Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

prep time:30 min

start to finish:4 hr

makes:4 servings

1 3/4 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of fat to make 1 1/4 pounds lean beef stew meat

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced 1/2 inch thick (3 cups)

1 medium onion, cut into wedges (1/2 cup)

1 3/4 cups Progresso® beef broth

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (14.5 oz) Muir Glen® no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup dried apricots or pitted dried plums (prunes), quartered

2 tablespoons chopped unsalted peanuts

Sliced green onion (optional)

1. Cut meat into 1-inch pieces. In a 3 1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker, combine meat, sweet potatoes, and onion. Stir broth, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt, and garlic into mixture in cooker.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 7 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

3. Stir in undrained tomatoes and dried apricots. Sprinkle individual servings with peanuts and, if desired, green onion.

Nutritional Information

2 cups: Calories 350 (Calories from Fat 80); Total Fat 9g (Saturated Fat 2 1/2g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 60mg; Sodium650mg; Total Carbohydrate 33g (Dietary Fiber 6g, Sugars 16g); Protein 36g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 210%;Vitamin C 20%; Calcium 10%; Iron 20% Exchanges: 2 Starch; 0 Other Carbohydrate; 1 Vegetable; 4 Lean Meat Carbohydrate Choices: 2
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Fast-Food “Hamburger”?

It comes from a cow, yes, but before being stuffed in the bun of a Whopper or Big Mac, fast-food hamburger patties pass through the hands of a company called Beef Products. Beef Products specializes in taking slaughterhouse trimmings traditionally used only in pet food and cooking oil and turning them into patties. The challenge is getting this by-product meat clean enough for human consumption, as both E. coli and salmonella like to concentrate themselves in the fatty deposits. So how does Beef Products go about "cleaning" the meat? With an approach similar to what you might use in your bathroom—by using ammonia. See, the company has developed a process for killing beef-based pathogens by forcing the ground meat through pipes and exposing it to ammonia gas. And not only has the USDA approved the process, but they've also allowed those who sell the beef to keep it hidden from their customers. At Beef Products' behest, ammonia gas has been deemed a "processing agent" that need not be identified on nutrition labels. Never mind that if ammonia gets on your skin, it can cause severe burning, and if it gets in your eyes, it can blind you. As an ingredient in one of the foods we consume most, our government doesn't even deem it important enough to inform eaters of its presence. Add to the gross-out factor the fact that after moving through this lengthy industrial process, a single beef patty can consist of cobbled-together pieces from different cows all over the world—a practice that only increases the odds of E. coli contamination. So if you're set on the challenge of eating fresh, single-source hamburger, pick out a nice hunk of sirloin from the meat case and have your butcher grind it up fresh. Hold the ammonia.

I wonder what God thinks about these creations? I think if we are to put Christ First we need to ask ourselves if He would eat these “burgers”.

Whole Wheat ?

Whole wheat, multigrain, 12-grain, "Made with whole grains"—there are many labels you can put on bread to make it sound healthy. What really counts when it comes to buying better bread? Fewer ingredients, key labels, and basic weight math.

 

Marion Nestle, author of the San Francisco Chronicle's Food Matters column, does a great job making common sense of the myriad labels and marketing blather on bread:

To decide whether these have anything in them worth eating beyond their calories, you must inspect labels to make sure the first ingredient is whole grain, the total number of ingredients is small and devoid of unpronounceable chemicals, the fiber content is at least 2 grams per 1-ounce serving and the label says 100 percent whole wheat. Anything less is reconstituted white bread with occasional pieces of the original grain added back.

Nestle explains the basics of what makes bread whole wheat, as opposed to just white, then offers up a simple, if not exactly easy, method of comparing apples to apples in terms of wheat content:

Food labeling rules do not make it easy to figure out fiber content. Some white breads list 1 gram of fiber, but watch out for serving size. It takes two slices to reach half a gram, which can be rounded up to 1.

Whole wheat bread with 2 grams of fiber per 1-ounce slice may have four times as much fiber as white breads. But watch out for breads listing 3 grams fiber; their slices may weigh nearly 2 ounces.

The whole column is a kind of revelation for your Lifehacker East editor, who has been known to just stare at the 45 different breads on display at Wegmans, then just grab the Italian and admit defeat. It's why we also decided to try and make sense of "Organic" and other food labels on our own.

Whole wheat, but not the whole story [SFGate]