We are grinding now, baby . . .

I am not one to spend much time on my soapbox, I figure it is up to each of us to collect information and make the best decisions possible.

There are so many factors involved -

good unbiased information

money

accessibility

equipment and tools

time

For a lot of us, time is probably the factor in the shortest supply.

That is why Tony and I have made this life changing decision for ourselves. We finally had enough money to meet monthly obligations (with a small cushion), we had access to good quality healthy food on a regular basis for the first time in 20'ish years, and we were willing to invest (and it is most certainly an investment in our future) in good equipment and tools.

Now that I am here full time, we have made the time.

Meet the newest investment in our health . . .

Here is where I step up on my soapbox and tell you that if you only do one thing this year to change the way you eat, I believe it should be to grind your own hamburger.

In 2008, 143,000,000 (One Hundred and Forty-Three MILLION) pounds of hamburger was recalled (article here). In September of 2009, almost 23,000 pounds of ground beef was recalled here. On October 31, 2009, the CDC said there were ONLY 26 people sick enough to talk about in 11 states due to suspected contamination with E. coli O157:H7 - this resulted in the recall of 500,000 pounds of ground beef.

And just one of the more recent examples - 432 TONS of ground beef was recalled in January 2010 due to the same E.coli contamination from a plant in California.

This was all information gained in my very clumsy internet search that lasted all of 3 minutes to find - I could not make myself search deeper or I would never be able to eat again.

In my first effort, I went to the grocery store and stood there eyeing the beef case. I don't buy much meat to begin with, so I'm really pretty clueless in this department. I did remember that one of the ways I had seen ground beef described was "ground chuck", so I started looking for packages with the word "chuck" on them.

Came up with these packages AND . . . they were on sale! SWEET

The directions for the grinder said to cut the meat up into 1" cubes. This is a "home" grinder after all - anything larger wouldn't work it's way through the auger and out the cutting plate (don't I sound smart with my new "grinder" jargon?!?...).

So, here are the 1" cubes - lots of them.

And here is what comes out of the grinder.

Easy . . .

but time consuming.