tire” is diminishing your libido. The good news is; a few dietary changes can get it back, and then some! With the changes we are suggesting you will begin to enjoy many aspects of life.
Abdominal fat, sometimes known as “visceral fat” is an active tissue that influences the production and balance of hormones such as insulin, blood sugar, and reproductive hormones. Abdominal fat produces excess estrogen, which counteracts testosterone and progesterone.
More than libido is at stake
Excess abdominal fat has been shown to be a precursor to serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Elevated blood sugar, insulin resistance, and excess estrogen cause metabolic distress on all systems, organs, and tissues, reproductive organs included.
Only dietary and lifestyle changes will reverse the problem
Diet and lifestyle are critical to reducing belly fat. If you want to lose the visceral fat you need to reduce your intake of the typical high carbohydrate, fake fat, low fat, toxic chemical saturated, food-like food stuffs of the standard, American Diet (SAD). If you want to improve your health, you have to make some changes to your lifestyle and eating habits.
The good news is you can do it! Members of Grass Fed and Healthy have access to our Pro-ProTM grass fed weight loss program that can help you lose the weight and the belly fat.
Enjoy yourself while you’re doing it
We would like to suggest that the lifestyle changes you enact can give you much more enjoyment of food and life in general than you experience now if you are eating the standard American diet (SAD). With the changes you make, you can actually enjoy food and eating while you lose the weight. You will be surprised at how much more pleasant, satisfying, and comforting that lifestyle is compared what you are used to, and you will come to wonder how you existed eating the standard American diet (SAD).
As a member of Grass Fed and Healthy you can read more about the link between libido, abdominal fat, hormones, and blood sugar in our article: Can eating grass fed beef enhance your libido?
Sign up now for a membership to Grass Fed and Healthy so you can start losing weight the grass fed way.
Jan
5
Grass fed beef broth for your health and all your winter dishes
Filed Under Buying Grass Fed Beef, Consumer, Grass fed beef specials, grass fed health
We’ve talked about the health benefits of grass fed beef broth at length, but it bears repeating because it’s so easy, inexpensive, and good for you. Winter is the perfect time for soups and stews and when you have plenty of beef broth on hand you can whip up your favorite dishes in no time.
You can read more about all the amazing health benefits of eating bone broth from grass fed beef and other pastured or wild caught animal products in our article: Old Fashioned Beef Stock for Your Health, where you can find a simple recipe that you can fix in no time. You can also visit the Weston Price Foundation article by Sally Fallon entitled: Broth is Beautiful.
You can also read about the benefits of grass fed beef stock for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in our Squidoo article: Healthy Food For Chemo Patients. Grass fed beef stock can be a God-send to chemo patients who have mouth sores that make chewing uncomfortable and who often have low hematocrit scores (low blood iron levels) or are even anemic.
It’s so easy to make up a big batch of stock and freeze it for later use any time you need it.
Grass fed beef soup bones can stretch the family food budget like no other food, make great tasting soups and other dishes, and provide amazing health benefits including:
- Improve digestion
- Reduce “leaky gut syndrome”
- Ease arthritis symptoms
- Help heal broken bones
- Reduce risk of osteoporosis
- And much more
Special on grass fed beef soup bones
For the winter we are practically giving away our grass fed beef soup bones so that you can enjoy delicious meals while taking dramatic steps to improve your health and well being.
Order your grass fed beef Soup Bones now!
Nov
19
Keeping your holiday meals wholesome and healthy
Filed Under Celebration, Home food prep, Local-regional food, grass fed health
Avoid MSG and HFCS
As we embark on yet another holiday season it is time for food, food, and more food. Even though you might stuff yourself more than you normally would you can still make your holiday meals healthy and wholesome. But you must be deliberate and shop and cook accordingly.
The main problem with most holiday meals is that if you’re not careful they can be full of the harmful chemicals you want to avoid at all costs, most especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Avoid pre-packaged and pre-processed food
If most of your holiday meal dishes are prepackaged and pre processed there’s a good chance that you will be consuming a ton of HFCS and MSG. We want you to enjoy your holidays and not have the discomfort and bloating after your meal that so often happens, or the dramatic spikes and dips in blood sugar which are usually a direct result of consuming those two ingredients so we’ve posted this blog to help you know what to look for.
Access our handy checklists
Members of Grass Fed and Healthy can also access our handy checklists of what to look for in your holiday meals so you can avoid HFCS and avoid MSG.
Turkey
Let’s start with the main dish, Turkey. A turkey that is in its natural state and has lived like a real turkey is a wonderful thing, with lots of great wholesome nutrients and delicious flavor. However, most commercial turkeys have lived miserable lives confined in cages, given hormones to make their breasts look like they’ve had implants, and pumped full of feed level antibiotics.
Then when they are processed they are often injected (or pre-basted) full of an abundance of chemicals which often contain MSG among other things.
If at all possible, get a pastured turkey from either a local producer or online. Members can access our resource guide to find pastured poultry from their area, or you can order a pastured turkey from U. S. Wellness meats.
