Cooking Traditional Foods

In July, I wrote an article for Nourished Magazine about ideas to get nutrient dense foods into children. You can view that article here.One of the things I am focusing on right now is sneaking organ meats into ground meat to hide it. In some places, you can find this meat mix labeled as ‘pet food mix’ when you’re buying directly from farmers. It’s normally also cheaper than plain grass-fed ground beef, if you can find it. Don’t let the name put you off, it’s full of goodness and in the vast majority of cases, it’s human-grade meat. Ask your farmer for the details of which organs it contains and in what percentages.If you grind it yourself, I’ve found that pulsing small chunks of partially frozen liver in the food processor works best for grinding the liver. You can also grate it.You can include liver, kidney, spleen, sweetbreads (thymus) and other organs in the ground meat.  I prefer a mix of 3-4 parts ground beef to one part in total of the ground organs.Giblet gravy is another popular way of getting organ meats into kids.  In fact, growing up it was the only organ meat I ever knowingly had, since I never read the labels on processed meat products.  LOL  When you roast a whole chicken, finely chop the gizzard and liver, saute it and put it in with the gravy you make from the pan drippings.Pate is a wonderful way to get liver into children. The quick pate in our Recipe Archive is very mild, and children love it.What things do you do to get organ meats into your children? I’d love to hear your feedback and ideas.