Go Green!

We have compiled a short list of helpful and handy recycling ideas for any extra styrofoam coolers you may have. Leave us a comment with your best idea and you could win. Here are a few of our suggestions:

1) Do you have kids or grandkids? What about using the chest like fake snowblocks and building an igloo playhouse by using glue to attach them together in the right shape. 

2) You can use the coolers to store holiday decorations.

3) The Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts in your area might be interested in some of them to use on camping trips as individual lunchbox coolers. Daycares or kindergarten classes might also be interested in them for dramatic play centers, props, etc.

4)You could also use them as forms for hypertufa planters. Hypertufa is just a large word for fake rock looking cement. If you Google it, there are many recipes out there and succulents LOVE to grow in this stuff.

5) Do you have outdoor pets? Styrofoam coolers make great houses for your cats in the cold winter months. Simply line with hay and they'll have the purrr-fect new home.

6) Do you enjoy fishing? Coolers can make excellent containers to keep your bait in for fishing. Night crawlers are lively and happy in coolers among some bedding and old leaves. The bedding can also be purchased.  Some people even collect and sell the earthworms that are stored in the coolers.

7) You might contact your local Meals on Wheels and see if they could use them.

8) Make your own shipping pellets to ship some fragile things.

If none of these suggestions would work for you, here is a list of styrofoam recyclers in your area. Unfortunately, the carbon footprint for picking up a single cooler and mailing it to our rural Missouri office usually outweighs any environmental benefit- especially since the coolers are often damaged during transit. Still, if this is your best option, you may mail the cooler to our PO Box (postal service) or physical street address (FedEX/UPS) listed below:

US Wellness Meats

PO Box 9 / 204 E Lafayette

Monticello, MO 63457

Submit your best styrofoam cooler idea and win a $100 US Wellness Meats gift certificate. One winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, February 1st.

Tasmania!

From Northeast Missouri to picturesque Tasmania and back! Our founding member, John Wood, has done just that in the last two weeks. His journey started in Stanley, Tasmania. This area is most commonly known for housing the first Trans Bass Strait Cable connecting Tasmania to mainland Australia in 1933.

Why do we import from Tasmania?

To help keep up with demand on specific cuts that would be constantly out of stock without this wonderful resource.  There are specific cuts that the animal only produces a certain amount of (think flank steaks, hangers and skirts to name a few).  Instead of continuously being out of those items, we source some in from Tasmania as fellow US producers here are unable to meet the demand of these scarce yield cuts. Tasmania is a utopia for beef production with a perfect year round climate for grass growth and animal performance.   

The small band of grass-fed producers in the Northwest District of Tasmania have taken a perfect livestock climate and molded in an excellent forage base adapted to the climate.  They harvest with cattle genetics designed to produce well marbled beef on grass.  The passion and pride exhibited at the carcass show competition on January 10 was most impressive.  These families have been working diligently, with the encouragement of the local processor, since 1998 to produce a premium marbled product that has outstanding eating qualities. 

Pictured above (left to right): John Bruce a 30 year producer, Johnny Wood, John Wood founding member of US Wellness Meats, Paul Seward a long time producer, Richard Nichols a long time producer, Jamie Oliver an enthusiastic young producer, Trevor Fleming meat salesman at Greenham

Because more and more people are discovering the health benefits of grass-fed beef the market is growing rapidly. To keep up with this demand we added this group of elite grass farmers from Tasmania. All products sourced from Tasmania are listed as such on the website. 

The picturesque island of Tasmania is the ideal place for grazing cattle as the temperate climate allows for grazing year round. No hormones or GMOs are even allowed on the island. Air quality is recognized as the gold standard for purity on the globe. Tasmania is slightly larger than the state of West Virginia and is covered by some of the finest grass in the world. The cattle raised in Tasmania are 100% grass-fed and grass-finished just like the cattle raised at our farms in the Midwest. From the moment our animals are weaned from their mothers, they consume high quality forage for the rest of their lives. Raising the cattle on strictly grass ensures high levels of CLA, Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamins A and E. To learn even more benefits of grass-fed beef, visit us on YouTube to watch “The Grass-Fed Difference” video.

For more pictures from Tasmania, please visit us on Facebook! For any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on our blog. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

2012 is a leap year, so we get 366 days, not 365 to make the best possible choices for our health and wellness this year.  This opportunity doesn’t come along very often so let’s make the best of it! 

We’ve looked into some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions year after year, and found that sadly, most people don’t even last a month when trying to improve some aspect of their lives. 

So, we’ll try to help by offering some random ideas and inspirations to make your New Year all it can be!

Diet

-         Give up added/artificial sweeteners (no soda!)

-         Go Paleo 

-         Take time out for family dinners at home

-         Try the Perfect Health Diet 

-         Keep a food journal

-         Eat more GOOD Fats

-         Mediterranean Diet (Think olive oil, lean meat and red wine!)

