One of the very few assignments I remember from kindergarten was the creation of our class cookbook. We were each asked to describe the ingredients for our favorite recipe. At the mature age of 5, I told Ms. Ruetabeaga (pronounced like the root vegetable: rutabaga) about the ingredients for my mom’s wilted spinach salad (was I born to be a dietitian or what?). After providing my teacher with all of the random and most likely incorrect salad components, I saved the most important ingredient for last: the salad dressing. I(per my mom’s memory) passionately stated that you MUST use Paul Newman’s salad dressing because he donated part of his proceeds to charity. Where that seemingly altrustic comment came from, I will never know.

Well…sorry Paul, but today I am recommending a different route: make your own. Here are 7 reasons why.

1) Salad dressing can be expensive, especially if you buy it, don’t like it, and throw it away.

2) Making your own salad dressing is a great way to use up random ingredients in your refrigerator.

3) You’ve got control over the calories and nutritional value.

4) You’re being good to the planet by decreasing plastic waste.

5) You avoid eating ingredients you can’t pronounce.

6) You will impress guests. For some reason, making your own salad dressings can really get you big props.

7) Homemade dressing tastes better and is fresh.

So, if one of these reasons is enough to get your salad juices flowing, where do you start? First of all, you will need a vessel for the dressing. I have a salad bottle carafe which has measurement lines for the salad dressing ingredients, although nice, it is not necessary. A washed wine bottle or easy to pour from container works just as well.

Now for the ingredients: For most dressings, you need at least 3 components: 1) oil 2) acid 3) flavorings.

Oil: Most of the time I use olive oil for its healthy fat profile, but I also have used walnut or sesame oil depending on the type of flavor I am seeking. Canola oil is also a healthy oil, and does not carry much flavor.

Acid: Examples of acids include citrus (orange, lime, lemon, pomegranate, grapefruit) vinegars (balsamic, apple cider, sherry, champagne), or wine.

Flavorings: Depending on your salad, flavorings might include herbs (basil, thyme, cilantro), spices (cumin, ginger, garlic, wasbi), cheese (feta or Parmesan) or randoms like shallots, flavored mustards, horseradish, wasabi, and soy sauce. This is a never ending list and validates reason #2.

Here are two of my favorites:

Maple Balsamic Dressing (level- easy…)

1 clove garlic, minced

2 Tbsp mustard (I like to use dijon)

2 Tbsp maple syrup or molasses

3 Tbsp sherry or apple cider vinegar

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt/pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk and pour!

Basil and Walnut Salad Dressing (tad less easy), but worth it…

Source: Deborah Madison: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

• ½ cup walnuts
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil

Grind the walnuts in a spice grinder. Mash the garlic cloves in a bowl and add the walnuts and ½ teaspoon salt to form a paste. Gradually whisk in the oil, then add the vinegar. Stir in the basil and season with pepper. Add water to thin if necessary.

The best part about making your own dressing is the ability to get creative, and if you still want to donate to Paul Newman’s good causes, check out his line of spaghetti sauces, they are delish.

Last weekend, I attended the yearly Registered Dietitian National Conference meeting in Denver. At this 4 day conference, you can attend what they call the “EXPO.” At the expo, aisle after aisle of food manufacturers and food companies are in attendance trying to sway the RD’s of our country on their products. With the countless samples, I could have easily eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner and left stuffed. Although most most of the serving ware were toothpicks, many companies oohed and whooed us with plates full of food. I can guarantee, many RD’s left the expo floor with upset and full bellies. I will now walk you through a small piece of the experience as I ate my way through the booths. The pictures represent about 1% of what you could have sampled.

Let’s start with the treats…(I categorize treats as somewhat “healthy” samples that a RD would have no problem recommending as a nutritious food.

Strawberry Board

Blueberry Board

Not necessarily a new food for most nutrition experts, but the berry board didn’t want us to forget the small source of a big antioxidant punch.

