Cooking Chickens

If you've been reading me for a while you know that I'm obsessed with eating soup in the winter. I'm in soup mode now and have my cooking itch back now that the Christmas season is over and things are settled with the re-branding of Raw Generation.

I made a really great soup a few days ago from one of the chickens I picked up from the farm I get my meat from. I was shocked at how much soup I got from 1 chicken. I made 2 different stocks which I'll describe below. Both were super easy, but do take some time.

Broth #1:

• 1 chicken, whole
• 1 onion
• 1 apple
• 1 container organic vegetable broth
• water
• salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, coriander, cloves (just a touch), bay leaves, garlic powder
• olive oil
• celery
• 4 sml. red potatoes
• carrots

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put whole chicken in lg. baking pan/ casserole dish breast side down. Pour in vegetable broth and fill pan to cover half of chicken with water.
3. Add quartered apple, chopped onion, spices, and drizzle chicken with olive oil.
4. Bake for 1.5 hours
5. Let chicken cool, take out of broth, and cup up breast meat. 
6. Add meat back in to broth with chopped carrots, celery, & potatoes (chop small).
7. Simmer on stove for 10 minutes at medium high heat.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Broth #2

• Chicken from Broth #1
• 1 onion
• water
• salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, coriander, cloves (just a touch), bay leaves, garlic powder
• celery
• carrots

1. Pull chicken from broth #1 apart into pieces and put in lg. pot on stove.
2. Add in onion and spices.
3. Fill pot with water and boil for 10 minutes. Turn heat down to simmer for 45 minutes.
4. Let cool and strain broth into another lg. pot, catching chicken pieces into a strainer.
5. Pull meat off of chicken pieces and put into broth.
6. Add in chopped carrots & celery and simmer on stove to 15 minutes.

Both ways make good chicken soup, but they are a little different. Broth #1 has a stronger flavor and Broth #2 is more like traditional chicken soup. This one chicken made a little over a gallon and a half of soup! I put some in the refrigerator and most in the freezer. Definitely a great way to stock up! 

Hope everyone in the NE stays warm and safe during the snow storm!!! Have a great weekend!

McRib is back...YUCK!

There are so many things wrong with this sandwich I don't even know where to start. McDonald's only saving grace is that it doesn't offer the sandwich all the time. Thank you McDonald's for not allowing us to purchase another disastrous option most of the time. 

Let me preface this by saying that I do eat meat... however, I am picky about where it comes from. And the McRib shouldn't even be allowed to be called meat.

Richard Mandigo, the professor from the University of Nebraska, who developed the "restructured meat product" that the McRib is actually made of, described it as:

Restructured meat products are commonly manufactured by using lower-valued meat trimmings reduced in size by comminution (flaking, chunking, grinding, chopping or slicing). The comminuted meat mixture is mixed with salt and water to extract salt-soluble proteins. These extracted proteins are critical to produce a "glue" which binds muscle pieces together. These muscle pieces may then be reformed to produce a "meat log" of specific form or shape. The log is then cut into steaks or chops which, when cooked, are similar in appearance and texture to their intact muscle counterparts. ... Such products as tripe, heart, and scalded stomachs are high in protein, completely edible, wholesome, and nutritious, and most are already used in sausage without objection. (Original Source)

Yummmmm. Restructured meat products are going to the top of my ABSOLUTELY DO NOT F**KING EAT LIST.

According to the current box labeling, the sandwich consists of just five basic components - a pork patty and BBQ sauce with pickle slices, onions and a sesame bun.
But, as Time magazine points out, a closer examination of McDonald's own list of ingredients reveals that the sandwich contains a total of 70 ingredients, including azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching component that is often used to produce foamed plastics (think gym mats and the soles of shoes). In fact, "the compound is banned in Europe and Australia as a food additive," says Time. Other ingredients include ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80. (Original Source)

Why does anything need 70 ingredients? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE... do not eat this! If you want something covered in BBQ sauce at least get something in it's original form like a chicken wing or real ribs... not something that was conjured up in a laboratory and made of chemicals in a factory. These should come with a warning label like cigarettes do. This will cause: cancer, heart disease, chronic inflammation, digestive issues, arthritis, obesity, diabetes, and on and on and on...

YUCK!

Prop 37: My Humble Opinions

On November 6, 2012, California voters will decide whether to require labeling of food products containing ingredients derived from genetically modified organisms (Prop 37). It is all I have been hearing about lately, and while I am completely against genetically modified foods, I am also completely against the government forcing companies to do anything about it. 

Here's why...

1. When the government gets involved in business it imposes tremendous costs on industry X, Y, or Z. This is often "in the best interest of the public", but it actually hurts everyone because it takes the responsibility and necessity of being informed away from the people. It tells people "don't worry the government will take care of you." 

2. The more regulations, the higher the cost. I'm sure that Prop 37 doesn't just effect companies that are producing foods including GMO's. There will for sure be collateral damage. Food will inadvertently become more expensive and the food available will not be any more valuable for the extra cost. 

3. The food industry is in bed with the government. I'm afraid that this monster is too big to tame overnight. There are a handful of corporations that own and control majority of the major food brands. They lobby in Washington, donate to politicians who will help them, have huge budgets. This is not to say that I don't believe that a few people can create a huge change (revolution if you must)... given the right circumstances a one person can change everything. But getting the government involved is not going to get GMO's out of our food. 

So what do you do? 

