Healthy??? cooking advice/recipe??? (Read 838 times)

I'm catering an employee Christmas party on Sat for a local business. In planning our menu, we discovered the owners & employees do not eat wheat, dairy, soy, potatoes or corn. Obviously mashed potatoes & corn are out, but it doesn't just end there. This isn't a food allergy issue, it is a belief issue. Apparently, the corn, wheat & dairy (I don't like potatoes, so I'm safe on 1 out of 4) I've been consuming my entire life is about to kill me & the rest of the nation. Trent, don't think you're going to live by drinking that non-pasteurized milk...dairy is dairy & it's poisoning us all!! The appetizer I'm making is usually on a biscuit dough type base & the dessert is usually in a little cup made of pie crust. All fine & good, except I need to make the bases without using wheat, soy, potatoes, corn & dairy!! She gave me a bag of bread mix they sell in their store. It is made by Namaste Foods and is free of all of the above, among other things. Problem is, it only gives me a recipe for bread & I need biscuit dough & pie crust. Now, I'm a pretty good cook, but my recipes for both of these things contain dairy and other things. Sooo...what I'm looking for is a little assistance in the recipe department. Please tell me someone here is allergic to all of those things & has fabulous recipes for biscuits & pie crust that fit in the guidelines. Please, if these eating habits are simply your belief, no that it is not my intention to insult you. But I likz me some milk!!! And...I've never catered anything with so many do's & don'ts!! TIA for your help!! Eryn

Help me understand what these people believe about these foods.

Must. Restrain. Myself.

Serve them grass and a pot of lard.

I think they'd be happy with that. So long as the grass was pesticide/herbicide free & the lard was from an animal raised on said organic grass. See, I'm ok with the organic thing...no milk & wheat though? I think I'm going to go make a glass of chocolate milk & ponder this for a bit!

Most grass is "orgainc",most calves are raised to about 600 pounds on grass, then become feeder cattle. Feeder cattle are fattened on feed grains including corn and milo, now with a healthy dose of distillers dried grain. Most was not grown "organically" but doubt you could find a ppb of pesticide in the feed grain. I am a grower and will shoot you straight if you ask me a question concerning production, how and why pesticides are used. I am also a commercially licensed pesticide applicator but do most work on our crops, corn, wheat, pinto beans, sunflower seeds, not much on fruits and other veggies but have working knowledge there.

Are you talking dairy cattle or beeves? If beeves, what slaughter weight do you work with, and at what age do they reach 600lbs and slaughter? And what about antibiotics?

As she was talking about "organic grass" and that means beef. Most dairy cattle are not on range land. Slaughter weights are kind of breed dependant. Some cattle will finish at lighter weights, example the happy hereford in the old westerns (not longhorns) but in general most of todays beef cattle will finish in the 1100-1300 pound range. Most of the western cattle are bred to calve in the spring from february to april depending on what fits the local with regard to weather and feed etc. Calves are weaned in the fall, sep, oct, nov and can weigh between 400-800 pounds at that time depending on when they were born. The lighter ones might go on some kind of pasture like fall planted wheat or rye, or into a backgrounding lot still being fed a high degree of roughage. Heavier weights are fed higher and higher amounts of concentrate (grains) until slaughter by about 14-18 months. Antibiotics vary by the particular drug but a treated animal cannot be slaughtered for 45-60 days and is mandated by USDA and it is rare that an older animal would suffer from respiratory diseases at that time to necesstitate treatment. Weaned calves may be fed a ration with antibiotics for a few days when first brought into the lot. They are using some very expensive drugs these days so its not like producers can throw boatloads of drugs at these animals. I am technically out of the cattle business now since about 2002, as we leased our grass so I can concentrate on the crops, as we live in the age of specialists. However my biggest corn customers are feedlots so am still in the loop but cannot tell you for example the specifics on a particular drug for livestock without research but generally I can answer your questions. The crop chemicals I stay up on very well as it is required to keep my applicators license, not that I wouldn't do so anyway. So hopefully not TMI but as much of the population gets further from rural roots they don't really know and understand how their food is grown. Right now organic is trendy and I live with that, I just want folks to be informed food consumers as there is alot of misinformation out there. Apologies for any threadjacking, hope this helps.

(Oh, and understand, I have nothing against pesticide or nothing in favor of organic, per se; it is the whole system that interests me.)

I understand that the breeding process to make cattle optimized for feedlots is ongoing and not yet complete. Manure does get back to cropland, but only by being trucked there at a high fuel cost. Cattle raised and slaughtered out in the fields are less likely to have the stress. I agree, government mandated centralized slaughterhouses make pasture-raised cattle less feasible. Methane production does increase on concentrate and on grains. Tastes better? Well, that is a judgement.