Introducing Produce Possibilities!  Every Saturday from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, starting this Saturday February 6, sample field-fresh ingredients in a healthy recipe at our Demo kiosk. Don’t miss out! Talk to our staff, get a recipe and check out our sale items.

This weeks featured produce includes beets which are particularily rich in the B vitamin folate which is essential for normal tissue growth.

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Creamy Beets and Dill with Sautéed Greens and Ribeye Steak
Serves 3-4

Beets
1 bunch green top beets, stems trimmed off and greens set aside
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 C. dill, chopped
1/2 C. heavy cream
3 Tbsp. prepared white horseradish
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. shallot, minced
1 Tbsp. garlic, mincedGreens
Reserved greens from bunch beets
1 bunch spinach, stems trimmed
1 Tbsp.garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil

For Beets
Preheat oven to 375°F. Gently scrub beets, then cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss beets with the olive oil in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with salt. Cover pan with foil.  Spread out on the foil and bake about 30 minutes. Add the dill, heavy cream, horseradish, lemon juice, shallot and garlic to a medium saucepan as well as the roasted beets. Simmer on medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature aside steak and greens.

For Ribeye Steak
Rub steaks (quantity as desired per group size) with salt, then marinate them in Drew’s Organic Rosemary Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing & Marinade. Chill for 30 minutes to one hour. Prepare according to your taste preference (about 8 minutes per side for medium rare).

For Greens
When the steak is half done, start greens by adding olive oil and garlic to a medium frying pan on medium heat and sauté for 2 minutes.  Rinse spinach with the beet greens in a colander. Shake to get the excess moisture out, then add to the pan and sauté for 5 minutes, turning frequently until wilted. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Serve warm aside steak.

Portable, enjoyable and sustaining is how Thuro Bread is described in this month’s newsletter. 
 

Always searching for a healthy option for a quick hardy snack or meal replacement in the busy-bustling ‘burbs? Thuro Bread has your answer.

Sarah Couenhoven, president of Thuro Bread, began baking these breads as an alternative way to feed her family without refined flours and sugars. She uses power-packed whole-grain ingredients that are great for kids, athletes or a commuter grabbing a cup of coffee on the way out the door.

Read more about Thuro Bread in This is Living Naturally online or pick up a copy in the store.

Sarah and Seth her son Seth are visiting the demo kiosk often this month. Stop by to have taste! Check out the Co-op Calendar to see when they’re here.

Have you noticed our new grass-feed beef counter? All of our fresh beef in this counter is raised in Elgin, MN by one of our Down in the Valley partners, Hidden Stream Farm. They raise quality beef like British Whites in grass pastures. In the winter time, the cattle are fed grass hay. Many proponents of grass-feed beef point out that it is just as high in omega-3 as salmon. It is a leaner beef with a distict flavor

Valley Natural Foods practices the near-extinct art of hanging beef which refers to cutting steaks and roasts from the whole carcass. This unique practice allows us to safely control the process. Our meet department HASSUP-certified, meaning we adhere to strict safety standards including weekly inspections. Our friendly meat department staff can assist you with requests for special cuts.

 You can immediately tell our grass-fed beef is fresh. However, we do not dye our meat or process it with chemicals so it does tend to discolor more rapidly than pre-packaged, pre-frozen beef (exactly the kind we do not sell at Valley Natural Foods. If you prefer traditional-finished beef, we have that too and it’s all-natural, hormone-free and grown locally. Be sure to ask us about purchasing quarter or half sides of beef that we will cut and wrap for you.

Why work at Valley Natural Foods? Because our mission is a Healthy Community!

Click here to apply online for any of the following positions:

Weekend Cook – Part Time

• Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (includes evenings)
• 1 to 3 years of experience
• Ability to lift 50+ pounds regularly

Gluten-Free Baker – Part Time

• Open availability; 1 to 3 years experience
• Demonstrated gluten-free knowledge
• Previous gluten-free baking experience
• Ability to lift 50+ pounds regularly

Wellness Customer Service – Part Time

• Open Availability, 2-3 weekends/month
• Ability to lift 30+ pounds regularly
• Familiarity with Wellness/Supplements

Cashier – Part Time

• Evenings and Weekends (2pm-close)
• Ability to lift 50+ pounds regularly

Join Our Team!

• Positive work environment
• Easy access to & from 35E
• Competitive wages/benefits
• Employee discounts
• G.R.E.A.T. co-workers
• F.R.E.S.H. values 

  

Super Bowl is coming up February 7th and once again, Valley Natural Foods will beef up their selection of Game Day Goodies! Check out our deli display the next time you are browsing the deli cooler. You will find an assortment of healthy items like Veggie or Grass-Fed Beef Chili, Deli-Baked Cornbread, Spinach, Grinch or Chili-Cheese Dips, BBQ Meatballs made with Grass-Fed Beef , Hot & Honey or Buffalo Chicken Wings complete with Dip and Celery, Old-Fashioned Baked Beans, and Black Bean Quesadillas among other delicious items from which to choose! 

Does cooking food increase the caloric value? What are the benefits of natural sweeteners versus table sugar? How is fructose metabolized? And what are your thoughts on saturated fat and cardiovascular disease?

Marion Nestle takes on a some of those tough questions about sugars and fats in her blog Food Politics. She is an author and Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health as well as Professor of Sociology at New York University.

She shares her ideas in her blog on January 25:

I wish I could answer all of the questions that come into Feedback or Comments, but I cannot except occasionally.  It’s a rainy day in New York and today seems to be one of those occasions.

Q: Does the caloric value of a food change when it’s cooked?  In his latest book, “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human,” Harvard Primatologist Richard Wrangham argues that cooking foods changes the available nutrient content and actually raises the available calories.

A:  The rules of physical chemistry tell us that matter cannot be destroyed or created so the number of calories available in a food does not change with temperature.  What can change is our ability to use (digest, absorb) the calories that are there as well as our desire to eat the foods.  Cooking makes the calories in potato starch more available, for example, but has hardly any effect on the calories in meat.  Both, in my opinion at least, taste better cooked.    But cooked or not, the calorie differences will be small and unlikely to account significantly for weight change.

The nutrient situation is also complicated.  Cooking destroys some nutrients (vitamin C is a good example) but makes others more available (beta-carotene).  This is another reason why nutritionists are always advising variety in food intake.  Variety applies to cooked and raw, as well.

Read more of Marion’s Q and A…

Coming February 1st, 2010, the Cascadian Farm sweepstakes will begin. Look for drawing slips and complete details at the demo kiosk and at customer service. Sweepstakes will run February 1st through February 28, 2010.

Lifeway Foods

Coming soon – you will be able to donate directly to the Cooperative Emergency Fund at the registers of Valley Natural Foods. You can ask our cashiers to add any dollar amount you wish to your grocery tab. The Cooperative Emergency Fund will be donating all monies received from here until July to help the rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

To learn more about The Cooperative Development Foundation and their Cooperative Emergency Fund, visit www.cdf.coop. 

Deep snow can’t dampen the creativity of Cahill Salon & Barber Parlor in Burnsville. As the snow heaps up along County Road 11, this neighboring business to Valley Natural Foods simply used the snow as a new advertising medium. They are also offering 5% discount cards to the co-op with every haircut between now and the end of January. You can walk-in or call 952-432-6699. Just because we are all wearing hats this time of year doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a good hair-cut. After all, Cahill Salon is close to the co-op and has proven that they are resourceful!