Coffee... Organic? Fair trade? Shade grown?

Who doesn't like a cup of amazing liquid caffeine? I know I do! Especially in the morning and maybe in the early afternoon (not too late of course, sleep hygiene matters too).  Last year, during some down time in the office, a co-worker and I began researching the best type of coffee to buy for our bodies and the environment.  What we discovered was a little startling because we both were healthy clean eaters and had no idea how important it was to buy organic, certified by Rainforest Alliance, and fair trade.

Coffee is traditionally grown in countries with less stringent regulations on chemicals and pesticides than the USA... Yikes! This makes coffee one of the most heavily treated crops with pesticides. So USDA organic matters big time when it comes to coffee. 

Also verified by Rainforest alliance matters! Why? Well if a coffee is verified by Rainforest Allaince, that means those coffee beans were grown in the shade of the canopy trees of the Rainforest, therefore protecting the habitats of migratory birds and monkeys. It also helps to prevent against erosion and protect the soil.  Another certification to consider is the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. 

Now one last certification is Fair Trade.

Coffee farmers can work and live in conditions that are no better than "sweatshops in the fields".  They do not make a liveable profit from there crop forcing them to live in the poverty cycle. Fair trade certified means that the farmer who grew your coffee beans you just bought are getting a fair wage that covers their production cost and allows them to make a profit.  That allows them access to health care, education, and nutritious food! How awesome is that! It matters where you spend your dollar. 

Now I just threw out a lot of certifications and information at you. It might seem overwhelming, I know it did to me.  I am working on compiling a list of coffee brands and what grocery stores carry the different types of coffee.  That will be coming in the next week or so.  

I buy Allegro Coffee and I find it at whole foods.  It is important to remember even within a brand not all coffee is going to be USDA organic, verified by the rainforest alliance, and fair trade.  Make sure to read your labels! The certifications are usually found on the front of the bag. Below are the images for the verifications.

Check out websites listed below for more information!!

www.fairtradehelps.org

www.globalexchange.org

www.ewg.org

www.rainforest-alliance.org

Paleo Ground Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Today after work, I whipped up one of our favorite staple dishes, stuffed peppers. When I saw the beautiful green peppers at the farmer's market, I knew I had to make stuffed peppers with them. Dang, were they good! Both my husband and I basically licked our plates clean.  The smells and flavors that will be coming out of your kitchen after this dish is pure Italian Heaven.

I used ground turkey because it was what I had on hand but I also make them with grass fed ground beef as well.  The only thing in the recipe I would change if you use beef is to not use any olive oil in your pan.  I only use olive oil with the turkey to keep the meet tender and juicy as it has a tendency to dry out.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees 

Ingredients for the meat: 

1 pound ground turkey 

1/2 onion chopped

1 large garlic clove minced

1 small can of tomato paste (no salt added)

3 tbsp olive oil

2 leafs fresh basil

1 tsp dry parsley

1/2 tsp dry oregano

Salt and pepper

Sprinkle of stevia (stevia is very sweet so a light sprinkle is more then enough)

Brown the onions and garlic in a large pan on the stove in the olive oil. Then add the meat to the pan and brown.  Once browned, add all other ingrediants. Fill the tomato paste can with water and also add to the pan. Stir everything until well combined, then remove from heat.

Core all 4 peppers

After you have cored the peppers go ahead and put your sauce together! 

Ingrediants for sauce:

1 15 oz can of tomato sauce 

1/4 chopped onion

1 large minced garlic clove

5 diced fresh basil leaves

1/2 tsp oregano 

Sprinkle of stevia

Salt and pepper

A cap full of apple cider vinegar 

Place all in the same glass bake dish you are going to cook the peppers in

Stir everything together! Then stuff the peppers with browned ground turkey mix.

Place the peppers in your baking dish with the sauce.  You want to pack the peppers in tightly so they don't tip over.

Place in the oven on the middle rack.  Cook at 400 degrees for about 30 - 40 min. or until the peppers are soft and easily pierced with a knife. 

