Jewel-Osco’s O Organics line: Organic for All™

Disclosure: I am attending the O Organics: Organic for All event as an ambassador of Jewel-Osco. Jewel-Osco has covered my travel expenses for the event, and I have been compensated for participating in this campaign. Read full Disclosure Policy.

 

If you’re a Jewel-Osco shopper, you’re probably already familiar with Jewel’s O Organics house brand of organic products. The O Organics line can be found throughout the entire store in nearly every department — from dairy to produce to meat to dry goods. 

Recently, Jewel-Osco invited me to a bloggers’ event to experience, eat, and cook with O Organics foods! The event took place at Kendall College, Chicago’s leading culinary institute. More than 30 bloggers from around the country converged on Goose Island for a day of learning about organic food, cooking, health, and wellness. 
 

Our day opened with an organic breakfast. We had a beverage bar featuring many varieties of O Organics coffee, tea, and juices. We also had a breakfast bar with multiple varieties of overnight oats in mason jars. I’d never made oatmeal this way before, but the idea is that liquid ingredients fully soak into the oats while in the refrigerator overnight, allowing the flavors to mix and develop. In the morning, warm the jar in the microwave (without its lid, of course) and top with fresh fruit.
  

Here’s the recipe for the Mocha Overnight Oats with a Peanut Butter Swirl we enjoyed at this breakfast:

Mocha Overnight Oats with a Peanut Butter Swirl Servings: 1 Preparation Time: 5 minutes Refrigeration Time: 8 hours Ingredients 1/2 cup whole rolled oats 1/2 cup almond milk 1/4 cup brewed coffee 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbs pure maple syrup, optional 1 Tbs chocolate protein powder, optional 1 1/2 Tbs O Organics® peanut butter, divided 1/4 banana, sliced 1 tsp sliced almonds, toasted Spread 1 tablespoon peanut butter on the bottom of a small glass jar. In a small bowl, stir together oats, almond milk, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, almonds, and maple syrup or protein powder if using. Pour it into the glass jar. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, top oats with sliced banana. Warm the 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter in the microwave and swirl it over the top. Other toppings that could be used are sliced toasted almonds and shaved dark chocolate.  Nutritional Serving Size: 1 jar Nutritional Information: Calories 372, Total Fat 18.0 g, Saturated Fat 3.1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g, Monounsaturated Fat 1.9 g, Cholesterol 0.0 mg, Sodium 167.7 mg, Potassium 214.4 mg, Total Carbohydrate 40.8 g, Dietary Fiber 8.9 g, Sugars 6.3 g, Protein 13.1 g

 

After breakfast, we headed into a demonstration kitchen where we were greeted by Annessa Chumbley, a registered dietitian who partnered with O Organics to present ways to incorporate organics into our everyday cooking.  She shared both some facts about O Organics foods. Did you know…

• O Organics is the largest organic brand in the country.  
• There are over 300 products in the O Organics line!
• O Organics products are priced 20% lower than other organic brands, making eating organically more affordable for everyone.
• O Organics products guarantee 100% satisfaction, or you can get your money back.

Annessa cooked several different meals for us while sharing a bunch of fun shortcuts for saving time in the kitchen. Here are some of my favorite tips she shared:

• Instead of purchasing commercial oat flour, make your own by putting oatmeal into your food processor. (Why haven’t I thought of this before?)
    
• Sneak a couple tablespoons of real maple syrup into your pancake batter for maple flavor throughout the pancakes! Pure maple syrup has both calcium and iron in it, and it tastes better than artificial maple syrup too.
    
• Use an ice cream scoop to drop pancake batter on the griddle for uniformly-sized pancakes. (This also ensures you’ll make toaster-sized pancakes, so you can freeze and reheat any uneaten ones!) 
    
• When making meat loaf, instead of chopping vegetables to mix with your ground meat, pour in about a half cup of salsa! Organic salsa has the same nutritional value as using organic vegetables, and you’ll save meal preparation time too.

Here are two of my favorite recipes that Annessa made during our event:

 

Peanut Butter Pancakes Ingredients 3/4 cup oat flour, plus 2 tablespoons 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 O Organics® egg 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk 2 Tbs 100% pure maple syrup 1/4 cup O Organics® creamy peanut butter In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together: oat flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a small bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together: egg, almond milk, maple syrup and peanut butter. Whisk vigorously for 1 minute. Pour the wet mixture over the dry mixture, and stir just until moistened. Let batter rest 5 minutes to allow the oats to absorb the liquid – batter will thicken just a bit. Heat a flat griddle to medium (about 350º), and mist a light coating of nonstick butter spray. Scoop 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Wait to flip the pancake until bubbles appear in the center of the pancake. Repeat for the rest of the batter. Serve warm pancakes immediately! Drizzle with pure maple syrup and O Organics® old fashioned peanut butter. Enjoy! Serving Size: 1 pancake Nutritional Information:  Nutrition facts per pancake: Calories 128, Total Fat 5.8 g, Saturated Fat 1.1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g, Monounsaturated Fat 0.4 g, Cholesterol 23.3 mg, Sodium 163.3 mg, Potassium 12.0 mg, Total Carbohydrate 13.7 g, Dietary Fiber 2.2 g, Sugars 3.9 g, Protein 5.2 g

 