In light of the fact that most of the items at any given grocery store (including Whole Foods) contain genetically modified ingredients, you stop buying them. Companies are run off of profits. If the company loses profits it changes it's product(s) or it goes out of business. As much as it is important for everyone to not be eating genetically modified foods, it is more important for YOU to stop eating. And YOU don't need the government to tell you what is or is not genetically modified.

I'll tell you in a nutshell:

• any product containing corn that is NOT organic
• any product containing soy that is NOT organic
• any product containing canola oil that is NOT organic
• any product w/ high fructose corn syrup in it
• any product w/ hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in it
• any meat that was not humanely raised
• any dairy that comes from animals not humanely raised
• any fish that was not wild caught

Why the animals? Because they are fed corn and soy, and whatever they eat, we eat. 

The more fresh fruits and vegetables you buy, the less processed junk you will buy. It's that simple. But just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. 

It took me being completely grossed out by certain foods to cut them out of my diet- cold cuts, conventional meat, conventional dairy, factory farmed meat, most processed/packaged "foods" that are sold in the grocery store. It's hard to get over  what you are used to, but it gets easier the more you know about the reality of our food industry.

What will it take you to start changing the things you put in your mouth?

Corn, Candy, & Your Meat

As if we need another reason to eat locally and humanely raised meat. This is the latest shortcut large scale farmers are taking to cut their costs because of the rising costs of corn. For those of you who weren't aware there has been a huge drought this summer which has devastated corn crops. And guess what is in almost everything that we eat (if you eat packaged/processed foods)?

CORN

Desperate Farmers Turn to Feeding Their Cattle Candy Loaded with Corn Syrup
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 by: J. D. Heyes for Natural News (Original Source) 

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and no question the current drought spanning much of the nation's mid-section has left many a farmer desperate. For some cattle; however, things are pretty sweet at the moment.

That's because as feed becomes harder to get and more expensive, some farmers are turning to an odd dietary supplement: Candy.

Struggling with spiking corn prices (corn is a major ingredient in cattle feed) due to the drought's devastation on this year's corn crop, ranchers have found it increasingly expensive to feed cattle that aren't necessarily worth their weight, so to speak.

So it's in that environment that one rancher has come up with a rather bizarre alternative.

Farmer Joseph Watson, at Mayfield's United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky., has tweaked a recipe for success. "Just to be able to survive, we have to look for other sources of nutrition," he told CNN.

'Sweet' deal for rancher, candy distributors

Watson, who has 1,400 head of cattle, is no longer feeding them corn. Grain prices are just too high to keep it on hand. So earlier this year, he started buying second-hand candy.

"It has a higher ratio of fat than actually feeding straight corn," Watson said. "It's hard to believe it will work but we've already seen the results of it now."

Which begs the question - do veterinarians practice dentistry? But we digress.

Here's how Watson pulls this off. He mixes candy with an ethanol byproduct and a mineral nutrient. And thus far, he says, cows haven't shown any health problems from consuming so much candy. In fact, he says, his cows are gaining weight - like they should.

"This ration is balanced to have not too much fat in it," he said.

What's more, he's paying well below premium prices for his new sweet "feed." Watson says he gets his candy at discounted rates because it's no longer fit to sell to the public. Also, in buying the candy, he is helping the candy distributors too.

"Salvage is a problem for a lot of these companies and they're proud to have a place to go with it," he said.

Speaking of ethanol...

The drought's impact on corn prices is affecting more than just cattle ranchers. It's also affecting consumers, because as corn prices go up, so do prices for the products in which corn is an ingredient. In fact, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures, the drought has caused corn prices to jump 60 percent since June, to more than $8 a bushel.

And one such product is corn-based ethanol, which - via federal mandate - is blended into the gasoline we burn.

Farm consortiums have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive part of the mandate requiring the corn-based ethanol blend, because, they argue, doing so will make more corn available for feed and other commodities, thereby lowering prices for those items.

"The range of impact of an [Renewable Fuel Standard] waiver goes from zero to $1.30 per bushel for corn," Wally Tyner, an energy policy specialist at Purdue University, said of a new study indicating corn prices could fall under certain conditions if the waiver was issued.

The EPA is said to be examining the issue. Under its normal schedule, the agency has until October "to gather information on the extent of any economic harm done by the original Renewable Fuel Standard level and to decide if it will issue a waiver," said a report in the Southwest Farm Press, an industry publication. "For consumers, the decision could affect what they pay for fuel and food."

And of course, anything that would lower prices consumers pay for commodities is sweet.

Welp, I guess since feeding humans a diet high in sugar has worked so well, we ought to give it to our animals. Do I even need to explain how F-ed up this is? If you haven't already I would seriously look into buying your meat from a local farmer, or you could just give up meat and start eating candy bars yourself, because that old saying "you are what you eat" is right.

Another thought just crossed my mind. I'm not even sure how it's cheaper to feed them candy because all commercial candy has corn syrup in it which is a byproduct of corn. And, I don't know if you've looked at the price of candy lately, it's not cheap!

Who's with me on this one?

What to do at a BBQ

As someone who always ends up in conversations with people about the food we eat, I fully understand not being a burden at a party. Most people haven't wrapped their mind around all the damage that the standard American diet causes. But as someone who cares about what I eat, it can be challenging going to someone else's house and finding something that I feel comfortable eating. Let me preface this by saying, sometimes I really don't give a S-H-I-T (usually if I am starving) and I will eat anything that's there. I hardly ever eat much meat during the week, so when I am out at a party I am sometimes more inclined to eat it. But most of the time I am at least a little picky.

