Related Links:

• Organic Test Kitchen Post “Organic is Natural but Natural is not necessarily Organic… smoke and mirrors labeling“

But, like most natural foods Popcorn has been messed with. With popcorn you have your usual problems of modern mass production methods of spraying, fertilizing etc. which may be “not-good”. Let me put it this way, I just don’t want to consume any chemicals no matter how safe they tell me they are. So in terms of chemical purity the organic popcorn is of course the slam dunk winner. … But what about taste? Let’s take a look.

In this competition we pit the cheap supermarket brand of non-organic popcorn, premium non-organic popcorn and bulk organic popcorn. We popped all three in the air popper, let them come to an equal room temperature and tested. Here’s what we found:

Texture: This is a big part of the popcorn eating experience. For this we found the supermarket brand to be, not terrible, but definitely not good. It was sort of able to crumble easily. No chewy action going on. The premium non-organic stuff had plenty of chew..and in some bites too much of the chewy bordering on a polystyrene thing going on. But, the organic popcorn had more chew than supermarket and somewhat less than premium. .. Just right as they say..  So the other guys weren’t bad but the organic was slightly better.

Taste: Supermarket…Not bad but really not-good. Premium and organic, very close and both good.

So the organic barely nudged out a win with regards to the eating experience … both organic and premium were good (just don’t waste your time with the supermarket brand). So with taste being about equal you have two other factors to consider.  The first is cost, premium is cheaper. The second is chemical residues, the organic is a purer food. Now when I did the math the amount of money saved on a bowl of popcorn wasn’t even pocket change. So I asked myself, if someone came up to me and said they’d give me this amount of change to swallow the tiniest amount of chemical would I do it? You know my answer, go organic and call it a day already.

Now if you still can’t make up your mind why not peruse the University of Kentucky’s 2009 Insecticide Recommendation for Popcorn (seriously, this is not to say all non-organic popcorn has any of these chemicals by the time it gets to you, this is just for information to give you a flavor for the world of popcorn agriculture).

First, get yourself some FRESH, Organic, Free-Range Chicken. … Expensive yes, but great food simply starts with great ingredients. Now if money’s really tight go ahead and buy your manufactured chicken (eye roll). Next, just trim off the fat and prep your fry pan. .. I like to go with a heavy bottom copper clad stainless, works well for me.

Place a small amount of cooking oil in the center of the pan and spread/wipe/coat the pan with this using a paper towel. What you want here is a thin coating of oil. The paper towel will help you coat and soak up the excess. You don’t want your chicken sopping in oil. Crank up the stove to a high heat, turn on the stove fan/vent and add your chicken breast. … Keep and eye on things and keep it safe. … Now’s the time when I do what I do best, nothing. Hold yourself back and resist your temptation to check or move the chicken until the side is done. 

With my particular stove and pan I have learned that seven minutes of undisturbed frying will give me the perfect sear. And this is repeatable. One of the things I do is to buy chicken breast of approximately the same weight every time. This helps in providing a repeatable cooking cycle. .. So while the chicken is cooking with NO help from me I can work on my side dishes or whatever. But it’s aways a good idea to set a timer so you don’t loose track of time and forget about it. .. So bottom line, you’ll have to cook this a few times to determine how long it takes to cook each side. Just use a 1/2 pound breast and cook the first side for seven minutes as a start and refine your times from there.  But remember one of the keys to doing this right is to not disturb the chicken. Just let it cook and don’t be checking it. If left undisturbed a nice sear will occur. If you flip too early it will be “not-good”. So again, it may take you a few times cooking this to really get it down.

OK, once my seven minutes is over I flip the chicken breast with a spatula and set the timer for 5 1/2 minutes. …. After this times out I remove the pan from the heat and place the chicken breast on a cutting board. Now what I generally do is to slice it and then place each slice back in the pan (which being heavy bottomed is still hot) slice side down. Put the pan back on to a medium heat. I give this a minute or two to cook and flip the pieces and give it a minute or two more. The reason for doing this is that often the center of the chicken is not fully cooked. This completes the cooking.

Take your thickest piece out and cut to check that it’s cooked. Then out of the pan and serve. Try to get to the point where you can time things to be ready together. From pan to plate is the best. … Anyway what you now have an a terrific low calorie, protein dense, clean (not all oily) and great tasting chicken. Of course you can in the process of cooking spice things up as you like (careful of the spice smoking…had someone put cayenne on the chicken while cooking once and it started smoking really bad, eyes watering like being pepper sprayed or something..) or you can store the chicken in the frig so that you’re good to go for a grilled chicken salad when the time is right.

Anyway hope you enjoy, eat well, be healthy, have fun!

