Slow Cooker Osso Bucco with grass-fed beef shank

We sell beef shank and I had never cooked it myself, so I went looking for a recipe. The ones I found told you to use veal. I refuse to sell veal because true veal is inhumanely raised. They also tell you to dredge the shank in flour and I am not eating flours of any kind, so I improvised and came up with a flour-free beef shank recipe for the slow-cooker, made with beef shank from adult cows. Yes, healthy food CAN taste good! Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef shanks from grass-fed cows (not veal)
• 1/4 cup Butter from grass-fed cows
• 2 cloves organic garlic, crushed
• 1 large organic onion, chopped
• 1 large organic carrot, chopped (optional)
• 2/3 cup beef stock, preferably homemade as anything bought at the store will come from factory-farmed cows and have MSG in it. I make my own and freeze it.
• 2-3 diced fresh organic tomatoes
• 1 jar organic tomato puree, or puree your own – about 2 cups
• Himalayan pink sea salt and organic pepper to taste 
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh organic parsley

Directions

1.     Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add the beef shank, and cook until browned on the outside. If pressed for time you can skip this part.

2.     Place beef shanks in your slow cooker. Mix together remaining ingredients and pour over the beef shanks.

3.     Feel free to add additional herbs or spices of your choice. A good organic Italian blend would work well here.

4.     If you start this early in the morning – say 7am, use the “warm” setting on your slow cooker and let it cook all day. If you start it around noon-ish use “low” but be careful it doesn’t overcook. Grass-fed beef gets tough and stringy if overcooked. The high setting will definitely spoil the meat. I strictly use the warm setting myself and it turns out amazing!

Beyond Gluten-free Crackers and Spinach Dip

This adventure with Maximized Living Chiropractic has been an uplifiting and exciting adventure. Not only are my back issues getting steadily better, also my energy levels have improved significantly and my health is the best it has been in years. And to top it off, I have lost weight over the Holidays. That proves how fantastic these changes can be!

My dilemma today was that I wanted to make a spinach dip for dinner. Sometimes I just get a craving for Spinach Dip and instead of going and buying it at a restaurant with who-knows-what ingedients, I make it myself. Trouble is, I am not eating any grains of any kind right now, so what would I use to eat it instead of chips or crackers? Then I remembered a home made cracker recipe and with a little creative adaptation I got a grain-free cracker with which to eat my Spinach Dip! So you get a two-fer here, Home Made Spinach Artichoke dip and Grain-free home made crackers.

Spinach Artichoke Dip (All ingredients organic of course!)

1/2 chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
6 oz mushrooms, sliced
3 TBSP butter from grass-fed cows
3/4 cup milk from grass-fed cows
4 TBSP tapioca starch
1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt or to taste
1/2 lb fresh baby spinach leaves
1 jar artichoke hearts (read your ingredients, most have soy oil in them. A good health food store should have some without soy oil).
6 oz. Halepeno pepper jack cheese (organic) shredded, or raw cheese and chopped Jalapeno peppers.

Melt butter in a sauce pan and saute onions, garlic and mushrooms until tender. mix milk and tapioca starch until well blended and add to sauted onions mixture. Heat, stirring, until thickened. Stir in salt. Add artichoke hearts and spinach leaves. Stir until spinach is well wilted. Stir in cheese until melted. Server with crackers or chips or sliced veggies.

Grain and gluten-free crackers

1/3 cup almonds
1 1/2 C Quinoa flour (Quinoa is a seed, not a grain)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 C chopped onion
3 cloves garlic


Heat oven to 375 degrees

Put almonds in the food processor and process until fine and the oils begin to come out. Add the quinoa flour, salt and rosemary and process until well blended. Add the onion and garlic and process until it begins to form a ball. Add a little water if needed. I typically do not need to add additional water. Place dough on a sheet of parchment paper, cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll as thin as possible. Place parchment paper with rolled cracker dough on a cookie sheet and cut into squares. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Check at ten minute mark and remove crackers at the edge that tend to turn brown first. Check every 5 minutes for browning crackers on the edges. Continue baking until all crackers are lightly brown.

