Since I've had three conversations about chickens over the past two days, I thought I'd write a quick post about it!
If you have ever purchased meat or poultry from Whole Foods, you have probably noticed that everything is labeled with a number that corresponds with a "step". Since I grocery shop with my children, I have never had the fortitude to stop, make everyone be quiet, and concentrate on understanding what it all means...
So here is a link for those who are interested...
http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2011/02/5-step-chicken-whats-in-a-number/
Most everyone knows the sad story of the chickens for sale at the regular grocery stores. Those poor little things... they are put in confinement with tons of other guys, made to walk all over each other (and their diseased or dead room-mates), some never see the light of day, they are injected full of yucky things (hormones and antibiotics) to make them stay alive in that unnatural environment AND to make them nice and plump for our enjoyment. Yum Yum, right!? But - to top it all off - they are made to eat things that they were never intended to eat, one of which is soybeans! What in the world?! They are raised, from chick to full-grown in just 6-8 weeks... while chickens raised on pasture take 3-8 MONTHS - depending on the farmer.
Just buy organic, you say? Well, some organically fed chickens are treated differently than the plight of those described above, but all the label "organic" indicates is that their feed (whatever that may be) is organic... (and that they are not given hormones or antibiotics). But the problem is...chickens are supposed to be pastured. That means that their little bodies are meant to have plenty of room to scratch around, foraging for bugs and such. When they are raised this way, we reap the benefits.
Here are a few excerpts that explain why our family buys pastured chickens:
"We place our chickens in portable pens at ten days of age and move them daily. This movement forces exercise by the lazy broilers and stimulates ingestion of fresh grass and legumes. A natural diet like this packs the bird with nutrition and flavor. When they are moved away from yesterday’s excrement, it eliminates the need for antibiotics and pesticides. Chickens that are raised in huge confinement houses are denied a natural diet, fed an unnatural diet, de-beaked, over-crowded, never get a breath of fresh air or much exercise. A very important difference in our chickens and store chickens is in the processing. Store chickens are processed by the millions in huge plants staffed by people who will never see their consumer. Chickens are eviscerated using automated equipment which can splatter manure on the inside of the carcass; but never fear, they are dipped into a chlorine bath solution by the hundreds of thousands. This kills the bacteria but do you want to eat chicken that is washed in fecal soup? Assembly lines go so fast that the USDA inspectors only get a glance at a bird! Our chickens are processed by a small, family run certified organic processor who shakes the hand of every customer. The inspector has all day to inspect 300 birds. There is a big price difference in industrial chicken and our chicken but we believe there is an even bigger difference in quality."
So here's the bottom line:
Buy the regular grocery store chicken if you like. It won't kill you - it's just not the best.
Next best is organic, but the very best version is pastured organic. Don't stress over this - it's just chicken :)
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Freezer Cooking
I have always loved the idea of freezer cooking. However, I'm not really a casserole girl. I've always loved to saute veggies, and grill meat - that kind of thing. HOWEVER - with our growing brood of hungry boys, casseroles really do fit the bill, and with my ever-growing list of things to do each day with homeschooling them... freezer meals just make sense.
Here's what I did this time:
Two days before the big day, I soaked some brown rice (see previous posts)
The night before, I put the rice in the crock pot on low, added the water, and woke up to cooked rice in the morning. (a huge crock pot full) ($3.00)
I removed the rice into bowls, and put a 5 lb bag of washed potatoes in the crock pot with water, and went to go buy my groceries for the rest of the meals! ($3.50) When I got back, I mashed the potatoes right in the crock pot using some butter and my hubby's strong mashin' arms. :)
I picked up our beef from our farmer, and knowing ahead of time I was going to do freezer meals, I ordered with that in mind. (we order meat from a farmer so that we can eat organic grass fed beef- what cows are supposed to eat! For the cuts we get, it is really not that much more expensive than the grocery store) So, I ordered 14 lbs of ground beef, 2 roasts, and 3 chickens. ($103 including tax)
I'll stop right here and say that my choice of meals this time was based on our low, low budget for food this month. So, I'm using mostly ground beef, and stretching it by putting it in casseroles. My idea situation? No, of course not, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and I'm so thankful for what we have!!! The Lord is continuing to provide so that we can have mostly organic, real food. He is so good :)
Next, I went to Trader Joes and bought 4 containers of organic mushrooms ($8), 3 containers of organic sour cream ($4.50), 3 containers of cream cheese ($6), 4 bell peppers ($3), 6 lbs of raw cheese ($24), 4 bags of organic brown rice noodles ($8), 4 jars of organic pasta sauce ($8), 1 bag of organic onions ($3), 1 bag of frozen organic peas, and 1 of corn ($3.50), sun dried tomatoes ($2) = Total: $70.00
So with this $170 spent on freezer meals, I'm estimating that our entire grocery bill this month will be lower than usual. Most likely around $370 for 450 servings (5 people x3 meals per day x 30 days per month).
