He wanted seconds of the spinach!?!

This morning we got up and I decided to make breakfast for us, but I’d just been reading an article about how bad sugar is for our bodies and also why whole grains can make us fat so when my son wanted cinnamon toast for breakfast I said no and we opted for omelets instead.

I made what turned out to be the most amazing sautéed spinach and greens mixture for the omelet.

Pretty simple, it was organic butter with sea salt, 50/50 mix of organic greens and organic minced garlic.

I went super light on the cheddar cheese and made the omelet with minimally processed turkey slices and organic rice milk.

We all went crazy for it! I’d only made 1/2 the container of greens the first round, but we all wanted seconds of the spinach so I made more!

Only recently we switched to organic butter and organic regular milk – again food budget is tight which is why I don’t get to go 100% organic and I have to pick and choose where to spend the extra money if there is an obvious difference.

Well, besides being a completely different color, organic butter is also tastier and cooks better than the regular old butter I’ve been using. With organic milk I noticed that it keeps longer in the fridge without any strange smell or taste. Organic milk has a “milk” taste, even in the low-fat variety. The regular non-organic milk starts having no taste and looking like white water in the low-fat and no fat varieties.

We also tried organic safflower oil and organic coconut milk (SoDelicious Vanilla) this week which were both excellent!

Driscoll’s Organic Raspberries vs. Driscoll’s Regular (non-organic) Raspberries

Driscoll’s Organic Raspberries vs. Driscoll’s Regular (non-organic) Raspberries

I was in Super Target shopping for groceries here in Minnesota and I came across some Driscoll’s organic raspberries that looked extremely tasty so I picked them up. As I walked down the aisle I came across the regular non-organic Driscoll’s raspberries which were $1 cheaper. With the container of organic in my hand, I leaned in to look closer at the regular since they were the same brand and I was so shocked I whipped out the phone camera and took a picture of them side-by-side. The regular (non-organic) raspberries were a pale red in comparison with a whitish powder coating, they were ripe and not rotten or anything, and if I wouldn’t have had the organic in my hand I wouldn’t have thought anyhting of it- but the difference in color and quality was so noticable it was like the other weren’t really like real raspberries at all.

Of course, once I took the picture, I kid you not, the produce man followed me around like I was a spy or something! Eventually, I’ll figure out how to get this mysterious phone picture off my phone and post it here for you to see!

Driscoll’s organic raspberries are USDA certified organic and the same company also offers non-organic raspberries. If they truly cared about why organic food is important and not just making more money of the designation “organic” how can they live with that?

What is semi-organic? What is organic pesticide?

What is semi-organic?

Every once in awhile I tag a post or label a recipe “semi-organic”, thinking this would be obvious to people what that means, but I guess it isn’t always obvious since I got this question this week from a reader of this blog!

For me, “semi-organic” simply means that not all of the ingredients in a product I’m reviewing are identified as organic or that not all of the ingredients in the recipe I actually made at home and wrote about were organic. Since I’m trying to incorporate organic items in my cooking, but I’m also on budget most of my day to day cooking is a mixture of organic and non-organic items.

I think that this is a more realistic picture of the average person trying to incorporate more organic items in their health & beauty products and in their cooking than having 100% organic cooking or 100% organic products for cooking, but I’m open to hearing other views and experiences so feel free to comment or just send me an e-mail.

 

What is organic pesticide?

I did notice something interesting/misleading on “organic” food packaging recently, a package was marked organic, but with an asterisk saying they use short term, non-lasting pesticides. Hmmm, what does that mean?

Want to know more?

Here is an article from the University of Colorado Extension about chemicals allowed in “organic gardening”: http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4DMG/VegFruit/organic.htm

Check out this interesting article out of Canada that talks about U.S. organic farms using “organic pesticides” with naturally occurring oils and sulfur accounting for most of it. http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/print-friendly/43683

 

Crockpot Organic Black-eyed Peas and Ham Stew (Recipe)

Crockpot Organic Black-eyed Peas and Ham (Stew)

At my house the tradition is to make black eyed peas and ham as a stew in the crockpot and eat them on New Year’s Day for good luck in the new year. Actually, this is the same tradition I grew up with so my mom also makes black eyed peas and ham for the new year! Last year I ended up at three different stores looking for black eyed peas at the last minute because I thought I had some, but didn’t and I ended up with a few dusty cans in the end.