I wasn't always this calm, cool, and collected about not beating myself up about eating 100% healthy all the time. I would work myself into a mental knot about whether I should eat the chemical filled, preservative laden, over processed, but really good something-or-other. Then I would eat it and feel guilty afterwards. Meanwhile, I'm at a party, but not really enjoying myself because I know I'm literally eating garbage.

This is what you do. Bring something you can eat. Not only will you look like a courteous guest, but you will be able to load your plate with whatever you brought and pick at the other things.

The things that I am picky about are:

• conventional meat especially chicken (conventional chicken ABSOLUTELY disgusts me and if you knew how it was raised you would be grossed out too)
• conventional dairy and eggs (same as above)
• anything that comes out of a bag, box, looks florescent in color, originates as a powder, you get the drift

Most importantly, if there is absolutely nothing "healthy" where you are, pick the least bad things, and eat them anyway, and don't beat yourself up about it. You can make up for it tomorrow. I try to follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I eat super healthy, and 20% of the time I am more relaxed about what I am eating so I can go out, have fun, and not drag a cooler of food with me everywhere I go.

Have fun this weekend!

Whoever says they can't afford healthy food...

(source)

I hear this over and over again. "I would love to eat healthier, but I can can't afford it." This infographic is pretty damn accurate. So all of you who think you can't do it... think again. If you use whole foods like in the bottom example you will be surprised at how far they stretch (and how good they make you feel).

Not to mention, when you eat healthier overall you get sick less which is another expense that people don't factor into the cost of food and living. Eating healthy now is way cheaper than having a chronic disease later on in life. 

Who's going to start eating healthier?

GOAL: Live to 110 years of age

Cutest centenarian ever!
(Source) 

I just finished a book called The Blue Zone that talks about the four areas around the globe where there are the highest percentage of centenarians (people who live to 100 years of age). The four areas are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Pininsula, Costa Rica; and the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, Southern California. This book interviewed many centenarians and their families over the course of several years to figure out what were the characteristics that set them up for a long, healthy life.

I am interested in this because of a couple of reasons. Just recently I realized that I want to live to be a centenarian. I wondered how does one do that? Also, even if I don't end up living that long, I want to have the best possible quality of life for as long as I can.

This book touches on both of those topics.

In a nutshell, here are the principles that people in these Blue Zones lived by:

• Surround yourself with family and friends. Almost all of the centenarians interviewed lived with their children and grandchildren and also had a consistent social obligations from playing cards with friends, to morning group exercises, to going to church. Each area had different customs, but all of the four areas were consistent in that they all put a great deal of emphasis on being with other people everyday. 
• Don't let stress get the better of you. Maybe it comes with age, maybe these people were born with a stress-free attitude, or maybe it is part of their cultures. One thing is for sure, the centenarians had a very care-free way about them. They also had downtime, either everyday or every week. It was built into their lives. Costa Ricans would rest everyday in the late afternoon. The Seventh Day Adventists would have a day of rest every weekend. No work, no homework, just family and fun activities.
• Be active every day. The stories of the centenarians in this book tells of them chopping wood into their late 90's, riding bicycles, walking for miles everyday, gardening into their 100's, sitting on the floor cross legged and getting up and down with ease and grace. (How many elderly people do you know that can do that?) 
• Eat unprocessed foods. All of the four cultures ate completely differently. But they ate real food, food that was culturally theirs. They didn't eat fast food. They made just about everything. The centenarians in Costa Rica ate eggs, coffee, tropical fruits, corn and beans. In Okinawa they ate fish, rice, seaweeds, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. In Sardinia, the people ate a diet of whole grain breads, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and goat's milk. The individual foods were different, but the principles were the same- whole foods cooked at home.
• Spend time in the sun. When the sun touches our skin it starts a chain reaction in our body that ends up producing Vitamin D. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin but a hormone that controls the absorption of all other vitamins and minerals as well as the function of our immune system. These centenarians all lived in temperate to tropical climates that allowed them to get outdoors and get Vitamin D for a large majority of the year. Since they were accustomed to working outdoors (farming, shepherding, relaxing) their entire lives, they were inadvertently making plenty of Vitamin D. 

This book really struck a cord with me. It's so SIMPLE!!!  How did we stray so far from what seems to create a happy and healthy life? I feel like I have been getting back to basics as of late. I feel the need more so now than ever to be happy and healthy. I have been thinking recently that health is about much more than the food you eat. It's the whole picture. 

"People talk about curing cancer and heart disease, and of course it is an important and worthy goal that can happen soon enough. But there are simple things everyone could be doing right now that would save so much money and suffering- like drinking enough water everyday, exercise, and eating healthy food. But hey, " Wareham said, suddenly catching himself in is fervor, "everybody has his own idea about these things- it's their lives, after all. You can tell somebody what to do, but it's up to them whether they do it. But you can tell them how good you feel."

~quote from The Blue Zone 

The Great Disconnect

In the past year since my father and I started this garden I became aware of how much work it actually takes to produce food. Before that, I had no idea! I just went to the grocery store and picked out whatever the hell I wanted anytime of the year and that was that.

It takes A LOT of work to produce enough food to live off of. And you have to have the right tools.

