"What are these five and more tasks you usually have to do before you go to bed at night so your family can eat the next day?" a reader emailed to ask after I mentioned last week that the real food lifestyle often creates a rather more lengthy "to do list" of prep tasks than the fast food lifestyle.
I answered:
All sorts of stuff! Could be any of these:
- soak oatmeal for breakfast
- soak dough for biscuits, tortillas, whatever kind of bread
- soak dry beans
- thaw meat/stock/etc. (which involved digging deeply into chest freezer, no laughing matter)
- sometimes "making" tasks like make homemade mayo, homemade dressings, homemade crackers, homemade yogurt, water kefir, ETC.
Sound familiar?
When we were moving, and certainly when I’m nursing a newborn, sometimes I just don’t have energy to do all those tasks.
A normal person would simply buy crackers, yogurt, dressings, bread/buns, canned beans, cereal and juice. I just can’t do it.
The 80/20 rule, which I appreciate, says that if you eat perfectly 80% of the time, you can cheat 20% of the time. 20% of a week goes pretty fast if you eat out once or grab pizza for one meal or have a quick compromise here or there. Besides that, especially now that I’ve packed up many of my kitchen gadgets, we’re not doing "perfectly" with all our food.
I’ve been really pleased (surprised, excited, jumping up and down) to find some genuine convenience foods that I can just buy without having to make that are blessedly little to no compromise on the real food/traditional foods lifestyle, and I’ve been relying on some old favorites that take the least amount of my time possible as well.
Purchasing Real Food Convenience Foods
Here are some of the brands/companies/products I’ve discovered lately:
Green Valley Organics yogurt and kefir
I get a number of random public relations emails asking me to either post about (yeah, right) or test out new food products and other goodies. 97% of them are a terrible fit for the mission of Kitchen Stewardship, and I’m always surprised to see one come through that I think my wonderful readers might be interested in.
Particularly in light of having to consider the SCD Diet and my goal of making homemade yogurt incubated 24 hours to get rid of all the lactose, when I saw a product touting lactose free yogurt, I was intrigued.
The yogurt, which has 10 live and active cultures (more probiotics by almost double than the Dannon I regularly use!) is absolutely amazing. Thick, creamy, not sour in the least. When I asked how long it’s incubated to "get the lactose out," I got this reply:
"Yes, the longer you ferment yogurt, the more tart it becomes, and can actually become unpalatable. We incubate/ferment our yogurt for the optimum blend of high probiotics and GREAT taste and depending on which yogurt we are making can be between 5 and 7 hours. In addition, without testing/analyzing home produced yogurt in a lab, you are not assured that it is actually 100% lactose free…which may be important for anyone extremely intolerant."
Green Valley Organics also let me test their lactose-free sour cream, which has been great in homemade ranch dressing and on potatoes. We also ravenously enjoyed the vanilla goat milk yogurt, sweetened with only maple syrup, and I had my first taste of dairy kefir (made from goat’s milk). We made kefir smoothies with that because it was too zingy zangy for me to drink straight.
I’ve liked everything about the company and products at Green Valley Organics and Redwood Hill Farm so far, including the very short ingredients list and the commitment to environmental sustainability: the plant is completely solar-powered, among other things! Impressive. 
I’d love to work more with this company – if you’d like to see KS working with Green Valley (maybe a giveaway?), give them a visit by clicking HERE so I can show them my readers are a good fit. Thanks!
US Wellness Meats turkey jerky and meat sticks
In some locations, it may be tough to find grassfed meat, period. Even in a big city like Grand Rapids, where I live, it’s not easy to find pastured, nitrite and nitrate free cured meats that also don’t have MSG or gluten (although they do exist).
I can’t tell you how nice it was to have a few packages of truly healthy meat to just grab on those nights when we were bopping around looking at houses, and even, for example, this weekend, when regular high-carb party food was the only thing I could find to eat and I just wanted some real protein that wasn’t a compromise in the least.
