Category Archives: Real Whole Foods

Top 10 Reasons to Eat Locally Grown Food

Benefits of Locally Grown Foods

About 10 years ago, consumer preferences slowly started shifting away from conventionally produced foods to locally grown. The 2007 release of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, was largely responsible for this change. Once awakened to the consequences of our food choices, many of us became much more conscious about what we were eating, how it was made, where it came from, and how it got on our plates. That book heightened awareness about our dependence on agribusiness and the moral and ecological consequences of our food choices.

Today, consumer demand for locally grown food is greater than ever. More and more, Americans are starting to understand that locally grown food is healthier, and that it benefits our local farmers and communities.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons to eat locally grown food. Continue reading

10 Ways to Make Healthy Eating More Affordable

How to Make Healthy Eating More Affordable

Homesteaders like to cultivate large gardens, so usually there’s ample “free” food during the warm months of the year. And most of us preserve at least some of our harvest by canning or dehydrating our vegetables, fruits, and sometimes even meats, too. Those of us lucky enough to have root cellars or walk-in coolers use them to store the more hardy types of produce, like potatoes and other root vegetables, winter squash, and cabbage. All these efforts help reduce our grocery bills during the cold weather months.

But it’s practically impossible to squirrel away enough food to feed our families all winter long. So, invariably, we end up needing to buy food to supplement the bounty we’ve managed to store. Even in summer, most of us don’t grow enough to sustain ourselves completely, so we have to buy what we can’t produce. And, yes, buying organic, whole foods at the grocery store can get very expensive. But the good news is, you can still practice healthy eating all year long without mortgaging the homestead to pay your grocery bill.

Here are 10 tips to make healthy eating more affordable.
Continue reading

Cookbook Spotlight: Cooking Up a Storm

Cooking Up a Storm Cookbook

Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans

Edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker
2015, 368 pages, Hardcover

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005, many residents lost their homes. Along with their homes went all the contents, which included countless regional recipes from the Times-Picayune. These recipes had been clipped from the newspaper, saved, and cherished for generations.

To preserve the city’s culinary legacy, the people of New Orleans banded together to recoup these lost recipes, one by one. This book is a collection of the recipes recovered as a result of this effort. Each recipe has a story.

In this cookbook, you will find an impressive range of recipes, including appetizers, drinks, special Lenten dishes, and desserts. These foods are eaten as part of everyday life in the Big Easy. The recipes are favorites from both home kitchens and restaurants. Nothing says “comfort food” like Louisiana cooking!

This cookbook truly is a work of love and a symbol the city’s residents’ determination to recover from, and triumph over, extreme adversity.

Learn How to Make Creole Cream Cheese

Love cream cheese? Then be sure to check out How to Make the Best Cream Cheese in the World, featuring a recipe for Creole Cream Cheese from Cooking Up a Storm. Creole Cream Cheese is a unique, regional breakfast food that is served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. You can sprinkle some sugar on top, or shake on some salt and pepper, or top it with your favorite fruit. No matter how you serve it, Creole Cream Cheese is a nutritious and satisfying food.

Why not make some and tell us what you think in the comments section at the bottom of this page?

Hat Tip!

We wish to thank a lovely customer of ours named Libby W. for bringing this unique cookbook to our attention. Libby kindly shared her recipe for Creole Cream Cheese with us, so we could share it with y’all. Thanks, Libby!

4 Fun & Easy Slushie Recipes

slushie

 

When it’s hot outside, there’s no better way to cool down than with an ice cold slushie. If you ever went to the beach or an amusement park as a kid and got a snow cone at the refreshment stand on a sweltering summer’s day, these will bring back some happy memories.

Unlike back in the old days, most commercial slushies now are made with syrups full of GMO high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings, and chemical food coloring. If that’s been holding you back from enjoying one of your favorite treats, then wait no more! Continue reading

What’s in Your Morning Cuppa Joe?

coffee

If you’re a coffee fanatic, you know what it’s like to crave that steaming, aromatic elixir. There’s nothing like that first sip of your morning cuppa joe. Not only is the flavor heavenly, but that little jolt we get from the caffeine gives us the kickstart we need to get going in the morning. Coffee truly is one of the few guilt-free indulgences we have left in a world that bombards us daily with health warnings about the foods we enjoy most. Isn’t it wonderful that coffee can deliver so much pleasure and be good for us, too?

