We Are Eating Healthier and Going to “Make The Switch” Thanks to Jennie-O
It’s so easy to pick-up red meat when shopping for your weekly groceries. For taco night you grab ground beef, then you pick-up some steak for another night and beef for stew for a third night. It easily adds up to many nights a week of red meat which is not the healthiest lifestyle to live. Red meat is known to have negative health effects because the saturated animal fat in red meat can contribute to heart disease, cancer, and possibly rheumatoid arthritis. I’m sure some red meat in moderation is fine, but cutting back would definitely be a good thing for our family. I recently went to a seminar put on by the American Heart Association and was surprised that the number one leading cause of death for women was heart disease and not cancer. As well as the added heart benefit, switching from red meat to turkey will be cheaper and save us money.
(My friends and I at the seminar learning about Heart Health!)
My family loves to help out members of our community, so when we heard about Champions For Kids and what they do to give back to the community we were very excited. With the savings we are going to get back from making our red meat to turkey switch, we decided we would give to a local cooperative preschool in town that helps kids of all economic levels be able to attend preschool. By partnering with Jennie-O to help Champions For Kids, we are hoping to bring healthy eating awareness to preschoolers and their families, as well as providing them with healthy products. The Simple Service Project we are planning to implement at the Barbara Tufts Cooperative Preschool in Rhode Island includes a lesson on healthy eating, a challenge to families to eat healthy, and providing families with a Jennie-O product to start them on
their way to a healthier lifestyle.
To start our project off we went shopping at Walmart to grab our weekly groceries and get things for our Simple Service Project. We picked up our usual foods for breakfast and lunch, but for dinner items we chose new turkey products in replacement of the more expensive red meat items like ground beef, steaks, sausage, etc. We found some Jennie-O turkey for our Simple Service Project that would be perfect and it was quite affordable. We grabbed some fruit and rolls as well to go with our healthy donation meal. My son helped me shop and was very excited to pick out items for the preschool.
Above is our usual bacon we buy….
We are now replacing it with the Jennie-O Turkey Bacon
Above is the usual sausage we purchase….
We are now getting the healthier Jennie-O Turkey Sausage
Above is the usual ground beef we get for spaghetti and tacos..
Our new healthy replacement is the Jennie-O Ground Turkey!
Our usual steak dinner at a price of $17.87……
Now a much healthier and cheaper dinner for $3.78 from Jennie-O (Turkey & Gravy)
We checked out with our healthy foods for the week, and we saved money as well! Our ground beef is close to $9 on average, and now we spent $2.88. An average steak is also almost $18, and for under $4 we purchased Turkey & Gravy for a meal.
All of our food is bought for our weekly shopping trip and our Simple Service project for the preschool! We are all set!
To see our entire shopping trip at Walmart, click HERE to check it out on our Google+ album!
Find out more about Champions For Kids by visiting their website: http://championsforkids.org/ You can also find them on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/champions4kids: or on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ChampionsForKid
Want to create a simple service project of your own? SIMPLE Service Project with Champions for Kids can be found here: http://bit.ly/Jo8hZ7
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #JennieOCFK #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions though are mine and mine alone.
That’s great! I do pick up ground turkey instead of ground beef when I find it cheaper. I’ve tried turkey sausage but didn’t like the taste. We also eat lots of chicken and pork because I find it really cheap.
I love turkey and jennie-O, but our family also eats way too much red meat! It’s a great challenge, can’t wait to see how you do!
Wow! What a difference swapping that grilling steak for a turkey and gravy dinner! We’ve been eating ground turkey in our tacos for years, and I love it! I’m hoping to switch out our weekend bacon and sausage for their turkey counterparts!
That is great! WE prefer Turkey Bacon I think it taste much better.
We have been trying to move to turkey lately instead of red meat. I think I even prefer it in lasagna. in some of the less saucy dishes we are still trying to get used to the flavor (especially my husband) and I think I’ll try out a spice mixture on it to see if it helps. It is great to see how much I can really save by moving away form red meat (in addition to the healthy benefits, of course.)
I love my red meat but we do try to balance it with pork and chicken too. I’ve swapped ground turkey on several ocassions for tacos and cheeseburger pie.
I can’t always use ground turkey as a replacement for ground beef but I love sloppy joes and tacos made with ground turkey! Turkey burgers aren’t too bad either! Good luck with your challenge!
Some great ways to make healthy changes. I love the JennieO turkey bacon and am now eager to try the turkey burgers!
Great Choice! I am one of the many diagnosed with heart disease (at an early age) So I have been changing to healthier foods for myself and my family. Jennie-O is not only a healthy alternative, but actually tastes great too!
You were able to find a lot of things we looked for, but couldn’t. Congrats! I love seeing how much you’re going to be able to save by making the read meet to turkey swaps. Your heart AND wallet will be healthier!
I love this post!! Jeanna and I were just recently talking about making the switch from hamburger to turkey “hamburger”!! Saving money and health 🙂
we already do turkey burgers instead of regular hamburgers.
Love all the extra info I learned here about the other turkey options.
Thanks
We really like the Jennie O Turkey bacon. It was a tough sell to the hubby at first, but eventually he was okay with the switch. 🙂
We eat ground turkey, turkey bacon, chicken, pork and fish with an occasional meal with beef. I do not like red meat, so that is part of the reason why we don’t eat it very often, but health reasons are also why. My husband would eat it every night if I made it!!
Meg G
Good luck!!! I love turkey anything 🙂
Talk to my husband! He works in Cardiac Imaging and has all but banned red meat in our home. We eat it maybe once a month now because of what he sees at work! Turkey is a great option and I’ve started making turkey tacos and turkey burger as substitutes for some of our old favorite meals!
Wow! I knew it was more economical to buy turkey but seeing it side-by-side really made a difference. Thanks for sharing and I’ll definitely be making some subtle changes to my grocery list over the next few months. I know it’s healthier and I think it’s just habit that keeps me from making the change.
Two years ago I switched from using ground beef to ground turkey in my meals. It took a bit to get used to, but not I can’t imagine Taco Tuesday any other way! We ever eat “Hamburger Helper” with turkey meat. Meat loaf is now always turkey loaf. It makes such a difference, but in a good way 🙂
Turkey is a superb option. I don’t eat red meat but the rest of my family does. I need to tell them about Jennie O! You did a great job on this post and telling us about why you want to switch! Health is so important!
Growing up I never really ate turkey other than on sandwiches and at Thanksgiving. We really should try to incorporate it more into our diet. I’ll have to pick some up next time I go to the store. The kids aren’t huge fans of beef so maybe they’ll like turkey better.
Im so glad your making the switch you will start to feel a lot better in yourself as well. Turkey is a great option and so much cheaper. I still like to have some red meat but try to keep it to minimal.
Since switching to all whole grains, veggies & lean protein a few months ago, I’ve lost some weight & my cholesterol dropped 20 points! Good Luck, It’s worth it.
Hi Kristin,
The switch from red meat to turkey is such a great switch, especially reading your statistics on women and heart disease!
After reading your post, I am really looking forward to the details of your SIMPLE Service Project!!!A healthy eating lesson is a wonderful idea; TEACHING the students about why healthy eating is so important and will have lasting impact!
Thank you so much for your participation!
Thank you for the wonderful “Make the Switch” program. I am loving being a part of this campaign.
You are so right, about the comfortable shopping habit of picking up red meat. I was surprised to learn that turkey is generally more affordable and packs a much healthier punch! Such an easy substitution in nearly all my family meal recipes. I think it is wonderful that you will helping to education young children about healthy food choices! A lesson that will certainly help them throughout their lives!