Get Your Egg Kabob

That’s right, get your egg on a stick. You could also get a cheese and egg omelet at the Egglands Best Booth, but these hardboiled gems were from the Egg Board.

The Other White Meat

Honestly, most Americans get enough meat, so do they really have to advertise? Now, if it was Fresh Gatherings Cafe advertising their pork, they would have showcased the farmer that produced your pork, and provided posters on the how and why we should look into buying locally raised, animal friendly pork. That is the type of information that could be useful to hundreds of RD’s…not the nutrition information for a 3 oz pork chop.

Beef Council

Yes, you could an “appetizer” sized tenderloin beef salad as you perused by the beef booth. Wish I had the beef booth’s budget!

Now I will share some “tricks,” or foods that I am sure I have never incorporated into a meal plan for my clients…

Healthy Chips?

Sure they might be made with a “healthier” oil, but they are still fried chips.

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Kudos on that new grilled chicken, but healthy items make up about 1% of KFC’s menu.

M&M

Hum…M&M plus the word MAX? Not sure that sounds like a healthy concoction.

My Favorite Booth

I won’t lie, I might have asked one of the dietetic interns to snag me another sample from the “Orginal Cakerie” booth.

Hershey

You wouldn’t believe all of the chocolate samples available, thank you Hershey’s for supplying my trick or treaters candy.

Concession Stand

Hungry for a hot Super Pretzel yet?

Is that a list of superfoods? No, it is a list of foods that the health action organization, Center for Science in the Public interest released as their list of the top 10 riskiest foods for Americans to eat. Here they are listed in order from the highest risk to the least risk:

1) Leafy greens

2) Eggs

3) Tuna fish

4) Oysters

5) Potatoes

6) Cheese

7) Ice cream

Tomatoes

9) Sprouts

10) Berries

(Today’s Menu: Breakfast: Cereal topped with berries; Mid-morning snack: hard-boiled egg; Lunch: tunafish sandwich topped with lettuce & tomato, Afternoon snack:string cheese, Anticipated dessert: ice cream. Done, I just ate 7/10 ten risky foods…

So how did these seemingly healthy foods make the top 10 riskiest list? Basically, these foods along with seven other foods make up 40% of all of the foodborne related illnesses and outbreaks dating back to 1990. According the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) these 10 foods caused ~1,500 outbreaks and over 50,000 illnesses.

CSPI didn’t release this information with the intent to stop us from eating these foods, but more so to send strong message to the Food and Drug Administration to tighten up ship. CSPI feels that the food safety “police” should set and enforce more stringent food safety regulations so Americans can trust their food system.

As you can see by my menu today, I haven’t eliminated these foods from my diet. However, this release did remind me to continue to do what “I” can do to best protect myself and my family from foodborne illness.

“Lettuce” start with greens. Although convenient, many of the leafy green outbreaks were associated with eating bagged, pre-washed greens. Bagged greens compared to the simple head of lettuce are more processed, handled and come into contact with a larger amount of leafy greens. Because of this, bagged lettuce might have a higher risk of contamination. Greens as a whole, grow close to the ground, and therefore are more susceptible to pathogens due to contaminated irrigation water, manure, and unsafe handling practices.

Take home message: remove the outer leaves, rinse greens several times, and rinse greens even if it says it has been pre-washed.

Eggs: Most people are aware that eggs can be contaminated with salmonella both on the outside and inside of the egg. Cooking your egg throughly is the best way to protect yourself.

Tuna Fish: The “type” of tuna largely associated with outbreaks was fresh or raw tuna, not the canned tuna I have in my sandwich today. Unfortunately, the type of contaminant found in tuna cannot be cooked away, so you can go ahead and eat your sushi raw.  Do be sure that the tuna comes from reputable source. Most fish contamination occurs when the fish is left in warm temperatures for too long.

