Appetite for Inspiration

What a wonderful time we had yesterday! Lynette@ Crazed Mind and I got the privilege of being invited to the Texas Beef Council in Austin. It was truly a great day. We got to learn a bit more about the Texas cattle industry and also taste the delicious food they were offering that was prepared by chef Richard Chamberlain.

Lynette's DH makes fertilizer and Papi makes feed for animals, so it was really cool to see it come full circle to the beef on your table. They had a lot of wonderful information to share and delicious food as well. We even got to play Top Chef and team up in groups to make our own dishes. If that wasn't enough we got to meet a bunch of wonderful bloggers and make some new friends as well as find new blogs to read.

All the beef was provided to us by Nolan Ryan Beef. If you have never eaten it, you definitely should. I am not usually brand specific on food, but that beef had the best flavor and texture of any I have ever had. I know you can purchase it at Kroger stores and order online but if you live somewhere you can't buy it be sure to ask your local grocer to stock it! It was fantastically delicious.

The Poo was very excited to learn that they had given us a goodie bag that had an apron for her and a real cow bell. She has played with her cow bell a good bit already and is just loving it! I was impressed that they included children into the bag as well as the presentation and made it more about family than just you preparing a meal for them. The Poo and I cook together a lot. I have found she is more willing to eat something new if she gets to help prepare it and knows what is going in and tasting it along the way so she can see how flavors change in the cooking process. I have never had a problem getting her to eat nutritious food because she is so involved in not only preparing it but in growing it and harvesting. When we harvest food from the garden she is able to try everything raw and again when it is cooked so she can see that it is the food we grew going from our garden to our tummies to keep us strong and healthy.Even more than that, it is a sense of pride and accomplishment for her to be able to say "I grew this in My garden!" She will definitely let you know very quickly that it is her garden.

It was so great to me that the Texas Beef Council not only understood how important it is to involve children in healthy eating but encouraged it and thought of kids when putting things together for all us bloggers to take to our homes. All and all it was just a wonderful experience and I hope I have the opportunity to do it again sometime.