Dressing / Stuffing
So often people are willing to purchase pre-made stuffing like Stove Top, which is full of MSG and HFCS. You can find countless stuffing recipes that are easy and not terribly time consuming. (But let me say here: it’s the holidays, are you so busy that you need to make your holiday meal one of convenience)?
A simple bread stuffing consists of sautéing some onion, garlic, and celery in butter, adding dried bread or bread crumbs, along with some salt, pepper, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. One of my favorites is to replace half the bread with wild rice, it’s absolutely delicious. How difficult is that. Then you stuff it into the turkey, and run no risk of getting any MSG or HFCS.
Mashed Potatoes
Instant mashed potatoes can and often do contain both MSG and HFCS and very few nutrients. Yet real mashed potatoes are packed full of great nutrients and are such delicious comfort food. It’s such a simple matter to boil some potatoes (if they’re organic there’s no need to peel them - with commercial potatoes the chemicals mostly reside next to the skin so you will want to peel them). Then simply add some milk and butter and mash. (Ideally it would be great if you could add local, organic, raw milk and butter but they are harder to come by. At least use organic to avoid the hormones if you can’t get locally produced).
Gravy
Unless you make it absolutely from scratch you’re almost certain to get MSG. If you use any kind of canned chicken stock or broth or bullion you will surely be getting MSG in your gravy.
If you slow cook, or braise your turkey, with some added water, you will end up with a fabulous broth or stock in the bottom of the pan, simply put it in a sauce pan, heat to simmering and add a rue (flour and water - we use spelt flour or oat flour), and you have delicious, homemade gravy with no nasty chemicals.
The dreaded green bean casserole
Whenever we’re invited somewhere for holiday dinners and there is a green bean casserole I almost never touch it unless I know how it was made. Most of them are made using dried packaged onion soup which an amalgamation of unpronounceable chemicals, MSG, and HFCS. I guess it does contain a few flakes of something that had once been onions.
The green bean casserole also often contains something crunchy like potato chips or cheese puffs, which of course are full of commercial salt and most likely MSG.
You can do a green bean casserole with real onions, homemade chicken stock, pastured pork bacon, and use bread crumbs from wholesome spelt bread for the crunchy topping. Use your favorite real cheese, and maybe some fresh grated parmesan rather than “processed cheese food” like Velveeta. (I use the term “food” loosely here, that is just the industry use of the term).
Salads
Read the label on your bottled salad dressing because if it’s standard, commercial dressing there is every likelihood that it contains both MSG and HFCS. Try some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and add your own seasonings.
Fruit salads
Almost any canned fruit contains HFCS so fruit salads made with fresh, raw fruit are best and so tasty.
Desserts
For desserts just know that pretty much any canned pie filling you buy will be loaded with HFCS. That includes pumpkin pie filling or any kind of fruit pie. A lot of people us Karo syrup when making pecan pie, which is nothing but HFCS.
Also know that any store bought cakes, pies, cookies, or puddings will also be full of HFCS.
Then there’s the Cool Whip, which is nothing but fake fat and HFCS. I honestly, for the life of me, cannot understand how anyone would or could eat non dairy topping like Cool Whip or any of its knock offs. It’s so easy to whip up some real cream and it’s so much tastier, not to mention healthier.
The list goes on and on and we could take up countless pages going over all the other standard holiday dishes that contain both MSG and HFCS. Make no mistake, the bloating and discomfort you can often feel after a large holiday meal has less to do with the amount you ate and usually everything to do with the chemicals you have ingested.
Use these guidelines to prepare your holiday meals and you can feel good afterwards, even if you overdo a little bit.
Have a great holiday season and enjoy sharing real, wholesome, and delicious food with your family and friends.
Nov
15
Replace “meatless Mondays” with “soy-less Sundays”
Filed Under Conservation, Consumer, Local-regional food, grass fed health
Most of us have heard about “meatless Mondays” as a tool to halt climate change. Please! The best thing you can do to improve the environment is support grass farmers everywhere.
Think about it: Grass lands sequester carbon from the air, filter impurities and sediment from surface water and aerate soil so that meteoric moisture soaks into the ground and becomes ground water rather than running off and causing erosion.
Contrast that with the vast monocultures of genetically modified soy and corn that takes millions upon millions of tons of petrochemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and God only knows what other kinds of “…cides”.
These tilled fields of soy and corn deposit millions of tons of soil into our rivers and streams which then finds its way into the oceans, causing untold environmental damage to our seas. The major export of the U.S. currently is our soil, and we’re not even getting paid for it.
To learn more about the environmental degradation caused by the push for vegetarianism and the promotion of soy protein check out the Weston A. Price Foundation’s in depth article entitled: “An Inconvenient Cow: the Truth Behind the U.N. Assault on Ruminant Livestock.” You will be amazed.
If you try to do “soy-less Sundays” you will have to avoid almost all processed foods from bottled salad dressing to chips, cookies, crackers, frozen prepared meals (especially vegetarian), processed cheese foods (and I use the term foods loosely here), canned prepared meals like spaghetti or ravioli, and the list goes on and on.
If you really want to help in the effort to improve our environment eat Pro-ProTM: Grass fed and pastured protein and produce. You will benefit not only the environment but your own health as well.
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