-         Become a better cook (Try one of our cookbooks!)

-         Pack better school lunches (or work lunches!) 

Exercise

-         Try CrossFit

-         Take the Hundred Pushup Challenge

-         Start P90X

-         Take your kids (or pets!) for a daily walk

-         Get a great six pack 

-         Join a gym – and stick with it

-         Try a new exercise (pilates, yoga, step) DVD

Stimulate Your Mind

-         Take a pottery class, computer course, gardening class

-         Learn a new language

-         Turn off the TV

-         Read a new book each month

-         Subscribe to a new blog

Manage Stress

-         Fight depression with food 

-         Start yoga or pilates

-         Meditate

-         How to beat effects of modern stress 

-         Get Enough Sleep

-         Get some “me time” every day!

-         Visit Mark’s Daily Apple 

Save Money

-         Buy in bulk

-         Use coupons!

-         Take your lunch to work (or school!) 

-         Save 15% when ordering grass-fed beef

-         Become a Facebook follower

-         Eat whole foods on a budget 

-         Visit Kelly the Kitchen Kop 

Improve Ourselves

-         Volunteer More

-         Support Our Troops

-         Take a cooking class

-         Recycle

-         Ride a bike

-         Quit smoking!

Ideas from our Facebook Fans

-         Make more soup from bone marrow

-         Sprint more

-         Hug my daughter more

-         Simplify my life

-         Eat more beef tongue

-         Keep healing our family of 6 with the GAPS diet

-         Resolve to give up grains

-         Do a Whole30

-         Start a garden

-         Incorporate organ meats into our diet

Hope this gives you some new ideas to make 2012 a great year for your health and well being!  We’d love to hear any new ideas or resolutions that you have – feel free to leave comments below!

Philly Shroom Burger!

Classic Philly Cheesesteak with a twist! Our friends, Stacy and Matt, of Paleo Parents have invented their own paleo-friendly Philly Cheesesteak with our beloved sandwich steaks sans cheez-whiz or bun. This recipe is also featured in their cookbook for gluten-free kids, Eat Like a Dinosaur. Traditional Philly watch out... here comes the Philly Shroom Burger!

Philly Shroom Burger

Ingredients

10 large portabello mushroom caps
2 lbs. very thin sliced sirloin
2 Tbsp lard
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, slice
1 green bell pepper, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
serve with homemade mayonnaise (our recipe is in Eat Like a Dinosaur but lots of Paleo sites have their own)

Instructions

1. Preheat grill or grill pan to medium heat
2. Grill salted mushroom caps until softened, about 8-10 minutes per side (mushrooms should be soft, but still have a bit of bite)
3. Preheat cast iron skillet or other frying pan over medium-high heat
4. ♥ Salt and pepper each of the steak slices on both sides
5. Brown the steaks on each side, about 2-3 minutes total (they’re thin sliced and cook super quick!), in about a tablespoon of lard
6. Remove meat from pan and set aside (cover to keep in heat and let meat rest)
7. Melt remaining lard over medium-high heat in same pan
8. Add veggies and saute until softened, about 8 minutes
9. ♥ To serve: pile up the sandwich steaks, veggies and some mayonnaise between two mushrooms!

Serves 5 (or more if you cut the big burgers in half). As we are doing a lot of grilling, sauteing and browning here, there are very few steps marked ♥ where you can safely insert your kids; our apologies! But, of course, our kids ate them up, peppers and all! The mayonnaise is key here: it takes the creamy place that cheese usually provides. All in all, a fantastic treat!

 

Fresh Chilled Beef FAQs!

US Wellness Meats is the only company that delivers fresh chilled grass-fed beef directly to your doorstep. Here’s a quick Q&A to answer some frequently asked fresh chilled questions you may have:

Q: What is the difference between frozen and fresh chilled beef?

A: Fresh chilled beef has NEVER been frozen! We offer this for those chefs and customers that prefer the taste of fresh chilled over frozen beef.

Because of the nature of the fresh chilled beef orders, special efforts are taken to ensure only the freshest items are shipped. This involves a delicate balance of specific harvesting, precise production, overnight shipping and extra careful packing.

We have 5 fresh chilled beef packages, which are all labeled as fresh chilled beef; they are the only items that are shipped fresh, not frozen.  All other meat items in our store will be shipped frozen. 

Q: What cuts do you have available?

A: Roast/burger bundle, steak and burger package, burger bundle, striploin, and gourmet steak package.

Q: How is the fresh chilled beef packaged?

A: The beef cuts are vacuum sealed in a 100% barrier proof cryovac seal just like our frozen beef.  Each pound of ground beef, each steak, each primal and each roast is individually cryovac sealed.

Q: Is the fresh chilled beef aged?

