Real Food Recipe Corner

Everyone’s always looking for inspiration with their food. About once a week I thumb through my collection of cookbooks (see my top 5 faves here) just to remind myself about all the wonderful options out there. And then there’s the internet. Pictures of tasty dishes and step by step instructions sometimes make me want to eat my computer screen. What kind of host would I be if I didn’t share some of this love? This week, I’m opting for five recipes that simply look amazing. All use real food, healthy oils and fats, and put a unique spin on dishes you’re sure to love.

PLU Codes Don’t Indicate GMO Produce

A while back, I stumbled onto a little known fact. The PLU codes on produce at your supermarket actually mean things (besides what kind of fruit or veggie it is)! For example, organic produce has a 5-digit PLU code beginning with the number 9. Conventionally raised produce has a 4-digit PLU code, and (wonder of wonders!) genetically modified produce has a 5-digit PLU code beginning with the number 8.

When getting fresh vegetables from local farmers, PLU codes don’t seem all that important. After all, I can just ask the farmer about his growing practices and where he gets his seed from. So, I tucked away this handy bit of knowledge about supermarket produce, thinking I might use it some day.

Then this week, I read an eye-opening article by Jeffrey Smith (the founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology). He says PLU codes don’t reveal the GMO origins of produce. Why? Because they’re optional.

WINNER: Stackable Sprout Garden & 15% OFF COUPON

If you didn’t win last week’s giveaway for the Stackable Sprout Garden, I’ve got some good news for you. Julie at Cultures for Health is offering 15% off all sprouting supplies for the next week!

So, if you’re interested in starting some sprouts to help bring a little Spring into the depth of your Winter, now’s your chance. In my family, we love adding raw sprouts to our salads. My favorites are broccoli, radish, and mustard. I also love sprouting lentils before adding them to soups or stews, and my favorite sprout for stir fry meals are mung beans (the Chinese have sprouted mung beans for thousands of years.) Sprouts are a cheap vegetable, easily grown all year indoors and with limited space, and surprisingly nutritious.

So, now for the winner:

Wardeh’s E-Course Frequently Asked Questions

Time flies. There’s just 4 more days to take the plunge and sign up for Wardeh’s new eCourse in the Fundamentals of Traditional Food Preparation methods.

Today Wardeh published a new page of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers, duh!) that may help you make a decision if you’ve been sitting on the fence about whether or not to sign up.

Stackable Sprout Garden

My kids think sprouting is fun. When I first started sprouting, I was sprouting wheat berries in order to dry them and grind them into a flour that I could use to make bread. I eventually gave up making the bread, mostly out of laziness. If properly preparing grains was so much work, was it really worth all the effort? Maybe yes, maybe no. If it were up to me, I probably wouldn’t bother with grains at all. But, I have kids. They still like their sandwiches. So, I do buy a couple of loaves of sprouted grain bread from the grocery store per month.

Then I started exploring all the other kinds of sprouts: sprouts for gardening, sprouts for salads, sprouts for stir fries. They’re a cheap vegetable, easily grown all year indoors and with limited space, and surprisingly nutritious.

Today, I’m pleased to announce a giveaway from one of my sponsors, Julie at Cultures for Health. Julie has graciously decided to give one of my lucky readers a 3-Tray Stackable Sprout Garden!

A Sneak Peak at Wardeh’s E-Course

Earlier this week, I wrote about the exciting new online course in the basics of how to prepare traditional foods. Your response has been overwhelming. Nearly two hundred of you have already signed up for the course!

For those of you still wondering if the 14 weeks of interactive learning is worth the shockingly low price, Wardeh’s released a new sneak peek at one of her videos from the class. (And no, that’s not just sales copy. The classes are less than $10 each — far less than you would pay at your local community college.) Check out the video below:

GIVEAWAY Winner & 15% Off Coupon

First, let me say THANK YOU to all the people who participated in this giveaway! And next, I want to thank Holly Hickman, the wonderful lady whose research gave life to the Healthy Eats Here! restaurant guide. Without her generosity, this Valentine’s Day giveaway wouldn’t have happened.

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the WINNER!

Heirloom Poultry, I Love You

“Chicken doesn’t taste like chicken anymore.” So goes the common refrain of people older and wiser than me, people who grew up eating chicken before the advent of the industrial chicken farm. I was born in the late 70s and did all my growing up in the 80s. By then, chicken was pretty standard.

Up until a few years ago, I didn’t know what the old-timers were talking about. Then I tasted my first pastured chicken, an Americauna. What hit me was a totally different chicken dining experience. Oh, I could tell that it was chicken. But the similarities ended there. The chicken actually tasted happy. I kid you not.

Introducing an E-Course in Traditional Foods Preparation

Preparing Real Food can be daunting. If you’ve never baked a loaf of bread, how are you supposed to suddenly master making sourdough or using sprouted grains? What if you’ve never made yogurt, cheese, or sauerkraut? Let’s say you decide to tackle one of these tasks, now what? Where do you go from there?

Books like Nourishing Traditions can be overwhelming. There’s just too much to practically change all at once. How do you know where to start?

That’s why I’m so excited to introduce you to a new online course developed by fellow blogger Wardeh Harmon.

GIVEAWAY: Healthy Eats Here! Restaurant Guide

If you’re at all like me, you like it when other people cook. Don’t get me wrong, I *love* cooking, but after creating 3 Real Food meals a day for my entire family, it’s nice to take a break and eat out. But does that break really have to come at the cost of delicious, Real Food? Particularly on a special day like Valentine’s Day?

Holly Hickman believes it doesn’t. In her travel-intensive career, Holly has spent years accumulating research on places to dine out that source their foods well. Recently, she compiled a killer dining guide to restaurants all across the U.S. You want restaurants sourcing humanely raised meats, organic vegetables, and foods from local farmers? Holly’s guide has them.