Ok - now to cook!
I got home and put the ground beef on the stove to brown in two huge pots. (later, drain the beef using a colander set on a bowl to reserve that HEALTHY tallow to cook with later!)
On one of the two remaining burners, I made a cheese sauce using the raw cheese melted on low into some raw milk I already had. I added one of the cream cheeses to this also. On the other burner, I melted the remaining two cream cheeses in some raw milk, and stirred in two containers of organic sour cream.
While that was all going, I chopped up the bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions - and put them in separate bowls.
Once the beef was finished, I had two burners available, and I cooked the mushrooms and bell peppers. When those were finished, I cooked the onions. When THOSE were finished, I boiled my water for my two different kinds of pasta. (in hind sight, I would have sauteed those veggies earlier in the day - it would be fine to saute them on a previous cooking night too - but remember the point is to only have to clean the kitchen ONCE! :) )
Now, I'm almost ready. I got out my "non-made-from-scratch" ingredients and lined them up: salt, pepper, rosemary, dill, oregano, basil, cumin, red pepper (all dried), pre-minced garlic, parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.
Here's what I ended up with for my assembly line:
1. Penne noodles
2. Spiral noodles
3. Rice
4. Mashed potatoes
5. sauteed peppers
6. sauteed onions
7. sauteed mushrooms
8. cheese sauce
9. sour cream sauce
10. ground beef
11. non- scratch items
Let the assembly begin! (I just mixed these individually in a large bowl, then put in casserole dishes or ball canning jars)
Beef Stroganoff - beef, sour cream sauce, penne noodles, mushrooms, onions, garlic, spices (casserole dishes x2)
Lasagna - beef, spiral noodles, spaghetti sauce, garlic, spices, then cheese sauce, then parm. cheese on top (casserole dishes x2)
Macaroni and Cheese - combination of penne and spiral noodles, cheese sauce, sun dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms, spices (canning jars x4)
Spanish Rice - beef, rice, onions, garlic, peppers, spaghetti sauce, spices (make sure to add lots of cumin and red pepper) (canning jars x8)
Cheesy Rice - rice, cheese sauce, sour cream sauce, garlic, spices (canning jars x4)
Shepherds Pie - beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, spaghetti sauce, garlic, spices. smush this flat on the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with frozen peas and carrots, then top with mashed potatoes (casserole dish x2)
Now that's a TON of food - ready to go! :) It took my 4 1/2 hours cooking time, but I think it is going to save me HOURS and HOURS of kitchen time in the long run!
Today is Sunday so chose to nap instead of cook, but tomorrow I'll finish up by cooking my two roasts in the crock pot, and then slicing them for BBQ or Stews. I'll store those in ball canning jars as well.
As for my chickens, I'll roast them individually during the next month and serve along side one of my great sides like Macaroni and Cheese or Cheesy Rice! :)
I think this is going to be the beginning of a great thing for our family. Now I can easily steam a few DIFFERENT frozen veggies AND make a quick salad around meal time, and not have to worry about the main dish AT. ALL. I think this is really going to help us get more veggies in our diet because I'll have more time. Seems like up until now, I make the main dish, and then am TIRED and just end up serving one vegetable. Boring. And by the way - the more veggies I serve each time, the further that casserole will stretch - right?