We are very fortunate (or unfortunate depending how you look at it) that we can drive to the grocery store and pick out over 50,000 items to feed our faces. In my life and my parents' lives we have not wanted for food. But I believe we are the exception not the rule.

I think that if Americans were more in touch with where our food comes from and how hard it is to physically grow your own food and knew what it was like to kill an cow and cut it up that we would be eating much much differently.

I'm not sure how it happened to be this way but there is absolutely no connection between the animal that was living and the perfectly packaged pieces of meat in the meat department. There is no connection between the farm and the produce we eat- especially considering most of our produce is now imported so we have a fresh array all year long. (I'm not complaining considering I live mostly off of these plants that we are importing.)

bet you never thought you would be staring into a bumble bee's ass
sticking out of a squash flower

Over the past 2 years of going on this "becoming healthier so I don't get cancer" journey I have done some things that I never thought I would do- stop eating meat, stop eating cheese, stop eating cooked food, live on juice only, meet the animals that would be my meat, grow my own food.

I have gone to extremes, and I usually bounce back to somewhere a little healthier than I started, but one thing is for sure... I appreciate real food and what it can do to my body and soul. I have heard people who are in the holistic health/food industry speak about how when you change the food you eat, your whole life will change. I didn't believe them at the time, but looking back over the last 2 years to before I started this, my life is completely different.

I am more aware of what food does to my body. I am aware of how food affects my mind and my mood. I am more aware of stress and how to avoid letting it get the best of me. I am happier. I am working on surrounding myself with people who will support me and lift me up and getting rid of the Negative Nancy's.

Is it a coinkydink? I don't know, but I'm sure as S-H-I-T happy that this is happening to me. (bet you thought I was going to get through this whole post without using the S word)

So a summer project for you all! Go to a farm and talk to a farmer about whatever it is that they grow- corn, cows, chickens, whatever! Ask them about how they care for their crops and animals, and what their beliefs are about what they are doing. Start to get to know where your food comes from and I promise you Oreos and frozen chicken tenders won't look as appetizing once you realize they come from a factory and are made of chemicals and animal "parts". 

Insane Cravings

If only Gaga was around this week with that crazy meat dress of hers. I could have eaten the entire thing. Out of no where I got these intense cravings for meat. I haven't really eaten much of it (including eggs) in the past month and all of a sudden I was like "EGGS, BACON, HAMBURGERS, STEAK!"

So I've been eating eggs just about every day, and I ate Italian sausage the other night, and I made crazy awesome burgers last night (which I will be elaborating on in another post).

I'm feeling pretty good otherwise. I'm still drinking dark green leafy vegetable juice just about every day, and started making smoothies again. I think I'm about to begin my lady episode soon, which might explain the cravings for meat. I say I think because for the past 15 years I have not been successful at tracking it. I figure I've gotten along this far without knowing when it would hit.

I used to crave salty carbs all day, everyday. Specifically potato chips. Since I started with the dark green leafy vegetable juice they have pretty much gone away. I have read that when you crave salty carbs it's because you have a mineral deficiency. Guess what is LOADED with minerals? Dark green leafy vegetables. Who'da thunk it?

What do you guys crave? Salty, sweet, crunchy, creamy?

Weekend in Review

This weekend went fast- and I crammed a lot in. My usual winter weekends are filled with sleeping in, laying around, relaxing, and cooking. Unfortunately I didn't get to lay around this weekend but I did...

• take two naps
• two fun nights out 
• studied for 16 hours
• drank 2 giant glasses of dark green vegetable juice
• ate bacon and eggs twice
• spent zero minutes outside :(
• sneezed 75 times
• ate one hot dog w/ sauerkraut & spicy mustard and cheese fries

I really went off track with my eating this weekend. But it was soooooo good! I can't even tell you the last time I ate a hot dog... or cheese fries. You know when you eat really healthy most of the time, the really unhealthy foods taste that much better. I think it's okay to be a normal American every once and a while. And then afterwards I am way more excited to eat my raw foods. This weekend was a nice break. 

Huge agenda this week...then off to LA!

Beers & Burgers

I woke up this morning feeling like I was drunk last night. Foggy head, slight headache, no motivation. I did have a few beers last night (probably the first time I drank beer in a long time- wine is usually my drink of choice) but at no point was I even remotely close to being even slightly buzzed. I mean I literally had 3 beers over the course of 4 hours. But... I did have a cheese burger.

I couldn't help it! It was late and I was starving and I was at a place that serves tons of juicy, greasy bar food. And they had muenster cheese... my favorite!!! Anyway, that burger (+ the fries that came with it) was the unhealthiest thing I've eaten in a while. Add the fact that I've been eating like 90% raw fruits and vegetables for the past 2 weeks and I think I know why I feel like garbage today.

It is amazing to me how fast your body responds to eating healthy. I didn't really think that 1 greasy meal + a few beers would effect me as much as it did. So... time to clean up my act today (after the decaf coffee I am about to drink).

What are everyone's plans for the weekend? I am about to be a studying monster. Have to ace an exam next week before I'm off to L.A. for a long weekend!

My thoughts on "occupying" things

Yesterday was Occupy You Food Suppy day #OFS. I get it that people are fed up with how things are being run- I am too. The government is in bed with big dairy, big business, big agriculture, big banks & everyone else who loves free money.

While generally I think it is a good thing that people stand up for what they believe in, "occupying" anything other than a job is really not going to benefit anyone- including yourself.