Then serve and enjoy this grainless, paleo, clean, organic, and healthy dish!

I serve sprinkled with Parmesan Cheese and Red Crushed Pepper.

Yogurt parfait

Good morning!  How is everybodies Tuesday going so far? Well, today is a steamy humid day in Dallas, and I was in the mood for something light and yummy so I threw together one of my parfaits.  

If you couldn't tell that it was hot the moisture accumulating on the side of the glass is a sure sign! So yummy and refreshing!

I used Stoneyfield lowfat French vanilla yogurt but feel free to use Greek or plain; whatever calls to you.  I don't use a lot of Greek yogurt, because no matter what I do and nomatter how hard I try it just isn't my favorite nor my go to. 

Here we have layered:

 Organic local blueberries, 

Organic rolled oats (non GMO), 

Organic strawberries, 

Chia seeds,

All in all this little glass packs a mighty punch of vitamins and nutrients that are needed to get your day started! 

Blueberries are a great source of energy and I try to utilize these little guys every chance I get.  The chia seeds are a little superfood that contains healthy omega-3 fatty acids, carbohydrates,protien, fiber, antioxidants, and calcium.  A standard serving size is generally 2 tbsp.

 Breakfast doesn't have to be complicated, and it is the most important meal of the day.  Your body needs to refuel after recharging itself from all that sleep you just got. You might not realize it but your body is doing a lot of hard work at night.  Feed your body so it has the fuel needed to keep you going.

You could easily prep this little guy the night before, store in the fridge, and them top with the oats on your way out the door ( to keep your oats a little crunchy). 

So eat up and enjoy! 

Guacamole

I'm sure you have been invited to at least 1 cookout so far this summer, and I am sure everybody has their fall back dish they always bring.  Well gaucomole is ours!  

Fact this recipe is really my husband's, I must give a shout out when it's deserved! It is minus his secret ingrediant... We can't give it all a way, how else will we win those gaucomole cook offs in the neighborhood 😉 that being said this recipe is still dang good and it is the way I always make it. 

Now the recipe gives a good portion but if you are taking to a party I would double it.  Just be careful with the jalapeño and taste test as you make because the last thing you want is burn your mouth gauc (or maybe you do but still taste test)

2 large avacados

1/2 diced red onion

2 clove garlic minced

1 lime squeezed (we used our new lime squeezed and only need 1/2 a lime so you be the judge of your own taste buds 😉)

Diced cilantro ( we used 3-5 sprigs of fresh from the garden )

Salt to taste 

1/2 diced jalapeño 

(All veggies are organic)

Mash all together and serve with your favorite Organic and GMO Free verified corn chips! Gotta keep this tasty and clean:). I use the 365 brand from whole foods but krogers carries some as well. Enjoy! 

Dallas Farmer's Market (for the 1st time)

This Saturday I experienced the Dallas Farmer's Market for the 1st time and it did not disappoint.  Dallas's market is one of the lucky ones to be open 362 days a year! I still get blown away every time I realize I can get produce of some kind all year long.  Being from Ohio the extended growing season I have been able to experience since moving to the south has been fantastic and very much apperciated.  

If you are a history buff like me, you might apperciate this interesting tid bit about the market.  The market operates on the same site where farmers have been coming to sell their crops for over a century! The market also became officially sanctioned as a farmer's market in 1941.  Now that is some history and shows a sense of tradition I have experienced since moving to Texas. 

The market is comprised of multiple sheds and is currently under some construction so I may not have gotten the full  visual experience, but the view of the skyline was just too picturesque to pass up.

The market is right in downtown and is a little slice of nature in this urban landscape.  Being my 1st time to experience this farmers market, I was just trying to take it all in. I was super excited to find a large, all organic, non-GMO stall, the yummiest organic blue berries, local raw organic honey, and a grass-fed raised, no antibiotic beef stall. I wasn't expecting to find fresh meat, so I didn't come prepared with a cold cooler to pack meat in but I can promise I won't make that mistake again.  As the prices were $2 less than Whole Foods on average.  

