As you would imagine, we have quite a few oat fanatics around our office. We love our steel cut, rolled, multi-grain… not to mention our Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookies. In fact, we spend a lot of our working hours perfecting new and delicious ways to deliver our organic oats to you. Most recently, we introduced several new products: Quick Cook Steel Cut Oat Pouches, Apple Cinnamon Multigrain Instant Oatmeal and Maple Spice Multigrain Instant Oatmeal. You should see them soon where you buy organic products.

However, we know we aren’t the only ones with “outside the canister” ideas for enjoying Country Choice Organic oats!

So now it’s your turn to get creative! We’d love to hear the delicious ways you make eating organic easy. How do you incorporate organic oats into recipes enjoyed by you and your family? Enter the Outside the Canister Recipe Contest before February 8, 2012, and let us know what you are whipping up in your kitchen. You could win a one-year supply of Country Choice organic products. What better way to start the year?

Enjoy!

Rhubarb Crisp
serves 8

Ingredients
8 large stalks rhubarb, cut into ¼” pieces
1 ½ cups of organic sugar
½ cup organic flour
1 Tbs unsalted organic butter
Organic Topping (recipe follows)

1. Combine cut rhubarb with ¾ cup of sugar and let stand for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Turn rhubarb into a large bowl and add remaining sugar.  Mix well.  Add flour and mix again.  If mixture is too soupy, add flour to thicken.
3. Butter a 2 ½ quart gratin dish and pour in rhubarb mixture.  Sprinkle with topping.
4. Place dish on middle rack of oven and bake for 1 hour, until rhubarb is tender, juices are bubbling and topping is crisp.

Oatmeal Topping
¾ cup organic flour
8 Tbs (1 stick) cold unsalted organic butter, cut into small pieces
1 Tbs organic ground cinnamon
1 cup organic rolled oats
½ cup organic brown sugar

In a food processor, combine flour, butter and cinnamon.  Pulse until large crumbs form, about 20 seconds.  (If you don’t have a food processor, cut butter into dry ingredients until large crumbs form.)  Pour into bowl with oatmeal and sugar.  Crumble with fingers until well combined.

Online retailer amazon.com has gotten in on the action as well, creating a program that rewards regular customers with savings.  Called Subscribe & Save, the program offers consumers a 15% discount on specially marked products and throws in free shipping to boot.  All you do is sign up to have the items delivered at a regular interval of your choosing. There are no additional fees, risks, or obligations.

You can subscribe to a wide variety of grocery products, including the entire Country Choice Organic line-up.  Based on the number of comments on amazon.com, there seem to be quite a few oatmeal lovers subscribing to the favorite morning food.

I realize it’s called the Natural Products Expo for a reason – a compromise to sell space to the spandex-clad women who hawk supplements and colon cleansing.  But the true purpose must be to get everyone excited about natural and organic food…real, honest-to-goodness, food that matters.  Unfortunately, this year’s show was dominated by bars/water/chips being sold as nutrient carrying devices and touting the benefits of the super fruit du jour.  The only thing in short supply was real fruit.

To be fair, Earthbound Farms was displaying fresh salad mixes and Alexia was sampling yummy sweet potatoes fries.  Industry stalwarts Organic Valley and Applegate Farms were there, too.  But for the most part, the aisles were filled with people and companies competing to sell empty calories.

Obviously, some of our cookies could be considered “empty calories”.  But in everything we do, we make real food with simple ingredients and offer better-for-you alternatives to our counterparts.  That’s the beauty of organic – every ingredient is real.  You’ll know we’ve “jumped the shark” when we start selling “energy bites with ginko”.

It should surprise no one that the Natural industry is in the same boat as mainstream producers.  Since we collectively produce far more calories than we could (or should) possibly consume, selling food in the U.S. is a zero-sum game.  Growth comes from stealing “share of stomach” from the next guy by figuring out how to sell more calories, whether we need them or not.  This explains why we can buy food virtually all day and anywhere.  As an expandable consumable, food has become the growth vehicle that is driving ever expanding waistbands and obesity rates.

So while I’m disillusioned, I expect I’ll attend future shows with an eye out for the interesting developments in real food (and eating my way around the world of dark chocolate).  As for hydration systems, I’m happy to fill my reusable bottle from the tap.

