Granola Gone Wrong

After watching King Corn, I want to try to cut down on our corn intake – especially high fructose corn syrup.* But, in protest to how much corn we mass-produce, I want to at least be aware of what corn is in, and possibly choose something corn-free to eat if possible. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think corn is evil. But, in our efforts to be able to mass-produce it, we have stripped the soil of nutrients, reduced the corn variety we use, and use massive amounts of land- which could be used to grow thousand of other yummy foods- for only one food type. Also, a lot of this corn goes in to the animals we eat, which is not that healthy for them and enables “cow factories” and such. Just watch the documentary...

Taking inventory of our kitchen I realized I eat corn in almost every cereal I eat for breakfast! While also taking inventory I noticed that we had ingredients on hand to make granola. So I looked up a few recipes and went to work on creating a new breakfast for us to eat in the morning.

Mistake 1: using steel cut oats instead of rolled oats (it’s what we had)

In my defense I did google and read about using steel cut oats instead of rolled oats for granola. I read that I was to expect the granola to be more like brittle that would take some breaking apart.

Mistake 2: leaving it in the oven too long.

I kept expecting the mixture to get hard – like brittle, but it stayed liquidy no matter how long I left it in the oven. Finally, when it starting smelling like it was getting too done (a.k.a. burnt), I took it out. That’s when it turned in to brittle and it took Jamie and two spatulas to get it out of the pan.

Mistake 3: too much brown sugar and honey.

I followed a recipe, but either the writer of the recipe I followed had a serious sweet tooth or the steel oats had something to do with it. We tried it in milk but it made the milk so sweet that I could not drink it– and that’s saying something because I love milk.

So what did we do? Jamie added the left over rice krispies we had and I went to the store and got some organic yogurt and cranberries. After that, it was edible, though Jamie always opted for something else for breakfast and I ate the granola over yogurt with cranberries myself :)

Here’s a picture of my salvaged breakfast:

The granola contains honey, brown sugar, and almonds.

Though this attempt did not turn out to well, I’m determined not to give up. We will not be having granola for breakfast any time soon because 1. I’m not sure Jamie is ready for that again, and 2. We bought tons of muffin mixes last week because Lowes Foods had them on sale :)

*here is a clip of how to make high fructose corn syrup –makes you think twice about the stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jisBG3egS8o

Eggcellent

So, Jamie has done it again - no surprise really. He made a fabulous meal, which we love so much we've had it twice in the past few days.

Vegetable scrambled eggs:

This is a picture of the first time we it - don't you love how he added the strawberry for decoration :)

 The next time I wanted to take more pictures of the different stages - those veggies look so good!

 Adding the eggs:

 Finished and ready to eat!

I did help this time – I made the salad :)

So, we have to send a thank you to Lowes Foods for overstocking on Free Range, No Hormones Added Eggs for Easter. Good eggs for half the price! All of our veggies for this meal are from the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market.

That’s all for this post – another successful attempt at eating good food!

Beef, it's what's for dinner

Jamie made some awesome hamburgers yesterday!

A few weeks ago we visited a biker church as part of our Food Faith and Spirituality class. This church is doing a lot with food to help their community - from having their own community garden, to helping teach others about gardening, to selling local grass-fed beef and using part of the proceeds to donate this good beef to local food pantries. Here is a website about their beef ministry. You can read a little about the benefits of "happy cows" as opposed factory cows in our last blog about milk.

We are trying to be more conscience about our meat consumption not only for our own health but because we do not believe that cow, chickens, etc. were created to be treated rottenly just because of our society's demand for more cheap meat. I have always had a hard time eating meat if I have to think about the fact that it came from an animal. But, knowing that the meat I eat has come from an animal that was treated well and given a good life, and, as I appreciate its sacrifice in order to give me food, I am truly thankful instead of being grossed out. (Thinking about sacrifice goes for plants as well, they too must die in order for us to eat.)