Muffin Tin Meatloaves Ingredients: 1 O Organics® egg 1/2 cup O Organics® salsa, plus more 1 lb O Organics® lean ground beef 1 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats 9 Tbs shredded cheddar cheese Preheat oven to 400º. In a medium bowl, add egg, salsa, chili powder and salt, whisking with a fork to combine. Stir in oats. Fold in ground beef gently until all ingredients are evenly incorporated into the beef. Coat a muffin tin with nonstick spray. Divide ground beef mixture among 9 of the muffin tins, pressing the beef down slightly in the center. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove and add a teaspoon of salsa to the center of each meatloaf, and top each with at tablespoon of cheddar cheese. Put meatloaves back into the oven for another 5 minutes, or until fully cooked. Remove from oven and let cool 2-3 minutes, then remove mini meatloaves from muffin tin and serve! Serving Size: 1 mini meatloaf Nutritional Information: Calories 166, Total Fat 10.6 g, Saturated Fat 4.7 g, Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g, Monounsaturated Fat 0.9 g, Cholesterol 60.8 mg, Sodium 315.7 mg, Potassium 19.5 mg, Total Carbohydrate 5.0 g, Dietary Fiber 1.4 g, Sugars 1.0 g, Protein 12.2 g

After spending time in the kitchen with Annessa, we were ready to hit the kitchen ourselves! All of the bloggers in attendance headed to the college’s professional kitchen, which bears the name of a very professional chef! (Alas, Mr. Bayless was not in attendance for the cooking portion of our day.) Each blogger received an O Organics apron to protect our clothing from what was happening next… 
 

When we entered the kitchen, we were greeted with l large prep tables filled with O Organics ingredients. We knew that we would be spending time in the kitchen today, but what would we be cooking?

The answer: Whatever we wanted! We were not given any recipes or anything specific to make. We could make whatever we wanted to.

What would you make  if you had a room full of ingredients at your disposal? You might think that the bloggers would have immediately been looking up recipes on their phones, but I saw far more phones being used to take photos than look up recipes. The majority of the people in attendance seemed to gain inspiration by gathering the ingredients they were interested in, then figuring out how to use them together.

Kendall College’s Chef Jason welcomed us to the kitchen and outlined a few rules for our time: Scrub hands and forearms, use kitchen knives safely, and my favorite: A simple trick to prevent your cutting board from sliding around while cutting foods! Who knew? I’ll be using this tip in my own kitchen too:

 

Photo courtesy of Albertsons Companies

I took a walk around the kitchen gathering ingredients. It was fun to see what everyone else was making too! Some bloggers paired up to jointly create dishes together, while others were busy preparing food on their own. I was inspired by the unsulphured pineapple, coconut flakes, onions, and O Organics frozen mango chunks and decided to make a tropical stir-fry! I added some O Organics rice too. While we had both O Organics dry rice and O Organics precooked rice available to us, I opted to use the precooked rice to save time. 
 

I heated two tablespoons of coconut oil, then browned the onion, mango chunks, dried pineapple and coconut flakes. Once the onion caramelized, I added the instant rice and mixed. Then, I added a generous splash of soy sauce, turned the heat to high, and fried everything together. It smelled so good! (It tasted good too, which I’ll get to in a moment…)

While I created my tropical stir-fry without a recipe on the fly, here’s what I used and how I made it:

 

Tropical Stir Fry Servings: 4 Preparation Time: 10 minutes Ingredients 2 TBSP coconut oil 1 medium onion 1 cup O Organics frozen mango 1/2 cup dried unsulphered pineapple, sliced 1/2 cup coconut flakes  1/2 cup soy sauce Two O Organics 7.4oz. cooked rice bowls Melt the coconut oil in a skillet on medium heat. Dice onion and brown in skillet. While onion is cooking, dice frozen mango chunks and add to skillet. Slice pineapple into thin strips. Add pineapple and coconut to skillet. Increase heat and add cooked rice. Add 1/2 cup soy sauce and stir everything together on high heat for 2-3 minutes. Top with coconut flakes. Serve with pineapple slice on top drizzled with pan juices.

After completing and plating our dishes, we headed to the college’s wine room for lunch. It had a great view of the Chicago skyline and warm natural lighting for taking those all-important food photos too!

 

Here’s my creation! It was really fun to walk around the room and see what everyone else made. We had a lunch buffet provided by Jewel-Osco, but in addition to the pho wraps we ate for lunch, many of us ate our own dishes too (or sampled each other’s!) Here’s a peek at some of the other amazing dishes bloggers made at the event:

You can view more of the food made at this event by browsing the #OrganicForAll hashtag on Instagram. 

After lunch, we headed downstairs for a “Shop O Organics” event. Each blogger received a shopping bag to pick out his or her favorite foods, as well as new O Organics products to take home and try.

I was especially excited about taking home some of this O Organics hot cocoa mix! I am a hot chocolate fiend, and sadly, most name brands now include sucralose and other artificial ingredients, even in non-diet varieties. Organic cane sugar, organic dry milk, and organic cocoa are music to my ears (and taste buds.)

In addition to shopping for myself, I’ve got a bunch of O Organics goodies to share with a reader too! I’ll post a giveaway very soon so someone else can share in my “shopping” fun from this event. 

At the end of the day, a yoga instructor arrived and led all of the bloggers in a yoga session — a relaxing way to wind down a fun, food-filled day. I appreciate the opportunity to cover this event on behalf of my readers — it’s always interesting to learn about what’s going on in our stores, and I appreciate Jewel-Osco’s commitment to offering a full line of organic products at reasonable prices. 

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I purchase my O Organics products at Jewel-Osco, but if you are outside of the Chicago area, O Organics products are available at Albertsons Companies stores across the country, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Vons, Safeway, Shaw’s,  Tom Thumb, Randalls,  Pavilions and Star Market.

Learn more about O Organics at Jewel-Osco’s website.

Hashtag: #OrganicForAll

Disclosure: I attended the O Organics: Organic for All event as an ambassador of Jewel-Osco. Jewel-Osco has covered my travel expenses for the event, and I have been compensated for participating in this campaign. Read full Disclosure Policy.