There you have it! Two quick and easy recipes for a delicious snack with your evening movie at home or for serving guests. Definitely guest dinner-worthy!

Happy and Healthy Living to all!
Grow Foods Market

Healthy Holiday Meals make Healthy Leftovers!

I am supremely thankful for recipes I gleaned from Maximized Living web sites and inspiration for some of my own as a result for our last Holiday meal. We ate at a friends on Thanksgiving day and that was a challenge for me, as you can imagine. But I made the best of it.

I brought a 100% organic healthy guacamole dip and served it with organic veggies for an appetizer (it was devoured of course). I also brought a flourless sugarless pumpkin pie for myself (sweetened with stevia) so I wouldn't feel deprived when dessert time came around. I ate lamb and organic veggies and an organic salad the hostess made (Yay!) and skipped all the rest. I was satisified and went home not feeling like I had missed anything and the next morning was a pound lighter while everyone else had gained a few pounds!

But no leftovers of course. SO,  Saturday I made my own herbed non-stuffed free-range turkey, partnered that with garlic faux potatoes (recipe in previous blog), steamed organic yellow squash and green beans with pumpkin muffins (no flour, recipe maximized living) and a salad. No guilt, no weight gain and lots of leftovers I could continue to eat guilt-free until gone!

I then took the gizzards and neck and bones from my turkey, simmered them with some vinegar, onions, celery and garlic for three days on the lowest heat  and made a delightful, delicious turkey soup. I put all non-starch veggies in the soup and it was wonderful! I used butternut squash, cubed, instead of potatoes, included beans, cauliflower, yellow squash, zucchini and LOTS of mushrooms. With the drippings from the pan of my herbed turkey which I included in the broth I made, the soup was amazing! And now I have plenty of broth as well for future use.

I am truly enjoying eating more healthily and the energy that brings as well as the weight loss and health benefits. I wish you all a Happy and Healthy Holiday season!

Happy and Healthy Living to all!
Grow Foods Market

A healthy birthday dinner party - say what???

We celebrated my husband's 50th birthday this month, with friends of course. Talk about a challenge! I am down 14 pounds now and I still wanted to eat healthy but of course I wanted the meal to be enjoyable for everyone. What to do?

Here is the menu I decided on:

Appetizers-
7 layer "dip" with raw veggies for "chips".
Home made guacamole also served with the veggie "chips"
Raw nuts also served with the appetizers

Dinner -
Roasted, herbed free-range turkey
Faux mashed potatoes (made out of cauliflower, recipe in last month's blog post)
The remainder of the veggie "chips" not devoured with the appetizers

Gluten-free sugar free flourless chocolate cake for dessert with a whipped cream frosting.

Response? Delicious! My guests could not get enough and there were very few leftovers! Hurray! Mission accomplished!

The taco seasoning for my dip, the guacamole and the cake recipes I got from the free recipe ebook download on the facebook page for Maximized Living. Go get yours!

Recipe for my 7 Layer dip -
Brown one pound ground grass-fed beef with 1/2 chopped onion and 2 cloves minced garlic
Make the taco seasoning from the Maximized Living free ebook download on their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/MaximizedLiving

Mix the taco seasoning with the browned beef and put in the bottom of a large bowl (glass if you have it to show off the layers)

Add the following in layers:
refried beans - organic or home made ( I usually make my own)
1/2 raw chopped red onion
guacamole (recipe from Maximized Living eBook)
organic yogurt, or home made yogurt from raw milk
sliced kalamari olives
diced organic tomatoes
shredded raw cheese

Add or remove layers as you see fit. Be creative, this isn't written in stone!
Serve with sliced raw veggies for "chips" and stand back and graciously accept the compliments!

Happy and Healthy Living to all!
Grow Foods Market

Maximize your diet, your health, your life!

