Frigs Natural Meats and Veggie Stock

When The Tallest Poppy first opened I read they got all their meat from a place called Frigs Natural Meats & More. At the time I really wanted to go but it was a bit far from my parents house and I didn't really want to go spend money on groceries while I lived there. I had completely forgotten about it until recently.

So today Ryan and I went on an expidition to East St. Paul to visit Frigs. I have to say, I was extremely impressed. Not only did they have a fabulous selection of Manitoban food that was nitrate, wheat, soy, and milk additive free, but the prices were pretty much on par with a big chain grocery store. We ended up leaving with $45 of merchandise including sirloin beef steak, beef and pork breakfast sausage, in-store made bacon, ground pork and beef, bison garlic sausage, and bison salami - plus organic extra virgin coconut oil that smells like coconut cookies and organic veggie broth cubes, which I like to keep on hand for a pinch. The staff was very nice too and we've already decided the Frigs will be our go-to meat place all year round. I was hoping to get a frozen local chicken but unfortunatlely they're out for the season so I'm considering getting a turkey at some point in the next few weeks instead. Stay tuned.

There are a lot of reasons that it's important to me to eat locally, organically, and chemical and hormone free. Firstly, my health. Starting about a 1-1.5 years ago I realized that I had a lot of stomach issues. It was something that came on so slowely that I didn't even realize until I was pretty sick to my stomach almost every day for 5 months between May-September 2009. My doctor and I suspected celiac disease but after some botched tests, we didn't have a conclusive answer. Part of the problem with diagnosing celiac disease is that you need to eat at least 2 pieces of bread every day for at least 2 months to get an accurate blood test result. Then you usually need to have a biopsy, but if you stop eating gluten then the results will all come back negatively. On September 3rd I decided enough was enough and I was going to cut all gluten from my diet. Frustratingly, it wasn't until near the end of October that I really started to feel better. Among other sensitities, I have to be careful with eggs, dairy, and any processed foods - I'll just say they make my tummy very angry.

Secondly, I do not like the idea of putting chemicals, hormones, or ill-treated animals in my body. I love Gordon Ramsey's show, "The F Word" because it shows how he raises his animals, cares for them with respect, and they are slaughtered humanely and with care. I feel that if I can't even watch an animal on TV be slaughtered this way, I probably shouldn't be eating meat. Because I believe in a more traditional diet I feel that for myself and my body, meat should be a part of my diet but I completely respect the choice to be a vegetarian - I actually was one myself a few years ago.

Thirdly, eating locally means I know exactly where my food has come from, how far it's travelled, and everything from what it was fed to how it was prepared. I'll be talking more about this in one of my next posts but related more to fruits and veggies.

Even though this post has been mostly meat related, I wanted to leave you with a vegetable broth recipe. To be honest, I rarely make veggie broth because I love the taste of chicken broth but both are extremely easy.

How to make Veggie Broth
A couple of notes on this recipe:

• you really can use pretty much any veggies you have lying around, another great way to use up leftovers or anything thats going bad in your fridge.
• this article suggests keeping the skin on carrots and root veggies. There's tons of nutritional value in this part of the veggies but make sure you wash them really well to get off any dirt, and if you don't know where they're coming from, to get off any possible chemicals or pesticides.
• when you're finished, let it cool and then throw it in a tupperwear or sealable container and store in the freezer. Use for soups, gravies, sauces, etc.

Since I don't have any of my own recipes to share today, I thought I'd share what we had for dinner tonight.

Gluten free bread, bison salami from Frigs, mayo, mustard, spinach, dark chocolate, and mini mandarins. Gluten free bread is nothing like regular bread but I actually really enjoy it, just in a different way. This is Kinnikinnick Foods brands. It was a nice early, energizing meal before my 6:30PM soccer game.

Ryan had rye toast, extra old cheddar cheese, free run eggs, fried onions, and bison salami. Mmmmm....