Bone Broth: A Nurturing Concept

After 2 years of experimenting with the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle, I must admit, I learned a lot about how to consume way less processed foods than I had been.  I'm grateful for my nutrition journey that hasn't always been perfect but constantly improving.  My latest motto in life is BALANCE.  It may sound simple.  But achieving true balance in this life is probably the hardest thing one can possibly strive for.  I will probably spend the rest of my life working toward equilibrium.  It's dang hard.  I will often find myself swinging from end of the pendulum to the other in an attempt to balance what was off and then find that I've swung too far over to the other side.

As a younger girl, I spent many days yo-yo dieting.  That's not something I encourage to anyone.  It destroys your physical balance and then threatens to destroy your emotional and spiritual balance as well.   So while I'm still a big fan of eating more plants, I've embraced cooking with organic pastured meats and culturing the least processed dairy as possible.  For me, it's become about eating real foods vs. fake ones.  Synthetically made chemicals, salts and sugars just DON'T do the body good, for lack of better words.

So here we are making bone broths for the kiddos and ourselves alike.  Delicious and nutritious.  An author I've enjoyed reading lately goes by the name of Michael Pollan.  Somehow, I never much paid attention to his words of wisdom till now.  So I'd like to take a moment to quote some of the first lines of his book, In Defense of Food.  In order to keep things simple and balanced, he states, "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.  That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy."

He said it.  Not me.  Simple?  Yes.  Easy?  Not really.  I mean, in the interest of time, especially as a mother of four, I'd so much rather take a can of chicken noodle soup and serve that to my family for dinner.  But quite frankly, the organic fryers boiled in a big pot of water, and then separated from the bone, and served with rice, and green veggies with a little salt, TASTE SO much BETTER!  It really does make  a big difference.  Making real food from scratch will take some extra time and planning.  But in my mind, taking the time to plan is worth it if it means avoiding endless trips to the doctors offices for ailments we could have avoided with a little better planning, just a little more time and a little more care.  After all, there's Nothing like Grandma's old-fashioned chicken soup.  What a nurturing concept right?  Bone broth it is then.

What has your experience been with pastured chicken broths?  Comment below.      

Cream of Cucumber Soup

It looks similar to this but a bit darker with the avocado

I really love this recipe. I got it from the "Raw Food Made Easy" cookbook by Jennifer Cornbleet. My husband loves it and he's the food critic in our house.

Yield: 2 cups, 2 servings

Ingredients

• 4 romaine lettuce leaves, chopped (about 11/2 cupts)
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon crushe garlic (1 clove) 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 ripe avocado, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh herbs (dill, mint, tarragon, or cilantro) or 1 teaspoon dried

Directions

1. Place the lettuce, cucumber, water, lemon juice, garlic, and salt in a blender and process until smooth.
2. Add the avocado and olive oil and blend again until smooth.
3. Add the herbs and blend briefly to mix
4. Serve immediately. For a chilled soup, refrigerate for 30 minutes before use.

Raw Tortilla Soup

So I feel a little hypocritical posting on this blog because I'm not vegan. But I do try to cook healthier meals and certainly like to throw in a vegan meal here and there. This recipe is adapted from the vita-mix cook book. It is so fast and easy to make, and is a yummy way for me to eat lots of raw vegetables. It's also adaptable, I've thrown in zuchinni, red and green peppers and some salsa before too.

Ingredients:

1 carrot

1 celery stalk
1 roma tomato
1 gr. onion
1 garlic clove
1/2 yellow squash
1/3 serrano chili OR 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups hot vegetable broth
1 tsp. taco seasoning
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup corn
handful of tortilla chips

Blend first nine ingredients at high speed in Vita-mix (or any good blender) for two minutes or until liquified. Add black beans, corn, and tortilla chips and mix for 10 seconds or less on lowest setting. Serve right away with more tortilla chips.

Lentil Tortilla Soup

1 Cup Brown Rice
1 Cup Lentils
1 Cup Pace Salsa (I like Medium)
1 Onion (diced)
1 Red Bell Pepper (diced)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 16 oz. Can of Corn
1 16 oz. Can of Tomato Sauce
1 4.5 oz. Can of Green Chiles
3 Tbsp Vegan Broth Powder
1-2 Tbsp Cumin (I use 2 because I love a lot of this flavor. 1 is usually good though)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. pepper
3 1/2 Quarts of water

1 Avocado
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste

A handful of tortilla or brown rice chips (you can get either of these at costco) The brown rice chips are lighter and probably healthier.

In a large kettle, you pretty much throw all the first list of ingredients in and bring to a boil. Then turn heat to low and let simmer anywhere between 45 to 90 minutes. The longer it simmers, the more flavorful and thick it becomes. In a little bowl, scoop out avocado and mash with a fork. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lime and mash in. Salt to taste. Serve soup hot with a dollop of quacamole and a handful of chips. This makes a huge amount that you can then store as leftovers. It's the kind of soup that tastes better the next day, so you'll really enjoy the leftovers.