Natural Recipes and Organic Food

Last night I had the most wonderful meal. I dined on all natural, locally grown organic Vadalia onions, caramelized and set atop organic black eyed peas with fresh garlic. To accompany, there was some organic brown rice lightly seasoned with black peppercorn and a serving of organic swiss chard, gently misted with liquid aminos.

I enjoy eating healthy local organic foods but eating this way hasn’t always been easy. A time not to long ago pretty much everything I ate was conventional grown, full of pesticides and full who knows what else chemicals. Every time I sat down to eat I would wonder, “what am I really eating here?” Particularly with the genetic modifications that have been happening over the past few decades. When I eat a tomato, I want to eat a tomato not half of an Alaskan salmon, one one forth watermelon with a dash of actual tomato. All this so vegetables can grow bigger in colder areas.

It wasn’t to long ago that eating a simple meal like this was actually hard to find. Now that said, its true I could have found all of those ingredients at my local grocer. However, getting organic foods and local crops where pretty much out of the picture. That is, unless you grew them yourself. And I’ll tell you what, if you are a busy person like me who has the time for gardening and a general sense of natural living.

Well, as of the past few years, I have seen a huge change in the trends of major grocery stores that has made healthy living a lot easier. During this change, I have seen Organic items pop up all over place. The shelves of my local grocer now has a place on almost every isle for organic “health foods.” This is a great thing to see because it make my life a lot easier. Now living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to take away from my schedule.

I can find easy healthy organic choses every where now. All natural recipes can be found at local stores and at the touch of a button on the internet. Check out this great one I found just the other day:

Chick Pea, Ham and Orzo Soup

Ingredients:

8 ounces dried chick peas (also called garbanzo beans)
2 tablespoons olive oil or Organic Valley Butter
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped carrot
1 tablespoon minced garlic
10 cups homemade or unsalted chicken stock (or use a combination of stock and water)
1 meaty Organic Prairie ham bone*
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt and pepper
2/3 cup uncooked orzo
Organic Prairie Shredded Parmesan (optional)

Instructions:

1. Cover chick peas with water by three inches and soak them at room temperature 8-16 hours. Drain and rinse.

2. Heat olive oil or butter in a large, heavy pot over medium flame. Add onions, carrots and garlic and sauté them, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have begun to soften, 8-10 minutes. Add stock, ham bone and bring to simmer, occasionally skimming off the froth that forms at the top. Partially cover the pot and adjust heat so that the soup simmers very slowly. Cook it about 1 hour, or until the meat is very tender.

3. Remove ham bone, cool it slightly, cut off the meat, chop and reserve it. Return bone to soup pot along with cumin and oregano and continue to simmer until beans are fully tender, another hour or so.

4. Stir in reserved ham and salt and pepper to taste. Add orzo; simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Serve hot, with Parmesan sprinkled over each bowl, if desired.

Note: Use the meaty bone leftover from an Organic Prairie Hardwood Smoked Bone-In Spiral Sliced Half Ham.

Healthy Foods for Healthy Children

Sometimes in our busy workaday life it’s hard to make sure we are keeping our family and children healthy and supplying them with all the nutrition they need to grow into healthy, well balanced adults. With so much going on in our day to day lives, the temptation to rely on prepackaged quick meals, lunch cafeteria choices, and other less wholesome lunches is hard to resist. However, there are so many good reasons to make sure kids eat fresh, all natural foods as often as possible.

These days it seems like there are new health risks facing our children every day. More and more young people are being prescribed medications for all sorts of illnesses from physical to mental to emotional. These powerful medications are not always 100% successful, and often come with a hefty price tag of dangerous side effects. Yet we neglect the basic building blocks of life…the foods we eat.

It is well known that healthy foods such as whole grains, fresh organic vegetables, all natural foods and unprocessed ingredients are much better in every way. They keep the body clean and in proper working order, prevent illness and disease, extend life expectancy and combat the symptoms of old age, promote healing and recovery faster and more thoroughly and a whole range of other benefits.

