EP. 06: Pantry + Fridge
The great awaited pantry overhaul and refrigerator clean-up I've been promising is finally here! I will go item-by-item and explain the good, better, and best options we use in our every day life. I have littles and a husband, and we all have our preferences, but it's not impossible to have yummy, holistic options locally and shipped to us. We're investing in our today in order for a healthier tomorrow! Hopefully, we all have less pharmaceutical or medical intervention in our futures because of our best choices, today.
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Show Notes
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0:00:00
Hey everybody, I hope that you're doing well. So today we're going to do a pantry clean out. We're going to do a pantry clean out and a fridge clean out as well. Just to kind of in that middle of the road better than most. So we'll kind of talk through everything and then if you guys have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask on the Ask Me Anythings or message me as well so we can always spark some more conversations.
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0:00:45
So the bottom shelf is kind of just supplements. My husband is a really big popcorn fan and that's a snack and my son's snack. I'm not a big popcorn girl and that's not my first go-to. So what he will do, he grew up doing the microwave bagged popcorn, right, which we know is super toxic. So we have an air popper and he will do one GMO popcorn with a little bit of avocado oil sprayed on it. And then he tosses it in nutritional yeast for that cheesy butter flavor. And if you guys aren't familiar with nutritional yeast,
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0:01:25
Bragg's is the one that I recommend the most. It's pretty cool because it tastes like cheese without the dairy. It has a lot of B vitamins in it. It can be used for a lot of different things and there's a lot of different health benefits. So that's kind of a little snack hack that he does. And again, for kids, it's a nice option
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0:01:49
opposed to microwave popcorn. So that's what's in the bottom shelf here. I also have, of course, since I'm pregnant,
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preggy pops.
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0:01:57
So for morning sickness and nausea. I've always recommended these for my patients who get sick These are actually really good too. If you have vertigo if you get car sick boat sick, you don't have to be pregnant to use them There's different flavors and the cool thing is is there's some vitamins in here as well, so They work really well, and they're just a nice alternative to morning sickness. So these are always in here. Thankfully, we're getting past that stage of the pregnancy. I have just different types of teas.
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0:02:36
I'm a big tea girl. This is okay. Lipton is okay. They are in bleached bags, right? They're not the cleanest. There's better ones out there. But being pregnant, I'm trying to do the decaf thing so I'll do iced tea or hot tea with this as opposed to some other teas. I have some
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0:03:01
of my supplements down here, glutamine that I'll put my protein shakes, that's a great supplement that I like to kind of heal the intestinal lining, it's good for immune support too, so I'll throw that in my smoothies. And then I also have a couple of different kinds of collagens that I like. Again, I'm a big fan of the vital proteins. It's a clean source of collagen. This one is kind of a beauty one, which I'm not using right now because I'm pregnant, but as you can see one of my go-to's is chocolate, and I'll just mix that with my smoothie. And then I also have another one that's vanilla
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0:03:43
that I'll use for granola bars. So I will share my recipe when we go over to the fridge, I'll share my recipe with you guys. It's kind of a clean hack for the perfect bar recipe. So we'll talk about that in a bit. But those are my go-to's for collagen. Just some other teas that are better than Lipton and again with being pregnant some of these I do some I don't. Yogi teas, they're nice because they're organic, they're non-GMO. Tezo's not
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0:04:16
organic but it is non-GMO. So again good, better, best with different teas. And then the only other thing I have down here, which sometimes I'll do, is beet pollen. So I'll add that to my smoothie sometimes just for some extra immune support. It helps with fertility as well. It's kind of crunchy, but if you put it in a smoothie, it breaks it up so it's not too bad. You can put this in a lot of different things,
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and a little goes a long way. So that's in my pantry too. So snacks. Let's talk about snacks, right?
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So this is our snack basket.