And on nights when I'm REALLY lazy, I can bring out the spanish rice, and serve it with chips and queso from the Mexican restaurant down the street. ($3 - by the way! - and it really is enough for even this hungry crew. But, I'm sure the chips are made with GMO corn, so I try not to do that TOO much! :) )
Now this post is long enough, but I am really excited about all of this REAL FOOD that I have in my freezer. No MSG, no GMO, no chemicals, no BPA lined cans, no rancid oils...no icky stuff. It's quick, and it only took 4 1/2 hours of my time. I think it's going to be worth the time investment :)
Here's what I did this time:
Two days before the big day, I soaked some brown rice (see previous posts)
The night before, I put the rice in the crock pot on low, added the water, and woke up to cooked rice in the morning. (a huge crock pot full) ($3.00)
I removed the rice into bowls, and put a 5 lb bag of washed potatoes in the crock pot with water, and went to go buy my groceries for the rest of the meals! ($3.50) When I got back, I mashed the potatoes right in the crock pot using some butter and my hubby's strong mashin' arms. :)
I picked up our beef from our farmer, and knowing ahead of time I was going to do freezer meals, I ordered with that in mind. (we order meat from a farmer so that we can eat organic grass fed beef- what cows are supposed to eat! For the cuts we get, it is really not that much more expensive than the grocery store) So, I ordered 14 lbs of ground beef, 2 roasts, and 3 chickens. ($103 including tax)
I'll stop right here and say that my choice of meals this time was based on our low, low budget for food this month. So, I'm using mostly ground beef, and stretching it by putting it in casseroles. My idea situation? No, of course not, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and I'm so thankful for what we have!!! The Lord is continuing to provide so that we can have mostly organic, real food. He is so good :)
Next, I went to Trader Joes and bought 4 containers of organic mushrooms ($8), 3 containers of organic sour cream ($4.50), 3 containers of cream cheese ($6), 4 bell peppers ($3), 6 lbs of raw cheese ($24), 4 bags of organic brown rice noodles ($8), 4 jars of organic pasta sauce ($8), 1 bag of organic onions ($3), 1 bag of frozen organic peas, and 1 of corn ($3.50), sun dried tomatoes ($2) = Total: $70.00
So with this $170 spent on freezer meals, I'm estimating that our entire grocery bill this month will be lower than usual. Most likely around $370 for 450 servings (5 people x3 meals per day x 30 days per month).
Ok - now to cook!
I got home and put the ground beef on the stove to brown in two huge pots. (later, drain the beef using a colander set on a bowl to reserve that HEALTHY tallow to cook with later!)
On one of the two remaining burners, I made a cheese sauce using the raw cheese melted on low into some raw milk I already had. I added one of the cream cheeses to this also. On the other burner, I melted the remaining two cream cheeses in some raw milk, and stirred in two containers of organic sour cream.
While that was all going, I chopped up the bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions - and put them in separate bowls.
Once the beef was finished, I had two burners available, and I cooked the mushrooms and bell peppers. When those were finished, I cooked the onions. When THOSE were finished, I boiled my water for my two different kinds of pasta. (in hind sight, I would have sauteed those veggies earlier in the day - it would be fine to saute them on a previous cooking night too - but remember the point is to only have to clean the kitchen ONCE! :) )
Now, I'm almost ready. I got out my "non-made-from-scratch" ingredients and lined them up: salt, pepper, rosemary, dill, oregano, basil, cumin, red pepper (all dried), pre-minced garlic, parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.
