Archive for September, 2011

Organic Stevia Cheesecake

Organic Stevia Cheesecake  (gluten and grain free as well)

This is a very easy recipe and it lends itself to making a smaller recipe. The first time I made it I was figuring out the stevia amounts so I made a half recipe and it was great. The last time I made it I only had three packages of cream cheese so I cut the other ingredients accordingly and it also worked great. If you halve the recipe you can make it in six custard cups. It’s wonderful with a little fresh fruit or sugar free jam and it freezes really well too. The picture if from the first time I made this. Using all the cream cheese makes a thicker cheesecake, then pictured. It’s delicious too!

Ingredients:

32 ounces – 4 packages – organic cream cheese

1 tablespoon Stevia (use amount equal to 1 cup organic sugar)

1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

1 teaspoon organic lemon juice  (add lemon zest too)

4 organic, pastured eggs

3 tablespoons organic sour cream or organic Greek yogurt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

With an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and splenda at slow to medium speed, scraping sides often. Add all other ingredients except eggs. When completely mixed (with no lumps), add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating very slowly. When eggs are incorporated, do not mix any more

Pour the mixture into a 9” springform pan. I make an easier version of a water bath for my cheesecakes. I put a 9×13 inch pan on the oven shelf below the cheesecake and put an inch or so of water in it. This makes the oven nice and humid but you don’t have to worry about wrapping the cheesecake itself.

Place the pan of water on a lower shelf while you are preheating the oven.  Place the cheesecake in a 300-degree preheated oven. Cook for 1 hour and reduce heat to 200 degrees for 1 more hour. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in until the oven is completely cool. This is how you avoid cracks in your cheesecake.

It may be beneficial to run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake, separating it from the sides of the pan. If your goal is to serve the cheesecake on a different dish without the bottom of the spring form pan, then the pan can be lined with parchment paper before the batter is poured in. Make sure to grease both sides of the paper. This will make for easy removal of the cheesecake later. It works best if the cheesecake has been refrigerated fully before trying to remove it from the bottom pan. Cheesecake is even better the second day.  Enjoy!

Read more, great Monday Mania posts here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/09/monday-mania-9262011/

Read more, great Fat Tuesday posts here: http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-27-2011/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/09/real-food-wednesday-9282011.html

Read more, great Simple Lives Thursday posts here: http://gnowfglins.com/2011/09/29/simple-lives-thursday-63/

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-september-30th/

Read more, great Weekend Gourmet Blog Carnival posts here: http://hartkeisonline.com/cooking/weekend-gourmet-blog-carnival-september-26-2011/

Asian Chicken Thighs

Asian Chicken Thighs

Found this recipe for Asian Chicken Thighs. I use either one or two packages of TJ’s boneless organic thighs. Usually two as I am feeding a teenager but even then we have some leftovers.

They’re easy to make and really good!

Ingredients:

10 boneless organic chicken thighs  (our TJ’s carries them)

2  organic garlic cloves minced

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp curry powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup organic soy sauce (I use the Gluten Free variety)

2 tbsp organic olive oil

Organic Coconut oil for frying

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine all ingredients except chicken thighs

2. Add chicken thighs to mixture, coat them completely and let them marinade for at least an hour. I usually make the marinade an hour or two before dinner and put the marinated in the refrigerator until I’m ready to cook.

3. Add about two tablespoons of coconut oil to a large pot and let it heat at medium temperature for about 5 minutes. You want a nice thick layer of oil on the bottom.

4. Add chicken thighs in batches to the pot and fry. I can fit around 5 in my pan at one time.

5. Cook the chicken thighs, turning them about every 5 minutes. Because of the marinade they have, they tend to get brown very quickly so please turn them often to prevent burning. It takes about twenty minutes for the batch of five thighs to be ready. Then I added the other batch of five and cooked them the same way.

I’ve made them a few times. Have served them with a salad, broccoli with butter and Sauerkraut.  They’d be good with rice as well. Enjoy!