I remember one year I made it extra spicy since my best friend and roommate at the time liked his food a bit spicy, I added a bunch of cayenne pepper right at the end…and about killed us as our mouth caught fire since it floated on top and stuck to the roof of our mouth! Then there was the next year when I “experimented” by adding a little cinnamon…yeah, don’t so that! It had the worst after taste ever and most of that batch went down the disposal (after the obligatory good luck dish, of course!)

In Florida, so many people make some version of black eyed peas and Ham for New Years that they stock up with big displays and extra cans of black eyed peas at the checkout in the store, not so in Minnesota! Here, the little supply that is usually there is quickly dissipated by those Southern(ish) transplants like me. (I’m from Florida, but I think of Florida as its own entity rather than really “southern”.)

This year is the first year I’m making my recipe organic! I’ve got organic canned black eyed peas, but you can use dried if you’re less lazy than I’m feeling at the moment. I have organic canned tomatoes, organic minced garlic, sea salt, pepper (Do they make organic pepper? I should check it out next time I hit the natural food store- I know the regular grocery here doesn’t carry that!), regular pre-cooked ham (sadly I don’t have organic since this ham was given to me). That’s all the ingredients…I think…I’m making it in the crockpot in the morning tomorrow and leaving it to cook all day until dinner so I’ll update if I forgot anything!

If you’d ever seen me cook you’d know I don’t really use recipes and I just know how to do it and go by what tastes good and looks “right”…

Basic recipe:

• 1 Ham (pre-cooked, bone in, can cut into large chunks to make it fit the crock pot you have)
• 1 large can organic tomatoes, diced (stewed, whatever you have on hand)
• 1 organic yellow onion (chopped)
• 2 small cans black eyed peas (or one pre-soaked bag of dried black eyed peas)
• Approximately 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon organic minced garlic
• salt/pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into crockpot on high for 4 hours (min). Add additional water and stir as needed.

Hope you like it!

P.S. Here’s the pic, of course it doesn’t convey at all how tasty this was!

The “I’m too sick to be cooking, but I really need chicken soup” recipe…

Ugh, yucky cold, I fought valiantly for a whole week and thought I’d beat that itchy scratchy throat and mysterious traveling body aches that signal an impending cold…shoulda gone to the Y and killed it in the sauna (works every time by the way), but I didn’t. Dawn killed hers with massive amounts of vitamin C- but no, I didn’t do that either! It was weird, I was fine, we made jam this weekend on Sunday afternoon and right after I got super tired all the sudden and then wham- full on cold- out of the blue.

I made homemade chicken noodle soup last night for everyone, but it was a super lazy I’m too sick to do much recipe…

 

“I’m too sick to be cooking, but I really need chicken soup recipe”

1 bag Organic Durum Wheat Noodles- Spirals

4 cups fancy mixed veggies (frozen) which included broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, yellow squash and green zucchini

2 pints Organic, free range Chicken broth by Swanson

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 frozen chicken breast tenders

 

My son who is 9 now got to cook the frozen chicken since I was too tired to stand there and watch it- I just came to check that it was cooked through and we had a nice talk about the difference between white and pink when cooking chicken…I microwaved the cut up pieces just in case.

I cooked the veggies in the broth, added the cut up cooked chicken and added all that to the cooked and drained noodles.

We both agreed that it needed salt so we added that after. He ate 4 bowls of it, I couldn’t believe it! I skipped the meat in my bowl, but the rest was good.

I’d call this a semi-organic recipe…most of mine are at this point, only because cost prohibits me from going 100% organic and I acquire organic stuff when I can!

 

 

Mmm Salsa!