Rising food prices impact everyone on some level, but there are things you can do to minimize the impact.  It only takes a little forethought to create big savings.  So before your next shopping trip consider…

How you eat.  Meals prepared at home tend to be less expensive than eating out.  Even prepared food from the grocery store is more expensive than do-it-yourself alternatives.  So dig out those old cookbooks and plan a weekly menu.  You’ll save on your overall food bill and spend some quality time with your family.

Where you shop. While food is available nearly everywhere today (Toys R Us …really?!), concentrate your purchases in places that specialize in groceries.  Conventional grocers have the scale to reduce costs and offer regular promotions to lower prices.  Likewise, natural food co-ops work hard to minimize overhead and pass the savings on to their members.  Recently, savvy internet retailers like amazon.com have gotten into the grocery business, offering significant value and free shipping.

What you buy. With over 50,000 choices in the average grocery store, it’s too easy to spend money when shopping.  It helps to start with a list (see “How you eat” above) and stick to it.  Calorie-for-calorie, the best deals are on the perimeter of the store, where the less-processed, calorie-dense whole foods reside.  However, don’t forget to check out the bulk aisles for everything from cereals to snacks.  Finally, look for products with multiple uses in the kitchen.  For example, canister oats are not only an economical breakfast for the whole family, but can also be used in myriad recipes.

So while rising food prices may be inevitable, with a little effort you’ll save big.  Planning ahead allows you to prepare economical, tasty meals for your family and at the same time benefit from eating less processed, healthier meals.  After all, spending any more than necessary is for the birds!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Country Choice Organic!

Access to better-for-you food matters to us.  That’s why last year, with the help of our Facebook friends, we  delivered more than 5,000 bowls of oatmeal to food shelves.  This year, we’d like to double that number and give the gift of breakfast to thousands of people in need.

As part of our commitment to make organic foods accessible to everyone, we’re asking people to “like” us on Facebook and help us send organic oatmeal to food shelves which desperately need the help.  For each new fan between today and January 5, Country Choice Organic will donate five bowls of organic instant oatmeal to Hope for the City.

Become a Country Choice Organic fan on Facebook today and help others start the new year hunger-free.

Happy holidays,

Your Friends at Country Choice Organic

Most experts agree that less than 3% of the population may have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which consumption of gluten (proteins in wheat, barley, and rye) causes the body’s immune system to attack and damage the small intestine.  Celiac sprue is a nasty disease to be sure, but it sure feels like many manufacturers, like moths to a light, are blindly throwing products into the market with little concern for efficacy or even taste (not unlike the low-carb bubble from a few years ago). 

At Country Choice Organic, we’ve watched this irrational exuberance from the sideline, wondering if we should get in the game or even if the world needs another GF ginger snap.  (For the record, we are all in agreement that the world could use a great tasting GF ginger snap, as current offerings are not very tasty.)  

To date, we remain committed to offering better-for-you organic hot cereals, cookies and bars.  And while we create many wheat-free products, we are aware that oats are sometimes cross-contaminated with wheat and have therefore steered clear of the GF label (although many wheat sensitive customers tell us they have no problems with our organic oats and Soft Baked cookies). 

As for the future, we look forward to the FDA’s long awaited announcement for a GF standard of identity.  Until then, we’ll most likely “ride the pine” and wait for the inevitable market correction.

To participate (and earn a chance to win a year’s supply of Country Choice Organic products), oat fans can submit a picture that shows how oats fuel their active lifestyle.  Whether it’s a photo of a power-packed recipe or a pic of you and your friends refueling with an Oatmeal on the Run bar after a long run, we want to know how oats help you stay active and healthy. 

Submit your photo before September 10 for a chance to win. A panel of Country Choice Organic employees will select the winning entry.  To enter, visit: http://www.facebook.com/CountryChoiceOrganic

It’s a shame that Earth Day has been relegated, along with Christmas and Back to School, to an annual sales event.  Earth Day is a secular, multi-generational opportunity for everyone to contribute to a greater good.  The message for Earth Day is simple: the little contributions we all make add up to big changes for the environment. 

Here’s the ad I’d like to see:  “Happy Earth Day…Buy Less Stuff”.  I know there’s a recession and we’re a consumer-driven economy, but do we really need a new phone every two years or a 4WD Bushwhacker for our 3-mile paved drive to the mall?  Here’s another thought: align yourself with companies that do the right thing every day, not as a marketing gimmick once a year.  Chipotle, Patagonia and 7^th Generation are all examples of mission-driven organizations having built sustainable, low-impact businesses.

So happy Earth Day.  Celebrate.  Eat a burrito or plant a tree.  Just don’t buy the car.