Here's what I ended up with for my assembly line:
1. Penne noodles
2. Spiral noodles
3. Rice
4. Mashed potatoes
5. sauteed peppers
6. sauteed onions
7. sauteed mushrooms
8. cheese sauce
9. sour cream sauce
10. ground beef
11. non- scratch items
Let the assembly begin! (I just mixed these individually in a large bowl, then put in casserole dishes or ball canning jars)
Beef Stroganoff - beef, sour cream sauce, penne noodles, mushrooms, onions, garlic, spices (casserole dishes x2)
Lasagna - beef, spiral noodles, spaghetti sauce, garlic, spices, then cheese sauce, then parm. cheese on top (casserole dishes x2)
Macaroni and Cheese - combination of penne and spiral noodles, cheese sauce, sun dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms, spices (canning jars x4)
Spanish Rice - beef, rice, onions, garlic, peppers, spaghetti sauce, spices (make sure to add lots of cumin and red pepper) (canning jars x8)
Cheesy Rice - rice, cheese sauce, sour cream sauce, garlic, spices (canning jars x4)
Shepherds Pie - beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, spaghetti sauce, garlic, spices. smush this flat on the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with frozen peas and carrots, then top with mashed potatoes (casserole dish x2)
Now that's a TON of food - ready to go! :) It took my 4 1/2 hours cooking time, but I think it is going to save me HOURS and HOURS of kitchen time in the long run!
Today is Sunday so chose to nap instead of cook, but tomorrow I'll finish up by cooking my two roasts in the crock pot, and then slicing them for BBQ or Stews. I'll store those in ball canning jars as well.
As for my chickens, I'll roast them individually during the next month and serve along side one of my great sides like Macaroni and Cheese or Cheesy Rice! :)
I think this is going to be the beginning of a great thing for our family. Now I can easily steam a few DIFFERENT frozen veggies AND make a quick salad around meal time, and not have to worry about the main dish AT. ALL. I think this is really going to help us get more veggies in our diet because I'll have more time. Seems like up until now, I make the main dish, and then am TIRED and just end up serving one vegetable. Boring. And by the way - the more veggies I serve each time, the further that casserole will stretch - right?
And on nights when I'm REALLY lazy, I can bring out the spanish rice, and serve it with chips and queso from the Mexican restaurant down the street. ($3 - by the way! - and it really is enough for even this hungry crew. But, I'm sure the chips are made with GMO corn, so I try not to do that TOO much! :) )
Now this post is long enough, but I am really excited about all of this REAL FOOD that I have in my freezer. No MSG, no GMO, no chemicals, no BPA lined cans, no rancid oils...no icky stuff. It's quick, and it only took 4 1/2 hours of my time. I think it's going to be worth the time investment :)
Sunday, January 9, 2011
More Meal Ideas
I thought today that I'd just jot down some of my favorite breakfast, lunch and snack ideas. Hopefully one or two of these will sound good to you, and you can incorporate them into your repertoire. I think it's easier for moms to figure out how to cook real food for dinner... meat and veggies will do! But breakfasts and lunches are harder because they are the ones that have really been hijacked in the quest for convenience.
BREAKFAST:
Organic, pastured eggs (see previous post)
Organic, grass fed beef sausage (see previous post)
Smoothies (see previous post)
Country hashbrowns - put organic potatoes in crock pot the night before. In the morning, remove potatoes, roughly chop, and add to organic, pastured butter or coconut oil in skillet. Crisp up the skin, and add leftover chicken, various veggies, and plenty of celtic sea salt (Wholefoods or online) and fresh ground pepper. Yummy. A great way to fill bellies! You can get 5 lbs of organic russet potatoes for $3.49 at whole foods. Surely you'll have leftovers!
Rice grits - I take organic, brown rice, and run it through my designated rice grinder ($10 burr coffee grinder from walmart). Soak with a little apple cider vinegar overnight, and in the morning, cook on the stovetop for 20 minutes. Add some pastured, organic butter and/or raw cheese (Trader Joes)... or raw honey (local, preferably), celtic sea salt and cracked pepper - whatever sounds good to you!
Baked Oatmeal - http://nourishedkitchen.com/baked-oatmeal/
Raw milk Yogurt - Pasteurized milk yogurt is super easy, but I still haven't worked the kinks out yet on the raw version! I'll keep you updated!