I agree that the food industry is a F'ed up. I agree that we are fatter and sicker because of it. I agree that something needs to be done. But what I don't agree with is "occupying" anything- except maybe the White House lawn (b/c whether you want to face it or not, all this bullshit wouldn't be possible without a big government, handouts, and lobbying). The Occupy Movement that started with Wall Street (which was in my humble opinion a bunch of misinformed, wanna-be hippies that had no real agenda and no work ethic) was such a time and money suck that I am not going to waste any more time talking about it. Now the Occupiers are occupying what? food stores? Monsanto's corporate headquarters? Who knows. As far as I could see it didn't make the evening news.

Here are some actual things every ordinary person who cares about themselves, their health, their wallet, and their families can do without having the I'm-a-hippie-and-I-need-something-to-cry-about stigma:

• buy more produce, it doesn't even have to be organic
• stop buying the junk that's making you and your children fat monsters
• buy seeds and start growing some of your own food (instead of spending hundred of $'s on pretty flowers for your garden)

It doesn't have to be this big to-do to make changes. All you have to do is vote with your fork and your dolla dolla bills yo! We don't need more farm bills or Occupy Movements. Get the government/evil food industry out of your food by changing the food that you buy. 

Chicken Soup for the Cold Jessie

Remember yesterday I mad the squash concoction? Well this would have been a perfect pair, except I cooked it after the fact. In spite of the fact that the chicken was to large for my dutch oven, I ended up with a lovely chicken soup that I completely did not intend to make.

I seasoned the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, & pepper; put some water in the dutch oven; cut up some carrots, red onions, and threw in rosemary sprigs. Set it in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour to hour and a quarter (depending on the size of the chicken). Voila!

All you have to do is pick the meat off the chicken after it has cooled and you have soup! I had anticipated being able to get a lot more meat off this bird, but it was small so I only got enough to use in the soup. But...if you get a larger bird you could do both- soup & pick the meat off.

My favorite, favorite, favorite, thing is a chicken breast sandwich. I just use a good whole grain bread w/ A LOT of mayonnaise and some lettuce and tomato.

Next up! Chicken liver....yum!!!!

Haha, this chicken came with it's liver and I have been reading about how healthy it is to eat liver because it contains Vitamin A & D which are the vitamins that allow your body to utilize all other vitamins and minerals. Without enough Vitamin A & D the nutrients just pass right through and never get absorbed.

We'll see how this goes. The verdict isn't in as to whether I will actually like liver.

Eggs: My favorite food

If you haven't noticed, I have been writing about eggs a lot lately. They are my absolute favorite food- period. Especially in the winter. I could eat them twice a day. In fact, after I finish writing this I am going to make myself an omelet.

I just wanted to share something with you that I learned recently about how the egg is supposed to look when you crack it out of it's shell. You should know by now if you have been reading my ramblings that I go to a farm to buy meat and eggs. I buy as many eggs as Carla has available, and since I don't get down there as often as I would like, I buy the rest of my eggs organic and pastured if possible.

Look at the difference between one of the farm eggs (bottom) and an organic store-bought egg (top). If you can't notice a difference let me school you:

• the farm egg (bottom) is darker orange in color which means that it is richer in beta-carotene 
• the egg white around the farm egg is thick with a defined edge
• majority of the liquid in the bowl came from the organic egg (top)

Here are some things that you cannot see:

• The shell of the farm egg was a lot harder to crack
• I did a poke test to see how easily the yolk would break and the farm egg's yolk was much more resilient to my poke; the organic egg yolk broke almost immediately. 

Why is this important? Well, the healthier the animal, the stronger the egg, the healthier the egg is for you. Beta-carotene, which is the pigment responsible for orange foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin, is important because it is a precursor to Vitamin A. Vitamin A is an important vitamin because without it our bodies cannot utilize all of the vitamins and minerals we take in through our food. It works in conjunction with Vitamin D, which is why they fortify dairy with both, however the dairy industry missed the boat and is using the wrong form-Vitamin D2- when we really need Vitamin D3. If you don't know my stance on vitamins read thisA Bitter Pill to Swallow...how vitamins may not actually be healthy. 

Bottom line is that this power couple (Vitamins A & D) is responsible for directing where other nutrients are sent in your body. They are like the air traffic controllers. Without them it is a whole big mess. 

In addition to the sun (Vitamin D) and fruits & vegetables (Vitamin A), you can also get them in the meat and dairy from animals that have been pasture raised. The animals absorb Vitamin D from the sun and they get Vitamin A from the grass, both end up being stored in their muscle, organs, and milk (and subsequently the milk products). This is one of the reasons why so many cultures (including ours until recently) ate the organ meats of animals. They were very high in Vitamins A & D- although I doubt they knew this. This is how many cultures survive in very cold climates with hardly any exposure to sunlight. They ate animals in their entirety- the liver, the bones in soup, the feet, EVERYTHING! And the animals were either wild or pasture raised. Factory farms didn't exist until very recently. 

So. It's winter. I live in New Jersey. I don't get any sun- I usually go tanning a few times a week, but my package ended and I just haven't gotten around to renewing PLUS I want to see if I can fulfill my needs through my diet. Enter eggs, meat, and dairy from pastured animals. 

Do you think people used to worry about getting enough vitamins or did they just eat what was abundant in their area? 

