Happy animals, revisiting my food obsession!

Yes, I'm talking about happy food again. I have fallen further into the food deep end. You all have witnessed my slide. A quick recap, two and a half years ago I was a vegetarian (20 years), then no wheat, no dairy, then no soy, which led to meat eating (at some point, you’ve got to eat something). Then I went paleo (no grains). And don't get me wrong, paleo is a great place to be. I'm very happy with what I eat (and feel great). But I’ve been researching food, its origins and its effect on the body. And it’s taking me to a new scary place. No longer can I buy organic chicken breast from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Turns out, that poor mass produced chicken really doesn’t have much better of a life than its antibiotic filled counterpart. These days my chicken has to have spent its life scuttling about the fields eating bugs out of cow manure. To find that chicken, you have to buy the whole damn chicken and not just the breast!! Which, really, is a completely new level of commitment. (I know I talked about making that commitment before, but I hadn't actually done it.) I knew that I had totally lost it last night. I finished pulling the meat off my happy chicken and promptly felt compelled to drop the carcass in a pot of water to make broth. Yes, I’m cooking chicken broth so I can use the whole damn chicken.

Now, I have a huge pot of chicken broth sitting in my refrigerator and I have no idea what to do with it. Yes, I can make soup. Or it seems (according to Google) that I can freeze it. But picture this, I will probably be eating a chicken a week. That is A LOT of broth. I can just imagine the little baggies of chicken broth multiplying in my freezer - never to be heard from again. Currently, the dog is enjoying chicken broth with his meals.

And then there is beef. I've started eating more of it, after becoming fully enamored with the description of happy cows living in harmony with their roaming chicken counterparts. But it seems that one has to be even more careful with one's beef. Beef is frequently touted as 'grain fed' or 'grain finished', as if this is the best thing ever. Unfortunately, in the world of omega 3s and happy cows, this is no good. One needs not just cows that were happy most of their lives, but 100 percent grass fed cows that have lived blissful, stress free lives (it seems stress is bad in something you're going to eat) and never so much as thought of a piece of corn.

And what's next? What happens when I decide I need to buy the whole damn cow?

YES!

NO!