Do you love crunchy food? Are you looking for a low-carb, protein-rich, whole foods snack to fuel your active life? If you eat meat, I have the food for you. It’s called GrassfedBeef Crisps and its made from 100% grass fed, organic beef raised in Arizona and Montana. Imagine wispy thin, lightly seasoned, crispy beef jerky without the junky ingredients. That means no MSG, no preservatives (other than sea salt), no sugars, trans fats, soy, wheat or gluten, chemical names and numbers, or unpronounceable ingredients. They contain grassfed beef and smoked sea salt. That’s it! Well, some TLC too.

It’s real food, whole food, traditional food. Jerky provides an easy and delicious way to add protein to meals or snacks, when you’re on the go (tired, hungry, pressed for time). It’s ideal for hiking, biking, traveling, backpacking, taking to work, or school, stashing in your car, tote bag, or purse. This unique twist on beef jerky, produced using locally and regionally available meat from U.S. ranchers in the Southwest who care about their animals, the environment, and the people who eat the meat they produce.

What’s the difference?
Most beef jerky on the market contains a long list of ingredients, including an enormous amount of salt to those of us who’ve cut way back and also upgraded the quality of salt we consume. Some beef jerky brands, even the grassfed ones, are tough and chewy and hard to get a bite off. This thin-cut artisan grassfed beef jerky sourced from 100% grassfed (grass-finished) happy cows that are never fed antibiotics, steroids, or animal byproducts, has a great beefy flavor (it’s not gamey; some grassfed meats can be) and a texture reminiscent of potato chips. Really! First you notice the crunch, then the melt-in-your-mouth experience as you chew. Ahhh! Mmmm!
http://beefcrisps.com/

How much meat is in a package of this jerky?
Each 1-ounce package of Grassfed Beef Crips: Thin-Cut Beef Jerky comes from 4-ounces of raw beef. Yep! It’s concentrated. That’s the same wet to dry conversion I get when I make my own jerky, which I haven’t done in many moons. Each 1-ounce package provides 100 calories, 1 gram of fat, 4 grams of carbs (probably from the glycogen stored in the muscles since there are no carb ingredients added), 1 gram of fiber (no idea why), and 19 grams of protein. It’s like you cooked up a 4-ounce piece of steak but at a very low temperature. It’s portable and lightweight and requires no refrigeration. It could be part of a quick meal or snack when you don’t have a lot of time to invest in meal preparation, you’re tired, hungry, and just wants something easy, delicious, healthy, and convenient.

Ingredients: 100% grassfed beef, smoked sea salt.

Beef jerky is the original “fast food.” It was on the menu before fast food as we know it.

For a tasty snack or even a small meal try this:
Grassfed Beef Crisps + one of these combos:

toasted macadamia nuts, pecans, or almonds*
1 or 2 handfuls of grapes
a crisp green salad with vinaigrette*
guacamole + peeled, sliced jicama +/- celery sticks*
guacamole + peeled, sliced, bell pepper strips
guacamole + peeled, sliced carrot sticks
cherry tomatoes + Kalamata or pimento-stuffed olives*
vegetable soup

* Items marked with an asterisk are suitable for very low-carb diets. Jerky served with extra fat and a small amount of low-carb veggies makes a great meal for those who follow a ketogenic or restricted ketogenic diet (RKD) for the metabolic management of epilepsy, cancer, diabetes, chronic migraines, PCOS, obesity or any other conditions.

Sure you could make it, but will you?
I’ve made beef jerky and snack sticks more times than I can count. I have a great dehydrator and two master recipes with variations in my book, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook. Still, I don’t make it often, right now. I have so many other priorities. Making my every day meals and keeping up with my work, exercise, personal care, social time, and everything else fills may days and nights. Many people have such busy lives that making jerky doesn’t even make it onto thir to-do lists. So, I’ve searched for great jerky sources that I can recommend and that I do or would eat myself. This is one of them!

Double Check Ranch, a family owned and operated ranch located 60 miles north of Tucson, is the home and workplace to three generations of the Schwennesen family, produces the meat that goes into this artisan jerky. I met Paul Schwennesen, one of the rachers, at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market five or six years ago. I’ve referred people to his family’s Ranch, where they raise cattle on pasture near Clifton and ranches throughout Southern Arizona, not just for jerky but for other 100% grassfed beef cuts. I like knowing where my food comes from, whenever possible. You can check out their website to learn more about their offerings.

Total transparency
You can take a photo tour of the Schwennesen Farm. Attend a Field to Pasture Dinner, an open ranch day, rent their Thoreauvian cabin for a night or two, or even have a wedding hosted on the farm.

Locally delicious, grassfed beef in restaurants
Seven local restaurants in Phoenix and eight in Tucson serve Double Check beef! How cool is that?. Click here for the list so you can frequent these places, order their beef, and thank them for supporting local farmers who raise 100% grassfed beef. Even some stores in Tucson sell Double Check Beef (info also on the Double Check website).

Where to find Beef Crips
You can find them at select farmers’ markets in Phoenix, Tuscon, Flagstaff, and Jerome, AZ, in Boulder, CO, and Portland, OR. Click here.
Or you can order them online.

At the moment, all online orders will come exclusively from Arizona made Beef Crisps. Beef Crisps are currently available at select Montana retailers through Montana Meat Company, for those who live in Montana.