Oysters: Basically, anyone takes a risk when they eat raw oysters. Most reported oyster outbreaks tended to occur from restaurants where poor food handling was the culprit. Therefore, your fate is left in the hands of those who handle your food, so weigh the pros and cons. Fortunately, this is an easy decision for me, I love the cracker with horseradish and hot sauce, but I do without the oyster.

Potatoes: Luckily the beloved potato, is incriminated because of the ingredients it associates itself with: mayo and sour cream. The tuber is also more susceptible because it is in close contact with the soil and therefore is at higher risk for the same reason lettuce is. Take home? Don’t leave your “salads” out longer than two hours in the danger zone (40-140 degrees), and scrub the outside of your potato well.

Cheese: Making cheese requires several steps (curdling, salting, processing) therefore, there are more opportunities for contamination. In addition, softer cheeses like brie or camembert, tend to carry higher risk of listeria and should be avoided by pregnant women.

Ice Cream: The outbreaks with ice cream tend to be related to using contaminated eggs and unsafe food handling practices by your local ice cream scooper. You can bet my frozen yogurt haven, Fro Yo, will still be getting my business.

Tomatoes: Because tomatoes are frequently eaten raw, and usually come into contact with soil, they also have a higher risk of carrying pathogens. Washing tomatoes well and using separate cutting boards for produce and raw meat will help to minimize risk.

Sprouts: Some say we should completely avoid eating sprouts like alfalfa or mung bean sprouts because the “seed” houses the contaminant, and therefore no amount of rinsing can remove the problem.  Sprouts require a warm and moist environment to grow, and unfortunately, that is the same type of environment that pathogens like to grow in as well. So unless you really love your sprouts, leaving them off your next sandwich might be a good idea.

Berries: Fortunately, the largest outbreak with berries (strawberries) occurred way back in 1997, but berries like blackberries and raspberries have always carried a food borne illness risk. A thorough wash can help, but is not a guarantee that it can remove the risk.

In summary, I hope this report doesn’t scare people away from eating foods like potatoes and berries, but serves as a reminder to handle our food safely, and most importantly speaks to those who set the policies and procedures so we can ensure that healthy food we eat, truly is healthy.

I love bread, and as I savor the homemade cherry walnut bread from our Nutrition and Dietetics cafeteria, Fresh Gatherings Cafe, I imagine how difficult and challenging the gluten-free diet would be to follow and maintain.

I have recently noticed a growing interest in the gluten-free diet and seen a rising number of stars such as Oprah, Jenny McCarthy, and Gweneth Paltrow who are following the gluten-free diet so they can lose weight and because they claim it is a “healthier” way of eating (I wonder what Oprah’s side kick, Bob Greene thinks of this…). Fortunately for the stars, if they inadvertently eat a food containing gluten they won’t experience the negative consequences that occur to those with a true gluten sensitivity or those with celiac disease who follow the diet because they have to.

So what is gluten anyway? And what is the gluten-free diet? Gluten is a vegetable protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and other less well known grains like triticale. Therefore, it makes up the majority of grain-based products we eat like cereal, bread, pizza crust, pasta, bagels, and less suspecting foods like soy sauce, beer, and some salad dressings. The list of gluten-containing foods is long, and the homework to uncover words like “malt” or “hydrolyzed wheat protein” in the ingredient list that contain gluten is overwhelming. Imagine the difficulty of eating out at a restaurant where sauces, salad dressings, and condiments don’t contain labels or ingredient lists…

If you are interested in a more complete list of off-limit gluten-free foods, check out this celiac website.

The gluten-free diet originated as a meal prescription and treatment diet for individuals who are gluten sensitive or who have a disease called celiac disease. When those with these conditions eat gluten containing foods, the gluten causes damage to the lining of their small intestine causing mal-absorption of vital nutrients that could lead to malunutrition, osteoporosis, anemia, and growth development problems in children.

It has been estimated that 3 million Americans have celiac disease, but many of these cases are un-diagnosed due to the individual experiencing only moderate discomfort or dismissing the discomfort as irritable bowel syndrome or stress-related pain.