We are embarking on an adventure with the Maximized Living Chiropractic office of Dr. Lerner in Orlando, FL. If you have not experienced a Maximized Living Chiropractic event and analysis I strongly encourage you to do so! They not only help you with any back issues you may have, but they help you change your life! We are thrilled because they encourage and support all the same dietary changes we have already made and even take it a step beyond where I was so stagnantly comfortable. But not only that, they also focus on improving your focus and mental attitude, maximizing your exercise routine to get in the best shape of your life and decreasing toxins in your environment in addition to your food. This is a health enhancing journey I can really embrace! Go to MaximizedLiving.com and find a practice near you. Attend an event and get excited about taking the road to health, not the nursing home!

The Maximized Living offices don't just adjust you right now "where it hurts" at the moment, they go further to correct what is the cause of your pains and health issues. This is true health in my opinion. Don't just hand out pills to cover up the symptoms you have, get to the root of the problems and FIX them! Kevin Trudeau said it best... "Noone ever had a headache because they had an aspirin deficiency."  I had no idea how many health issues actually have their root cause in the spine being misaligned! So we are on our way to a properly aligned spine and life!

For my own health I am making yet another diet change. This one is temporary as the rest I have made henceforth are permanent. For the time being I have removed ALL sources of sugar in my diet. Mind you I don't eat any refined sugar anyway, but even fruit and potatoes and rice can contribute to insulin resistance, so for me, for now, it all has to go. I have to help my body to begin burning fat, not sugar. Once I have reached my target weight then I can handle the wholesome carbs again. This is only temporary, but it will help my body heal and shed the extra pounds. 9 pounds down so far and I am not at all complaining.

That being said, remember the expression, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."? Well this can be true of a healthy diet change. You don't have to give up the things you love, just the way they are prepared. In most cases simple ingredient substitutions can mean a satisfied craving with no guilt!

My most surprising "change" that stayed the "same" is mashed potatoes. More correctly they would be called "faux potatoes" made from cauliflower of all things! Perhaps you have heard of them? Maybe you tried them or didn't want to try them because you "don't like cauliflower". Well I have to say, prepared like I will share they really don't taste anything like cauliflower and they DO taste a lot like mashed potatoes!

Simple, I promise! Just cook a head of cauliflower in a pot of boiling purified water until tender. I added Himalayan pink sea salt to my water as well. Drain the cauliflower and put it in chunks in your food processor. I also added garlic sauteed in my homemade raw butter I made from raw milk from grass-fed cows. Use organic butter if you do not have raw butter or cannot find it. Add about 1/4 cup more of the raw butter and some raw cream, but you don't want this soupy so don't add a lot. A tablespoon or two, no more. Puree this all together until completely smooth. You can add some raw milk cheese if you like cheesy garlic potatoes. How about some chives or a favorite herb? Experiment!

That's it, really! I have to say this really surprised me! Both the ease of making this and the taste! We had this tonight with a grass-fed beef chuck roast I cooked all day at 170 degrees while we were at market, and a simple salad my hubby threw together when we got home with a home made salad dressing that took minutes to prepare.

More things I enjoy can still be enjoyed with simple changes and substitutions. Life doesn't have to be dull, boring or tasteless! Find a new herb to experiment with. Learn new options for old favorites. Explore healthy recipes like those you can find at these web sites:

www.maximizedliving.com - Nutrition and Detox Tab > Recipes
http://link.maximizedliving.com/c/443/6c8afc8c957c6c82b55e5dd09747987ab968f09760740f9ba269641f382bf16a
http://link.maximizedliving.com/c/443/6c8afc8c957c6c82b55e5dd09747987ab968f09760740f9bbeff4a53b99611c4
http://link.maximizedliving.com/c/443/6c8afc8c957c6c82b55e5dd09747987ab968f09760740f9b46399718bacaf3d5 - Recipes
http://www.maximizedcooking.net/
Don't be afraid to make healthy changes in your life! Pursue health and vitality and you will be richly rewarded indeed!

Happy and Healthy Living to all!
Grow Foods Market

My raw milk went sour now what?