(Pssst... Nutritionism and all this hype about individual nutrients is an American made thing (scary!). It has never been practiced anywhere else in the world. Cultures around the globe practiced eating whole foods which were indigenous to their area. Over time, they found what worked for them so they could survive and thrive where they lived. I think we need to go back to that- who the hell are we to think that we can design it better than Mother Nature?)

Being an on again off again meat eater

A while ago I was vegetarian, and after about a year I slowly started eating meat again. Then I felt bad about eating meat because I knew the meat I was eating was not the best quality. Now I can completely enjoy it because I know where it is coming from.

I have also found that I naturally want to eat more meat during the winter months. This seems like a natural thing. Up until very recently in the course of us (humans) fresh produce was not available all year round. 200 years ago where I live in New Jersey I could not get oranges and asparagus and lettuce in the middle of January. I would have had to live off the vegetables harvested in the fall (like root vegetables, winter squash, and onions), the fruits and vegetables I was able to can & jar from the summer months, the grains I had in stock, and whatever animals I could hunt or could afford to kill- like the family cow or pig :(

As some of you may know I started a garden last spring with my father. I noticed that I was more inclined to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables since we had them, and I grew them! Towards the end of last summer I had increased the amount of fruits and vegetables I was eating by a tremendous amount and I loved it. I felt great, and I was losing weight. And then it got cold, and so did I. I just couldn't eat raw fruits and vegetables all day. So I stopped. I switched to soups, stews & chili, a lot of cooked vegetables, and more meat.

Nature provides foods that are going to nourish you in that season. Spring is filled with berries, sprouts, lettuce and such which are all great to detoxify your body from all of the heavy foods that you eat in the winter. Summer foods are light and cooling- tomatoes, greens, cherries, watermelon, etc. Foods that are ready in the fall (winter squash, potatoes, onions, apples, cranberries) are able to be stored for several months to get you through the winter.

It makes sense that all I would want to eat right now are hot soups and oatmeal and meat and potatoes. Ask me if I want a big, hot, meaty meal in the middle of July when I'm a hot sweaty mess. No thank you! I want a salad and melon and fruit smoothies.

This is my goal, and the aim of the book that I am writing... to create a guide for all of us to easily eat in season. It is one thing to know what is in season, and it is a completely other thing to be able to actually come up with a month's worth of recipes involving mushrooms, cabbage, leeks, and cauliflower. I had originally wanted to just create a guide on how to de-junk your diet- some of which I will definitely be incorporating, but the more I learn in my classes, the more I realized that it is so important to eat with the season.

Mother Nature never steers you wrong- but she will school your ass if you don't listen to her.

OMG I want to eat LIVER!

Well, I've gone and done it again. Just when I think I know enough to make informed decisions about what I am eating I learn something new that totally blows my mind and makes me rethink what I have been doing.

New year's night I ate dinner at my Aunt's house and liver and onions came up in conversation. We aren't weirdos...my grandmother used to eat it all the time. As soon as I heard that my face scrunched up and I got that feeling like "I could never eat organs!" Hahaha like it's any different than eating muscle (which is what meat is).

Anywho, I was just listening to a lecture by Sally Fallon of the Weston A Price Foundation on "what a healthy diet is". In a nutshell, Weston Price (who was a dentist) saw his patients coming in with awful teeth. He knew that diet had something to do with it so he set out to study a bunch of isolated "primitive" cultures around the world. They are referred to as primitive because they have no interaction with the "civilized world". His goal was to examine their teeth, their overall health, and the foods that they ate.

He went to each culture and did just that. He examined everyone from the elders down to the infants and found, to his astonishment, that the majority (99%) had perfect teeth and were generally of good health. Their babies were healthy, the old people were healthy. Then he recorded their diets. He set out thinking that their diets would be vegetarian. On the contrary they ate everything from raw milk to organ meats to fish heads (yum!).

What these "primitive" cultures ate depended on what they had available. There was a group of people in Switzerland that ate mainly raw milk products and a dense sour dough bread.

You ask...how is that possible? I thought carbs and dairy were bad?

Well the bread and cheese those people ate were completely different than the bread and cheese that we eat today. They did not pasteurize their milk which kills everything beneficial that raw milk has to offer, and the bread that they made was made in such a way that is easily digestible.

 There were a lot of similarities between how these "primitive" people ate but here are the few that intrigued me the most:

• they ate what was available to them (whether it was dairy, or bugs, or fish, or grains) 
• they ate entire animals/fish
• they ate the fattiest parts of the animals

How does this relate to liver and onions? Well until just recently it was common to use most parts of an animal. Two generations ago, people ate liver. And this is in New Jersey, not some isolated valley in Switzerland.

liver & onions courtesy of The Food Network

Since then, the no-fat/low-fat health claims have twisted us into thinking that we are healthier without all the fat. But these isolated "primitive" cultures around the world have proven otherwise. These cultures have been eating traditionally for hundreds if not thousands of years (depending) because it has allowed them to thrive and survive in their particular surroundings. They do not need doctors and scientists to tell them what nutrients are in what. They ate liver not knowing it is very high in Vitamin A & D. They did not explicitly know that Vitamins A & D are fat soluable (which means they need fat present to be absorbed). The liver is a fatty organ. They did not explicitly know that Vitamins A & D are important in that they allow all of the rest of the vitamins and minerals to be absorbed and utilized properly, as well as play a huge role in the proper functioning of hormones. Their animals were raised on a pasture, which in turn produces meat that is high in Vitamin D.