I made real salsa for the first time tonight yum! I had a great jar of Desert Pepper Divino Mild salsa and Desert Pepper Chile con Queso set out too which was great, but I also made real salsa for the first time. My friend Dawn got to be my guinea pig-um-yeah…tester! First try-too chunky and diced tomato-like, but after a quick trip to the blender it was great! Who knew that those purple Spanish onions had such a kick? I’ve never cooked with them before, I usually use the yellow “cooking” onions at home. I also made homemade guacamole, yum! We had friends over and ate super cheesy nachos for my son’s b-day and watched Kangaroo Jack!

 

I guess it was a night for trying out new recipes!

Now, I bought the Desert Pepper salsas in the organic foods section of my store and I looked around online and it is sold at a lot of organic stores, BUT on the jar the ingredients don’t specifically say the veggies it is made with are organic, it just says no preservatives and no additives (which is great), but what do I call that- SEMI-organic? If you know if it is, comment and let me know!

Hmm, we took lots of pictures, but I need to start taking pictures of the food I make!

 

 

 

Dipping my Toes into Raw Food Land

I’m dipping my toes into raw food land today with a recipe (of my own making) for a green smoothie I’m fondly dubbing the “green gloop”…it looks weird, tastes good and is definitely good for you.

We went to the local farmer’s market this morning and got some nice basil and dinosaur kale and a bunch of stuff for stir-fry tonight. (Obviously the stir-fry for dinner tonight won’t be raw…)

Green Gloop

1 medium organic banana
(break it up with your hands and put it in the blender first)

Then add to blender:
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1 cup dinosaur kale (or other dark green kale, spinach or lettuce)
1/8 cup fresh basil
3/4 cup fresh pineapple, cored, cut into chunks

Add about 1/2 cup pineapple juice (or apple juice)

Start the blender with a few pulses and then once it gets going move it to high for about a minute until it gets smooth.

As the blender is going you may need to add additional pineapple or apple juice until you achieve a smoothie consistency.

Here is a great article about the under-appreciated health benefits of parsley:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=100

“Parsley is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. It is a good source of iron and folate. Parsley’s volatile oil components include myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene. Its flavonoids include apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin.”

Kale is also very good for you with lots of vitamins. “Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale’s flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.”

Basil is also a great source of vitamins and minerals.

“Basil is an excellent source of vitamin K and a very good source of iron, calcium and vitamin A. In addition, basil is a good source of dietary fiber, manganese, magnesium, vitamin C and potassium.”

All three are good for your heart and share anti-inflammatory properties.

Sample Girl Goes Organic!

The Adventures of Sample Girl

(Preview)

Well, I wasn’t thinking of posting here about my book The Adventures of Sample Girl until I was making the sneek peek preview tonight and realized that I thought about going “organic” a long time before I ever started this blog!

There are some funny stories in here about how bad some of the “organic” samples I was giving out actually taste when I tried them out before serving them to the customers and how their “healthy” reputation didn’t always match the ingredients on the box!

Check it out!

Here’s a link to the free preview!

https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1082741

You can buy the book here:

https://www.createspace.com/3608374

Organic Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup (Recipe)

Going Organic, Easy Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

by Kristina Blasen (2011)

My son loves Chicken Noodle soup. I think eating chicken noodle soup is fine, but companies like Campbell’s add preservatives that don’t need to be in there and when it is canned soup the metal from the can itself can leach into the food. There is a lot of information about this danger and studies have been done on BPA-related chemicals leaching into food (which is common). Check this out http://www.ewg.org/reports/bisphenola (2007) if you want to learn more about those studies.

Here’s the ingredients in Campbell’s Double Noodle Soup:

CHICKEN STOCK, ENRICHED EGG NOODLES (WHEAT FLOUR, EGG SOLIDS, EGG WHITE SOLIDS, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), CARROTS, WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SALT, MARGARINE (CHICKEN FAT, WATER, BETA CHICKEN FLAVOR (CONTAINS SALT & FLAVORING), POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, ONION POWDER, DEHYDRATED GARLIC, SPICE EXTRACT, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DISODIUM GUANYLATE & SPICE.

