Whole Foods: Milk

I grew up on 2% milk. I think there was a brief moment in time, during my college years, where if I did buy milk, it was skim milk - because I thought that was best for the waistline. Truth be told though, skim milk always seemed gross to me; it looks like water with a milky tint - ewww.

Over the past few years, I just started buying whole milk. I started this because a.) a lot of recipes I cooked with called for it and b.) my husband consumes enough milk to warrant us having our own milk cow and he likes whole milk to best. When I was prego, whole milk was also the only thing that gave me a brief moment of relief from the heartburn too. I am not a huge 'pour a glass of milk and drink it' kinda gal, but when I had that prego heartburn, I would literally stop at gas stations just to buy a little jug of milk and then chug it like it was going out of style!

So anyways, as I started to embark on the Whole/Real food journey, I was particularly struck by what I read about dairy in Nina Planck's book, real food. I always knew skim milk just wasn't right. This was a real eye opener for me. Milk is one of the most misleading products in the food market that gives people the perception they are ingesting something healthy. Unfortunately, just because you are drinking 'milk', doesn't mean it is healthy.

Our milk was usually Smith's brand, which is fairly local and sold at the local corner store down the street from us. But, once I discovered Hartzler's I made the switch. What I like about Hartzler's that is different from Smith's is their milk is non-homogenized and goes through Low-Temp Vat Pasteurization. And, there is cream on the top :) (Awesome side note: This totally grossed out my husband the first time he poured a glass and something plopped into his cup!) Since raw milk cannot be sold 'legally' in my state (which would be the #1 choice), Hartzler's Whole Milk is the second best option for us. Truth be told, I have never tired raw milk, but I'd be willing to if I had the chance.

Hartzler's is not 'organic' milk, and that is ok. Actually, it is better than organic milk. Whaaa? Yes, that is correct, it is better! People get too hung up on the term 'organic', and unfortunately, in today's age, you have to read beyond the marketing. Hartzler's milk comes from their cows that are pasture grazed as long as possible during the seasons. Once winter hits and pastures are not ample, they are moved over to a hay/silage diet. Silage isn't always the preferred diet but Hartzler's does note that they are completely Non-GMO! They do not inject any of their cows with growth hormones and there are no chemical pesticides or herbicides used on their farms. I recommend you check out their website; even if you don't live close enough to purchase Hartzler's for yourself, they have lots of educational information available.

So can you see that, while not 'certified organic', I'd take this any day versus an organic milk, that more than likely comes from a cow not living as happy a life* as a Hartzler cow? Organic milk is usually not from a grass-fed cow and is ultra pasteurized to maximize shelf life - which in turns, allows for it to travel across country. *Note, I didn't say all cows producing for organic companies have shitty lives, but I didn't say they all live in happy green fields with unlimited acess to lush green grass, either!
Things you want to look for when choosing your milk is a brand that doesn't allow growth hormones (rBGH / rBST) -- this link speaks for brands without rBGH -- allows their cows to be pasture grazed, doesn't feed GMO's and is closest to it's natural state [raw milk] as possible. As I already mentioned above, whole milk is the closest to natural state in terms of choosing between Whole/2%/1%/Skim. Hartzler's, offering non-homogenized, low-temp pasteurization makes their milk even one step closer to the milks natural state! Do your research to find out of you have a milk supplied in your area that offers this! This website may help.

Bonuses for me, with Hartzler's, is that they are a local farm so I am supporting local business/farmers. They supply their milk in glass bottles, and, among many other reasons, this is earth friendly and allows us to recycle. Sometimes I hold onto the bottles for other uses, sometimes I return them to their Ice Cream Shoppe for a credit, which I in turn use to purchase more :)

This is truly just the tip of the iceberg on Milk - sadly. But for those interested, I hope it has provoked enough interest for you to take it one step further when making the decision on which milk to buy. And if you are brave enough, check out where the milk in your fridge right now is from! (Way back before my Real Food Journey, I tried this with a gallon in our fridge and it was from Washington State. Really? We have so many dairy farms right here near us! Why would I want milk from all the way across the country!?)

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This post is linked up at Pennywise Platter, Monday Mania & Freaky Friday

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All opinions on this blog post are 100% mine. I was not compensated by any companies mentioned, for review of their product.

Real Food: Yogurt

I am on such a 'rant' with yogurt at the moment! Purchasing what I like is not easy for me due to geographic's. So, let's dissect yogurt - real yogurt. 

