I Walk In This World

Last night my friend Nancy and I went to dinner at a local burrito restaurant (not Chipotle).  We needed some girl time and it was fantastic sitting and eating with my friend…and her beautiful gorgeous perfect baby girl!

Honestly.  She is the most perfect little human ever.  I love her to pieces.  And if any baby-model agents read my blog, and want to enroll this little beaut in a baby modeling career…email me!

Anyway, when we were standing in line to order, the dude behind the counter offered up that the restaurant had recently started selling local grass-fed beef.  I asked him a bit about it, and he was totally informed.  He told me the name of the farm and the nearby county the meat is coming from.  Fantastic!

So in order to put my money (actually Nancy paid…so it was Nancy’s money) where my mouth is, I ordered it up!

• burrito bowl (no tortilla) with:
• black beans
• brown rice
• grass-fed local beef
• pineapple-jalapeno salsa
• lettuce
• tomato
• diet Coke to drink

Thx for dinner Nancypants!

Ethical Eating SPOTLIGHT

Why Grass-fed is better.

Animals that are grass-fed are not being sent to feedlots to be fattened on grain, soy and other supplements often laced with hormones, heavy metals, and other animal wastes or by-products.  Animals allowed to forage on pasture are healthier because they are feeding on their native diet. Because grass-fed animals are not subjected to factory farm stress and subsequent illness from confined operations, unsanitary conditions, and massively unhealthy grain diets (which cows cannot digest), there is no need to treat these animals with hormones or feed them growth-promoting additives. Thus the animals grow at a normal pace, rather than the 7-9 months it takes to fatten a cow for slaughter via feed-lot methods. 

Raising animals on their native diet is better for the environment because high-quality grasses require healthy soil and careful pasture management so that the plants are maintained at an optimal stage of growth. 

“Animals raised in factory farms are given diets designed to boost their productivity and lower costs. The main ingredients in factory farm feed are genetically modified grain and soy that are kept at artificially low prices by government subsidies. To further cut costs, the feed may also contain ‘by-product feedstuff’ such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers, and candy. Until 1997, U.S. cattle were also being fed meat that had been trimmed from other cattle, in effect turning herbivores into carnivores. This unnatural practice is believed to be the underlying cause of BSE or ‘mad cow disease.’”

By supporting farms that promote native grazing and grass-fed livestock, you are voting NO to feed-lots and Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).  You are voting NO to:

• Animal stress and abuse
• Air, land, and water pollution
• The unnecessary use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs
• Low-paid, stressful farm work
• The loss of small family farms
• Food with less nutritional value

Source: http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html

If you have any other questions about grass-fed, check out the link above or email me.

After Nancy dropped me off at home, I buckled down with the laptop and played on the internet did work.

Boo.

I’ve been running out of time in the mornings to photo and eat Breks at home, so I’ve started prepping it the night before, popping it in the fridge, and throwing it in my work bag to eat at my desk.

Yes.  I am that sad.

The process…

Microwave eggwhite cup filled with whites and peppers.

toasty english muffin

the required ingredient

all together now

Et voila.  I would like to point out that the foil you see above is 100% from recycled aluminum sources.  Reynolds is selling this now.  Check it out!

Let me know how you felt about today’s Ethical Eating Spotlight!

Ciao,

Er

IWITW Friends!  Based on numerous comments and emails I received from this post I’m going to be shining my spotlight on a variety of Ethical Eating topics and news.

The unveiling of what’s to come is in the making, and I’ll have a far more formal announcement with lots of BOLD words and exclamation points!!!!

So please note that I have read what you all have said and am surging forward in an effort to make Ethical Eating even BETTER known and easier to do!  Blog World…watch out!

It seems there is a ton of interest in this concept, far beyond the realm of just healthy eating blogs. 

I will offer up:

1. Ways to blend a healthy lifestyle and Ethical Eating; 
2. Reviews of products from companies and farms that promote an ethical mission;
3. Cost factors associated with Ethical Eating; 
4. Lists of products, restaurants, and companies that fit into my world view of Ethical Eating; 
5. ???

What else do you want to see?

I will also be offering advertising space on my blog, only to those websites, bloggers, companies, or manufacturers that fit within the Ethical Eating criteria.  For anyone interested, my site receives around 500,000 requests per month.  And that number is growing each and every month!

Please feel free to    me at esavearth [at] gmail.com with questions et al.

Yay!

