I just don't seem to tire of grass-fed beef. This sentiment probably has much to do with how good I feel after eating it. Listening to my body was an important step in conquering colitis and, like I suggest in my post about slow-cooking, so is sustainability. Enter what might just be the simplest way I know to prepare a delicious and satisfying meal.

There are plenty of cuts of beef you could use to prepare this recipe including stew meat, shanks, brisket, and short ribs, to list a few of my favorites. Since the end product will be cooked through and fully tenderized from the moist and slow cooking process, you may as well save a few bucks and dine on a less pricey grass-fed cut. Plus, what some of those cheaper pieces lack in tenderness, they more than make up for with flavor (my ode to skirt steak forthcoming).

Once upon a time, a ruminant animal (like a cow or sheep) grazed on living grass and was fed supplemental hay or silage only when such a practice was necessary to sustain the animal's health (e.g. when pastureland was covered with heavy snow). The USDA guidelines for grass-fed meat, while good at first glance, allow a pretty big loophole for producers wanting to take advantage of the well-intentioned consumer. As the standard exists now on the USDA's webpage, the grass-fed marketing claim allows confinement and antibiotic use without restriction. For what it's worth, the USDA acknowledges the limited scope of the grass-fed claim in a notice to the public and suggests that additional claims such as "free-range" and "no antibiotics or hormones administered" may be used to supplement the grass-fed label, when applicable. In other words, buyer beware--American beef only labeled "grass-fed" could have spent a good deal of time eating hay on a feedlot, juiced with antibiotics to fatten it up faster.