Anyway, below are pictures of this week's local and healthy meal. The burgers are made from the grass-fed beef we got from The Giving Table and the veggies we put on them are from the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market. SO YUMMY! Be jealous.

Got Milk?

Yesterday we went grocery shopping. Harris Teeter was having some pretty good buy 2 get 3 free sales. I love it when their sales match my coupons. It makes me so happy to save more than I spend at the grocery store. BUT, this is not the point of the blog post. We were going to buy milk while we were there, but our friend Skyler told us about some yummy and all natural milk he bought at a local market. So we headed to Reynolda Farm Market to check it out.

I have been aware of the "cow factories" where almost all of our meat cows come from, but I had (ignorantly) thought that our dairy cows escaped that same fate. As it turns out, most of our milk comes from cows that live in confinement, feed on grains, are injected with hormones, and milked three times a day - all so that they will produce more milk.

Consequences (besides not having a happy cow) for our milk?
*Lower amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) - a fat that might be one of the most potent cancer fighters.
*Distorted ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids - studies suggest that those who consume equal amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 have a lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and other disorders. The more grain and the less grass means the more omega-6 and less omega-3.
*Less vitamins - the more a cow is milked (2 times is the normal milking) the less vitamins per milking. Also, more vitamins are consumed (and passed to the milk) when the cow is pasture fed.
You can read more information here.

So here is our new milk:

This milk is from Homeland Creamery. And, it is made only an hour away from here. These cows are not 100% pasture fed, but they are not given any hormones, and are only milked twice a day. Check out the website - it looks like those cows are happy cows :)

Got Milk? Yes we do, and yummy good milk at that.

A Fresh Start

So again, the look of our blog changes, but this time, the theme of the blog changes too. It is no longer just about the "happenings" of Jamie and me, but about us trying to embrace an entirely different way of living. We believe God is calling us to change. The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it. We want to live in a manner that cares for and respects all of God’s creations.

Our goal for this blog is to share the ways we are changing the way we live, whether that is giving up something, adding something, adjusting something, or being more aware of something. Food is going to be a big part of the changes we make and our first life change is to move away from industrialized, processed foods. One consistent aspect of our blog will be us documenting at least one meal a week which we will make from local ingredients whose source we can trace, grown in organic soil and conditions, and that we may have even helped harvest.

Hopefully through this, we will not only change ourselves, but contribute to changing the world as well.

Responsibility

Last night was the third night we stayed up with Ellie, letting her out every couple of hours because of diarrhea. We also had a paper due yesterday that we waited until this week to start writing. Not good timing- talk about being tired.

This puppy relies on us for everything: food, play, discipline, care, and family bonding and love. She is solely our responsibility and that is a big task. Though at times she can try our patience, and will sometimes keep us up at night because she does not feel well, it’s worth it! We love her very much.

Sweet story: This morning a little before 7am, Ellie and I were coming back inside from her third potty time since 3am. When we got to the room (she sleeps in a crate in our room), she put her front paws up on the bed and whined a little. She looked so sweet, and I felt sorry for her after her long night, so I picked her up and put her on the bed. She curled up next to Jamie and went back to sleep- such a cutie!

Eat Pray Love

So, I'm watching Eat Pray Love for the second time this weekend (interrupted occasionally by puppy training and puppy potty breaks), and fantasizing about traveling. So many place I want to go and see!

While watching the movie, I decided to google cheep ways to travel the world. I found a few interesting websites. These sites are for people who are willing to work a bit while they travel. You can contact people who need a helping hand in the area you want to visit. They will house and feed you while you are there, and you work a few hours a day where they need you.

• One is about working on organic farms and learning about sustainability: www.wwoof.org
• One focuses on environmental and social volunteering: www.the7interchange.com
• One has all types of work opportunities: www.workaway.info

I haven't dug too much in to this, but I plan on it. I could be an interesting way to spend the summers while we are in school- travel, learning, and helping others- beautiful :)