I bought a piece of fish at Whole Foods the other day that was only 5″ long and 1.5″ wide. At $19.99/lb., this small piece cost $10.
Yowza.
To be honest, it looked way better than the cheaper ($11.99/lb.) Atlantic salmon, and I was sure the price reflected fish that was more responsibly raised and caught. So there I was with enough fish to feed 1 person for 1 meal, feeling like maybe I should buy a $2 can of beans instead. Truth be told, most weeks I save a lot of money at the grocery store by preparing vegetarian meals. But I wasn’t about to be thrown off budget by a piece of fish! Good quality alaskan salmon is super healthy (full of omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D and antioxidants) so I think it’s worth spending money on at least occasionally.
The last three books I read were: Nourishing Traditions, In Defense of Food, and Real Food. But I’m a nerd like that! This video, The Meatrix, does a fantastic job of bringing the same message to folks who otherwise not get it. So please, share it with your friends and family, email it to your partner, post it on your Facebook wall, whatever.
It’s about darn time Americans learned where that $1.99/lb. ground beef is coming from!
This past weekend at IIN (The Institute for Integrative Nutrition) we spoke quite a bit about factory farming and the cruel, unsafe and inexplicable system that has come to be. If The Meatrix resonates with you, you might like John Robbin’s The Food Revolution–this was the first book I read that really opened my eyes to the US food system.
Or, go to YouTube for more videos about factory farming. But fair warning–many will be too graphic for most people to handle. I was practically in tears this weekend watching some of this stuff! It’s just horrible and I’m not even a hardcore PETA person or anything.
What do you think about factory farming and the price of cheap food?
So now that everyone is probably thinking “oh crap, I don’t want to eat chicken for dinner anymore” I want to share the winners of my Massa Organics brown rice giveaway! And even if you didn’t win, check out that post for excellent dinner options you can turn to instead of chicken tonight.
I assigned each entry a number based on the order of the comments and winners were chosen via Random.org:
Congratulations to Michaela, Lydia, Jen and Janet! Please email me with your mailing address so I can get your rice to you asap!
My earliest memories of brown rice are from my mom’s kitchen, served as a healthier alternative to white rice. She said she LIKED it better. I didn’t believe her. All I wanted was Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat I saw advertised on TV with that cute little jingle!
But brown rice it was.
Most people don’t have particularly gourmet ideas surrounding the humble whole grains of brown rice. But I’m going to change that for you today! Oh heck yes I am. Not just with some outstanding recipes, but with a review of the finest brown rice you could be lucky enough to taste. And not just one of you, but FOUR of you are going to win a bag of this fantastic organic product. At the end of this post I’ll tell you how.
Excited yet?
I ran into Greg Massa on Twitter. One of my foodie friends (looking at you, Heidi Robb) mentioned the company and I had to see what it was all about. Here’s the coolest thing about Greg Massa and his wife Raquel: they are biologists turned farmers who Twitter and keep a blog! That’s my kind of farmer! Just kidding, all organic farmers are my kind of farmer but I have a harder time meeting or having a conversation with them from my urban dwelling.
So, onto the rice.
This is good stuff, folks. It’s been written up in Saveur Magazine and a whole boatload of newspapers in California. Here’s why: it’s delicious. And the sustainable farming practices in place at Massa are equally as appealing.
Massa Organics has a hard rule against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and does everything possible to positively impact the air, water and soil. They capture and recirculate the irrigation water and instead of burning crop residue built their own house out of rice straw. These folks are the real deal! So let’s applaud Greg and Raquel for doing the right thing – which we can assume may not always be the easiest thing!
When I was barely old enough to hold a pencil my mom would give me one and let me draw endlessly on a pad of paper. Such a simple thing held so much wonder, so much potential for creativity and expression. I felt much the same way when Greg Massa offered to send me a sample of his brown rice! It’s is the perfect food to create so many meals around. I could eat it every day and never run out of awesome recipes to try.
Why not start your week with a big pot of brown rice? Soak it for at least a few hours or overnight. This technique makes any whole grain easier to digest and gets rid of phytic acid, which can prevent mineral absorption in your body. Simply soak in a bowl of water with a splash of lemon juice or vinegar, then drain and add fresh water to cook. I love this cooking method, which treats rice more like pasta.
Then, serve it differently every day for a time-saving menu plan. Here are some recipes I enjoyed with Massa rice, and at the end of this post is your chance to win your own bag of Massa Organics brown rice.
Brown Rice Fritters
These are easy as pie, just mix rice with egg, fresh oregano and a few other things and fry ‘em up! Totally delicious. Serve with mixed greens for an easy meal. Since this recipe came from Saveur, go check it out there!
Veggie Fried Rice
1 Tbl. organic butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 scallions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
(Other veggies to add: brocolli, peppers, sliced cabbage or bok choy, bean sprouts or whatever you have on hand)
4 cups cold cooked rice
2 eggs, whisked
2 Tbl. soy sauce
1 Tbl. mirin
This recipe cooks up fast so have all your vegetables washed and prepared ahead of time. Heat butter in a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Whisk mirin into eggs and pour into wok. Scramble until cooked but still loose. Add onions and any other raw veggies that need time to cook. Keep mixing for about 5 minutes as veggies soften and onions brown. Add cooked rice and veggies you want to keep crisp like bean sprouts. Continue to stirfry. When heated through, add soy sauce and serve.
Brown Rice Pudding
3 cups leftover brown rice
1 can organic coconut milk (or milk, soymilk, almond milk, etc.)
1/2 cup raisins
4 Tbl. maple syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbl. dried coconut
2 Tbl. tahini
Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir over heat until most of the liquid is absorbed and everything is well mixed and warm.