Now, for the sake of argument, I am going to be referring to yogurt when you are purchasing it from a store -- making you own is usually the better option, but that is a whole other post for another day :)

Reading labels is so crucial anymore if you truly want to know what you are buying and eating. Just because something claims to be 'natural', 'organic' or 'cage-free', doesn't mean you are getting what you think you are. *Gasp* I know - how annoying. No wonder so many people throw in the towel and go on with life and the motto 'Well it hasn't killed me yet'. It is so frustrating with all the false advertising. But the key word there was yet!

Let me first say, I purchase PLAIN yogurt and then I add my own flavorings - maple syrup, honey or homemade fruit syrups etc. Plain yogurt is an acquired taste...or at least it was to me. If you are used to eating the fruity, chemical packed yogurt cups dyed to look pretty, it will probably be an acquired taste to you at first too. And you might need to help yourself get used to the texture. It isn't molded into the container, jiggling like Jell-o, all while holding the shape you scooped it out in!

Second, I always purchase full fat yogurt. I don't buy into, or purchase, any of the 'low-fat' and 'fat-free' labeled garbage out there. Because...it is garbage. Another good topic for a later post!

So with that being said, my first choice for yogurt is the Seven Stars Farm Brand.

I.LOVE.THIS.YOGURT! 

It's ingredient list is simple: organic whole milk [from Jersey or Guernsey cows*] made in small batches right on their farm, only adding in natural live active cultures Acidophilus & Bifidus.

Their cows are pasture grazed as long as possible before snow sets in and their farm is cared for using biodynamic and organic practices. I could go on and on about all the great things they do, but you can check it out for yourself here!

Unfortunately, the closest store to me that sells it is not right around the corner -- it is about a 35-40 minute drive from me...and in the opposite direction of where I usually am traveling. So, I can't just swing in regularly to pick some up. 

When I can't take the trip to purchase the Seven Stars Farm brand yogurt, my back up choice is Dannon's All Natural, Plain Yogurt. But, again, I had to read the ingredient list; just because it says 'All Natural', doesn't mean it really is.

The ingredient list for Dannon's All Natural Plain Yogurt is: Cultured Grade A Milk. It also notes further down on the container that it contains Active Yogurt Cultures including Acidophilus.

That is pretty cut and dry. Chances are the milk is from some Holstein working overtime, pumped with hormones and antibiotics, in a feed lot type industrial dairy barn - a far cry from Seven Stars pasture grazed gals. I realize this and take this into consideration. These are things that are not printed on the products container - I doubt they ever will be - but when consumers educate themselves, these are the things you 'see' when you read into the label. And you make the ultimate decision what you are, and are not, okay with. 

At my latest trip to a local grocer, neither of these choices were an available option so I had to check out all those that were, and again, make the best educated decision possible. I chose this Stonyfield brand [below] of Organic Plain Yogurt.

Let me preface by saying, I have read up enough and learned enough by now to be hesitant of most larger companies touting themselves as natural, organic and everything rainbows and green grass with happy, content livestock. When you go to the Stonyfield website, it screams corporation with a marketing department paid to make you think they are natural, organic & earth loving hippie farmers ... but maybe it is just me that notices things like this since my professional career is in the marketing field. I much prefer to pull up a website like the Seven Stars one; this site looks like a small, family-ran farm that does love the earth, and their cows, and has doesn't have a marketing department that meets in the board room to finalize marketing plans. Their 'boardroom' probably doubles as the mud room in their barn :)

So, where was I? Oh yes, about the Stonyfield yogurt. Well, who knows if they are truly organic - sad you can't trust what the label says, isn't it? How's this article for a smack in the face? I know it is dated, but none the less. According to their container, their 'Organic Promise' is that the yogurt is made without the use of antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones and persistent pesticides. Another thing that makes me wonder is the claim it touts that the yogurt  'tastes creamier than ever' - I ask, why? What did you chose to add to it to make it that way. And for the record, I don't care for the yogurt - taste or texture.

The ingredient list is the longest yet out of the three brands compared here: cultured pasteurized organic whole milk, pectin, vitamin D3 and six live active cultures.(elsewhere on the container, the 6 live active cultures are listed and include the ones we've already seen on the other brands, acidophilus & bifidus).