Thankfully for those who have to follow this diet, the market for gluten-free products, like gluten-free bread mix, gluten-free waffles, and gluten-free soy sauce has skyrocketed and is estimated to continue to grow. Although, the flavor and palatability of these products are sometimes not well received, the recipes are improving and there continue to be a growing number of options in the grocery store. Unfortunately, the products can also come at a hefty price.

If you suspect you might have a gluten senstiivity or celiac disease, don’t self diagnose and follow the diet before you see a physician. Following a gluten-free diet prior to diagnosis would mask any symptoms and result in a false negative diagnosis.

So for all of those celebrities out there who are using the gluten-free diet as the next fad diet, have some sensitivity for those who have to follow the diet, and have to comb through each and every ingredient list, and have to avoid delicious freshly baked bread.

I don’t usually like talking about my dreams, because personally, I don’t think people typically care that much to hear about them. So I will be brief, in my first dream (I have many because my sleep is usually interrupted by a night-time bathroom break or my cat Myra deciding that my head would be a good pillow) was about my husband and I going out to a nice restaurant for dinner. After perusing the amazing menu of tantalizing options, he stated he wasn’t hungry and was just going to get a salad, ugh, no fun. In my second dream, which also took place in a restaurant, I received my plate of food, only for it to be taken away time and time again by the waiter before I could take my first bite. First night, and I am already dreaming about food or the lack there of, not a good sign.

After perusing the other Food Outreach bloggers emails, I was quite calmed to see that they too were having some trouble feeling “full.” I am not for sure if it is “hunger” that I am feeling or if I just have an appetite for something “else.” Else being anything in my refridge like cheese, chocolate, or a veggie burger that I hadn’t budgeted.

As for today’s meals, I am most likely going to stick to everything I ate yesterday. The parsnip soup was really good, so I will be sharing that recipe with you all tomorrow. Yesterday my meal total came to $3.36. My goal is to keep around this amount so I have a little extra for the weekend. I still don’t think this amount would ever come close to covering those menu items in my dreams, but parsnip soup tastes good only so many days in a row.

Although my husband and family encouraged me to visit Aldi’s or Shop N Save for the $29 week challenge, I chose to go to Schnuck’s because I wanted to see how I could manage my budget shopping at the store which I typically frequent because it is closest to my house. Like the other Food Outreach bloggers, I went to the store armed and ready with a well planned grocery list for the week(note, week, not weekend yet…too daunting).

As I shopped, I found myself being very grateful for the “price per ounce” assistance on the grocery shelves. I used this reference for almost every item comparison. I had no idea that a food like vegetable broth (which will go in my parsnip soup recipe) had such a wide range of prices when compared by the ounce. The soup recipe called for 64 ounces, so the highest broth price at 14 cents per ounce compared to the cheapest broth at 4 cents per ounce really made a difference .

Another shocker, or shall I say disappointment, was how small the apples are that came in the #3 pound bag. With 13 apples in the bag, each apple set me back 23 cents. I did feel better knowing the apples were grown in Missouri, but when eaten as a snack, the small portion left me wishing for more.

Once I got home from the store, I decided that preparing my dinner meals for the week would ensure I stuck to the meal plan. The first recipe (which I will share later) was a parsnip and carrot soup and the second meal was a lentil, pasta, and rice dish with a mint butter sauce. Both recipes turned out pretty tasty, and I was happy to be able to include my “mint on steroids” plant from backyard garden. Free herbs are coming in handy.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am addicted to the 94% fat free Act II kettle corn. I am not for sure if it’s the popcorn that I love or the relaxation of eating the popcorn while I watch “Chopped” on the Food Network. Either way, the microwave popcorn was too expensive so I grudgingly purchased the plain popcorn kernels. After two hours in the kitchen preparing my weekly dinners, I found myself hungry and decided to introduce the kernels to my air popper. For 5 cents, I popped ~6 cups of popcorn and after adding a touch of salt and sugar was pleasantly surprised with the tasty and nutritious, and most importantly -inexpensive, source of pleasure.