A: Yes, the fresh chilled beef is aged 10-24 days depending on the monthly fresh chilled shipping schedule.

Q: How often does the fresh chilled beef ship?

A: Fresh chilled (never frozen) beef ships out every 4 weeks. For the current fresh chilled beef schedule, please refer to the fresh chilled category on our website.

Q: Does the fresh chilled beef ship with my other frozen items?

A: The fresh chilled beef always ships separately from frozen products, so it does not freeze.

Q: Even though they ship separately, can fresh and frozen items be combined for billing on the same order?

A. Yes! If frozen items are combined on the same order with fresh chilled beef packages, a minimum of 7 pounds of frozen weight is required. This minimum weight will help ensure the frozen items shipped separately arrive in good condition.

Q: How is fresh chilled beef shipped to ensure it stays cool to the touch in transit and will arrive in good condition?

A: Fresh chilled beef is shipped via FedEx overnight service. The weight of each specialty chilled beef package ensures the items stay cool while in transit and will arrive at the proper temperature.

Q: What condition should I expect upon arrival of my fresh chilled beef package?

A: The fresh chilled beef packages have never been frozen.  They are fresh and are meant to arrive cool to the touch, but not frozen. 

Q: What are the storage recommendations for fresh chilled beef?  Can it be frozen?

A: Fresh steaks and fresh roasts will keep in your meat drawer for a week to 10 days at most if temperatures remain at 32-33 degrees. You are simply extending the wet aging time.  Ground beef is good for 5 days at the most.  You will start losing flavor rapidly after that and the product will start spoiling. Please feel free to freeze any fresh selections that will not be enjoyed within this time frame. The fresh items are individually cryovac sealed and may be frozen for a minimum of 6 months.

12th Annual Wise Traditions Conference!

For the 6th consecutive year we have traveled to the Wise Traditions Conference of the Weston A. Price Foundation. This year the conference was held in “The Lone Star” state. It didn’t take long for Dallas to win our hearts over with the ideal weather, a warm welcome, and so many friendly faces.

The event began with the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund “Kick Up Your Heels” Thursday night dinner and organ sausage cookoff where we ate like queens! Every year we look forward to the Wise Traditions Conference for many reasons; one of which is the amazing food. This year was no exception! Our flavorful coulotte steak was the main course Thursday night where it was chargrilled to perfection and topped off with fresh herbs and apple cider vinaigrette. We also enjoyed an avacado and cucumber salad, jalapeno biscuits, cornbread, succotash and warm apple cobbler with custom made ice cream. Afterwards we had the pleasure of listening to some of our favorite keynote speakers: Sally Fallon Morell, Dr. Joseph Mercola, Michael Schmidt, and Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride. The night ended with everyone taking a spin on the dance floor with the fiddling Quebe Sisters Band.

Friday morning kicked off the Real Food movement where we set up a US Wellness Meats booth and distributed samples of pemmican, beef jerky, snack sticks, head cheese, braunschweiger and liverwurst. As if that wasn’t enough we had another surprise in store. We treated everyone by cooking up some of our favorites including the ny strip steak, ribeye and sugar free beef franks. Among the wide selection of products we take to the conference, the liverwurst and braunschweiger are favorites every year. This year was no different. Our pemmican was a hit as well. Everyone that stopped by was more than willing to try every product available for sampling.

The next few days continued much in the same way with distributing samples, selling products, talking to our loyal customers and meeting new customers. It was so wonderful to be in attendance at an event that brought together such a wide array of people who are just as passionate about food as we are. We very much enjoyed seeing each and every one of our valued customers, friends and bloggers.

We would like to extend a big thank you to everyone that took the time to stop by our booth, try some samples and chat with us! We look forward to seeing you all again at the 13^th Annual Wise Traditions Conference next year in sunny Santa Clara, California.

(Left to right): Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Chaffin Family Orchards, John Moody of Whole Life Buying Club and family, Liz of Cave Girl Eats and Laura of Ancestralize Me, and Randy, Carla, Dave, and Todd of Vital Choice

For more highlights of our trip visit us on Facebook and Twitter. What was your favorite part of the Wise Traditions Conference? What products would you like to see us bring for sampling next year? 

 

Salute to Veterans!

Today we pay special tribute to all of our Veterans on a holiday that is very dear to our hearts! We would like to honor all the servicemen and women that risk their lives day in and day out for the freedom of this great country we call home. If you’ve been staying up-to-date on our news alerts you have probably noticed a new column honoring our American heroes. This is in dedication, remembrance, and support of all the troops fighting the war against terror.