Things on this list that immediately struck me were the added pectin; I assume this was to achieve their creamier texture which is probably done to ultimately please consumers since they are most used to the industrialized yogurt of today's age molded into cups. My other immediate thought was the addition of D3 - why? Shouldn't that already be in your milk? But, if you are using pasteurized milk, D3 most likely is killed of in the pasteurization process. Stonyfield, unlike Dannon, is marketing themselves to be the happy, hippie organic farm yogurt so they want to make sure you know that D3 is in there. Dannon doesn't tout this on their container so while D3 was probably lost in the pasteurization of the milk they used too, they don't really have a need to discuss that with their consumers. People who buy Stonyfield and people who choose to buy Dannon are most likely 2 different types of consumers....or on rare occasion, maybe a freak like me that make a novel of a blog post out of the whole thing!

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After dissecting these three yogurts, I think it is clear, if you are trying to go the route of a Whole/Real foods diet and you are purchasing your yogurt from a grocery store, your best choice is going to be Seven Stars Farm. They can be tough to locate, but if you find it, you have a gem! And boy wouldn't it be nice to be local to them; they now offer heavy whipping cream in their local area. Also good to note is that they are listed in the 2012 Weston A. Price Foundation's Shopping Guide as a 'Best' Choice for yogurt! (For further record, neither Stonyfield or Dannon are listed in there). The Cornucopia Institute gives them a '5 Cow Outstanding' rating on their website as well.

And gosh, I may just have to forgo my other choice options after re-reading this myself and make sure I am always stocked up with Seven Stars!

So are you curious what is in the yogurt in your fridge right now? Go look! I bet it has all kinds of sugars, like high fructose corn syrup, some other nasty stuff, and probably the ever ambiguous 'natural flavorings', which can really mean MSG, or, really, anything. Thanks FDA...thanks!

*Of course I don't stress over what breed of cow my dairy comes from...for the most part! But is is good to know when it comes from quality Jersey or Guernsey breeds -- their milk is top quality when cared for properly, compared to the Holstein breed, which for the most part, has become so industrialized it is like the Cornish Broiler Chicken of the Industrial Poultry World.

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This post is linked up at Freaky Friday, Monday Mania, Your Green Resource and Real Food 101

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All opinions on this blog post are 100% mine! I was not compensated by any companies mentioned.

Real Food: Dinners

Maybe it's just me, but I hear topics about 'real' food and 'whole' foods come up more and more lately. I was in line at the library the other day checking out Heidi Swanson's books (love, by the way) and I noticed the lady in line behind me scoping out what I had. She then just asked me which books they were, showed me she was in line to check out the DVD Knives over Forks, and the conversation went from there, as you can imagine!

Lots of people think I am crazy when I talk about how we eat and what we don't eat, or try not too. Usually, I get more murmurs and looks when it is in regards to feeding my son, more so than myself and my husband, but none the less. I don't police your plate, so don't police mine. Ok, anyways -- before I get off on a soap box!.....

I was talking to a co-worker of mine and this kind of topic came up. He mentioned his family really tries to eat healthy, but it is hard. Fair enough, I can understand that. And it amazes me how mislead marketing has people - sad really. Especially since I make a living in a professional marketing field ;) At the root of our conversation, after discussing how we don't eat cereal (as in Fruit Loops, Coco Puffs....), in which he was floored, he wanted to know "So, what do you eat?" "What do you eat of any sustenance?What do you make for dinner?"

I thought I'd share here, what I told him, in hopes that it will show even one more person it can be easy. Sometimes it takes a few more minutes than a frozen meal, but it is worth the extra few minutes. So, here is an idea of a weeknight run down of dinners for us.

Monday - Pork Chops in Cream Caper Sauce (I wasn't lying when I said we eat this dish at least once every other week!)
Tuesday - Roasted [Whole] Chicken with a veg & rice or mashed potato's
Wednesday - Leftover Chicken turned into eggrolls or chicken salad - depends what is in the cupboard!
Thursday - Pan fried (in coconut oil!) cubed steaks with sweet potato baked fries and sauteed garlic spinach - sounds kinda fancy, but super fast and super easy!
Friday - Salmon baked in foil with steamed broccoli & rice -- lots of butter on the veg & rice!

Seriously, these are all pretty quick and easy meals. Aside for the cook time for the whole roasted chicken, these meals can be on the table in under an hour. And if you aren't a fan of some of the options, let me throw out a few more, off the top of my head, that are super easy in a crock pot! How about: Shredded Beef Tacos or Winter Pot Roast with Parsnips & Carrots!

So, what do you think? Easy enough? What is a 'real' meal you make for your family regularly, on a busy weeknight?