Our family tested out 3 snack items from US Wellness Meats:
- Beef Snack Sticks
- Cajun Turkey Jerky
- Pemmican (honey and cherry free bar)
All four of us loved the snack sticks and were only disappointed there weren’t more in the package. We’ve even recently had some meat sticks we didn’t like, and these were just right – not too spicy, not too bland, and easy to eat.
The turkey jerky is too hard for the kiddos to chew, and it’s a little bland considering it’s got cajun spices in it, but that’s what I’ve been grabbing over and over when I just need that protein boost or an easy-grab snack that’s not nuts.
Pemmican, a traditional Native American food, is usually made with dried fruit (cranberries or cherries) and sometimes a touch of honey along with the beef and tallow. I chose cherry free because my husband will not eat fruit with meat, and I wanted the best chance of enjoying it.
My thoughts? Pemmican is kind of weird to eat. It’s really soft, and this particular one (probably because I ordered the boring flavor!) is super bland. It’s just not for me, unfortunately.
The products come frozen via overnight mail, which might not be the most green option in the world, but if it’s the only way to get grassfed beef, it’s a pretty fun package to receive!
Check out the many, many product options at US Wellness Meats, and hopefully you’ll see more of them at KS as well!
JoshEWEa’s Garden granola and almond butter
Whenever you see the JoshEWEa’s Garden ad in the sidebar there, I might as well be hanging out a sign that says, "Will work for food." 
I was pretty excited to make a "we’re moving and life is crazy" order of soaked granola and a "baby coming!" order of more granola and some crispy almond butter, which I plan to take to the hospital with me and eat by the spoonful! Mwah!
If you haven’t heard of JoshEWEa’s, it’s one of the few true traditional foods companies out there that won’t cause you an ounce of compromise. Soaked grains and nuts are not easy to find pre-prepared! Check out my full review here.
Wonderbars and Oskri Bars
I discovered these guys at our local health foods store, and holy cow, yummy.
Although Wonderbars don’t use crispy nuts, so I suppose they’re a compromise, it’s very slight. Their products include raw honey as a sweetener, lots of dried fruit, and a little bit of gluten-free oats and crisped rice. Those last two aren’t the greatest, but they’re in the bottom half of the ingredient list, and such a step up (10 steps up!) from Quaker granola bars that I’m not too worried. The Almond-Apple Cranberry is to die for!
We tried the sesame bars (okay) and the coconut bars (YUM and very simple, no compromise ingredients) from Oskri.
It’s just nice to have a few products you can purchase and keep on hand for the times when you’re just. not. prepared.
Should I work with these companies more? Visit Wonderbar and Oskri to show your interest.
Dried fruit strips from Target
Archer Farms brand has organic fruit strips that certainly aren’t perfect (more apple juice than healthy stuff like the pomegranate we like), but they’re another one that was great for emergencies. We found this box at Target for under $3 on sale. Something to watch for!
Canned tuna from Vital Choice
I told you about my amazing salmon cooking success last week, and Vital Choice also offers canned tuna, absolutely sustainably caught – on a real line! It makes me feel good to have super healthy, safe fish to eat, and making tuna salad for crackers only takes about 3 minutes. Here’s their albacore tuna sampler.
What About Crackers?
Crackers are one of those things that I feel like I have to make from scratch, because there just aren’t any soaked grain crackers, and when you’re willing to compromise on the soaking, you still can’t find any with healthy fats.
My new "better-than-most" compromise cracker is Blue Diamond Nut-Thins Crackers. They’re at least gluten-free, and I figure the almond flour is probably healthier (blanched, so it doesn’t need soaking) than wheat flour too. And, um, they’re really tasty. Always a plus.
What "processed foods" do you rely on in a pinch without compromising too much?
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Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.
Disclosure: JoshEWEa’s Garden is a July sponsor of KS receiving their complementary mention. Vital choice, US Wellness Meats, and Green Valley Organics sent products for my review, but with no other guarantee of a positive review or even a mention in a post. I’d like to work with them more, though! Wonderbar and Oskri have no relationship (ahem, yet?) with Kitchen Stewardship. Advertisers help me rationalize the time spent at the computer, so if you enjoy KS, please patronize businesses who work with bloggers! See my full disclosure statement here.