 Anyway, after the run and a quick dip in the ocean I sat down with my puzzle and cakes. .. And the first thing I noticed was that these non-conventional ones were thicker. They were also pretty pale looking vs the organic ones which have a nice brown freckling. Took a quick look at the ingredients just in case .. “Whole Grain Brown Rice, Salt.” OK, at least no names that take a degree in chemistry to pronounce. Then I took bite. … Not-Good. My teeth crushed through this Styrofoam-like texture. Like I said, Not-Good…

 So I saved a few to bring back home to do a fair side by side comparison (it was easy to not eat them all). Here’s what I found…

• The Organic Rice Cake (Lundberg) had as mentioned a specked color that struck me as less processed when compared to the lily white conventional brand.
• Confirmed that the Lundberg was a little bit thinner.
• Bit into both. The Lundberg Rice Cake had some mass to it. There was something there. It also had much more of a crunch than the popular conventional brand.
• The flavor of the Lundberg was clearly superior. It had an interesting and pleasing combination of flavor notes vs the conventional which had only one flavor … bland. The Lundberg also had a nice salt note going on while not being really salty. Checked the ingredients .. Sea Salt vs Conventional Salt.. figures.
• Noted that the size of the individual rice puffs in the Lundberg were smaller than the conventional. Aha! Less “poofing”! Meaning that the conventional had more air and less rice! To confirm checked the weights.. A Lundberg had a weight of 18.5 g per cake. The conventional 9.0 g per cake. So the conventional was all air and less than half the rice.. This explains why they are thicker and also why their texture is like an insulating material (both contain maximum air)

 You know, two of the most favorite ingredients of the conventional food crowd are air and water. Both are incredibly cheap and both give the consumer less for what he paid for. So we give Lundberg the Organic Test Kitchen Seal of Approval for both Quality and Nutrition. It not only gives you more of what you want but also excludes the nasties such as chemical residues that you want to stay away from.

 Spread the word and share the post! Some related links are:

• Lundberg Rice Cake Page
• Review of Organic Sesame Corn Thins

Shopping List:

• Half dozen medium Organic Russet Potatoes
• Refined Corn Oil or other oil that has a smoke point well above the temperatures contained in the recipe
• Sea Salt

Recipe

• Put Corn Oil in a Sauce pan and place on a high heat. Monitor the temperature using a thermometer (most use a candy thermometer)
• Peel the 6 Russet Potatoes
• Cut the potatoes into fries
• When the oil is up to temperature carefully (VERY CAREFULLY) add the fries I use a wire thing that I can ease them in without splashing. Oil can splatter, burn and injure you. Be Extremely Careful! If you are unsure how to cook with extremely hot oil don’t.
• Cook the fries in the oil until they start to become cooked. About 6 minutes. What you’ll notice is some of the edges begin to brown.
• Remove the fries from the oil and transfer to a bowl. Some people like to use a paper towel. No thanks. The oil seems to fall to the bottom of the bowl pretty nicely.
• Let the fries begin to cool and drain for a few minutes. Then using a fork or wooden spoon scoot them over to a second clean bowl. 
• You can then set these aside for quick finishing later or do it up now. .. Note: do not cut your potatoes and store without the initial cooking. What happens if you do is that the potatoes dewater and this water causes severe spattering once it hits the hot oil.
• The next step is the higher temperature frying to brown and crisp the outside. You need the high temp to really get the water inside the fries steaming out (If the steam is being pushed out of the fry the oil can’t get in. If the oil can’t get in then you have nice non-soggy fries instead of the limp grease sticks that you could have bought at the fast food place).
• Turn the heat back on and get the oil up to about 400F
• When at temp, CAREFULLY add the fries
• Cook until light brown on the outside (or more if that’s how you like them).
• Remove from the oil and place on a serving plate.
• Sprinkle with sea salt, toss and serve immediately.

 These really aren’t that much trouble to make and you can easily time them with your main course. A great combo is to make some fish & chips. Check out the fish recipe below when you’re ready to take that step.

 Most people feel that natural food is tasteless, boring and say they would rather die a few years earlier than have to such things … When they start pontificating, moaning and groaning just make some Almost Organic French Fries. It will be worth the quiet you’ll get while they’re stuffing them in their mouth.