I checked out Eden foods organic canned goods since they don’t use BPA in their cans to see if they had a good alternative to Campbell’s, but they didn’t so I went to plan B, making my own homemade and trying to get a recipe as close to the familiar version so my soup-lover would actually eat it!

INGREDIENTS IN MY SOUP:

2 pts. no-chicken organic broth (I used Pacific, but be VERY careful with this, read the label and make sure all ingredients are organic vegetables and spices with no preservatives or anything added. Beware of modified yeast which is basically 78% MSG.)

1 bunch organic celery, chopped

1 bag organic baby carrots, whole

1 large organic yellow onion, chopped

sea salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

1 tablespoon organic garlic, chopped

3 organic chicken breasts (I cook them in there whole then take them out later and chop)

1 16 oz. package organic noodles (organic durham wheat)

Directions:

Add all ingredients except the noodles to the CrockPot and cook on High for 2 hours. Remove chicken and chop on cutting board. Return chopped chicken to pot. Depending on when dinner is…turn to low/or keep warm setting until almost time for dinner.

Make the noodles separately in the last 15 minutes on the stove (according to package directions) and add them last or they will get mushy and lose their shape. I used twist noodles since my son likes those and they are more kid-friendly.

For the adults: I add a handful of spinach or kale for greens to my bowl and put the soup on top.

Why would a company offer both organic and non-organic versions of the same product?

Cheese & Garlic Croutons

 

Fresh Gourmet:

Same company, same product

organic vs. non-organic

Read and compare the ingredients!

by Kristina Blasen (2011)

This all started a few months ago when I got sucked into a buy 2 for $4 sale at the grocery store on, of all things, croutons. I mean, how many croutons do I need? I had been making some great salads all week since I was trying out new dressings so I ended up with two bags of Farm Fresh Cheese & Garlic Croutons since they were on sale. Apparently I’m a sucker for a sale because this week when I was checking out the manufacturer’s website I noticed that their “suggested retail price” was $1.99 a bag. (…So I paid $.02 extra for my “sale”).

Keep in mind, these weren’t organic, I only found out they offered an organic line of croutons on the manufacturer’s website today. Then, when I checked it out at the store I found the “Organic Ceasar” croutons made by Fresh Gourmet separated from all of the other croutons made by Fresh Gourmet even though the rest have a huge display in the produce section! These were the same price as the non-organic, $1.99 for a 5 oz. bag.

This struck me as a strange move for a company, to continue to offer non-organic versions of the same product that you are able to produce organically and offer at the same price.

I haven’t tried the organic croutons (after all I still have more than a whole bag left of the others), but after I read the ingredients list of the regular, non-organic croutons compared to the organic ones I’m just disappointed in the company itself.

Check it out for yourself:

Fresh Gourmet Cheese & Garlic Croutons (Not organic) INGREDIENTS:

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Canola and/or Sunflower oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, 2% or less of Yeast, Salt, Wheat Gluten, Corn Syrup Solids, Whey, Romano chesse solids from cow’s milk, parmesan,cheddar and blue cheeses (Pasturized Milk, cheese cultures, saly, enzymes), maltodextrin, calcium propionate (preservative), calcium peroxide, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, sodium stearoyl lactylate, autolyzed yeast, garlic powder, dehydrated parsley, cultured whey, autolyzed yeast extract, food starch modified, vinegar solids, cream, nonfat milk, natural flavor, citric acid, annatto and turmeric (color) and TBHQ (to preserve freshness).

Organic Caesar

Fresh Gourmet Organic Ceasar Croutons INGREDIENTS:
Organic Seasoned variety: Organic wheat flour, organic sunflower oil, organic cracked rye, organic cracked wheat, salt, 2 % or less of the following; organic sugar, organic wheat gluten, organic garlic, organic onion, organic parsley and yeast.

A lot of people think “organic” is always more expensive, in this case it wasn’t. Some people think they add weird ingredients. (I think the “regular” ingredients are much weirder in this case).

The biggest lie companies tell is that they can’t produce the same product without including all those dangerous additives that are known carcinogens and mutagens, like TBHQ (above) or BHT. Looks like they can, and at the same retail price too.