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Let's take this over here. Mary's Gone Crackers, they're organic. They're non-GMO. What I like about them is they are gluten-free. They do have soy and sesame. So if you're sensitive to those, you might want to avoid them. But I'll do these with cheese. I'll do these with spreads They're just easy they're clean right my son and my husband are not big fans so instead of
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0:05:23
Some other cracker brands they like the crunch masters Which are okay, they're good. They're non-gmo. They're not organic They are gluten-free their rice crackers, and there's different flavors. He has like a roasted garlic in here. They have like a salt and pepper avocado toast. So there's a bunch of different ones. They're vegan, there's no artificial flavors. So these are cleaner options than a lot of common cracker brands that you might see on the shelf.
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0:06:00
And my son loves those, so I'll just eat those. And then again, I'm a nutritionist so I'm not going to have goldfish in my pantry because I know what's in them. But, a little bit better, Andy's Organic, right? So these are organic, they're non-GMO, yes they're not gluten free. Right now we have chocolate chip and chocolate and then just the grams too. So I'll give these to the kiddos for just a little guilty indulgent snack or snack for church. So that's kind of our snack baskets. And then I did get asked about gluten-free flour and what kind of
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flour I use. So one of my favorites, and you'll see I have a lot of it. I really like Bob's Red Mill. Some of it's organic, some of it's not. This is just cornmeal. It is not organic, but we'll use this when we make homing pizza. They have gluten-free and non-GMO arrowroot, which is a great substitution for cornstarch.
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0:07:08
So sometimes I'll use this, especially if we want to avoid corn, right? Arrowroot's been around for a very long time. So that's a nice option. This is my gluten-free oat flour that I'll use for my granola bars. Bob's even has a gluten-free biscuit and baking mix and you can see we use that quite a bit. The other one, and my kids love this, King Arthur. It's not organic, but it is non-GMO. Gluten-free pancake mix.
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0:07:44
So we'll do on the weekend banana pancakes, blueberry pancakes. We've tried the just pure banana pancakes without flour, like the keto ones. My kids aren't so crazy about those. So that's kind of our happy medium.
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I've got some almond flour in here, gluten-free alternative as well.
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0:08:02
Sometimes I'll get the Kroger or Meijer brand. They do a really nice job too. It's not organic, but it is a good alternative if I'm trying to avoid gluten. So when we make pizza, we will use King Arthur pizza flour sometimes. Sometimes we'll use like Dallalo's pizza crust mix. I like Dallalo's because it is from Italy. King Arthur's is not, but it is just red wheat. It is not gluten-free.
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0:08:41
So again, good, better, bad. Just depends on what we're kind of feeling. And then sometimes for the holidays, if I'm making bread, this is a really cool company. It's Heritage Organic Flour. They have sourdough mixes, pizza options. They have a whole lot of different flours. And they're from Minnesota.
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0:09:07
So pretty neat company. This is my bread mix that I'll use. It is organic, it's non-gmo, but it is not gluten-free. But I do like the heirloom component to it for digestibility. Sometimes I'll do King Arthur organic all-purpose flour depending on what I'm making. Again, not gluten-free. Depends on who the audience is as well. If I'm making something for a gift. Christmas time, powdered sugar for frosting. It's organic, still powdered sugar, right?
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And then for sugar, my sugar alternatives, I'll just do turmeric cane sugar. This is the company that I like. Again, I try to stay away from bleached sugar and then just some organic dark brown sugar. So those are my go-tos with flour and sugars. This basket is basically the kid's snack basket. So we'll do apple sauces,
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0:10:10
but we do organic because apples fall in some of the dirty dozen, right? So they're super heavy with toxins. So I always make sure it's organic. And what I love is it's just apple puree and lemon juice. There's no sugar. And this one's cinnamon, so it has some cinnamon in it. But Kroger has, these are the only places
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I can find it is Kroger. Meijer does not have an organic applesauce that I have found. They do have this GoGo Squeeze one, which is non-GMO, but it is not organic. So we try to avoid this one. Right, better, best. These are a rare treat.
