Friday, May 10, 2013

Food/Product Recommendations

As I was writing the stew recipe, I thought I'd link some of the places we've tried and liked their products:
  • For those of you in the states, our favorite online grass-fed companies are: US Wellness Meats and White Oak Pastures.  I highly recommend liking them on Facebook and getting on their mailing lists.
  •  US Wellness Meats has a great newsletter with recipes, articles, what's been restocked, and what's on sale.  We've tried and enjoyed their ground beef, liverwurst, beef snack stick ends, pemmican, sugar free garlic hot dogs, polish pork sausages, and I'm sure others I can't think of right now.  I am sad that I no longer can eat their liverwurst.  I ate a pound a week by slicing it up evenly and having some with my eggs each morning.  I will have to find a new, good source or have hubby learn to make it for me. :)
  • White Oak Pastures periodically has sales.  We've tried and enjoyed their ground beef, beef stir fry, beef stew, NY strip steak, whole chickens, and chicken feet (to add to your broth!).
  • For those of you in the states and in the Auburn, AL area, we highly recommend buying local and going with Randle Farms.  They are great people with great products.  When we could get the meat delivered in Montgomery, AL, we purchased eggs and LOTS of ground beef then later participated in a meat share.
  • For those of you in Canada and in the Regina/Saskatoon, SK area the only company we've tried so far is Cool Springs Ranch.  They deliver once a month to Regina and to Saskatoon.  Make sure you check their calendar for when the "online store" opens and closes for your delivery location.  We've tried and enjoyed the rib-eye steaks, ground beef, stew beef, liver and eggs.  We've ordered more of a variety for our next pickup on May 25th.  Will update later on those products.
***More to be added later!

Please note: I am an affiliate of US Wellness Meats so I do earn a small commission if you purchase by visiting the website through my link.  I only recommend the companies/products I've tried and honestly like.

Beef Stew - Crockpot

My husband likes beef stew.  He's usually the one that makes it as I'm not a huge fan.  I figured I'd give it a go this time.  Here's what I remember doing:

  • 2 lbs grass-fed beef stew meat
  • 1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced to your liking (not a fan of carrots, so I prefer thinly sliced)
  • 2 large sweet onions, diced
  • 1-2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced to your desired thickness
  • 1 jar of mild organic salsa (check ingredients for sneaky bad stuff). Hubby made it last time with medium salsa.  That's what we add to our scramletes.  It made the stew way too spicy for me.  Hubby likes spice, but agreed that mild would probably be better for the stew.
  • We forgot to thaw the meat ahead of time.  It didn't get moved to the fridge from the freezer until the night prior, so it was still solid as a rock the next morning.  I stuck it in the crockpot as-is.
  • Dumped the salsa over the beef.
  • Set the crockpot on high.
  • Chopped up the onions and potatoes and added them.  Forgot about the carrots.  They went in about 3 hours later.
  • Started gathering everything and adding the ingredients as they were ready to the crockpot around 1:30 pm with it set to high.  Carrots went in around 4:30.  I think I turned it to low around 5:30.  Then remembered it was still cooking at 8:30 so shut it off.  I work from home now, so I was able to stir it periodically.
  • We netted 6 2 cup pyrex bowls full of stew.  BTW, we love our 2 cup pyrex bowls.  They are the perfect serving size for lunch.  Once cooled enough, they go in the fridge over night.  In the morning, I put a 3 in the freezer and the other 3 remained in the fridge for hubby's lunch for the rest of this week.
  • You can add more of these veggies or other veggies so you yield more.
  • My attempt was a huge success! Got a text from hubby after his lunch "lunch was tasty. yooz a good cook."  LOL :)  I hope you enjoy it, too!