Tag: organic

Holiday Rack of Lamb

Jean Yates

When cooking for a special occasion you want meals that are hearty, healthy and memorable.  Chef V makes this delicious go-to recipe when she needs a dinner party main course.

When shopping for lamb, try to find local USDA-Certified Organic Lamb. More and more, farms offering organic meat are built around the well-being of the lamb. The animals are all born and raised on the same farm on a simple diet of grass and hay; free of steroids, antibiotics, and hormones.

manly lamb chops

REST TIME: 2 hours
COOKING TIME: 45 minutes
SERVES: 2-4

Ingredients

  • 1 rack of lamb (Frenched*, 7-8 ribs each, 1.5- 2 lbs. total)
  • 2 tsp. fresh rosemary
  • 1 tsp. fresh thyme
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1 tbsp. olive oil

Directions

Rub the rack of lamb with rosemary, thyme, garlic, and pepper. Place in a gallon plastic bag with olive oil and coat the lamb in olive oil. Close the bag tightly and let marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Bring the lamb out 2 hours ahead of time so that it can rest at room temperature before cooking. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Make diagonal cuts or slivers along the fat on top about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover the exposed tip bones with foil to avoid burning. Cook for 10 minutes at 450 degrees then lower the temp to 300 degrees and cook for 10-15 minutes more. Lamb should be cooked to rare or medium rare and then be removed and covered with foil.

Let the lamb sit for 15 minutes and rest to finish cooking through. Slice the lamb in-between the bones, cutting away from the bone. Serve with rice, potatoes, or anything else your Man desires!

*Most stores already sell the rack of lamb Frenched. This means the skin, meat, and fat have been removed between the tips of the rib bone, to make it look nicer and easier to eat.

Chef V’s Easy Homemade Gluten-Free Oat Milk

Chef V

nut milks

If you are allergic to nuts, my gluten-free oat milk recipe is a delicious alternative to my homemade nut milk.

Making your own oat milk is SO easy! All you need is a blender (I prefer Vitamix), cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, organic gluten-free oats and filtered water.

Cheese cloth is great because you get so much in one package, it’s so versatile, and you can use it on a million things (making nut cheese, poaching fish, nut milks, straining seeds from fruit, and lots more.) However, I bought a nut milk bag and it is so much faster and easier to use the nut milk bag.

I use oat milk in so many things. I cook with it any time a recipe calls for milk and no one can ever tell the difference. I also use it in my smoothies to make them creamy. You can add it to coffee or tea, cereal, or just have a refreshing glass with ice.

The milk will stay fresh about 3-5 days in the refrigerator. I keep them in mason jars, since each jar is about 2 cups and this recipe makes 4 cups. I use two jars so the milk stays fresher for use later in the week.

Once you try homemade oat milk it will be almost impossible to drink store-bought milk again, which is pumped with artificial crap to keep it fresh on the shelves.

The sad part is that a typical consumer would have no idea about what is inside of store bought oat milk or that it’s actually bad for you. The toxic ingredients found in commercial oat milks stress your immune system and weaken your health. The ingredients are also misleading and include words such as Vitamin A Palmitate, which can cause birth defects and bone fractures. Vitamin D2, which if taken in excess, can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, muscle weakness and bone pain. But the worst thing about store-purchased oat milk is it usually doesn't even contain much oat!

In light of this, I suggest making your own nutritious and delicious oat milk. And the great part is, it’s really easy!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup gluten-free oats
  • 2 cups water, for soaking
  • 4 cups cold filtered water, for blending
  • High power blender (I prefer Vitamix)
  • Nut Milk Bag or Cheesecloth

INSTRUCTIONS

Soak the oats in 2 cups of water for 30 minutes. Drain the oats. Add oats and 4 cups of cold water to blender and blend on high for 2 minutes. Pour the oat mixture into the cheesecloth or nut milk bag. Squeeze out excess milk. Pour into mason jars or a milk jug.

Use Chef V’s Oat Milk right away or it keeps for 3-5 days refrigerated. Shake before use.

You can add some oat milk to your Green Drink to make it a little creamy. Yum!