 If you like this recipe then why not share it? Or go to the upper right and subscribe to get the next post automatically. Here’s some related posts:

Related posts:

• Wikipedia Info on Smoke points of Oils
• Fried Fish Recipe
• Buying Fish

Shopping list:

• 1 Medium Organic Rutabaga
• 2 Medium Organic Yellow Onions 
• 1 Bulb (not clove!) of Organic Garlic
• 3 Medium Organic Carrots
• 1/2 Bunch of Organic Swiss Chard
• 1 Pound of Organic Spinach
• 1/2 Bunch of Organic Collard Greens

 Recipe

• Fill a Large Saucepan 1/3 Full of Spring Water
• Set on a high heat and cover
• Start Washing, Peeling and Chopping the Veggies. Remove all tough stems
• Take the greens and put in a pile on the cutting board
• Using your chef’s knife, cut re-bunch and cut until you have a small-ish pieces
• Chop your other veggies into fairly small pieces as well
• Add your tough to cook veggies first to the now boiling water. This would be the Rutabaga and carrots. Note: BE CAREFUL when adding veggies to boiling water. The water could splash and you could get badly burned!
• Add the other non-greens
• Finally add your greens
• Once the boil has been reachieved cover and cook for about 13 minutes. Cook to your liking. I like the veggies done but not mushy.
• While this is cooking peel and chop your bulb of Garlic. Set aside.
• When the veggies are done pour through a strainer. BE CRAREFUL. No small children underfoot and use some sort of safe hand protection.
• After you poured the veggies through a large strainer
• Add the garlic on top of the veggies
• Using a large metal spoon mix the veggies together. Be Careful not to get a steam burn. When you encounter the greens use some sideways action to try to tear them apart (they tend to get tangled)
• When cool enough to eat put in a serving bowl, sprinkle the top with Feta Cheese, add some Olive Oil and Sea Salt and toss together… Wonderful! Enjoy!
• After goofing-off from eating what you made transfer the rest to a large storage bowl
• Let cool and then place in the frig (covered of course).
• Then when you want a fast veggie fix take out what you need and prep. It’s cool and good in the Summer and come the cold weather just heat up a serving on the stove with a little water before adding the Cheese, Olive Oil and Sea Salt.

 Let’s face it, you’re probably more likely to have your veggies if you cook a bunch ahead of time and dress them up with some Feta, Olive Oil and Sea Salt. And this is less expensive and infinitely better than all those pre-packaged disasters known as convenience dishes “found in your grocer’s frozen food isle”. Give this recipe to your favorite microwave dinner junkie and if they’re trying to loose weight advise them not to use a pound of cheese and a gallon of oil. Worse case is that when you visit you’d have something decent to eat.

 However, one of the challenges of eating this way is making certain you are getting an adequate intake of protein (you need to consult with your nutritionist or doctor before doing this). And this is especially a concern if leading an athletic lifestyle. For instance, I enjoy resistance training using free weights and machines. Getting the proper amount of protein during recovery is essential. 

 One solution to this is to use a protein supplement. I use several but one of the staples is something called Riceotein TM. .. Reading from their label here’s what they say about themselves .. “Riceotein TM is the most complete, great tasting vegetarian protein, high in essential amino acids. It is essential for building lean muscle. It is excellent for hyper-sensitive people that are prone to allergies normally associated with products such as soy, milk, egg, wheat, corn or yeast. Riceotein TM Brown Rice Protein is made using low temperatures and our exclusive certified organic  process.”

 Nutrition: 1 Scoop is 114 calories with 22g protein, 2g fat, 16.8 mg sodium, 0g cholesterol, and 6g carbs. .. We like the excellent levels of protein and the low fat content.

  Certifications: USDA Organic, VEGAN Certified, Non GMO and Third Party Tested Gluten Free TM. All Good.

  Taste: ….(here’s where you hear the sound of screeching brakes) .. In two words.. Not-Good. It seems that the brown rice has a flavor that can’t really be overcome by the vanilla flavor or stevia. And this taste test was of course done bare naked with a scoop of the stuff mixed with spring water. .. So we did a little testing in the spirit of the label that states “Mix 1 scoop in your favorite smoothie, juice, water or food. Can be used to fortify vegetarian meals. Riceotein TM may be added to your cereal, baked goods and fruits or salads. .. ” All the results of food we added this to .. alright..but not great..

 Here’s my take on that… One of the major philosophies of Organic Test Kitchen is that in addition to our food being pure and untainted by chemical residues etc that it should also have knock your socks off with good taste (hey, a calorie is a terrible thing to waste, if you consume one it had better be damn good). .. In the flavor department this stuff is lacking at best. But as an organic protein supplement, this Riceotein TM rocks. .. So what do we do? Well, we resolve this conflict by just sucking it up and making a Riceotein TM drink, maybe dolling it up a bit (we usually add some yogurt to thicken things up/add a tang and to also put in some honey) and just drinking it. It doesn’t taste the best but it’s not that terrible. Then later when I take the time, effort and love to create some awesome tasting food I can really enjoy it. .. Have I tried Riceotein TM in every dish as a fortifier? Absolutely not. .. And I won’t. Given it’s flavor it’s most promising addition taste-wise would probably be in baked goods. But… how would the heat from the oven degrade the protein? Who knows? And one scoop is pretty hefty to be adding to a salad or whatever. .. Nope, for me I’ll just add this to some sort of drink that’s easy and love the fact that I’m getting a pure vegetarian protein without any of the bad stuff. From this perspective I LOVE Riceotein TM.

