Just Eat Food News

SOUTHWESTERN STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS (SERVES 4)

These are so great to make in the fall, when things are starting to cool down, and you want a hearty, comforting meal.  This is a twist on the standard stuffed green peppers that I love as well.  Once you get the hang of it there are tons of possibilities to change things up.  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4)

FOR FILLING

• 1 lb Grass-fed beef, or buffalo
• ½ C Onion - chopped
• 2 Tsp Cumin
• 1 Tsp Garlic
• 1 ½ C Cooked brown rice
• 1 15 oz Can organic black beans - drained
• 4 Green peppers - cleaned with bottoms cut for sitting flat

FOR SAUCE

• 1- 28 oz Can organic diced tomatoes
• 1- 15 oz Can organic tomato sauce
• Dash of hot sauce (I love Cholula® - and use a LOT more than a dash)

GARNISH

• Avocado
• Red onion - chopped
• Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Brown grass-fed beef with onion, cumin, garlic in a medium skillet.  While browning the beef, mix together the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and hot sauce in a separate bowl.  Once the beef is browned, drain, and add to beef mixture, rice, and black beans. Mix to distribute ingredients evenly.  Fill green pepper cups with the beef/rice mixture.  Make sure to pack the filling in there with the back of a spoon.  Once the peppers are filled, place a thin layer of the tomato mixture into the bottom of a sauce pan.  The pan should be just large enough to hold all the peppers.  Put the filled peppers into the sauce pan.  Ladle in the tomato sauce in the open spaces the peppers create in the pan.  Fill the pan until the green peppers are about ½" above the mixture.  Cover the pan.  Cook on medium-low heat for approx. 50 min.  Remove from pan, ladle tomato sauce over the portion, garnish.

NOTES:

When I trim the bottom of the green peppers I use a small portion of it inside the bottom of the pepper to ensure the filling will not escape through any holes created by the trimming.  Also, any green pepper that was trimmed, I chop up and throw that in the pan to be browned with the beef, and onions.  This meal could be made vegan easily, by subtracting the meat and subbing with more rice, or soy meat substitute.  These are great the next day so make extra for lunch the next day. 

Never having an organic beer before I wondered how they would compare to regular beers.  Kyle and I were pleasantly surprised.  I would buy some of these beers again just because I like them, and then they just happen to be organic.  Now to be fair, I am sure there are a lot of brewers that buy from farms that don't use pesticides.  But, for this test we only wanted to try 'organic' beers.  So this is what we were judging: color, aroma, and taste.  For this test (this was so fun I think we will do more) we were judging 5 pale ales.  However, upon closer inspection it doesn't appear that they are all "pale ales" oh well close enough.  Oh, and one of them isn't domestic, which wasn't part of the deal either.  I am hardly going to dump that research down the drain so you will find info on them here as well.

So here they are, in no particular order (other than this was the tasting order) and our findings.

Wolaver's^TM Pale Ale: The color was a clear, dark amber, with moderate carbonation.  The aroma was grainy, and hoppy.  We gave it an average of 5.5 on the hoppiness scale, and a 3 for maltiness (sweetness).  We both thought the finish was smooth, light, and refreshing.  This was Kyle's favorite pick.  He typically will pick up a 6er of Sierra Nevada® or Stone® Pale Ale, if you would like to compare tastes. 

Butte Creek Brewing Company Organic Ale: The light amber/ golden color was as accompanied by moderate carbonation.  Butte Creek definitely had more carbonation than the Wolaver's^TM.  Out of all of them, this one had the strongest aroma.  Very earthy, you could pick out the barley in it.  We gave it an average of 2 on the hoppiness scale, and a 6.5 for maltiness.  Finished nice and easy, very balanced.  Kyle's enjoyed this one more than the Wolaver's^TM on the first time through (we had a little refresher at the end).

Goose Island Beer Company, Lamar Street Organic Pale Ale: The color was a dark red amber, and wasn't clear.  The carbonation was very light.  The aroma was fruity and sweet for me, balanced for Kyle.  We gave it an average of 3 on the hoppiness scale, and a 5 for maltiness.  The finish was full bodied, and clean.  It was too flat for Kyle, but this was my favorite!  I typically like everything.

Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale (Michelob Brewing Co. ®): The color was light honey, with the highest amount of carbonation.  We couldn't believe how fruity it smelled, like banana almost.  We gave it an average of 2 on the hoppiness scale, and a 7 for maltiness.  The finish was fruity with a bite.  Kyle could taste the banana and that was a little weird for him.  However, this kind of tasted like a white beer for me (which I love).  I liked this one.

Wychwood Scarecrow Golden Pale Ale: The color was a light gold, with very light carbonation.  The aroma was nutty.  We gave it an average of 4 on the hoppiness scale, and a 3.5 for maltiness.  The finish was balanced.  We both thought it tasted very European...it's brewed in England. 

If you are interested in trying any of these I recommend checking out the brewers websites for a list of distributors.  We had a lot of fun doing this and think it would be a GREAT idea for a party.

Let me know if there are any product categories that you are particularly interested in and I would be happy to test them out for you!

When we moved to the Chicago area in July 2008 we had to find a local bread that we liked.  Tried a few and they were dry and WAY too dense.  So I decided to look again at commercially made bread. 

The list of ingredients ran on and on with unpronounceable, unknown, words.  I understood a few things like enriched flour.  But, I don’t want my flour enriched either.  Enriching flour means that nutrients are added back in because they were stripped when the flour was processed into white flour.  But, after enriched flour, the list grew weirder, and weirder.  Then we get to high fructose corn syrup.  This is a sugar substitute.  OK, fine I get that.  But, why is there any type of sweetener in my bread?  Bread is only supposed to contain: flour, water, salt, and yeast right? 