Little Leprechaun Soup

Jean Yates

Check out this delicious Meatless Monday recipe from Chef V. Perfect for this St. Patty’s day or anytime!

skinny shamrock smoothie

TOTAL: 45 minutes

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Serving Size: 2 Person

Ingredients

    • 2 tbsp. organic coconut oil
    • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
    • 3 shallots, chopped
    • 2 garlic cloves, minced
    • 1 quart of organic vegetable broth
    • 6 cups organic broccoli florets, chopped
    • 1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
    • ½ cup raw, unsalted cashews
    • 1 cup coconut milk
    • ½ cup pepitas for garnish (optional)

Directions

In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, heat the coconut oil. Add onions, shallots, and garlic and cook until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add broth & broccoli and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the soup and pour into a blender. Add thyme, coconut milk, and cashews to blender. Blend until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Serve in a bowl and top with pepitas or garnish with extra thyme sprigs.

This 4th of July, Think About The Freedom To Eat Healthy

Chef V

veronica in field

The beginning of summer presents us with two holidays that reflect on freedom: Juneteenth, the federal holiday on June 19th that celebrates the emancipation of slaves in the US, and of course, the 4th of July. 

Although our nation is far from perfect, we are afforded freedoms that billions of people around the world don’t have. Unfortunately, part of living in a free society means that our choices of what we put in our bodies is heavily dictated by the marketplace. And the marketplace is overwhelmingly filled with highly-processed food, or in other words, junk. 

When only a handful of mega corporations control 99% of the food supply, it can be challenging for some people to find farm-to-fork food that’s grown without potentially-harmful pesticides, herbicides and other synthetic chemicals. 

But you do have the freedom to eat healthy. 

farmers market

You have the freedom to consume organic, green-leafy veggies. If you don’t feel like buying them from the store and chopping them up, you even have the freedom to have organic greens cold-blended and delivered to you in juice form. Out of the 195 countries in the world, you could probably count on one hand the number of countries that offer that kind of freedom and convenience. 

The consolidation of food has led to less choice when it comes to buying the most popular staples like bread and dairy. And in order to maximize profits, giant food conglomerates increase the output of crops, often at the expense of our health. 

Consider the use of the weed killer, glyphosate, which the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer labelled “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015. 

Six years later, however, the Environmental Protection Agency still allows the sale and use of glyphosate for crop production. 

The good news is that you have the freedom to eat organic, non-GMO, gluten-free products. 

Every single day, you should maintain a practice of gratitude, especially for having the freedom to eat whatever you want to and how much you want to. Nearly 9 percent of the world’s population is food insecure. That’s roughly 690 million people. And it’s not getting better; worldwide, hunger is on the rise.


Veronica yoga

But having the freedom to eat whatever you want, whenever you want can of course backfire, with serious health consequences. 

On this 4th of July, think about having the freedom not to eat whatever you want and whenever you want, but having the freedom to eat for gut health. 

A key factor in eating for gut health involves eating sparingly, no more than three times a day. Frequent snacking is a freedom. One that the government shouldn’t try to eliminate. But frequent snacking in my opinion isn’t a freedom, it’s an unnecessary indulgence that can cause a long laundry list of health problems such as SIBO. 

Thankfully, as of 2018, with passage of the Hemp Farm Act, you now have the freedom in all 50 states to consume cannabidiol (CBD), the non-intoxicating chemical in the hemp plant. Long overdue, the Hemp Farm Act removed CBD from the Drug Enforcement Agency’s list of schedule 1 controlled substances, the same class as LSD, ecstasy and marijuana. 

But did you know you have the freedom to eat foods that activate the body’s internal cannabinoid system? That’s the same system that’s activated by cannabinoids like CBD and THC, the main chemical in marijuana? The internal (or endo-) cannabinoid system helps the body get back to balance. 

smoothie table

All over the world, even in the most repressed societies, people enjoy a stiff adult beverage from time to time. Unfortunately, alcoholism is a worldwide concern, with over 3 million deaths worldwide attributed to alcohol abuse. That’s over 5 percent of all deaths caused by alcohol! But you have the freedom to mocktails instead of cocktails. Just as delicious without the potential for abuse. 

You also have the freedom to drink low-sugar smoothies and shakes. 

As the saying goes, freedom’s never free. While you may have to pay a little more for healthier food, in the long run, having the freedom to eat healthy is far less expensive than paying out of pocket for medical bills caused by unhealthy lifestyle choices. 

Chef V and kale

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