Read more, great Monday Mania posts here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/09/monday-mania-9192011/

Read more, great Fat Tuesday posts here: http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-20-2011/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/09/real-food-wednesday-9212011.html

Read more, great Simple Lives Thursday posts here: http://gnowfglins.com/2011/09/22/simple-lives-thursday-62/

Read more, Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2011/09/pennywise-platter-thursday-922.html

GMOs in the News

GMOs in the News – Sept 2011 edition

Lots in the news about GMOs  this month. Share this post with your friends and families. The more people that learn about GMOs, the better!       Mom

 

Organic Versus Genetically Engineered Crops: Some Rays of Light

August 30, 2011

Recent court decisions may help. Plus, new research shows how dangerous Monsanto’s GMOs really are.

Natural organic crops need to be protected from potential contamination by synthetic, genetically engineered seeds—especially in the face of less government oversight of GMOs. Natural seeds face the same Catch-22 as supplements: they cannot be patented, whereas synthetic seeds (and drugs) can be—and are therefore huge profit centers for Big Agro and Big Pharma, not to mention the government agencies in bed with them. They also need protection from the increased use of pesticides used on GE crops, which are also carried by the winds.

Our colleagues at ANH International reported recently that two court cases in the US might be turning the tide in favor of organic farmers over GE crops:

  • Last December, the California Court of Appeal found the Western Farm Service guilty of “negligence, trespass, and nuisance” against Jacobs Organic Farm and the Del Cabo Organic Cooperative. In 2006 Western Farm applied GE organophosphate (OP) pesticides to Brussels sprouts grown on land neighboring the organic farms. Winds carried these pesticides onto the organic produce and contaminated it—making it unsalable as organic. Even though Western Farm claimed to have taken precautions to avoid pesticide drift, it still happened—and fortunately the court found them guilty.
  • Last month, after ten years of futile complaints to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Court of Appeals found the Paynesville Farmers Union Cooperative Oil Company guilty of negligence, trespass, and nuisance on Oluf and Debra Johnson’s organic farm. Once again the pesticides sprayed on the oil company’s farms spread to the Johnsons’ land.

One of the big problems with GE crops is that they are responsible for the greatly increased use of pesticides which can easily contaminate organic crops. Now organic farms have legal precedents to sue conventional farms (and those using GMOs) for pesticide contamination.

 

Read the rest of the article here:  http://www.anh-usa.org/organic-v-ge-crops-rays-of-light/

Monsanto GM Corn in Peril: Beetle develops Bt-resistance

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
Nature herself may be the best opponent of genetically modified crops and pesticides.  Not only plants, but insects are also developing resistance.  The Western rootworm beetle – one of the most serious threats to corn – has developed resistance to Monsanto’s Bt-corn, and entire crops are being lost.

Farmers from several Midwest states began reporting root damage to corn that was specifically engineered with a toxin to kill the rootworm.  Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann recently confirmed that the beetle, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, has developed resistance to the Bt protein, Cry3Bb1.

Bacillus thuringiensis – Bt – is a bacterium that kills insects.  Different proteins are engineered into cotton as well as corn plants.
Two-thirds of all US corn is genetically modified per the USDA, and the bulk of that is Bt-corn. Monsanto has the biggest market share in the US, reporting about 35% in 2009.

In response to the July 2011 study, Monsanto said only the “YieldGard® VT Triple and Genuity® VT Triple PRO™ corn products” are affected.

“It appears he has demonstrated a difference in survival in the lab, but it is too early to tell whether there are implications for growers in the field.”

However, Kansas State researchers summarized the study, indicating that the specimens tested came from fields suffering severe rootworm damage and compared them to those from unaffected fields.  In other words, it was a field study.

Resistance developed where the same Bt corn had been grown at least three years in a row.  Gassmann found “a significant positive correlation between the number of years Cry3Bb1 maize had been grown in a field and the survival of rootworm populations on Cry3Bb1 maize in bioassays.”