It sounds too good to be true, and it almost is. You can make the purest cup of coffee with the finest quality beans (organic, non-GMO, free trade, shade grown, and all that). But, if you use a creamer, make sure it’s pure too. Otherwise, every delicious cup of heaven you drink could end up raising hell in your body later on. Okay, so you know to avoid fake cream because it’s loaded with unhealthy chemicals. But do you think a natural creamer like half-and-half is a safe bet? Maybe. Or maybe not.

It would be wonderful if everyone could tolerate dairy products and we all had a family cow, or at least easy access to unadulterated milk and cream. Obviously, that’s not realistic, so we have to educate ourselves about how foods are manufactured and learn how to read ingredient labels. Artificial non-dairy creamers aren’t even an option for the health-conscious consumer. So that leaves us to choose from an array of conventional dairy products and “healthier” brands of non-dairy creamers, like those found in natural food stores.

Traditionally, half-and-half has been the creamer of choice among coffee drinkers. Real half-and-half is a blend of equal parts whole milk and cream. Ideally, the milk and cream should be organic. (Conventional milk and cream often comes from GMO-fed cows, some of which have been treated with hormones like rBST.) Store-bought half-and-half contains between 10.5 to 18% butterfat, The extra fat gives coffee that much-coveted smooth and creamy mouth feel.  It would be great if all brands of half-and-half on the market today contained just those two ingredients. Sadly, that’s not the case.

Food manufacturers know how much we love that creamy texture, so they try give us more of what we want by adding various thickeners, emulsifiers, and gums. They also know these additives help increase profits by making half-and-half cheaper to manufacture. But that’s not all. Fact is, most of the milk and cream nowadays is ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurization thins the cream, but these additives are designed to fool you into thinking it tastes like real cream. The process of ultra-pasteurization also frees up glutamic acid from the milk protein and creates free glutamate. That means there could be MSG in your half-and-half. So, why not just use the regular method of pasteurization? Well, apparently grocers complain that the products spoil too quickly.

Carrageenan is the ingredient we most commonly see added to half-and-half. It acts as a thickening agent and an emulsifier, making sure the product stays mixed. Carrageenan is not digestible and has no nutritional value. It’s naturally derived from red seaweed, so you’d think it would be safe to eat, but it’s not. Research has shown that it’s especially destructive to the digestive system. Carrageenan triggers inflammation in the gut, which can lead to leaky gut, ulcerations, bleeding, and possibly even cancer. Most of the animals studied in lab environments developed colitis and tumors with long-term use. That’s some pretty scary stuff.

Incidentally, carrageenan is also frequently added to those (supposedly) healthier non-dairy creamers we see in natural food stores. So if you have trouble digesting dairy products and frequently use these organic brands of non-dairy creamers, you’ll want to choose a product that’s free of carrageenan (and any other undesirable additives). But here’s an even better idea. Make your own super-delicious non-dairy coconut coffee creamer using the recipe at the end of this article. All it takes is three ingredients and thirty seconds to whip up a blissful addition to your morning cuppa joe.

Half-and-half sometimes contains other emulsifiers instead of (or in addition to) carrageenan. It’s common to see disodium phosphate and sodium citrate (also known as citric acid) on the ingredients label. Sodium citrate is considered safe; it acts as an emulsifier to keep the fat globules distributed evenly throughout the liquid so they don’t clump together. Disodium phospate is also an emulsifier and works much the same way. Both of these ingredients prevent the butterfat from separating from the liquid. You might also find guar gum listed on the label. Guar gum is yet another emulsifying agent. It’s a natural additive derived from guar beans. Guar gum can sometimes be a little harsh if your digestive system is weak. And, it can cause embarrassing gas. Oh joy!