Whole Foods Transition: Coffee Creamer

I wanted to talk for a minute about one thing I have made a 100% leap on during this transition to eating whole, real foods. BTW, again, what do I call this? A 'diet', a new way of life? Lunacy? ;)

Anyways, I was a total flavored coffee creamer junkie. Especially during the holidays when, starting in fall, the stores would stock their shelves with flavors like Pumpkin Spice and then move into White Chocolate Raspberry :)

Throughout a lot of the reading I have been doing, it was pretty much a no brainer that these creamers really aren't really 'cream' - get me? So I figured it was probably to my overall benefit, especially my teeth, if I try to cut out these 'creamers' loaded full of sugar and things produced in a scientific lab. I had already started dabbling in my obsession of making things from scratch, and I stumbled upon Carrie Vitt's recipes for homemade coffee creamers. I made them a few times and they weren't bad. They weren't what I was used to, but in a good way. They weren't knock my teeth out sweet. So I kept up with them for a few weeks. Occasionally, I would be somewhere and use a flavored creamer. They started to taste terrible, like I was drinking something metallic, every time. The longer I went without drinking them in my daily coffee, the worse they tasted when I did.

Then, the inevitable happened. I ran out of my homemade stuff and didn't have time to think/remember/just make another batch. Coffee without cream for me is like taking a shower in cold water...like trying to drive your car with no gas. Follow me? So, because I can't drink my coffee black, or couldn't, I should say, I just used some cream I had in the fridge. After all, it was half of the ingredients I used to make the homemade stuff. Certainly it tasted different - again. But again, it tasted different in a good way. It tasted healthy - normal - what it probably should taste like! And I also noticed I needed less and less; from the transition to the fake flavored creamers, to the homemade creamers, to just the cream. Now, if I must, I really can just drink the coffee black, but I do prefer a little slurp of cream in there.

And do you know the most amazing thing I noticed. (I know, I am weird). The drops that form at the top of your drink, after your 5th cup of the morning sits on your desk for a few hours, look buttery! Not like some synthetic oil forming on a puddle. That is when you know it has to be good!

Can you see the 'droplets' that look like the color of butter? :)

Whole Foods Diet - Working on Kicking!

So I have mentioned some things I have already kicked/transitioned over to as I work my family into a Whole Foods 'diet'. (Or is it more appropriate to refer to it as a 'real foods' diet? I have no clue!) Now, to share some of the things I am working on kicking out the door for good! These are at the top of the list!

Refined Sugar
I would love to move to all natural sweeteners in the house, but there are few things hubby uses white sugar for, one being his morning coffee. If I left him some honey to pour in it instead, I am not so sure he'd be appreciative! So, I am working on it. In most of my cooking and my own consumption, I go w/o the refined sugar. I used Maple Syrup and Honey the majority of times in place of sugar. And truthfully, when I do have something with refined sugar in it now, my teeth aren't happy with me and I can taste the difference. I prefer to not have it! I even kicked the flavored creamers habit I had with my coffee. Now I just use a little whole cream; that is a BIG deal for me. I loved those flavored creamers. But you know what? Now that I've kicked them, if I do have coffee with some, it taste TERRIBLE!

Pop
Pop is already something I do without. The only time I may have it is at a holiday/family gathering where it is in abundance (and wine is not an option - lol!). My husband, however, thinks that any time he is thirsty, he needs a pop *sigh* -- so transitioning him over on this one is going to be quite the battle and I am not sure I am planning on winning it any time soon either. Though, I will say, we both agree it will be something we won't be giving to the babe as he gets older! (Sorry, Dad! This means you can't either!)

Cold Cereal
Again here, I don't really do all the fruit loops, fruity pebbles and cookie crunches of the cold cereal world, but hubby does. He doesn't eat them too often and it isn't an item he mentions he'd wish we had so this could be fairly easy to cancel out all together. Going along with the breakfast theme, I'll also add that we have 'leggo'ed our Eggo's!' Yep, that is right .. no more Eggo Waffles or boxed pancake mix here. It is all from scratch. And would you believe, pancakes from scratch hold well in the fridge so you can enjoy them for 2 more days?! Really! I take them to work and much on them cold - they are GREAT! And when you make them with whole wheat, they are very filling too.

So, while this list is just a start, I think it is a pretty good start :) Certainly, Hot Cheetos need to go too, but you know what, they kinda don't taste as good anymore either when I do have some!