Socolova's Journal, 11 September 2014

Your idea of buying real pieces of grass-fed meat, cooking, and then shaving yourself is a great idea and one that is probably the most cost effective. Any non-meat protein option is not generally as healthy (e.g. Quorn) and pre-packaged items can get costly. 

Yeah, I've been buying Boca for years but even those have more sodium than I'd like so I completely agree.... 

And it's like $6 for 4 burgers...ridiculous... 

Processed meats are loaded with sodium and preservatives...deli meats are terrible, even if they're labeled low sodium they still have lots of it. Sodium Nitrate is not healthy at all. I think you have the right solution in buying fresh unprocessed meats, preparing it yourself ahead of time, and using it as needed. I've done that before - usually preparing is on a weekend, packaging it in serving sizes and keeping it in the fridge for use during the week, freezing it if needed. 

You prompted me to read up on steak, since I am so fond of them. Now, I am talking only of unprocessed meat of course, but I was surprised to find that the cut of the meat made a tremendous difference in the sodium content as well. If you're interested, this web address didn't have a com in it, so maybe it will work here. http://ifood.tv/steak/about 

ooooh yeah, thank you!! 

I posted a recipe in yesterday's journal for my home made italian veggie "sausages". They're DELICIOUS and you control the sodium. Check out my journal from yesterday to see it. I ended up rolling the "meat" mix in blanched cabbage leaves and made little "dim sum"-like morsels of amazing awesomeness. They were so good! I wouldn't feed those store-bought "fake meat" products to a dog! SO packed full of chemicals and the label takes longer to read than a copy of US Weekly.  

Do you think that would work in seaweed? I just bought seaweed wraps yesterday.... 

Oh yeah, I just made stuffed eggplants with a similar recipe, this one sounds better though, thanks lil lady! 

You mean like nori wraps for sushi rolls? 

yes, I've never made them before but I like veggie sushi so I thought I'd try it lol 

I make veggie sushi at least once a week. It takes a little while to get the hang of it. The secret to them is to not put too much filling on the nori before you roll it. Less is more. I make mine with a combination of brown rice, quinoa and ground flax seeds to help bind it and give it the texture of white "sticky rice", and a soy, garlic & ginger massaged kale filling with carrots and avocado. YUMMERS!!! I wouldn't make the "sausages" with the nori. It's much too thin & fragile. I also steam the rolls after they're filled and there's no way the nori would hold up to that process.  

ahhh, I have spring rolls too....nom nom.... 

Yum! I love to make Spring rolls (never the fried kind, of course!) I like to fill mine with baby spinach, shredded red cabbage, carrots, avocado, and thinly shaved red onion with a mandarin, peanut, ginger sauce or some roasted garlic hummus. So good! (Now, I'm hungry!)  

you should be my chef :) 

Is it fresh meats that you are getting? How much salt is considered too much? Should have at least 2,000mg a day as the body needs it. 

I'm trying to stick right around 2000mg...we get a lot of ours from a local butcher but even like the chicken breast packages in the meat aisle at the grocery are ridiculous....I don't know how "fresh" those are... 

Stuff I read said that they inject poultry meat with salt water to make it weigh more and preserve it. Lovely. 

Yeah I kinda figured...........gross. 

That steak link is good though! Thanks, I know what cuts to aim for now!