Thank you for this post. We are planning three trips to Russia this year and I am looking for packable snack foods for the trip. We’re following the GAPS protocol (as much as possible) and it makes things tricky. This post helps tremendously.
I do have a question. I thought pemmican and jerky were shelf stable. Why do these need to be refrigerated? Would they be ok for short periods of time?
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:07 am
Rebecca,
Katie
yes, good pemmican and jerky should be shelf stable. I’m not sure why the US Wellness packages say to keep frozen! Perhaps just being careful? Tanka bars are another pemmican product, definitely shelf stable. I also make my own jerky, and when I do it right, it doesn’t mold forever on the counter (I tested a few small pieces for 6 months in a drawer, no problem.) Good luck with your long trips!! Adopting?
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This is an awesome list. I’m going to look for those dairy products in my stores. Thanks!
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Thank you for this awesome list. I must try JoshEWEa’s Garden products. Sounds amazing. I never heard of it before so I hope my stores carry it. Also I love your 80/20 rule that is a great way to look at it and to help people get moving on healthier foods.
I am a relatively new reader but I have to tell you that I just love the information in your site. It is so full of super helpful information. I think I spent about an hour reading through it today.
I share you cheese shredding post on my FB wall for my readers. It was great!
Have a great day!
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:08 am
Welcome, Tammy! I don’t think JoshEWEa’s is in any stores, though. They’re a lovely small company run by a WAHM. You can just order through their site.
Katie
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As a true lover of Stretch Island Co. fruit leathers and Fruitabu, I can say that I was VERY disappointed at how nasty those organic Target fruit bars taste!! Eww!! Like apple jelly..no fruit taste– and super gooey. I almost took the rest of the box back for my money back. Stick with Stretch Island!! I once called them to request coupons and they sent me 2 free coupons for a 6 Ct pantry pack!
I also LOVE Larabars! So yummy and 5 ingredients or less in most bars. Wish they were a little cheaper, though. Not a bad compromise snack on the run, though.
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:09 am
Ashely, Good call on the Larabars. Did you know I have 14 varieties of homemade bars like that in my Healthy Snacks to Go ebook? I guess that’s why i didn’t mention the packaged version!
Katie
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Thanks for this! We have a road trip from Maine to New Mexico in a few weeks, and I’ve been searching for good road-snacks.
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I’ve been trying to wean my kids off packaged snacks but I do buy the Archer Farms Fruit products sometimes. They are stickier than the Stretch Island Fruit Leathers but that makes them easier for my little guy to chew. I’m not particularly bothered by the apple content either. My main issue with these is the amount of packaging and the non-local food aspect of it. But you have to lighten up sometimes, right?
Oh well.
Last week I made the mistake of getting the fruit twists as a treat and now my older one is obsessed with them.
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Since discovering that Triscuits only have 3 ingredients, I will never again make my own crackers! White wheat, salt, and oil compared to the looooong list on most cracker boxes won me over.
I also think Classico’s tomato basil spaghetti sauce is a reasonable convenience food. It has no sugar and no unpronounceable ingredients. Lastly, because I’m addicted to ketchup, I choose Hunt’s because they offer a version with no high fructose.
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lizi Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
i used to love triscuits, but they aren’t soaked, they are very likely GM, and they don’t have healthy oil- last i checked it was soybean, processed with hexanes and solvents rendering it rancid, i would love to find a recipe for home-made soaked triscuits- anybody out there??
our HY-VEE stores here have generic organic pasta sauces that run on sale fairly often for $2.50 a jar- not too shabby! (plus they come in a real mason jar-bonus!) compared to other organic brands that can run $5 a pop or more. hope everyone can find a deal like that!!
also i was never a ketchup fan myself until my husband brought home some organic ketchup for my toddler- now i am hooked!! i would give it a try, it isn’t much more $ and it is so delish! plus dr.oz said organic ketchup has way more concentrated nutrients- the other stuff actually does not.
i agree spaghetti sauce in a jar can be a good convenience: no BPA from cans
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:15 am
The other trouble with Triscuits is that I believe they’re extruded grains (like puffed cereal), so you can’t really replicate it in home, and that makes the grains rancid as well. Bummer.