We had a customer return the milk she bought because it had begun to turn sour. I was thrilled actually! I had wanted to try some things with the soured milk but we always used ours too fast. So this was a bonus for us!

The thing to remember when your raw milk starts to sour is this - DON'T THROW IT OUT!

Unlike pasteurized milk which doesn't sour, it putrifies because it has no healthy bacteria or enzymes; raw milk is still good and actually better for you when it begins to sour. It is chock full of enzymes and beneficial bacteria, the kind you find in buttermilk and yogurt. This benefits the immune system and the digestive system.

If you want more information about the benefits and safety of raw milk read this. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/02/raw-milk-discussing-its-merits-and-safety.html

So now that I had all this sour raw milk what should I do with it?

First I made two batches of yogurt, the first one was fantastic the next one I made two days later and it separated a LOT during fermentation and I wound up with curds and whey. I expect that was because the milk had soured more by then. So I put that in my cheese bag and hung it to drain overnight to make a yogurt cream cheese. Great texture! I'll add salt and herbs to that for a great spread.

Next I took all the cream I could skim and threw it in my food processor and made butter. It takes about 5 minutes to separate it into butter and whey. I then poured the butter whey off and set it aside to ferment into buttermilk. Then I rinsed and worked the butter with a spatula until the water ran clear and added some sea salt. Yay I have butter again!

The buttermilk sat overnight at room temperature and this morning my husband drank it all up! He said it was delicious!

So now I had lots of sour milk left. The only thing left to do was pour it all into my cheese bag and hang it to drain. There was a LOT of whey of course. So I looked up how to make lacto-fermented veggies and I made a batch of that. I used cabbage, carrots, zucchini, cucumber and an apple. The instructions I followed I found here http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/07/the-benefits-of-fermented-food-lacto-fermented-vegetables/ . Fermented veggies are very high in healthy digestive bacteria, and they are SO easy to make! I see more of these in our future...

This morning I checked the drained soured milk and poured out the cream cheese left in the bag into a bowl. It was sweet and a wonderful texture. We had fresh cream cheese on toast with our breakfast this morning. Yum! I have lots of this so I think I will be making some flavored cream cheeses and dips out of it. It is surprising to me the sweet flavor of the cream cheese made from soured milk. Oh what I've been missing!

Lesson learned for me. NEVER throw out soured raw milk!

Happy and Healthy living to all!
Grow Foods Market

Tuna salad SALAD

I quit eating tuna for many reasons some time ago. The fishing practices, the mercury, and the BPA in the cans are the main reasons. Well I found wild caught tuna in BPA free cans that was tested for mercury levels, so I brought some home. My husband beat me to them and I couldn't be more pleased...

A couple of weeks ago I made my own mayonnaise and added chipotle powder to it as a taste experiment. I also added a couple of teaspoons of honey and a little lemon juice. Maybe I'll use lime next time. Anyway I used this chipotle mayo to make deviled eggs and loved it! I also used it in my potato salad that week and was equally pleased with that flavor combo. I made a lot of it so there was still some left.

This time my husband used the last of the chipotle mayo with the tuna I brought home. But instead of making your typical tuna salad he made the most delicious entree!

Tuna salad with chipotle mayo:
Mix together about 1/2 cup of a home made or organic mayonnaise, two teaspoons honey, 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice and chipotle powder to taste - feel free to substitute another seasoning - have fun, experiment! Mix with tuna and if you have extra mayo use it for something else.

On dinner plates arrange (all organic of course) lettuce leaves of choice, thinly sliced onions, grape tomatoes or sliced tomatoes, cucumber slices and whatever other salad ingredients you wish to add - sprouts would be terrific! Drizzle salad dressing or a balsamic vinaigrette of choice over the salad. Fry two free range eggs per person to your preference and lay on top of each salad. Top with a large spoonful of the flavored tuna salad.

This looked almost too beautiful to eat when my husband served it, but I managed to eat every morsel somehow... Yum! I love when he gets a new idea for dinner!

Happy and Healthy living to all!
Grow Foods Market