I do have a confession already for Day 1. After today’s lunch, I received the gift of a diet coke. I didn’t allocate any money to my afternoon soda habit, so I am very gracious to my caffeine angel.

Several weeks ago I volunteered to participate in the “Hunger Challenge 2009″ sponsored by the organization Food Outreach located in Saint Louis. Food Outreach provides nutrition services for people living with HIV/AIDS and cancer. The purpose of the 7-day hunger challenge is to raise awareness for those in our community and country who face critical nutrition issues when living on a fixed income.

As part of the challenge, we are encouraged to limit our food purchases to $29 dollars per week. This is the amount I would be allotted if I was participating in the food stamp program. $29/7 = $4.14 per day.

With the changes in our economy over the year, as a Dietitian, I have had several requests by reporters or writers for budget-friendly meal ideas for their segments like “How to feed a family of 4 for $20 per day.” These requests required me to price out ONE meals’ ingredients, but that was the extent of my efforts. As I begin to think about applying this to ME, and what I will eat for the week of Sept 1-Sept 7, the task begins to seem much more challenging, and to be honest, I think, why didn’t I assign this to the students in one of my nutrition classes?

When grocery shopping, I pay attention to the price per ounce when comparing items, and I frequently purchase sale items and store brand items. Our household money is spent on nutritious inexpensive foods like beans, frozen vegetables, rice, etc. I bring my lunch to work, I eat at home most nights of the week. But, I also “splurge.” I do spring for certain foods like the nicer cuts of fish, or the higher fiber grain products, and I purchase these items not only because I like the way they taste, but could spending extra money now potentially save me money later on smaller health care bills? Others however, do not have such the luxury, yet they deserve the ability to eat healthy just like I do. So as a dietitian, I feel it is my responsibility to help others see that they can feed their family nutritious foods that can be purchased in an affordable way. The Hunger Challenge presents me with some practice to do so.

Yet, I begin to think about those favorite foods I take for granted.

Coffee, even though I brew my own coffee at home, when I think about the creamer, splenda, and sometimes a dollap of whipped cream…it almost takes too much effort just to calculate the costs! Either way, I think I can get by without it for a week, and save those precious pennies for something else.

Diet coke, another caffeine source bites the dust. I will miss the afternoon jolt, but once again, I could use the pennies for food.

Eating out. I can’t even imagine how that could possibly fit. That makes me sad. I am going to find some great happy hour deals somewhere.

I am still in the planning phase, but here are some of things I know I can change:

Breakfast: I have to eat the same quantity, you don’t want a hangry (hungry + angry) teacher for my early morning students, I will just switch to store brand cereal and store brand English muffins. For a snack, I plan on buying bagged on-sale apples instead of my favorite pink lady apples, which are never on sale.

Sometimes for dinner I make omelets, eggs are a cheap source of protein, but instead of the omega-3 fatty acid fed eggs, I will buy the store brand. I eat a vegetables with both lunch and dinner, therefore I will have to figure out which veggies give me the best bang for my buck, and I will more than likely visit the farmer’s market. The pressure cooker will be busted out of the cabinet and be put to good use making a bean soup.

But what about my microwave Kettle Corn? I hope I can make it fit, but if not, the air popper will finally get used as well.

No doubt, this is not going to be easy. It will take planning, and possibly more time in the kitchen. My goal is to stick to the budget as close as possible, and also maybe come up with some recipes that I can continue to use in the future.

I have to remind myself, it is only for a week, and how blessed am I that this is just an “experiment?”

