Tag Archives: bone soup

Perpetual Chicken Stock

Its Thanksgiving week already can you believe it? This week’s recipe is for stock. I know I have mentioned it a lot recently and I just did this last week so I thought I would share. Last week a friend and I made chicken pot pie with chicken legs. We saved the bones and made perpetual chicken stock. I don’t know about you but it is so very satisfying to make a meal and not waste a thing! From a Chinese Medicine perspective bone broth is super nourishing for the Kidney/Urinary Bladder system of winter and its great for your digestion and absorption of everything else you eat. Here is an article from Weston Price touting all the delicious benefits of homemade chicken stock.  

 

What do you need:

crock pot

chicken bones (or other soup bones, make sure they are organic or straight from the farm)

mason jars

2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

whatever other veggies you want for your stock I used the scrapes from our chicken pot pie (carrots, celery, brussel sprouts, onion, peppercorns, garlic etc) and some beet greens that were still in the garden.

water

Directions:

Put your chicken bones and veggies in your crock pot and pot with cold water and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (the ACV helps to draw the marrow and gelatin out of the bones where all the good stuff is). Cover and turn on high. After first round take out at least 2 cups of broth (I filled a mason jar) then replenish the same amount of broth you took with fresh water. Strain out veggies and just let bones remain. Cook on low for next batch. Again when it is finished take out at least 2 cups or another mason jar and replenish with equal amount of cold water. Cook on low again. You can continue this for up to 7 days. Now you have chicken stock for all your recipes. You can even freeze the stock in the mason jars! Just make sure to first cool the stock in the refrigerator before putting in the freezer and leave room at the top for the liquid to expand. If I can steal the turkey bones from thanksgiving dinner I will be doing this again. 🙂

 

Natural Medicine Cabinet: Cold and Flu Prevention

Here are 5 important items to have in your natural medicine cabinet during flu season!

Bone Soup

Making your own stock is great preventative medicine and is also great to use medicinally when you are sick as well. From a Chinese Medical standpoint making soup stock from bones is incredibly nourishing to the kidneysand the kidney system is most active during the winter months which is the best time to nourish them.  Bone soup is also great if you are suffering from digestive troubles. I made garlic beef stock yesterday with this recipe and added red lentils, carrots, celery, rainbow chard, and broccoli this morning for dinner tonight. An added bonus is the house smells delicious.

Apple Cider Vinegar

‎”Cold Season Prevention & Remedy #3 for Pregnancy or any time – Drink 1 – 2 Tablespoons of RAW-Unfiltered-Organic Apple Cider Vinegar each day. You can mix it in 8 oz of water or apple juice to make it more palatable. This improves your body’s PH balance and strengthens the immune system. Also fends off yeast, speeds healing of infections, soothes a sore throat, and relieves heartburn. We like Bragg brand.” -Mamaste Yoga
Also equally good if you are not pregnant. 🙂 For more info about apple cider vinegar check out here. Whatever brand you choose make sure it has the “mother” in it for optimal results.

Thieves Essential Oil

I know, I talk about this all the time. Thieves essential oil is a blend of cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, rosemary, and lemon. It was named thieves after the infamous band of apothecaries that would use these herbs and spices to cover their faces when robbing the dead bodies during the black plague. It is 99.9% effective in killing bacteria and other sickies and because its a natural source bacteria can’t mutate to it like anti-bacterial soaps. We diffuse thieves at home and in the office to clean the air and spray thieves on door handles and other surfaces. You can also put a drop of thieves in your water or tea if your feeling run down or have a scratchy throat. Young Living essential oils carries this essential oil blend and you can purchase here. You can learn more about using aromatherapy THIS Saturday in the first part of our 2 part series Introduction to the Everyday Essential Oils collection. Part 2 is Saturday Dec 7th.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D otherwise known as the sunshine vitamin is important for immune health especially for prevention of colds and flus according to recent studies. Living in the Midwest it is really easy to become deficient in Vitamin D in the winter months when its hard to get enough sun light. You want to make sure to get a high quality vitamin D3, this is the most easily absorbed form on vitamin D for our bodies and you also want to make sure you take it with fat because it is a fatt soluble vitamin. I like Innate Choice Vitamin D3 drops because it comes in olive oil. You can order this online or pick it up in the office, Dr. Scott carries it. 🙂 Here is some more good info on Vitamin D too,

Don’t forget that acupuncture is a great preventative tool as well. Studies have shown that acupuncture points carry higher concentrations of white blood cells and when stimulated give a boost to the immune system. You can also use acupuncture for a persistent cough, congestion or the onset or a sore throat. If you have a fever though please stay home and use the natural remedies above.