Ag Professional’s Colleen Scherer explains that “the Cry3Bb1 toxin is the major one deployed against rootworms. There is no ‘putting the genie back in the bottle,’ and resistance in these areas is a problem that won’t go away.”

Read the rest here:  http://www.activistpost.com/2011/08/monsanto-gm-corn-in-peril-beetle.html

 

EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale

Bavarian beekeepers forced to declare their honey as genetically modified because of contamination from nearby Monsanto crops

Honey bees on a honeycomb in Germany. A European court has ruled that honey which contains traces of pollen from genetically modified crops needs special authorisation before it can be sold. Photograph: Heribert Proepper/AP

The European Union’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that honey which contains trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must be labelled as GM produce and undergo full safety authorisation before it can be sold as food.

In what green groups are calling a “groundbreaking” ruling, the decision could force the EU to strengthen its already near-zero tolerance policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Bavarian beekeepers, some 500m from a test field for a modified maize crop developed by Monsanto – one of only two GM crops authorised as safe to be cultivated in Europe – claimed their honey had been “contaminated” by pollen from the plant.

The European court of justice found in their favour, a ruling that should offer grounds for the beekeepers to claim compensation in a German court.

But the court’s finding also potentially threatens recent EU legislation, introduced in July this year, that permits traces of GMOs in animal feed without a safety review.

Mute Schimpf, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said that the ruling “would confirm that existing laws allowing traces of unauthorised GM contamination are insufficient and would need revising.”

French Green MEP José Bové, an ex-farmer well-known for his destruction of a McDonald’s franchise in the south of France and the uprooting of GM crops in Brazil, said that the only protection farmers can have is for a complete ban on GMOs in Europe. “Beekeepers are powerless to prevent the contamination of their honey by GM pollen, as farmers are for their crops, and thus powerless to prevent the tainting of the foodstuffs they produce and the integrity of their product.

“The only sure way to prevent this is by precluding the cultivation of GMOs.”

Greenpeace, describing the traces of pollen in the honey as “genetic pollution” said that Monsanto and the Bavarian state should be held liable for the beekeepers’ losses as a result of their product having to be labelled as containing GMOs.

However, agricultural specialists criticised the ruling, saying that the decision has no grounding in science.

Guy Poppy, the director of the centre for biological sciences at the University of Southampton, told the Guardian: “There is no safety issue. This honey is as safe as any other.”

(Note from Mom – if you read the rest of the article the Biotech ’employee’ says “they’ve been judged safe” – actually they haven’t…)

Read the rest here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/07/europe-honey-gm/print

And don’t forget:

It’s Our Right to Know

If you live in California (and forward this to those you know who do!)

There is a GMO Labeling 2012 Ballot Initiative in the works.

Go to the site, and sign up to help and/or give a donation.

http://labelgmos.org/

Read more, great Monday Mania posts here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/09/monday-mania-9122011/

Read more, great Fat Tuesday posts here: http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-13-2011/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/09/real-food-wednesday-9142001.html

Read more, great Simple Lives Thursday posts here: http://gnowfglins.com/2011/09/14/simple-lives-thursday-61/

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-september-16th/

GMOs and Food Allergies

This is brilliant Ted video about GMOs and food allergies. Robyn doesn’t call them that but that’s what she’s talking about.  This food is hurting our children!  It’s time to stand up and take action. If you live in California go to LabelGMOs.org and sign up to collect signature. It’s time to tell everyone you know about GMOs. With the planting of GMO alfalfa there is going to be crop contamination and even organics won’t be safe anymore…

Mom

If you live in CA (or anywhere else in the world 🙂 go visit LabelGMOs.org – sign up to help or donate. Even a few dollars will make a difference!

Read more great, Monday Mania posts here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/09/monday-mania-952011/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/09/real-food-wednesday-9711.html

Read more, great Simple Lives Thursday posts here: http://gnowfglins.com/2011/09/08/simple-lives-thursday-60/

Read more great, Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2011/09/pennywise-platter-thursday-98.html

Read more, great Fight Back Friday post here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-september-9th/

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