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Earth's Best Organic makes organic biscuits with Elmo on them, which my son loves. They're just a nice alternative to classic processed kids' food. They do have some organic sunflower oil and some other things in there that I'm not crazy about, but it's a great alternative. So he does eat these sometimes. And then this is one of my favorite companies, Katie's Real Food. So it's organic, it's gluten-free, they make regular-sized
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bars, and then they make snack-sized. And of all places, I was flying home from Florida and Delta served these as a snack. I fell in love with them. So after doing research with the company, this is definitely a staple. So Katie's Real Food is one of my favorites, and the kids love them too. Up here, another really good one I like.
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0:11:54
It's not organic, but it is non-GMO. It's gluten-free. Bob's Red Mill. They make peanut butter and chocolate. They have different flavors too, which I've not tried, but again, the kids love it. It's a nice alternative to other granola bars. Yes, there's some sugar in them, but they're kids.
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0:12:17
And sometimes I need that too. Peanut butter. I have my peanut butter upside down, right? So I get the natural crunchy. If I really, really wanted it to be best, I would get organic, but I did not, just because they were out. Because it's natural, I always invert it, so it's easier for me to stir. But we just get Kroger. It's just peanuts and salt. So we get that. The other company that we have, depending on if I'm shopping at Kroger or Meijer is Crazy Richards. This is non-GMO and it's just peanuts and salt. And then Simple Truth
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almond butter is another one. Sometimes we'll switch between like peanut butter almond butter. I try to not give the kids a whole lot of straight peanut butter in a row. I like to rotate those nuts just to help prevent any sensitivities. Pure maple syrup, gotta have those for the pancakes. And then we are getting a little bit low but we just get pure raw honey. I try to get local if we can but if I'm doing a pickup order I'll just get whatever's at Kroger Meijer. This stuff's wonderful. So there's some pretty good studies that show that drinking hot chocolate in the form of cacao stimulates stem cells for healing.
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0:13:51
So this is a staple in our pantry. It makes phenomenal chocolate milk, great hot cocoa, and you can use this in the place of any recipe that calls for cocoa powder or cacao, and it's organic. It's very, very good. Nabitas is a great company. And then this is just a quick dinner option. It's not organic. It is gluten-free, but it's clean.
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There's really nothing in here that concerns me, and we like this because we just throw in our rice, our chicken, we're done, dinner's ready. So quick option to have, it's a corma sauce and then we also have a butter sauce.
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Bone broth, another really good one
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for healing in stem cells. So with being pregnant, if I'm super sick, I'll drink some of this or if some of the kids are sick or starting to get something, fight something, I'll give them some bone broth to sip on and they love it. It's very rich It's grass-fed kettle and fire is one of my favorites. They also have chicken broth So this is a really really good company. It's non-gmo. It's organic Yes, I could make my own
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0:15:05
But for time's sake I do not But I have done that we have really good sources of local bison where I've gotten the bones and I've done a slow cooker and made bone broth that way. So that's a really good option as well. For hydration, I know my husband and I use this, especially with being pregnant, I've done this liquid IV.
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0:15:30
So as far as electrolytes go, there's really good ones, and then there's some not so good ones. Liquid IV is one of my favorites because it's clean, it's non-gmo, yes there's sugar in it, but it's a clean source of electrolytes. It's certainly better than Gatorade or the Meos or some of those other ones that you'll throw in. So this is kind of our go-to. The other one that I like, again, better than Gatorade, vitamin water, the zero sugar, because as their sweetener, they use monk fruit. So it's a cleaner version versus an artificial sweetener,
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0:16:17
which we've talked about. We want to stay away from those. So if we need some hydration, these are in here. And then pastas, I think we've talked a little bit about pasta. I like pasta from Italy, so I'll do this to De Sico. They have a plain and then they have the organic, so these are nice. They are not gluten-free, but again, being from Italy, I tend to not worry about that as much. Chocolate, right? We have to have chocolate. So this is the company that I really like. We use their chocolate chips. They have white chocolate chips out now. They have
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little mini chips, which we always have in the pantry. I use them for my granola bars, but they're also great for snacks. They also make different candy bars, so this is a really cool company. These are non-GMO, they're gluten-free, they're clean, and the nice thing is they're free from 14 allergens. So this is a great option compared to standard chocolate chips that you just might reach for. Organic rice, we try to do heirloom and in the States because a lot of rice has high amounts of arsenic, so we wanna avoid that.