LUNCH:
Various vegetable or vegetable/meat stews (see previous post)
Salad (see previous post)
Leftovers
Hotdogs - Yep. I said it. Not a real food, but sometimes you just need something fast! You can get Organic, beef, nitrite free hotdogs from most any grocery store these days for around $4.99 a package. That is the price at whole foods. You can get non-organic, (but no icky stuff), beef, nitrite free hotdogs at Trader Joes for $3.99 /lb. I serve these without the buns, with organic condiments and chopped raw onion. Usually a side of fruit goes with it. I don't want to think about how hotdogs are made... but I'm just going to repeat "baby steps" and march on to the next entree...
Chicken breast - It really takes no time at all to saute a chicken breast. Serve it with fruit or a salad. Chicken breasts have very little fat, and so you'll need to make sure you are serving it with some fat alongside.
Rainbow Plate - Don't be afraid to just pile a plate up with Raw cheese (Trader Joes), Organic Apple slices, Organic Baby Carrots (Sams), Organic Celery, Sunflower butter (Trader Joes), and Cherry Tomatoes (Sams). This is plenty of food for lunch, and packed with nutrition. Make sure you do have a fat, though, to digest all of those great vitamins. Sometimes I'll give all of us a spoonful of coconut oil too just for extra measure.
SNACKS:
Popcorn - By far my favorite snack to make around here is popcorn. I buy organic popcorn from the bulk section at Whole foods. It's very inexpensive. I heat some coconut oil in a pan on the stovetop, add the popcorn, and let it go! Meanwhile, I melt some organic, pastured butter to pour over the top. Don't forget the Celtic sea salt. This is so filling and a whole food. It's a grain, but again, you gotta do what you gotta do. :)
Fruit and Cheese - We also snack on fruit and raw cheese. A lot. Organic raisins were prescribed by our pediatrician for my son when he had low iron, so we eat these for snacks too (make sure to eat with a protein like sunflower butter for blood sugar reasons)
Custard - a snack and a dessert, homemade custard is yummy! Mix 5 pastured egg yolks with 2 cups of pastured cream and 1/2 cup of honey. Bake individual ramekins in water bath at 425 for 40-60 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean. We then refrigerate and eat them cold.
Homemade Yogurt and berries - I buy frozen berries from Sams and stir them in frozen
BREAKFAST:
Organic, pastured eggs (see previous post)
Organic, grass fed beef sausage (see previous post)
Smoothies (see previous post)
Country hashbrowns - put organic potatoes in crock pot the night before. In the morning, remove potatoes, roughly chop, and add to organic, pastured butter or coconut oil in skillet. Crisp up the skin, and add leftover chicken, various veggies, and plenty of celtic sea salt (Wholefoods or online) and fresh ground pepper. Yummy. A great way to fill bellies! You can get 5 lbs of organic russet potatoes for $3.49 at whole foods. Surely you'll have leftovers!
Rice grits - I take organic, brown rice, and run it through my designated rice grinder ($10 burr coffee grinder from walmart). Soak with a little apple cider vinegar overnight, and in the morning, cook on the stovetop for 20 minutes. Add some pastured, organic butter and/or raw cheese (Trader Joes)... or raw honey (local, preferably), celtic sea salt and cracked pepper - whatever sounds good to you!
Baked Oatmeal - http://nourishedkitchen.com/baked-oatmeal/
Raw milk Yogurt - Pasteurized milk yogurt is super easy, but I still haven't worked the kinks out yet on the raw version! I'll keep you updated!
LUNCH:
Various vegetable or vegetable/meat stews (see previous post)
Salad (see previous post)
Leftovers
Hotdogs - Yep. I said it. Not a real food, but sometimes you just need something fast! You can get Organic, beef, nitrite free hotdogs from most any grocery store these days for around $4.99 a package. That is the price at whole foods. You can get non-organic, (but no icky stuff), beef, nitrite free hotdogs at Trader Joes for $3.99 /lb. I serve these without the buns, with organic condiments and chopped raw onion. Usually a side of fruit goes with it. I don't want to think about how hotdogs are made... but I'm just going to repeat "baby steps" and march on to the next entree...
Chicken breast - It really takes no time at all to saute a chicken breast. Serve it with fruit or a salad. Chicken breasts have very little fat, and so you'll need to make sure you are serving it with some fat alongside.