Please take a moment to visit the worthwhile organizations we’ve featured:

Lone Star Foundation

Wounded Warrior Project

Boot Campaign

Honor Flight Network

Guitars for Vets

Operation Gratitude

Soldiers' Angels

Fox River Socks for Soldiers

Military Warriors Support Foundation

Give to the Troops

Paralyzed Veterans of America Mission:ABLE

Armed Forces Foundation

Special Operations Warrior Project

Alaska's Healing Hearts

Herobox.org

Wounded Warrior Project

We recently surprised soldiers with some of our favorite snacks! 16 soldiers in Zabul, Afghanistan enjoyed our beef jerky, pemmican, albacore tuna, pouched salmon and an assortment of goodonya breakfast bars. It is our honor to do what we can to ensure our soldiers are fueled with the best soldier snacks while on duty.  As pictured below, soldiers are hooking up a sling load to a CH-47 Chinook Helicopter in Afghanistan.

We'd also like to introduce the 426th Brigade Support Battalion of Fort Campbell, KY. Earlier this year they celebrated the 426 BSB Org Day, and US Wellness Meats was proud to provide all the beef franks and hamburgers they could eat! Here are the troops installing a rocket propelled grenade netting on vehicles to protect them from RPG's hitting the hull of the vehicle. These were later battle tested while conducting re-supply and recovery missions.

We are also a proud supporter of Fueling the Fire campaign started by our friends at Paleo Magazine. This project was created to regularly send paleo-friendly care packages to our troops overseas.

From all the farm families of US Wellness Meats we extend a big salute today and every day to all that have so selflessly served this country. In honor of our soldiers we'd like to offer a one-day 15% discount on your order! Please use coupon code "vet15" to receive the discount. Happy Veteran's Day!

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

Who doesn't love bacon?!  Whether you choose to eat pork or not, you can still enjoy the delicious flavor of bacon ~ we have several bacon options to select from: pork, beef, sugar-free, and more!  Try this side dish tonight, it's bursting with flavor.

• 2 lbs. brussel sprouts, cut into halves
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• ¼ cup onion, chopped
• 4 slices of bacon, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Remove bacon from skillet and drain about half the grease.  Add butter and onion to the skillet and cook until the onion is partially cooked.  Add the brussel sprouts and cook until tender crisp.  Mix in the cooked bacon and cook for an additional minute.

Free-Range Chicken Soup

The changing of the seasons brings out different cooking methods as we pull out our favorite recipe cards that haven't been seen for months.  Depending on your location, it may be getting cool enough to start making soups, stews, and roasts.  This free-range chicken soup recipe provides a hearty meal with simple, fresh ingredients to warm you up on the cool evenings to come.

• 3 -4 free-range chicken legs, or equivalent amount in any cut (skin removed)
• 1-2 Tbs. butter (or your favorite oil or fat)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 5 large carrots, peeled and sliced
• 4 celery stalks
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. fennel leaves, chopped
• ¼ tsp. ground black pepper

In a dutch oven on the stove, melt the butter and brown the chicken legs.  Add onion and carrot, cook for about 2 minutes.  Add celery, cook for another 2 minutes.  Add stock, fennel, and pepper.  Cover and simmer until meat falls off the bone, skimming any foam off the top periodically. Remove any bones.  Serve.

Woof woof! It's National Dog Week!

Celebrate with your best friend- it’s National Dog Week! Shower your pooch with plenty of love and treats as you both enjoy the 83^rd annual pet holiday. We have the healthiest and heartiest treats that will have your pet begging for more. How about a puppy party? You’ve come to the right place. We have all those hard-to-find specialty items, the most common treats with a healthy twist, and everything in between. Check out our wide array and always expanding selection of pet products:  

For a healthy and happy pet:

• Begging for beef (knuckle bone cartilage, long bones, marrow bones: small and large)
• Loving the lamb (kidney, spare ribs, marrow bones)
• Craving some chicken (backs and necks)

Even more nutrient-dense favorites:

• Healthy organ meats (heart, liver, kidney)
• Hearty chew toys (marrow bones, spare ribs, chicken backs)

Last but certainly not least, has your canine (or feline) tried our best-selling pet burger yet? If not, they are missing out! This one-of-a-kind treat is a mixture of 65% lean beef, beef heart, and beef liver with no fillers, preservatives, or dyes. You will quickly see why this is one of our most sought after products and best kept secrets. The US Wellness Meats dog, Buck, is always begging for more burger!
 
Rest assured your pet will be getting the best, as all the ingredients in our pet food selections are from the same 100% grass-fed and grass-finished cattle as our other beef products! In fact, the high fat content (35%) is the only reason the pet burger is labeled for pet consumption only. While some customers choose to cook the pet burger, the vast majority simply serve it raw. To make the diet transition smoother, we recommend a gradual introduction of the burger if your pet is currently eating dry, packaged pet food.  

Whether your pampered pet needs an occasional treat or a daily meal, we are your one-stop pet food shop.  

Share your favorite pet recipes or feeding ideas with us! Your recipes and comments could be featured in a future publication of our newsletter.
 
“The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.” 

~Sen. George Graham Vest