A couple of weeks ago, PJ and I took a trip up to Polo, IL to visit my 96 year-old grammie. Grammie calls me “nutri-pie”. Grammie weighs a whopping ~90 pounds, and stands ~5 feet tall. She lives in a 3-story farmhouse and shares the first floor with her dog “Darnit” and her cat “Squirt.” I could go on and on about her quick witted personality, keen memory, and charm, but today I am writing about why I should eat more like my grammie. It’s obvious, she has done something right, and maybe some of it has to do with how she chooses to eat.

#1) She plans ahead. Before PJ and I arrived, she had our menu for the weekend completed. Grocery shopping was done, veggies were chopped and prepped, and dessert was perched in the secret cabinet. If we all gave more thought to our weekly meals and snacks, we wouldn’t find ourselves starring into our fridge wishing that something tasty, healthy, and easy would land on our dinner plate. However, many times this turns into a quick trip to a restaurant where we spend more calories and money than we would spend at home.

#2) She eats slow. Really slow. We tried to slow down, I remember telling myself to put my fork down after every bite, but both PJ and myself found ourselves taking extra helpings just so we weren’t watching Grammie eat alone. Grammie tastes her food, she is the epitomy of the slow food movement…

When was the last time that I wasn’t multi-tasking while I ate, or looked down at my plate and was disappointed that my food was already gone? While we can’t eat slowly all of the time, taking more time to eat and really taste our food is precious.

#3) She eats locally. Dinner on Friday night came from my grammie’s Mexican friend who makes homemade bean burritos. Our pork chop on Saturday night came from Mr. Skeeter two miles down the road, and the corn, beans, and tomatoes came from her garden that you get to watch grow as you through her bay window in the kitchen while you clean up the dishes.

#4) She has sustainable food practices. One of my least favorite chores to do for Grammie is to fetch some sort of food item out of the freezer or fridge. Very few foods are in their original containers, no container gets thrown away, but is thoroughly washed, and dated with the new food. Visiting her every summer, I still recongize that old Schwan’s ice cream holder that now holds chicken soup, and same old butter containers that store green beans. Thank goodness she labels and dates everything or her sustainable practices could turn into a fetcher’s nightmare.

#5) She eats vegetables every day and she eats dessert-the real thing. She uses real butter, she uses real ice cream to top her apple crisp, but she eats a little, and she eats it slowly. I don’t think Grammie eats much dessert when guests aren’t around, but I am happy she does when we visit.

#6) She drinks an Old Style Beer a day, and listens to the Cubs on the radio. Need I say more?

I thank my Grammie for 31 years (and hopefully many more) of feeding me with healthy tips, deliciously love- filled food. Food memories are special for everyone, and I am lucky enough to have an amazing example, that has influenced much of the Dietitian I am today.

Is it weird that I LOVE to grocery shop? In my single years, half of my Saturday was devoted to grocery shopping. The day would begin at the Soulard Farmer’s Market, move to Sappington International Farmer’s market and then Trader Joe’s, and would wind down at Whole Foods for lunch. In these numerous shopping visits, I always enjoyed observing other shoppers. There are those who mechanically toss the same grocery list of foods into their carts without giving other similar food products a chance, and then you have those who scour over their food selections comparing nutrition facts, price per ounce, etc to find the perfect food for their recipes.

No matter what your shopping style is (probably somewhere in the middle), I think we all could agree that grocery shopping can be overwhelming at times. To begin, there are so many choices, most groceries contain over 50,000 products and these numerous choices may only differ by one gram of fat or one ingredient, ie: (my most difficult dilemma) the salad dressing aisle. In addition, food label marketing can be deceiving. While you can trust claims such as “low-fat” because they are standardized and must have no more than 3 grams of fat per serving, other claims such as “natural” or “lightly sweetened” tell us basically nothing. Shouldn’t it be easier to make the very important decision about what enters our and our family’s mouths?

