Paisley Ann Design

Some of you may have seen my post on Facebook last week declaring that I was finally ready to do the right thing. There are many “right things” in life. I am talking about buying meat that is grass-fed and humanely raised and processed. Doing the right thing is not as easy as it sounds.  I have been a blow-hard for things like organic food, avoiding processed foods, and turning your grass/water suck into a permaculture oasis. But the meat one… this one was difficult.

Truth be told I am quite proud that I only spend $500-$600 a month on groceries. Part of the reason for that is that I buy cheap food. I am a sucker for Winco. I tried my best to stick to the outside aisles and avoided boxed foods.  I also shop at Traders for a few specialty things, like Eric’s Icky beer, Tea-Tree Shampoo, the occasional artisanal cheese, and their Rare Red wine.  All of that is to say that I am still not perfect…far from it.  Sometimes we will eat at Super Burrito or Midtown Eats and other times I will buy pasta for Lauren just so that she doesn’t starve (she has not taken to the paleo style dinners s I had hoped). I will eat ice cream 3 or 4 nights in a row sometimes.  But all of that I could handle, that was about me not sticking to eating well. At least I knew that I wasn’t eating the right things. But the more I thought about the meat I was buying, the more it began to bug me. There was nothing healthy about the meat I was buying. I had convinced myself that I was eating meat and therefore it was good for me and my family–the quality didn’t matter. And last week when we had a “value pack” of New York steaks from Winco that tasted like cardboard–that finally sealed the deal. No meat was better than bad meat. But.. we love meat.  So off to Wolf Pack Meats I go.

The Retail Experience

What was Wolf Pack meats like? It was clean and sterile, just as one would expect a USDA facility to be. The little building is neither impressive nor designed to be a retail space. When you walk in you have to actually find someone to talk to and there are only two stand-up freezers side-by-side–each half-full of meat.  As you can probably tell I wasn’t impressed with the presentation.  Nor was I expecting the meat to be frozen.  I think I was expecting a slightly less polished version of Whole Foods. I know–I’m a dreamer. What can I say?  What you will find, however, is a nice person who will write down the quantity of each of your packages of meat on a piece of paper and will take it to a back room to calculate the total. In spite of being completely underwhelmed with the buying experience,  I cautiously bought $79 worth of meat.

Here’s  what I got for $79:

(5) 1lb. packages of ground beef

(2) flank Steaks

(1) 4 lb. roast

(1) 3 lb. tri-tip

(1) large corned beef

Given that some meals will have left-overs I guesstimated that we will probably get 12 meals out of it. That works out to be somewhere around $6.50 (total) for the two of us to eat an organic grass-fed meal.  Is it worth it?  When we go out to eat we usually spend anywhere between $30-$60 on a meal.  So, yes, it was most definitely worth it, financially speaking.

Taste

So, now for the taste.  Last night I cooked the two flank steaks.  I started the meal late and only had about 20 minutes to throw something together before I keeled over from hunger.

I cut up some onions and mushrooms and sauteed them in unsalted butter. Then I pulled the flank steaks out of the package and threw them in the pan to cook with the mushrooms and onions.  I added a few pinches of salt and pepper. I had no idea what I was doing and wondered if I should be allowed to treat meat that way.  Well, let’s just say I was completely sold on Wolf Pack meats after this part.  When I bit into the flank steak and it was super tender and tasty I literally gasped.  This meat was insanely good. Now I haven’t tried the other cuts that we purchased yet (the corn beef is cooking now). I can’t wait!

Overall Review:

I highly recommend Wolf Pack Meats.  Get over the fact that it is like going to the butcher. The meat is worth it.  I can’t say I will be looking forward to shopping there every couple of weeks, but I will most definitely be looking forward to dinner! The best part is that it is much healthier and a more humane way to eat meat.  It’s a win-win.

Have you been there yet? What was your experience like? Would you recommend it?

Cheers!

Ashley

Location:

Wolf Pack Meats

(they sell lamb, beef, and pork)

5895 Clean Water Way

Reno, Nevada.

Hours: Tues-Fri 6am-3pm

Directions: Drive east on I80. Exit Right on S. Mc Carran. Turn Left onto Clean Water Way.