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:10 am
Margaret,
Katie
I was a Triscuit fan before I got to know more about traditional fats – unfortunately the soybean oil in Triscuits is high in omega-6s, the opposite of omega-3s, and not very good for us. Sad! I’ll still make my own because of the fats alone, if I have to.
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Those almond crackers are AWESOME! We gobble them up.
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It’s not available everywhere, but I have a baker at my farmer’s market that makes true soaked sourdough loaves. I’m so thankful!
When my kombucha mother died this summer, I was so thankful for GT Dave’s to get me through until my new shroom arrived!
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I looked at NutThins a long while ago and decided no, due t the oil they use. Since I have found “Marys Gone Crackers” and I LOVE the onion and the original. not only do I not have to deal with soy or canola oils (depending on variety), I get the benefit of many good WHOLE flax seeds and other organic ingredients I would miss out on in the rest of my diet were it not for these. They are available at our local grocery store, but you can get them thru Azure Standard or online as well. My only issue with them are that they need a FAMILY SIZED box.
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:11 am
good to know!
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Larabars for sure…it’s our go-to fast snack. Dried fruits. We eat a lot raw cheese just by itself. I found a “natural” ranch dressing recently that at least is organic and canola-based, no soy, so I bought that to serve with organic celery.
I would so recommend soaking large batches of beans, cooking, and freezing them before baby comes. I have done that, I have enough for 7 small meals or 4 bigger ones, and I’m soaking more now for refried beans and garbanzos (for salads). It’s no harder to soak and cook 4 cups than 1, and then when you pull them out of the freezer it’s not even a compromise. I also breaded my own chicken nuggets, and marinated steak strips. We will eat well when baby comes.
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lizi Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
i just made the plunge to home-made ranch, it is so easy and so yummy i will never look back!
sour cream or yogurt, plus homemade mayo if you have it (not necessary, don’t despair)
plus dill, garlic, salt and pepper; parsley if you have it
lemon juice or AC vinegar (just a splish)
whip it up! it is cheaper and honestly way better than the bottled stuff. plus no compromise oils. i am a convert at last!!
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Beth Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
I love me some Lara bars! The mini ones are great but definitely pricey and my kids don’t like them.
Someone mentioned Triscuits. Trader Joe’s has their own kind. They probably have soybean oil but may not be GMO. I can’t recall TJ’s policy and looking it up on my phone would be a pain. Not to say all TJ’s products are free of undesirable ingredients, they’re not, but they have many healthier options. They’re mayonnaise, for example, I think is just oil and egg yolks.
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Yeah, Larabars are yummy tho a lil $$!
As a nursing mama with a 12 month old and 3 year old, I really appreciate a QUICK PROTEIN FIX. I have turned to -gasp!- protein powder MILK SHAKES: sprouted brown rice protein and pea protein. both are gently processed at low temps (not sure if they are all “raw” but many are labeled so) with enzymes to isolate the protein (kinda cool, the enzymes eat the carbs, etc, leaving only protein). also the amino acid profile of sprouted brown rice is amazing on its own (very similar to breast milk- look it up) and combined with pea protein you have a perfect protein profile. I actually mix a spoon of each with a quart of raw milk plus maple syrup (shake it in a mason jar) for breakfast or a snack. it is actually tasty and i think very healthy. i don’t go overboard on the serving though, i don’t think i need 60% of my DRV for protein in one slurp
GOF has a RAW protein and RAW meal that are pretty good but mucho dolores. i use source naturals brand from vitacost- super economical. also you can add some hemp protein powder for fiber. my daughter actually loves to mooch off my “milk-shake
you could also go the smoothy route, of course.