Rainbow Plate - Don't be afraid to just pile a plate up with Raw cheese (Trader Joes), Organic Apple slices, Organic Baby Carrots (Sams), Organic Celery, Sunflower butter (Trader Joes), and Cherry Tomatoes (Sams). This is plenty of food for lunch, and packed with nutrition. Make sure you do have a fat, though, to digest all of those great vitamins. Sometimes I'll give all of us a spoonful of coconut oil too just for extra measure.
SNACKS:
Popcorn - By far my favorite snack to make around here is popcorn. I buy organic popcorn from the bulk section at Whole foods. It's very inexpensive. I heat some coconut oil in a pan on the stovetop, add the popcorn, and let it go! Meanwhile, I melt some organic, pastured butter to pour over the top. Don't forget the Celtic sea salt. This is so filling and a whole food. It's a grain, but again, you gotta do what you gotta do. :)
Fruit and Cheese - We also snack on fruit and raw cheese. A lot. Organic raisins were prescribed by our pediatrician for my son when he had low iron, so we eat these for snacks too (make sure to eat with a protein like sunflower butter for blood sugar reasons)
Custard - a snack and a dessert, homemade custard is yummy! Mix 5 pastured egg yolks with 2 cups of pastured cream and 1/2 cup of honey. Bake individual ramekins in water bath at 425 for 40-60 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean. We then refrigerate and eat them cold.
Homemade Yogurt and berries - I buy frozen berries from Sams and stir them in frozen
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Step Two
It's hard to decide what step two should be... because there are so many steps in the journey to rediscovering simple food. Each step gets you closer to the wonderful end result, but no one can do all of the steps at once. Baby steps. That's the key. One step at a time, and in a few years from now, you and your family will be so much healthier. So just do what you can, and don't sweat the rest. Maybe even try a new step each month? Or maybe just eliminate one "fake" food a week, or month.
I know when we first eliminated store bought breads and pizza, it seemed like I was completely depriving us. So what I did, was I went back and just slowly stopped feeding everyone bread, and occasionally made the organic gluten free version... and now we really don't even miss it. I've learned to fill us up on other things that are much better for us, and they have become our staples. I still make these versions on special occasions, but I eventually want to make wild yeast sourdough bread which is a traditional, simple food that costs pennies to make and is packed with nutrients. Food is not the most important thing in life and we don't want to make it an idol, so again... just do what you can. I'm not ready for that step yet, but I'll get there one day!
OK, so Step Two: Serve the most nutrient dense food that you can.
Of all of the real food you are now serving ;), there are definitely some foods that are superior to others. The goal for me is to always choose the most nutrient dense foods that I can. The first step in this step would be things like this: choose steel cut oats over quick cooking oats, or choose long grain brown rice over white rice. The next step would be choosing organic foods over non organic foods, and the next choosing fresh picked local over store bought.
But to take it a bit further, let's talk about phytates. Basically, phytates are the outer layer of most grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes. In super simple terms, phytates were put there by The Designer to prevent them from germinating before they were supposed to. The problem that they cause for us, is that they block the absorption of vitamin and minerals in our bodies. That is why traditionally, when food was simple, people would soak or ferment their grains in order to break the phytates down. I think it's so neat that without modern science, they just listened to their bodies, and instinctively knew what was best for them. That was the practice for thousands of years, and only began to be lost in the 19th century - with the Industrial Revolution.
So for our purposes, soaking, sprouting or fermenting grains would yield much more nutrient dense meals. To go even ONE more step further - I hope this one doesn't push you over the edge ;) - we need to know that grains, as a whole, are much less nutrient dense than vegetables. A cup of rice has nothing on a cup of veggies! Or a slice of bread - even the best kind you can buy - has a tiny amount of fiber compared to the same quantity of most vegetables. It's just true. Sorry.