Related Posts:

• The manufacturer’s (Bio International’s) website for what it’s worth.. News Section with some great organic articles (but cannot find Riceotein there)

Shopping List:

• 1 Cup of No-Fat or Low Fat Vanilla Flavored Yogurt
• 1 1/2 Cups of Mixed Fresh Strawberries, Blueberries and Pineapple (make sure you get a real pineapple and not open a can of something that was grown over 2 years ago)
• 1 Cup of Soy Milk
• Note that all ingredients as well as the glass jar of your blender should be refrigerated prior to making your smoothie. You want it cold but you don’t want to be adding ice and watering it down (a “not-good” kind of move).

Recipe:

• Add 1 Cup of Non-Fat or Low-Fat Vanilla Flavored Yogurt to a prechilled blender jar.
• Add 1 Cup of Soy Milk.
• Add 1 1/2 Cups (doesn’t have to be exact, this isn’t rocket science) of a mixture of whole blueberries, quartered strawberries and big chunks of pineapple (don’t skip the pineapple, it’s critical)
• Put the lid on the blender and hit the pulse button a few times waiting a second between pulses so the chunks can settle down to the blades (now I don’t like things over blended, there’s a tendency to force too much air into the smoothie and that will reduce it’s flavor impact. And, like the food processor it will seem that you should have more mix time (because if we’re honest it’s fun to click on this powerful machine and watch it do it’s thing)… but trust me, less is best. A few pulses is all you really want or need..)
• Pour a glass and then put the blender jar back into the fridge until you are ready for seconds .. fyi: finish this off in a single setting since you don’t want things hanging around.. remember fresh is best. This recipe will make about 32 fluid ounces (about 2 1/2 glasses). This is just right for me and is terrific after coming home from the gym. If you want less, of course just cut back on the recipe but be even more careful not to over-blend.

Enjoy!

 This is West Soy’s brand. One of those beverage products that comes in a box that needs no refrigeration.. And this is nice especially if you’re roughing it with a backpack in the middle of nowhere. It has this plastic tab kind of thing with a foil seal underneath. Just flip back the tab and then peel back the foil and you’re good to go. And after you’ve quaffed your first serving the plastic tab reseals the whole darn thing.

 Nutrition: For a 1 Cup Serving we’re talking 130 calories, 8g protein, No Cholesterol, 3.5g fat and 18g carbs. Not bad. But what about taste? Not too bad.. To be honest I was expecting this to be a total taste disaster. But no. Not bad.. You can taste that Soy-ish taste a bit (you know that subtle flavor of tofu). So ok the taste is acceptable but for me not good enough to want to drink this stuff by the glassful. And this being the case we decided to play around with it a bit.

 The first test was a very basic smoothie. Took four strawberries and quartered them. Tossed them into a blender. Poured a little of the soy milk in. Pulsed it to sort of smooth it out but to still leave some chunks that will give a little flavor zing when you chew them. .. The results.. Awesome. It came out thick, creamy and delicious. Nice!

 The second test was to make some gluten free pancakes. So took out this mix that someone gave me (to poke fun at me for being gluten free) and made some up with this soy milk.. And these were good as well!

So the bottom line we give this product a thumbs up and it’s a recommended buy. .. See you guys in three weeks..(kidding). 

Related Link:

• West Soy’s Soymilk Page

 But that being said, it all depends upon your logistics as well. For instance, you have a problem if you’re driving an hour every day to get fresh coffee right from your favorite roaster. So let’s try to make some sense of all this:

1. All coffee you drink should be certified organic. No if’s and’s or but’s about it. Think about it, we’re griding this stuff into a powder so that the boiling water we’ll be pouring over it can extract what is in there. .. You only want to be extracting good stuff. Trust me, your body and taste buds will thank you for it.
2. Only purchase whole beans and grind only what you’ll use right before you use it.
3. Buy from a local roaster and make sure that what you buy hasn’t been sitting around.
4. Only buy enough to last you a week.. max. Hey, you buy fresh food every week.. And coffee is one of those pleasures that simply should be as good as possible. It does make a difference.

 There you have it. Simple. Enjoy your coffee and your life. .. You know it only takes a little extra effort to bring things up to the next level, I think you deserve it.

Related Posts:

• Brewing Coffee
• Proper Storage for Fresh Organic Coffee
• Coffee Mugged