If you’re dining out, you’ll want to be careful with individual servings of half-and-half such as the Land o’ Lakes Mini Moo’s. These are UHT-processed to make them shelf stable for 6-9 months if left unopened. (UHT stands for Ultra High/Heat Temperature.)  It does make you wonder what happens when milk proteins are subjected to such high temperatures. How safe is this process, really? Does anyone know for sure? There are other concerns to consider with Mini Moo’s too, aside from the high-heat processing issue,

Mini Moo’s are made from conventional milk and cream from cows that were probably raised on GMO feed. They also contain various emulsifiers–specifically, sodium citrate, DATEM, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, and carrageenan. The sodium acid is considered safe when used in tiny amounts as a food additive. However, the DATEM is derived from soy, canola, and palm oil, all of which are GMO ingredients. Although GMO’s have been banned in numerous countries, the United States continues to maintain they are safe. Research on the effects of GMO’s on the human body continues while the political debate surrounding the creator of GMO foods (Monsanto) rages on.

But, in the end, the good news is that it’s really not that hard to find half-and-half that’s free of additives. You might consider a cow share to ensure your family always has a ready supply of healthy raw milk. Then you can make your own butter, cream, and half-and-half. If a cow share isn’t an option for you, then look for high-quality organic brands that contain only two ingredients. The label should say it contains pasteurized organic milk and organic cream.  That’s it, nothing else. You can find organic brands at natural markets and in many conventional grocery stores. If your local supermarket doesn’t carry it, ask the manager to order some for you. As more people continue to demand high-quality organic foods, they will become more readily available.

 

So, now that you know how to make a creamy cuppa joe, are you ready wake up to nirvana in a cup? Please share your secret to a perfect cuppa in the comments!

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Legal Disclaimer
This article is for educational use only and is NOT intended as medical advice. The information presented herein is based on the opinions of the author, unless otherwise noted. Any statements or claims about the possible health benefits conferred by any foods or supplements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and are NOT intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition. We encourage you to do your own research and consult a qualified health professional before making any health-related changes.
This article may not be downloaded, reproduced, republished or otherwise copied without express written permission of the author and of Homesteader’s Supply.

All rights reserved ©2016 Anna Paige

Making Healthy Eating More Affordable – Part 1 (Bowls)

bowls

This is the first in our series of articles on making healthy eating more affordable. The Internet is flooded with money-saving ideas, but most of them focus on the smart shopping aspect. Here, we’re going take a different tack and talk about things you can do to bring down your food costs after you’ve left the grocery store. One topic that’s largely ignored is how you can save money by changing the way you present (or serve) the food you’ve already purchased and prepared. And that, my friend, is the subject of our first article!

During the Great Depression, home economists and women’s magazines taught housewives how to “stretch” their food budget because food was scarce back then. They learned how to make pricier ingredients, like meat, go farther by combining them with less expensive ingredients, like macaroni. And so, casseroles became very popular, as did meals that consisted of a little bit of meat in a sauce or gravy that was poured over a starchy food, like biscuits or a potato. Of course, nowadays, meals like chipped beef on toast are considered old fashioned and aren’t particularly well-liked in the United States, with possibly a few regional exceptions.

Today, we have a healthier option that’s based on the idea of “stretching,” yet allows us to enjoy a wider variety of healthy and delicious whole foods and more sophisticated flavors. The very simple concept of a “meal in a bowl” (called a bowl for short) has gained enormous popularity in recent years and seems to be taking the culinary world by storm because the food combinations are virtually limitless. This leaves plenty of opportunities for home cooks and professional chefs to improvise and experiment with new flavors. You can make your bowl as humble or as refined as you like. But, even the humblest combination of ingredients can pack a serious nutritional punch!

A bowl is an attractive layered meal intended for one person. When making a bowl, you typically start with a base of whole grains, on top of which you pile a variety of vegetables in layers. Here’s where you get to go wild with your colors! Remember, everything doesn’t need to be raw. Keep things interesting by adding some roasted, grilled, pickled or fermented veggies, and maybe even a little fruit (like grilled pineapple). Then, on top of the veggies, add two or three ounces of meat or other protein (like fish, egg, cheese, beans or other pulses, baked tofu or tempeh that’s been marinated and sautéed). Choose a sauce that compliments the flavors in the meal and then drizzle (or pour, if you a like a lot!) it over everything. Finish up by adding a layer of crunchy ingredients, like nuts or seeds, on top to give the meal some texture. Optionally, you can sprinkle on some fresh herbs or other zesty ingredients (like pickled ginger) to make the flavors pop even more.