Maintaining a healthy diet and good nutrition is especially important for children. Kids are still growing and developing, and the body uses a lot of fuel during these stages. Young people tend to be more active as well, and require the proper kind of fuel to maintain the constant on-the-go lifestyle of many youngsters. A lot of energy is burned by a child out playing in the woods, running in the yard, riding a bicycle and playing all the sports and activities that kids do

Children are also students, and in this span of years they do a lot of learning and emulating and also at this time habits are formed that may stay with them for the rest of their lives. All natural menus and organic recipes are one way to help your kids maintain the energy and attention span needed to achieve the most they can in academics. It seems that many children today live on diets that are full of things such as artificial ingredients, highly processed refined sugars and ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup. Then we wonder why they can’t sit still and concentrate in class.

Middle schools and high schools around the country have also taken to the strange practice of allowing fast food chains that serve meals devoid of nutritious value to our young people to occupy space on campuses or in the schools themselves. Fast food chains such as these offer breakfast, lunch and dinner foods, and many young people are relying on these places for two and sometimes three of their meals a day. Ice cream, candy, soda and other types of snacks and junk food are often made available to students in the stores of the school itself. How can we expect to make the right choice when it comes to nutrition with such temptations available to them?

Teaching children to respect good nutrition from the start is one way to ensure that your children will appreciate the benefits of a healthy diet and natural lifestyle. When a young person learns about the value of organic foods, all natural recipes and healthy diets, they have a chance to get excited about it and carry on the habits into adulthood.

Healthy Eating in a Busy World

These days staying healthy and eating nutritious, healthy foods can be challenging. We wake up with barely enough time to get dressed and head to work, and a healthy menu is often replaced with a cup of coffee and a quick snack from a convenience store. Lunch time rolls around and we find ourselves replacing a balanced meal with some take-out from whichever fast food chain happens to be closest to our work place. By the time we get home from work, cooking a proper meal seems to be the furthest thing from our minds, so we order from our favorite delivery restaurant, and we all know the places that deliver tend to have that yummy junk food we should save as an occasional treat.

It may seem like a daunting task for some, but transitioning to a healthy diet even when faced with a busy schedule is not difficult. As a matter of fact, it can be very fun and is virtually guaranteed to improve the quality of every aspect of your life. It simply requires a little bit of planning and a little bit of discipline. Bringing lunches to work, and having a list of easy to prepare wholesome dinners simply requires a small amount of forethought. The ultimate result is that you will be healthier, happier and more capable doing the things you want to do for a much longer period of time.

Start by making a budget for your shopping, and trying to stick to a good shopping list when you go to the grocery store. Try to choose all natural foods and organic foods and vegetables. Buy enough ingredients to make healthy meals that will leave you with leftovers to take in a container for lunch at work throughout the week. Grab sweets and snacks that will satisfy your cravings, but make sure they are all natural, organic and free of refined sugars and artificial ingredients.

Try leaving yourself a little more time in the morning to make a decent meal. Breakfast is crucial and all too often we find ourselves needing to skip it. Keep fresh fruit on hand, perhaps in a bowl on the table. This is a great way to start your day. Try drinking a glass of water before you drink that first cup of coffee, and save that java for your first meal. Cereal with a little fruit takes just moments to prepare, and if you choose whole grain cereals and fresh organic fruits, you will start your day off with a well balanced meal. Simple organic recipes are available all over the internet to get you started.

Dinners don’t have to be complicated if you do a little prep work ahead of time. Take one day to prepare ingredients and keep them in the fridge so you can still make a healthy meal, even when you come home late or have plans for the evening. Soaking beans ahead of time, or keeping some extra chopped vegetables in a bowl for a day or two will make cooking a meal faster and more appealing. Healthy living becomes easier and easier the more you do it

There are plenty of resources available for folks who want to make a transition to healthier living. Plenty of books and videos are available with great tips and encouraging anecdotes. Web sites like Go Natural Living are specifically designed to assist people who are new to the wonderful world of healthy eating and living. At gnliving.com you will actually find explanations, tips, pre-designed organic menus and lots of other great information on making your lifestyle more healthy and sustainable.