Enter the concept of “nutritional profiling.” Organizations such as the Harvard Medical School, the American Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association and the organization list goes on…believe they might have developed an easier way for us to more quickly identify healthy foods. Currently, there are about 5 different Nutritional profiling programs (potential problem #1) that utilize symbols which are placed directly on the food product or on the actual grocery shelf or both to be a visual sign to clue us in that the food your are purchasing meets some sort of “nutritional quality”. Each of the 5 nutrition profiling programs have different criteria for how foods qualify or don’t (potential problem #2).

In order for a food to qualify for the “Smart Choice” Nutrient Profiling label (developed by a combination of food manufacturers, retailers, and the nutrition organizations) the food must contain more than 10% of the Daily Value of at least one nutrient (calcium, potassium, fiber, vitamins A, C, or E). The food must also be low in total, saturated, and trans fats, sodium, and sugars. Interesting enough, Frosted Flakes Cereal gets a smart choice label, while pre-portioned boneless chicken breasts would not (potential problem #3).

If you are interested in other nutrient profiling programs and their criteria, check out “Guiding Stars”, “Healthy Ideas”, “Nutrition IQ”, and “NuVal”. Depending upon your location, and whether your grocery store decides to support programs/labels, you might have already seen these nutrition symbols.

The debate will continue on whether nutrient profiling programs help or hurt in terms of our food decisions, but there is no debate that non-processed, whole foods like fruits, veggies, and whole grains, symbol or no symbol will always get a healthy food rating.

I don’t eat a lot of red meat, in fact, last weekend was the first time I had eaten ground beef in several years. The lack of beef in my life has a little to do with nutrition, but more to do with the fact that I grew up on a small farm in TN with sweet little cows in my backyard. Although these cows were all black and hard to distinguish one from another, I named each and every cow, and could pick out Jerry from Oreo pretty quickly.

Last weekend, PJ brought home some grass-fed beef from a local farm. With our increased interest in buying locally, we were both pretty excited to try it, although…I must say I had a hard time getting Oreo out of my head.

Grass-fed beef is different from the more popular grain (corn) fed cows in several ways. Although, one can delve pretty deep into each issue, research continues to mount that grass-fed cattle is leaner, healthier, and more planet and cow friendly. It is more expensive, more difficult to find, and one cannot expect a consistent beef flavor due to the fact that the cows are grazing on different variations of pasture grasses. Because grass-fed cows don’t suffer the consequences of diseases from confined corn-based feedlots, grass-fed cows usually do not require antibiotics as well.

Grass-fed cows have healthier amounts of good fats, like omega-3 fatty acids and Conjugated linoleic Acids’s which have been linked to lower risk of certain cancers. In addition, this beef is higher in some vitamins and minerals like beta-carotene.

The grass fed beef does have a different flavor, and because the meat is leaner, it requires cooking the meat over lower temperatures, for a longer amount of time. I turned our grass-fed beef into taco meat with this recipe from Epicurious.com.  I must say, it was delicious.

Soft Beef Tacos with Salsa

Bon Appétit | November 1997

Instructions:

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté half of beef until brown, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to bowl. Sauté remaining beef until brown, about 3 minutes. Return all beef to pot. Add salsa, broth, garlic, sugar and soy sauce; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until beef is tender, stirring often, about 1 hour 10 minutes.

Uncover pot and simmer stew until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Mix in cilantro and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Refrigerate until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm before continuing.)

Heat tortillas 1 at a time on stove burner, about 10 seconds per side, turning with tongs. Cover with towel to keep warm.

Serve stew with tortillas, allowing diners to assemble tacos.

Regardless of your beef choice, the quantity of red meat we eat still should be considered.  High intakes of red meat are associated with greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer.  After doing some research on the calories in restaurant hamburgers, it is obvious the restaurants haven’t gotten this message with 11-12 ounce hamburgers on the menus: Check out Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Triple Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing for 1,901 calories and 138 grams of fat. Are you kidding?

Everything in moderation, but if and when you get the chance, support some of those farmers who are making a responsible effort to allow Oreo to a good and graze happy, healthy life.  Not only are the cows happy, but their meat translates to tasty, healthy food on our plate.