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So we'll do this, or we just get rice from Italy as well. So two options there.
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And then the other one, again, for quick dinners, that I'll mix with that butter or korma sauce.
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Organic brown basmati rice, quick and easy. Seeds of Change is a really good company for that. And then as far as other snacks, organic, gluten-free corn chips, right? We just had nachos last night for dinner With some grass-fed beef so we will do these so that's an option The company that I prefer the most is Siete phenomenal Gluten-free clean organic non-gmo, so they make chips they make tortillas They make soft and hard ones
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they make Which I will warn you are addicting, cookies as well. Grain-free cookies. So they make like a Mexican one that is a wedding and a Mexican shortbread as well. So these are just nice indulgences for the kids or myself or the husband. And then Siete also makes, get it from my spice down here, they make taco seasoning. Something we don't think about taco seasoning, kind of having a lot of junk in it. They make different types of seasoning that is just amazing. So that's kind of my go-to for spices for for that. We've got our vinegars, our organic vinegars down there.
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So if you guys have any questions, I would certainly love to hear those. And then we'll go on and do our fridge clean out.
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All right.
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So let's go ahead and move on to the fridge and talk about what's in there. So on this store, basically the milk, right? We get, as far as butter goes, organic butter, unsalted. So usually I'll get Kerrygold, just because it's from Ireland. Happy cows, grass-fed cows, so we will get that. And then organic milk. I try to get grass-fed as much as possible, which thankfully is pretty accessible. So we'll do that for regular milk,
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chocolate milk for the kiddos, and then half and half, which unfortunately I'm not drinking. A whole lot of coffee right now, but if I do, it's right there. So there's that. Eggs, we get grass-fed, pastured eggs. So we're always stocked up with those, and you can see there's different colors, which I always love.
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Just so pretty. So, happy chickens there. So this is a staple.
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I'll hard boil a lot of these and have them in the fridge for snacks too. The kids love those. So that's a good one. Carrots. The catch with this, and the reason why they're in this and not a bag, is because baby carrots are often preserved with bleach, right?
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0:21:22
So I try to stay away from those. Baby carrots aren't really a thing, unless you pick a baby carrot. They're not a thing. So I'll get organic carrots, chop them up, that way they're ready to go. I get home, wash, chop everything, peel them, here they are. So there are those. And then as far as the protein bars go that I was talking about, this is kind of what they look like. They are a coffee cat version of the Perfect Bar, which I nice because they are organic, they're non-GMO, a decent amount of protein, they come in a
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full size or snack size, so I love these. They're kind of expensive, which isn't a bad thing, but if I want to kind of cheat, I'll make my own. So I'll make sure I share that recipe with you guys. I use the Vital Proteins Collagen in it, the Enjoy Life chocolate chips, clean peanut butter, and as you can see the kids love them and my husband. So there's a nice snack. Pasta sauce. We just had pasta the other night. We like Raios. We try to get anything from Italy. Again, it's not organic but it's kind of local. It is from Pennsylvania. So we'll use that when
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we make pizza. Sometimes I'll just get Rao's or Delalo's pizza sauce as well. So those are our sauce options. Talking about electrolytes, I have organic Pedialyte in the fridge because again I'm pregnant. So that's always in there. So, better than regular Pedialyte. And they just came out with organic, which is a beautiful thing. So that's in here. And this drawer is basically some supplements. My husband's a big fan of the seltzer water so he has those in here. I've got the kids
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probiotic in the fridge, their fish oil, and then I've got my fish oil in here as well for pregnancy. So those are right there. The bottom drawer, lots of snacks And it's easy to get to. So we have organic cuties in the very bottom. We have organic apples. We have one pair that's left. Hard-boiled eggs, berries. They'll eat a whole container in a sitting.