One of the greatest things about a bowl is its versatility. Bowls allow a great deal of flexibility as far ingredients are concerned. It’s easy enough to mix-and-match ingredients, and to substitute one ingredient for another. No spinach? Use Swiss chard or your favorite green. Out of rice? Substitute quinoa. It’s as easy as that! You can serve your bowl hot or cold, simply by varying the ingredients.

Another wonderful thing about a bowl is that you can put a meal together quickly, and it’s not a lot of trouble to prepare a meal for one when dining alone. It can be very easy, and it never has to be boring. Many ingredients can be prepared in advance. For example, you can pre-cook your grains or meat, divide it into portions, and freeze it. When planning your next meal, just take as many portions as you’ll need out of the freezer and defrost them. Similarly, you can hard boil eggs and keep them (unpeeled) in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Sturdier vegetables like onions, carrots, bell peppers, and cabbage can be sliced, chopped, or shredded ahead of time and stored in air-tight containers in the refrigerator to be used in the next day or two. Fruits that won’t turn brown when exposed to the air can be stored similarly. Try a variety, like cherries, grapes, kiwis, citrus, pineapple, and mango.

Sauces like store-bought salsa are a cinch. There are also other reasonably healthy commercially prepared sauces available, like Trader Joe’s Teriyaki sauce. But, you don’t need to buy any fancy sauces. Most people can whip up a tasty sauce pretty quickly just using ingredients they already have on hand, such as soy sauce or tamari, toasted sesame oil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, prepared horseradish, Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, Sriracha sauce, harissa, peanut butter, honey, garlic, ginger, wasabi, lime and so on.

As we’ve seen, a bowl can be very easy to prepare, but you can make it as elaborate as you want. If you’re so inclined, you can create a bowl that’s a gourmet’s delight. More exotic combinations are often inspired by international flavors. In fact, many cultures around the world have their own traditional versions of a bowl. For an example, since ancient times, Koreans have been making a mouthwatering dish called bibimbap, which is served as bowl of warm white rice topped with seasoned sautéed vegetables. For the sauce, they use a combination of chili paste, soy sauce, and fermented soybean paste. Customarily, the bowl is topped with a bit of sliced beef or an egg (either raw or fried).

Bowls rely heavily on plant-based ingredients. Despite all the controversy among the top experts in the field of nutrition today, the one thing they all agree on is that a plant-based diet is ideal. When building bowls, animal products are used in small amounts, if at all. Meat takes a backseat to the veggies and grains, and becomes more like a condiment, adding flavor but not all the saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones, and excess protein that our bodies turn into fat. (Did you think that only excess carbohydrates turn to fat? Not true! Protein does too, if you eat too much.)

Plant-based diets are by far less expensive than eating conventional meals where meat takes center stage. Moreover, eating this way fills you up. You can eat a lot more volume because these foods are low in calories. They’re also loaded with fiber, which helps keep you full longer. And, they’re nutrient dense, so you’re getting loads of antioxidants, vitamins, enzymes, pre-biotics, pro-biotics, and more. Plus, when you’re body’s getting all the nutrition it needs, you tend not to get as hungry, so you eat less food less often. All of these things translate to savings on your food budget.

Furthermore, a plant-based diet is by definition alkaline. Alkaline diets have been shown to strengthen our body’s defenses, help cells regenerate and repair, and protect the kidneys. They also improve our energy, digestion, joints, sleep, and resistance to colds, flu, and severe illnesses like autoimmune disease and cancer. You really can’t go wrong by making bowls a central part of your diet.

 

So, what would you like in your bowl? Share your ideas with us in the comments!

 

 

 

Legal Disclaimer
This article is for educational use only and is NOT intended as medical advice. The information presented herein is based on the opinions of the author, unless otherwise noted. Any statements or claims about the possible health benefits conferred by any foods or supplements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and are NOT intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition. We encourage you to do your own research and consult a qualified health professional before making any health-related changes.
This article may not be downloaded, reproduced, republished or otherwise copied without express written permission of the author and of Homesteader’s Supply.

All rights reserved ©2016 Anna Paige