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I have found a great new company that makes heat and eat whole, local (for those of us in Maine) meals. They are even packaged in such a way that they can be heated in simmering water or in the oven (or microwave if you insist on using one). It is ‘the Maine Meal’ their web site is still being developed, but they are on Facebook.
Check them out.
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I LOVE joshewas garden…addicted to their trail mix, cashew cranberry granola and their cinnamon raisian!
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So true, 80/20 rule.
I love to keep around canned sardines, packets of almond butter, and beef jerky at my home at all times. They’ve all got a good amount of protein! Plus almond butter can go on top of apples, celery, bananas, any carbs, or just a plain squeeze into the mouth when you’ve absolutely have no time!
Thanks for the list! I need to start buying yogrut again!
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I have been following your posts for awhile but am just now compelled to write as I am in need of commiseration with someone who can get it…my in laws have recently moved in with us as they are relocating to the area and do not yet know where they will permanently reside. It seems they have never met a convenience, fake food they did not like and in fact their entire diet consists of it. We, on the other hand, are a real food family with three young children who are now receiving “treats” from Grandma on a regular basis….AGH!!! I’m trying to pick my battles and have been letting quite a bit slide but honestly, I’ve pretty much had it. Sharing a house (kitchen) with people who are so diametrically opposite in their food choices is hard! Okay, sorry for the little vent – thought you’d understand as you are sharing space with family for awhile now too. Love the blog – keep up the great work!!
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Katie Reply:
August 1st, 2011 at 4:29 am
Danielle, I hear you, girl! I think you should have WAY more say since it’s YOUR house, though. Our compromise on food is this: 6 days a week, the kids eat whatever I cook or allow them. On Sunday is the Sabbath, also known as “spoil day” and that’s when they can eat Grandma and Grandpa’s food. Spoil day nearly kills me, but it’s only once a week. Today, for example, they had honey nut cheerios with raw milk, Taco Bell with fruit punch (arg!), caramel corn for a snack (but I got yogurt in there too) and ice cream for dessert (but I made dinner, totally healthy). It’s a way to quell disputes all week for the adults and the kids: “Can I eat what Grandpa’s eating?” “Sure, wait until spoil day.” Black and white, a total split, was the best way to avoid daily discussions about “can they have this or that?”
I hope you find a “rule” that works for all of you, too!!
Katie
Good luck!
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Hi there, I’m new to your blog and fairly new to TF. There is so much good stuff here! I’ve definitely learned that I need to have some “backup” while I learn new techniques and rhythms and what works for my family. (Like, it’s a good idea to have some store-bought yogurt on hand while attempting to make a batch, or else everyone gets cranky.) So I appreciate your recommendations here!
I have one question about the yogurt: I see it’s low-fat, which I try to avoid. How do you feel about that? I often have trouble finding full-fat yogurt.
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Katie Reply:
August 13th, 2011 at 7:24 am
Ima,
Sorry I’m so late in responding! I let your comment get a bit buried…
Is it all low fat? Bummer. I guess I didn’t even realize that. It was thick and creamy…I know Stonyfield has a full fat version, but not all stores carry it. Frustrating.
Katie
Good question!
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Nancy’s brand yogurt has full fat and organice varities with all the probios I want! I buy this when I don’t have the time (or have had a run of broken glass jars!) to make my own yogurt.
I love larabars, but now make me own. I will have to try those “mary” crackers listed above…my kids love wheat thins…and I do like organic tortilla chips. Making them justs seems like so much work!
I need to try some jerky….I eat a LOT of nuts…and now that my dehydrator is dead, I haven’t made any crispy nuts
Maybe you can have another giveaway ;0
Thanks for all your awesomeness!
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Katie Reply:
August 7th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Selena,
Katie
You can make crispy nuts in the oven, too – just set at the lowest temp. If it’s above 150F, you can leave the door open slightly (altho maybe not in the summer, right?!). Jerky works in the oven, too.
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