Adding unnecessary sweeteners to everyday products is enough for me to have a disdain for HFCS.  Then the method through which HFCS is made sounds awfully unnatural.  The corn syrup (in part from genetically modified corn) undergoes enzymatic processing (where genetically modified enzymes are added) to speed up the chemical reactions.  It goes on from there. 

Another argument I have heard is that fructose is also found in fruit.  So it is naturally occurring.  Yeah it is but, honestly, let me get my daily shot of fructose from an apple, where I am getting other nutrients in a beautifully packaged bit of loveliness.  The problem, it seems, is that we are just sucking down WAY too much of the stuff.  Everything in moderation goes right out the door.  It seems best to try and watch how much sugar you intake.  We all know it is a treat.

If it isn’t found in nature, I don’t want it.  However, I wouldn’t say that you are going to grow an extra digit if you have it occasionally just yet…

Heirloom tomatoes are one of my favorite late summer treats.  I have often wondered what makes them 'heirloom'?

So here is a simple explanation.  Heirloom plants grow from seeds developed pre-1951 and pollinated by things occurring in nature, insects, birds, winds, etc.  1951 was the first year that people began hybridization, which explains the date.  Hybridization occurs when the pollen from one plant is used to pollinate an entirely different species or variety.  If seeds are harvested from these resulting plants they typically will not grow.  Where as with heirloom seeds the seeds harvested will result in plants just like the parents.

Personally, I would love to see more heirloom varieties on the market.  The tomatoes are incredible if you haven't yet tried them.  Grow your own, or cough up the $5 or so a pound price they fetch.  Who cares about the price...they are awesome!  They are so meaty and delicious you can save your money on the bacon and just have a L&T sandwich!

CHILLED OATMEAL (SERVES 2)

This is an interesting variation of the classic.  Packed with all the same cholesterol busting benefits of the original. 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 C Water
• 1 C Organic old fashioned rolled oats
• ½ C Yogurt (I love Stonyfield Farm® Plain Whole Milk)
• ½ Tsp Cinnamon
• ½ C berries (mashed a bit) 
• 2 Tbs Sugar (I like turbinado-raw)

DIRECTIONS

Bring water to a boil.  Add oats.  Turn down to medium-low heat and let cook until done, about 15-20 minutes.  Stir in sugar, and cinnamon while oats are still warm.  Let cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.  Stir in yogurt, and gently fold in berries, let chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. 

NOTES

If you use frozen fruit, there will be more juice which will turn the oatmeal pink.  The berries I used for this were blackberry and raspberry.  Want some more fun?  Add almonds, banana, whatever you like!  Oatmeal is like a pizza crust.  It can handle whatever you throw at it. 

When it comes to shopping at your local store it seems increasingly confusing to know what veggies are actually at there peak locally and which are flown in from Argentina and look really tempting.

When possible, I try to buy vegetables that are in season for a couple of reasons.  First, perhaps most importantly, they taste better.  These are the veggies that can be grown and harvested locally.  The longer they can stay on the farm, the longer they have to ripen, the better they will taste.  Not to mention the more nutrients they will contain.  OK, so I recently bought avocados from Mexico.   What can I say?  I am a sucker for them, regardless of the season.  That doesn't mean I am proud of myself.

Secondly, if the veggies are grown locally we know that they haven't been using tons of fuel to fly across the country, or internationally.  In addition, we will be supporting our local communities and promoting sustainability.   

There is a site with great information and lists of produce in season called Fruits & Veggies More Matters.

Recently, I read an article where I learned of Mark Kastel.  Earlier in his life Mark had been exposed at work to agricultural chemicals.  This weakened his immune system resulting in allergies, symptoms included debilitating migraines.   The doctor prescribed organic foods, and eventually he was back to work again.  However, he chose a different cause, organic farmers.  After 20 years in the industry he co found The Cornucopia Institute with Will Fantle. 

After reading the article I hopped online and checked out their website where I found tons of valuable information regarding the organic industry.  The institute serves as kind of a watch dog group for family farms, and of course so us consumers can find valuable information.  I don't think we can expect the marketers to tell us what to buy. The Cornucopia Institute conducted a survey to find out which products have family farms behind them, and which ones don't.  Lets just say...I won't be buying Horizon® anymore.  I encourage you to take a look at this report and start buying dairy products from companies you can get behind.  We have a right to know where our money is going.  Thanks, to The Cornucopia Institute now we know.  Please check out www.cornucopia.org to get more information on the survey, and the findings.

KOHLRABI SLAW (SERVES 2-3 AS A SIDE DISH)

Kohlrabi tastes a lot like broccoli stems.  It can be enjoyed raw, or cooked.  There are so many 

things to do with this crazy looking veggie!  Apparently Hamburg Township, MI is the self

proclaimed "Kohlrabi Capital of the World".  Can you imagine what the Kohlrabi king and

queen would look like?  

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Kohlrabi - julienne
• 1 Large carrot - julienne into bite size pieces
• ¼ C Red onion - chopped
• 1/8 C Organic olive oil
• ½ Tsp white vinegar
• 2 Tsp honey
• ½ Tsp celery seed
• Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Mix vinegar and honey.  Add oil.  Add kohlrabi, carrot, and red onion to dressing.  Salt and Pepper to taste.  Toss well.  Let stand 20 minutes.  Re-toss, serve, and enjoy.