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0:24:21
Depending on the availability, we do get really good options for beef at Kroger and Meijer. So again, I like the organic. It is grass-fed, so that's a plus. So that's in here for dinner. Nuts, remember, keep your nuts in the fridge. Organic walnuts, so I'll try to take a handful every day. Plus, as we've got is grass-fed ground beef. I either get this at Kroger or Meijer.
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0:24:54
So that's in there for dinner. I've got my oils in here. So if I'm not using butter, I will use coconut oil, organic, non-GMO. I've got my Italian olive oil. I've got some chia seeds, right? You want to keep your nuts and your seeds in the fridge. So those are in here. I'll throw those in granola bars sometimes. And then, as I was saying, with the pantry clean out, my husband loves to make popcorn in the air popper. So this is what he'll use to spray the popcorn.
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0:25:36
It's avocado oil. And we'll talk another time about different oils and their smoke points and what to use what for when. But this is really nice. So it has a smoke point of 500 degrees. So this is easy to spray on the grill, but he'll put it on his popcorn. And then we have true Italian olive oil. So the good stuff for salads. So we've got that.
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And then this is another snack area for the kids. So,
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a little bit of applesauce left over. As far as yogurts go, again I try to do organic and clean. I really like the Stonyfield Organic for my kiddos. They have squeeze tubes, they have the pouches. I just do these because that's where we're at in our phase of life. I like the baby ones a little bit better because there's less sugar and I still give my toddler the baby ones just to keep the sugar down. So that's what we'll do for yogurt. I like, again, Seven Sons Farm out of Indiana for healthy snacks, beef sticks. So there's something called the Rome Sticks that will do with snacks.
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They have beef jerky. And then organic cheese, right? Everyone loves cheese. So we all just get organic cheese, either Colby or mozzarella from Kroger or Meijer, just depending on who has it. So that's their little snack baskets.
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We've got our cheese floor.
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Ideally, we will try to do, we never do Velveeta, right?
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Because that's not cheese.
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It's not food.
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We'll do imported cheese, so Danish blue cheese. Right now I'm craving blue cheese being pregnant, so and I give this to my daughter too, just to kind of develop her palate. So blue cheese is in the fridge right now, real cheese for pasta. We don't buy the jar that's on the shelf of parmesan, some gouda from Holland. So again, we just try to keep it overseas as far as the cheese goes. When I make peanut butter and jellies for my son, we will do Dave's Killer Bread. It's organic, it's non-GMO. I like the thin slice and it's whole grain. So with bread, as far as bread goes, with good, better, and best, white is the worst, right? We know this. Wheat is the second worst. You want whole grain. And they have, you know, you can see the grain, you can see the seeds.
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0:28:50
They have different varieties. This is the kind that we like. It's not gluten free, but it's a great option if you don't have to be gluten free. And the kids love it too. So that's a really good one. And then as far as yogurt, get a couple of them out here. Good Culture is really clean. I don't like cottage cheese, but my son and my husband
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do. So this is what we'll do. It's organic. 14 grams of protein. You can't go wrong with this. So that's always in the fridge. And then for us adults, Stonyfield Organic. I like to get the Greek because it has 16 grams of protein. You can add your own honey, add your own berries, add granola, whatever you want to do to make it sweeter, but at least you've got a clean foundation. So there's that one.