They weren't screwed up about what they should eat. 


Why do we (Americans) think we know it all? Why in a relatively short period of time have we screwed it all up? Who do we think we are?

After listening to this lecture, I got the uncontrollable urge to try liver. I heard horror stories from my mom and aunt about liver and onions, but I have a feeling that if I use enough butter and make a pate it will be delicious. I mean if the French can eat it (and a lot of it) why can't I?

Coming Soon...liver pate... are you yay or nay?

*By the way... if you were like me and against liver (or other meat) you can take a cod liver oil supplement, but not without butter!!! Butter makes everything better.

Pea Soup: Take II

before

My first attempt at pea soup was a complete failure. I tried to make it vegetarian. FAIL. I used truffle oil. FAIL. This time I am using a good old ham bone.

This (according to my mom) is a super simple recipe. Somehow I screwed it up the first time, but I'm going to redeem myself here. It just kills me to spend an hour cooking something and have to throw it right in the garbage (it was that bad).

after

• 3 carrots
• 1 large onion
• 1 1/2 c. dried split green peas
• ham bone
• 2 cups cooked diced ham
• 4 cups organic vegetable broth
• 3 cups of water
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp. black pepper

1. Chop onions.
2. Put in pot w/ 1/4 stick butter. Saute until soft.
3. Chop carrots. Cut carrots in 1/2 inch coins (don't cut the carrots too thin or they will disintegrate when cooked for an hour).
4. In lg. pot add all ingredients.
5. Boil for 10 minutes, then turn heat down to medium.
6. Cover and let simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Stir every 20 minutes or so.
7. Voila! 

TIP: If by the end your peas have not disintegrated enough, bring it up to a boil and stir vigorously. This is super simple, but the key is the ham. It just makes it. I'm in heaven. 

Christmas Dinner: Part Duex

On to the main course...fish or duck? That is the question. I initially thought duck would go best with this meal, however went against my gut and made fish because it would be lighter... it wasn't a huge mistake, but I really just think that duck or something like roast pork would tie all of the flavors together.

Stuffed Wild Cod

• 1 filet per person, the thinner the better
• 1 pkg spinach per person
• olive oil
• minced garlic

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large pan, medium heat, warm olive oil.
3. Add in garlic, and saute for a minute.
4. Add in spinach. Cover and let cook down, stirring once or twice.
5. Remove spinach from heat and drain.
6. Lay fillets on a baking sheet covered w/ tin foil
7. Spread spinach over entire fillet
8. Roll up and place in casserole dish (they will produce quite a bit of liquid)
9. Bake for 30 minutes.

Roast Duck (serves 2-4)

While I have done this before, it has been a while...so here is a gal who has pretty detailed instructions (with lots of pictures!) ...please find directions at The Hungry Mouse. She has some other tricks for saving the fat too, but if you just want to roast a duck the instructions are there. (I would personally do it without the glaze she uses, but that's just me.)

Artichoke Salad (serves 4)

• 2 cans artichoke hearts
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 container crumbled goat cheese
• 1/4 red onion
• 1 head endive (optional)

1. Chop artichoke, arugula, and onion.
2. Mix in bowl with goat cheese.
3. Serve w/ endive or by itself.

salad in the endive..finger food

the salad plated

or...the salad served buffet style
(I'm glad I got such great pics in this bowl b/c I broke it
loading it into the dishwasher :(

Cranberry Sauce (serves 4)

• 1 bag cranberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 1/2 red apple (gala or honey crisp)
• 1 tsp. cinamon
• 3 pinches cardamom (optional)
• 1/4 c. sugar

1. Put all in food processor or blender and blend. That's it! No cooking necessary.

This is cardamom.

Cardamom is used quite a bit in Indian & Ayurvedic cooking. I bought it a while back b/c I thought it was interesting, but never knew what to do with it. Until now! Both cardamom and cranberries have an astringent flavor so I thought it went well. WATCH OUT! Cardamom is very strong so you only need a couple pinches to get the full effect of the flavor. 

After finding out that my favorite jellied cranberry sauce was LOADED with high fructose corn syrup I decided that I better figure out how to make a substitute. This was stupid simple- PERFECT!

Tomorrow night... dessert :) Enjoy!

Chicken Soup for the Soul

I have officially been mildly sick the entire month of December. It's more annoying than anything. I am not sick enough to stay home, but just sick enough to make everything that much harder to do. Yesterday I felt better so I went to the gym, today I wake up and am a mucus factory AGAIN! W-T-Hell? I guess I wasn't exaggerating my need for chicken soup when I made a GIANT pot 2 nights ago.

I'm not sure what it is about chicken soup that instantly makes you feel better when you are sick, but it does. And it's pretty simple too. Here's how I do it...