Ciao,

Erin

P.S.  Punxatawny Phil saw his shadow this morning, I’m sorry to report.  Six more weeks of winter are a’comin…

Michael Pollan and Steve Ells, the founder and CEO of Chipotle, were both on Oprah yesterday, to discuss The Truth About Food and Eating with a Conscience. 

Um.  TOTALLY!!!!

Michael, Steve, Oprah…I’ve been blogging about Ethical Eating for a year now! 

My blog services are available!

Contact info:  esavearth [at] gmail dot com

Breks this a.m.  Can you guess it??

• eggwhites with peppers
• veggie sausage
• Laughing Cow cheese
• whole wheat english muffin
• tin mug coffee

Last night I tuned in to the State of the Union address, and ordered up a cocktail from our bar.

• pomegranate seltzer
• chunks of mango
• ice

A delightful cocktail.  Who needs the vodka?!

I also whipped up a healthified version of one of my favorite childhood snacks…Haystacks!  All you need are these ingredients…

Melt together 3/4 cup of butterscotch chips and 2 Tablespoons PB.  Stir in 2-3 cups of the cereal.

Mound into little “haystacks” and refrigerate til firm.

It’s THAT easy.  And if you limit yourself to one of these dudes, the cals and fat aren’t too bad.

On my way to the gym I got sidetracked by this gorgeousness…

Srsly.  Is there anything cuter than a doggy snuggled up with a man????

Ran to the gym, did 30 mins LEVEL 12 (hills) on the elliptical and ran home and did 120 crunches.  Plus 10mins of at-home dumbbells for my arms.  I expect to look like this pretty soon.

I’m spoiled this week, in terms of dinner prep.  Pretty much I got to stand around reading magazines while Hubz got things going…

**Disclaimer**

I don’t like pork (unless it’s bacon).  But Hubz does.  So when I saw these super lean (organic) pork cuts at the store, I nabbed them for him.  Good wife, right?

But he did a nice job on these, and I managed to grumble my way thru the meat b/c I knew I was low on iron/protein for the day.

• lemon pepper organic pork tenderloin slice (notice it’s a deck of cards in size…the right portion!)
• green beans with toasted sunflower seeds
• tiny baked tater
• water

Here she is again, desperate to be included.  Beggar!

I have questions for my readers, especially ones who never post. 

1. Had you heard of Ethical Eating before reading my blog?
2. Has Ethical Eating become important has it become in your life?
3. What kinds of things would you want to see me include in future Ethical Eating posts?

Please.  Comment.  I need to know where y’all stand!

Ciao,

Erin

A marvey Breks this morn kids!  Banana waffle!

• Nature’s Path red berry waffle
• 1 T Maranatha PB
• half a sliced nanner 

As I was chewing Breks, I read this article in our local paper, something about “saving our bacon.”  So naturally, anything bacon makes Erin swoon.

Well…this article…not so much.  It’s an Associated Press article about a Dutch lab that is experimenting with using pig stem cells to grow pork in a petri dish culture.

Here’s the AP article link.

Call it pork in a petri dish - a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that scientists say could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock, help alleviate world hunger, and save some pigs their bacon. 

Dutch scientists have been growing pork in the laboratory since 2006, and while they admit they haven’t gotten the texture quite right or even tasted the engineered meat, they say the technology promises to have widespread implications for our food supply.

“If we took the stem cells from one pig and multiplied it by a factor of a million, we would need one million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat,” said Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University involved in the In-vitro Meat Consortium, a network of publicly funded Dutch research institutions that is carrying out the experiments.

Post describes the texture of the meat as sort of like scallop, firm but a little squishy and moist. That’s because the lab meat has less protein content than conventional meat.

~~~~****~~~~****~~~~****~~~~****~~~~****

At this juncture, I had to stop eating.

*barf*

While I appreciate the notion of farming lower numbers of pigs and the ideal of a smaller carbon footprint resulting from this meat production technique, there is a giant part of me that is fundamentally scared of MEAT GROWN in a LABORATORY.

Thoughts????

Dinner last night took place before my gym time.  It was good!

• free range, no hormones-turkey sausage (mild Italian spicy)
• tossed spinach salad with dried apples and goat cheese
• slice of garlic bread

Gym = 30 minutes on the elliptical while I talked on the phone with one of my friends.  A girl’s gotta multi-task, ya know.

I’m off to Philly for the weekend.  Should be FUN!

Ciao,

Er