So, do you want to win a free bag of Massa Organics rice? Leave a comment below this post for your entry! For extra chances to win you can do the following:
1. Sign up for my RSS feed
2. Sign up for my newsletter
3. Follow me @MPfennighaus on Twitter and retweet this post
4. Follow Greg Massa @MassaOrganics on Twitter and retweet this post
5. Stumble this post
Let me know in the comments how many entries you’re completing. Contest closes on June 4th at 8am EST. Winners must provide a US address to receive their rice!
I’m not a big fan of politics. Just don’t have a head for it. I voted for John Kerry once…wait, was that his name…? Was that the whole hanging chad scandal? Sigh.
But that’s not to say I don’t believe in voting. The most important votes I make happen every day. The other night I had to wait for some friends in an area of town that has two coffee shops. One, Starbucks. The other, a locally owned place that supports local artists and has great vegan meals and drinks on the menu. Even though I could get a tea at either place, I voted for the local shop. Unlike my single political vote that gets filtered through an electoral college, my dollars vote directly for the establishment that I think kicks the most butt. Sweet!
Want to vote for protecting the environment? For protecting public health? Buy organic! Buy local! Buy less meat and fewer packaged foods. It’s good for you, and it uses your spending power to tell big business where they need to focus in order to get your hard earned dollars.
Ok I don’t even know how I ended up on the website for gDiapers, but that’s what blog-surfing will get you. It looks like a great product – a reusable outer diaper with inner plastic-free absorbtion pad that you can trash, flush or compost. Really? That’s cool. Having zero babies myself, I’ll just file this away for another day. But maybe some of you would like to swaddle your little ones in ecofriendliness?
Couldn’t help but wonder what the grown-up version of these are… My friend recently challenged herself to a 30 Day No Trash Challenge and one obstacle was the monthly visitor. Maybe gDiaper will create some kind of gCapris in the future?
Every time I turn anything from NPR to Fox News, it’s the same story: The rising cost of food. Before I pound this one into a pulp, I’ll preface by saying that I feel terrible and frustrated by the thought of people around the world struggling to survive, spending more than 75% of their income on food and forgoing their own meals for the sake of their children.
But here’s what frustrates me even more: Americans driving SUVs to grocery stores to buy milk, eggs and Tyson chicken fingers, stopping for a Coolatta at the drive-thru, and coming home to watch one of their 500 cable channels on their 60″ plasma TV which they bought on credit and are making only minimal monthly payments on. And then complaining about the rising costs of food.
I think the food cost issue is the best thing to happen to the American diet in a long time. It’s like your best friend who carefully points out that maybe those pants DO make you look fat. Your best friend is just helping you by showing you the obvious facts…and you love her for it. Rising food costs can do the same by pointing out how our food production methods are simply not sustainable and we’re going to have to change.
How about trading in chicken and hamburgers for locally grown swiss chard with tomatoes, olives, lentils and a homemade vinaigrette? Delicious, healthy, and cheaper than even the cheapest 70/30 ground beef. How about investigating plant-based options for calcium, like almonds or kale, and drinking less milk?
Even if food costs don’t sway Americans towards eating more veggies and less processed food, I have to point out some mixed-up priorities. We’ll spend way beyond our means on things like flat-screen TVs, ipods and iphones, the latest sneakers, and god forbid you don’t get HBO. But spend money on quality food and suddenly it’s a…crisis?
The clementine, the mule, the liger…all fascinating feats of genetic recombinations! They’ve even tried combining a strawberry with an artic flounder to produce a berry more capable of surviving frost. (Didn’t work. Shucks.)
But by and large, the most widespread use of genetic twister games are happening in crops to be able to withstand pesticides. Makes sense, right? Farmers who buy genetically modified seeds from the biotech giants can buy corresponding high-powered pesticides (from the same biotech company, which is good business sense) that will kill everything AROUND their crops, but leave the crops themselves unharmed. In addition to questionable food quality, this technique encourages irresponsible use of pesticides. Why not give the field any extra-heavy spray if it won’t hurt the crops you’re selling? Who cares about the runoff into the water supply? Or the chemicals that make their way to Americans’ dinner plates? And genetically modified foods are surely safe…right?
There are more acres of genetically engineered soybeans than any other crop. Corn comes next. That’s your tofu, soy milk, soy oil, lecithin emulsifiers, corn oil, corn syrup, corn starch, corn flour, etc. found in foods you likely eat every day.
The government certainly doesn’t require food to be labeled if it contains GMO/GEO (Genetically Modified/Engineered Organisms) so look instead for “Non-GMO” labels. Buying organic corn or soy means it was grown without pesticides so you are probably safe there too.
Jeez! Who knew? I didn’t until I read The Food Revolution by John Robbins, which is where the info all comes from. He’s got it all footnoted and cross referenced so check it out.
When I was in college I lived on no more than $20/week in groceries. I’d look for old Sunday papers in my building’s recycling bin and steal the coupon inserts. My big trick was getting food practically free by finding it on sale AND using a double coupon. Take that!
If you’re a cheapskate like me, you’ll look at organic produce or grass-fed beef and choke on the pricetag. But here’s a different way of thinking about the cost of sustainably grown, organic food:
“The ninety-nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn’t take account of that meal’s true cost–to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc., costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly and invisibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illness and obesity), and the environment (in the form of pollution), not to mention the welfare of the animals themselves.”
I help busy people find balance in their over-worked, over-stressed lives. Trust me, it's not an all-or-nothing situation! A few shifts in diet and lifestyle can rock your world like they did mine. Read on