So, in a perfect world, we would replace any grains we were accustomed to eating with the same quantity of vegetables and fruit. I would love to do this for our family, but for our budget, it is not practical. As I've said before, I have some big eaters in this house, and we just need to fill bellies up. So for us, our grain of choice is rice. It's cheap, easy to make and freezes beautifully, has the least amount of phytates of any grain, and can be easily sprouted. If you'd like to look into phytates more, I've attached some links:
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/09/what-is-phytic-acid/
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/09/phytic-acid-in-grains-and-legumes.html
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/11/17/why-soak-and-sprout-grains/
I buy organic brown rice at whole foods for $1.29 / lb. I bring it home, rinse it, and put it in a bowl to soak for 24 hours or so with a little apple cider vinegar. Rinse, Cook (you'll need 1/2 the water you'd usually use), and freeze what we won't use that week to thrown into soups or to use later. Sometimes I'm really ambitious and I sprout it, which increases the vitamins (some 10 x). For that, I just put it in a colandar, and rinse it every 4-6 hours and wait a few days until I see the little sprouts on the end. Whole foods also offers organic, brown, sprouted rice for $3.99/lb, which is a good price too if you don't have the time to do it yourself.
Fun stuff! :)
I know when we first eliminated store bought breads and pizza, it seemed like I was completely depriving us. So what I did, was I went back and just slowly stopped feeding everyone bread, and occasionally made the organic gluten free version... and now we really don't even miss it. I've learned to fill us up on other things that are much better for us, and they have become our staples. I still make these versions on special occasions, but I eventually want to make wild yeast sourdough bread which is a traditional, simple food that costs pennies to make and is packed with nutrients. Food is not the most important thing in life and we don't want to make it an idol, so again... just do what you can. I'm not ready for that step yet, but I'll get there one day!
OK, so Step Two: Serve the most nutrient dense food that you can.
Of all of the real food you are now serving ;), there are definitely some foods that are superior to others. The goal for me is to always choose the most nutrient dense foods that I can. The first step in this step would be things like this: choose steel cut oats over quick cooking oats, or choose long grain brown rice over white rice. The next step would be choosing organic foods over non organic foods, and the next choosing fresh picked local over store bought.
But to take it a bit further, let's talk about phytates. Basically, phytates are the outer layer of most grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes. In super simple terms, phytates were put there by The Designer to prevent them from germinating before they were supposed to. The problem that they cause for us, is that they block the absorption of vitamin and minerals in our bodies. That is why traditionally, when food was simple, people would soak or ferment their grains in order to break the phytates down. I think it's so neat that without modern science, they just listened to their bodies, and instinctively knew what was best for them. That was the practice for thousands of years, and only began to be lost in the 19th century - with the Industrial Revolution.
So for our purposes, soaking, sprouting or fermenting grains would yield much more nutrient dense meals. To go even ONE more step further - I hope this one doesn't push you over the edge ;) - we need to know that grains, as a whole, are much less nutrient dense than vegetables. A cup of rice has nothing on a cup of veggies! Or a slice of bread - even the best kind you can buy - has a tiny amount of fiber compared to the same quantity of most vegetables. It's just true. Sorry.
So, in a perfect world, we would replace any grains we were accustomed to eating with the same quantity of vegetables and fruit. I would love to do this for our family, but for our budget, it is not practical. As I've said before, I have some big eaters in this house, and we just need to fill bellies up. So for us, our grain of choice is rice. It's cheap, easy to make and freezes beautifully, has the least amount of phytates of any grain, and can be easily sprouted. If you'd like to look into phytates more, I've attached some links:
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/09/what-is-phytic-acid/
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/09/phytic-acid-in-grains-and-legumes.html
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/11/17/why-soak-and-sprout-grains/
I buy organic brown rice at whole foods for $1.29 / lb. I bring it home, rinse it, and put it in a bowl to soak for 24 hours or so with a little apple cider vinegar. Rinse, Cook (you'll need 1/2 the water you'd usually use), and freeze what we won't use that week to thrown into soups or to use later. Sometimes I'm really ambitious and I sprout it, which increases the vitamins (some 10 x). For that, I just put it in a colandar, and rinse it every 4-6 hours and wait a few days until I see the little sprouts on the end. Whole foods also offers organic, brown, sprouted rice for $3.99/lb, which is a good price too if you don't have the time to do it yourself.
Fun stuff! :)
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