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0:29:55
And then for the peanut butter and jellies, again, I try to get imported jam. This is actually a company, it's made in Italy, but it's produced by a company from Boardman, Ohio, which I'm from Youngstown, so kind of dear to my heart. But Giarrusso, really good, and I got this at Meijer. They have different flavors, but berry is a big hit at our family. And then this is just kind of the sauce and dressings side.
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In the very bottom, mayonnaise, right?
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0:30:22
Not all mayonnaise is created equal. I really like, so we've got some organic Helminths made with organic free-range eggs, so this is a good option. I also really like Sir Kensington. They have really good ketchup, really good mayonnaise, different dressings, cage-free, it's non-GMO, keto certified, so this is my first choice. I think we got this because we couldn't find Sir Kensington. As far as mustards go, for the most part pretty much organic mustard, no surprise there, balsamic
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organic ketchup, when I do sushi, which I'm not doing right now, we do gluten-free tamari, low sodium, try to minimize the salts. Garlic Expressions is okay. I like it because, number one, it tastes good. It does have canola oil, which I'm not a fan of which you guys know but it is a better brand than most and it's at least local. Brianna's is another one it's made with real ingredients it's gluten-free no high fructose corn syrup so with dressings you're always better to make your own these are better than the wishbone varieties and some of the other companies that we kind of grew up with and thinking about. But yeah, we could still do better with that. Hot sauce, you can see we love hot sauce.
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0:32:11
So we have all different types. A lot of it's imported. So again, I don't worry about it not being organic. I've got kalamata olives in there. And then if I'm not using avocado oil to use to cook with or butter we get grass-fed lard or tallow. Makes delicious delicious food. So we have that in the fridge always. Lemon juice, nothing surprising there. Organic jalapenos. And then we're human right? We have ice cream once in a while. So if I have to have hot fudge or have my family
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have hot fudge, we just use the Simple Delight hot fudge. It's cleaner than most. We'll just say that. So that's in the fridge. And then really, for the freezer, there's not a whole lot to see out here. We have some more pasture-raised products from Seven Sons, which, again, I will use this company out of Indiana when I can't get
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0:33:18
ingredients from Meijer or Kroger I'm a mom. I love hot dogs. I give my kids hot dogs. I just want them to be clean. So this is my go-to We've got a lot as you can see wild salmon. So that's always in the fridge or I'm sorry the freezer From Seven Sons filets so we've got some filets we've got some kielbasa just some options for dinner that I can always pull out wild shrimp from the Gulf from Key West and then some wild sea scallops it's lent so it's nice to have these options on Friday.
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0:34:04
And then bacon too, right? It's hard to find clean bacon.
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0:34:07
So I like to get my bacon from Seven Sons. It's hardwood smoked, it's uncured, which we'll talk about the benefits of that at a later point with the nitrates and all the preservatives. So again, if you can minimize the ingredients, that's always better. Organic coffee, right? So this is a really big one. We kind of don't even think about coffee being organic, but it should be, because they're beans,
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and they're heated to make coffee, and so anything on that bean is going to be extracted into your coffee. And it also depends on what you're carrying your coffee in. Is it ceramic? Is it steel? Is it plastic? Is it styrofoam? So organic coffee is definitely the best way to minimize pesticide residues and anything like that. So we just get this at Meijer. There's some great options on Amazon too. I've got frozen organic bananas in here for my smoothies. And then, again, right, I said ice cream and sundaes. So we've got Graters. My favorite, Graters is good.
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0:35:21
Graters is certainly better than some other commercial brands, and I like that it's local. I really like Jenny's a little bit better because they use grass-fed ingredients. And again, it's still local, so great, good, better, best. This is certainly a better option to me than going out and getting commercial ice cream.
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0:35:44
So we have that in the freezer as well. So I look forward to your questions. If you guys need any tips or advice on foods that I have not gone over or that I don't have in my own house, certainly feel free to ask them. I'd love to help you out and really just kind of I'd love to help you out and really just kind of
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meet that good, better, and best.
Transcribed with Cockatoo