photo courtesy of rouxbe.com
Hey Diva!
It’s that time of year again – Fall detox time! I like to run a detox program at this time, before we start all of the “seasons eatings” – from Halloween candy to stuffing our faces with turkey, to the Christmas sweet treats. I figure if you can catch yourself and get a good healthy focus right before all of that hoopla starts, you might actually make it through without gaining a pound or catching a cold.
Yep, we’re also just getting to the time of year notorious for coughs, colds, and the flu. A good detox prepares you for that by building your immune system through healthy juices, foods, supplements, and avoidance of the foods and moods that can weaken your natural defenses.
Over the weekend I made something that is good for the immune system, tasty, and as old fashioned as it gets. Bone broth. We know it as chicken broth. That’s when you save the bones from that wonderful (antibiotic free) rotisserie chicken and put them in a pot of water with sea salt, peppercorns, celery, onion and carrots, and let it simmer, simmer, simmer. What you’re after here is the bone marrow of the chicken. It contains amino acids and collagen which both assist in repairing damage to the gut brought on by a variety of things including poor digestion, stress, or eating foods that don’t agree with you. Heal the gut, heal the person.
Other benefits of mama’s chicken broth include improved joint health and decreased cellulite. This is due to the ability of the body to easily absorb minerals as they are released into the broth by simmering the bones. And it’s not just chicken – beef, lamb, even fish bones can provide these benefits.
So get your bones out! It’s fall, and you want to be ready for the colder months ahead.
In a large stock pot, cover the bones of one chicken with filtered or purified water. Add chicken bones, 3 carrots, sliced, 4 celery stalks sliced, one chopped onion, 2 tablespoons of sea salt, a teaspoon of peppercorns. Allow to simmer for 3 hours, and up to 24 hours. Add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (Braggs) to the simmering pot if you want to get even more nutrients to come out of those bones.
For a simple way to cook the chicken and make the broth at the same time watch this video.
Did you grow up with mama or grand ma giving you chicken broth during the colder months? Did you realize there really was something to it?