• 1/2 chicken (mine was from the farm)
• 1/2 pot water
• 1 container organic vegetable broth
• 2 onions, cut in half
• carrot tops (if you buy carrots with the tops still on, if not omit)
• spices: thyme, sage, sea salt, black pepper, onion powder, bay leaves (3)

this is what it looks like in the beginning

Put above in pot w/ lid. Boil for 45 minutes. VOILA! Homemade chicken stock! In a second pot, pour contents of first pot THROUGH A STRAINER. This is to separate the liquid from everything else. While the chicken is cooling enough to pick apart, chop up veggies:

• carrots
• celery
• turnips
• onions
• mushrooms

carrot tops can be used in soups and salads

this is what it looks like after 45 minutes

strain out all the stuff

make sure you rinse your grains before you add them in
you can even soak them for 30 minutes if you want

You can also use leeks, potatoes, and/or corn. Put the veggies in with the broth. Pick the meat off the chicken, put back in the soup. Bring soup to boil. Add in 1 cup quinoa. Let boil for 2 minutes and then turn heat down to let simmer for 20. You do not have to use quinoa, you can use brown rice (although it takes longer), egg noodles, or barley. If you are using egg noodles, I would make them separately and add in as you eat the soup, otherwise they absorb too much liquid and get mushy and break apart.

taste it and add in any more salt & pepper if needed

What I usually do is leave some in the refrigerator and freeze some. If you do that with every pot of soup/stew/chili you make, you will have a good stock built up in the freezer for a fast meal. Enjoy! 

I should have been born French

I recently watched the movie Julie & Julia (I know it is a few years old) and was instantly enthralled by Julia Child. Honestly I could have done without the Julie character and her story (although that was a great accomplishment to have her blog turned into a major motion picture). They should have just done the movie about Julia Child. Anywho. Julia Child had spend years and in France "mastering the art of French cooking" which coincidentally is the name of her two volume masterpiece. I have not read it yet, but I am going to buy it and start working through it. She also has another book Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking which I think might be right up my alley. 


The real reason I am writing about this is because it occurred to me that she lived to be 92, and, from what I saw and know of her recipes, ate a high fat diet full of pastries and duck, beef and butter (among other things). This was back in the 1950's until the time she died in 2004. I do know that she used real, fresh, quality ingredients, and lots of love. She LOVED to cook and figure out the best ways to prepare any dish. A woman after my own heart. 

This raises the question... do the ingredient matter as much as the quality?


Let's take butter for instance. It is quite possibly my favorite fat and I will put it on anything that I can. According to SELF Magazine's Nutrition Data Website it is 99% fat and 1% protein. It is very inflammatory probably because it is a saturated fat from an animal source (I assume that they are rating this as bad as they are because it is high saturated fat and everyone is under the impression that saturated fats are bad- WRONG - unnatural fats are bad). It has upwards of 20% RDA of Vitamins A, D, E, & K as well as being a complete protein (a complete protein is a source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of all nine of the essential amino acids necessary for the dietary needs of humans or other animals).

So in butter's case, it is the saturated fat and cholesterol vs. all 9 essential amino "fatty" acids and 4 vitamins. Now obviously you can find these vitamins elsewhere in a wide variety of vegetables. The essential fatty acids are another story.


Two things:

• The complete proteins are called "essential" fatty or amino acids because our body cannot make them. We need to get them from other sources, and our bodies will not function properly if we are deficient.   
• The word "fatty" means they come from FAT. Therefore, you will be deficient if you eat a low fat diet. That means, if you only eat egg whites, boneless skinless chicken breast, no butter, and no meat you are running the risk of becoming deficient in one or several of the 9.

Yes you can find some of the 9 amino acids from other sources (legumes, grains, and vegetables) but they tend to be limited in the number of amino acids. Some are notably low, such as corn protein. Hmmmm, didn't I just find out that corn in the United States is genetically modified and shows up in a lot of the processed foods Americans buy? 

These are the foods naturally containing all 9 amino acids:  amaranth, buckwheat, hempseed, meat, poultry, soybeans, quinoa, seafood, and spirulina.


How many of those can you say you eat on a regular basis? Personally, I can say 1 regularly (seafood) and 5 occasionally. The three that I have never used in my cooking so far are amaranth, buckwheat, and hempseed. 


It is easy to get all of the essential amino acids if you eat a wide variety of unprocessed foods, but how many of you can say that?


So with all that technical stuff aside, let's get back to quality. After everything that I have read on the science of fats, dairy, the dairy industry, sugar, the sugar industry, soy, the soy industry, etc, it is my humble conclusion that the quality of the fats, sugars, and proteins are more important than the amount of saturated fat in something or the amount of carbs in something else. 

Instead of counting calories and grams of fat, try focusing on these few things that will make a tremendous improvement in your life:

1. Buy organic egg and dairy products. If you are lucky enough to live in a state or country that allows the sale of raw dairy take advantage. The packaging must say "without antibiotics and growth hormones" and would be a HUGE plus if it says "comes from grass fed/pasture raised animals". Cage Free is does not mean that the chickens live on a farm. They are given slightly better living conditions than normal (which isn't saying much). If you want to know how "conventional" animals are raised look up some videos on YouTube...a lot of it is worse than your wildest imaginations.
2. Buy meat from "humanely raised" animals. Grass fed is good too, but the regulations for raising grass fed animals go against what is natural for those animal. Animals eat other things than grass in nature. Organic means nothing unless it also says humanely raised or grass fed.
3. Don't buy processed soy UNLESS it is soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, or miso. Check all ingredients though because manufacturers sneak in bad ingredients to cut costs. 
4. Cut out as much refined sugar as you possibly can. Fruit sugar is different. We are meant to eat fruit. It has fiber in it which slows down the absorption into our blood stream. Fruit is also bursting with vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and cancer-fighting nutrients. 
5. NO TRANS-FATS. Partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils make up this category. They wreak havoc on your bodies in many different ways. 

Long story short...EAT LIKE JULIA DID...REAL, HIGH QUALITY FOODS COOKED WITH LOVE.

She was funny too!