The vibrant colors of the vegetables and fruit were radiating from every stall.  The smells, sounds, and general hustle and bustle from every corner engaged and excited all of my senses.  My Frenchie, Stella had a blast as she made multiple friends at every turn.  

Did I mention the entire market except shed 2 is dog friendly? This is another thing I love about Dallas, pets are welcome almost everywhere and the market was no exception.

I picked up a good bunch of local organic produce, spices, and pasta. I plan on making a yummy pasta, guacamole, stuffed peppers, and many refreshing smoothies with the blueberries this week.

  

That's many meals and snacks from 1 trip to the market.  I will be posting the meals all week long so stay tuned for recipes made from local organic ingrediants! 

Why I Blog

I have always loved to cook and I have always found it to be a therapeutic experience since my early adolescence.  I don't know about you but the kitchen and food was the hub of my family.  Growing up in a family with strong Italian, Polish, and German roots and influences the kitchen is where the family congregated and food was at the center.  My grandmother with her Polish and German ancestry married a full blooded first-generation Italian.  At the heart of their kitchen and most of my childhood memories is the creation of food and how the ingredients for a good recipe always called for a little something from "old country", fresh ingredients, and laughter.  Oh and maybe some good old competition of who cooked the best in the household Grandma or Pa (Grandpa).  My mother is also an excellent cook and we never missed having family dinner around our kitchen table.

Of course, like most people, when I went to college and learned I could eat pop tarts and drink pop every day without anybody there to tell me all that sugar was bad for you, I jumped at the opportunity.  I cringe a little to think about my eating habits back then and I think my husband would agree that once upon a time I considered twizzlers a food group.

After making 2 major moves, living in 3 states in 3 years, making the decision to buy our 1st home, and planning a wedding all in the same year it seemed it was time to make 1 more major change: our eating style.  By then I had already cut out the twizzlers, candy, and a slew of unhealthy things, but I still drank at least 2 Diet Mountain Dew's a day and still bought my fare share of pre-packaged foods.  Since I had a new kitchen and an empty pantry to stock, I took advantage of the clean slate.  I started researching and really trying  out clean eating recipes and what the heck is this paleo thing people keep talking about?  I slowly started to realize that I could do this and it wouldn't be that hard.  What I recognized was with a few tweaks, everything looked like the food my grandparents made, minus the sugar and white flour.  So I took the plunge and I haven't looked back.

Now 2 years later we have made great progress in our journey of living a clean lifestyle.  We live in an amazing neighborhood in Dallas and still partake in delicious meals from restaurants, but we still live an 80/20 clean eating lifestyle.  We have switched our cleaning products over to chemical free and I am in the process of switching over my beauty products.  Like I said this is journey and this is where I am in my journey, but I did not start out here.  Everyone finds themselves coming to this lifestyle in different places and we shouldn't feel shame or guilt of what place we are in. It is our journey and that is a beautiful thing.

Through all my research I really began to see the grocery store in a different light.  The food industry had changed immensely even just since I was a child and definitely since my grandparents were children.  I come from a small farming community in North West Ohio and what I began to see was the food that is on our grocery store shelves are disconnected from the local farmers.  That the food is processed and manipulated so we don't really know what we are eating.  Even in Europe you can still go to your local baker, your local butcher shop, your local produce store and buy from the farmer down the road.  This is not what is happening in most of our grocery stores.  Between the pesticides, preservatives, and GMO's the food industry is not so simple anymore, in fact it is probably one of the most complex necessities out there.

How do we change it; we learn and we control to the best of our abilities where we put our money and what we put in our mouths. I ask myself a simple question, "Is this how my Great Grandmother would have bought this product, or has it been manipulated and changed to a point it is unrecognizable?"

I hope you will follow me in my journey to living a clean, whole food lifestyle. I hope we will learn from each other and be able to share recipes that tell our stories just like I did in my grandparent's kitchen.