I love making soup, especially when I have a batch of good, hearty bone broth to use. Back in the day, when an animal was slaughtered, the whole animal was used. The meat was consumed, but the bones, skin, and organs were also put to good use. As we have gotten more comfortable with buying our protein in the form of pretty little packets of boneless cuts of meat, we have unwittingly lost touch with the benefits of using the whole animal. Using the whole animal (an animal that has been raised and fed properly, in humane conditions, and without the use of hormones or antibiotics) yields nutritional benefits far beyond the cuts of meat that we buy in the supermarket.
Broth made from bones is full of molecules from the collagen family, molecules that help to build joints. People buy capsules of glucosamine or shark cartilage, but those same molecules are found in the bones of animals and can be captured in a way that is much more natural and healthy through the proper preparation of bone broth. Bone broth is also rich in calcium and magnesium, two minerals vital to healthy bones. Stop spending money on capsules that have questionable efficacy, and eat bone broth once or twice a week. It is satisfying and delicious, too. Growing kids will benefit from bone broth, too. When you make chicken broth this way, it is literally golden in color. The flavor is amazing. The key to making good bone broth is to keep the cooking temperature to a very low simmer. High temperatures will tangle up proteins and molecules, making them hard or impossible for the digestive system to absorb properly. Keep temps low enough that the broth is just barely bubbling, or use your crock pot set at low. You can use any type of animal bone to make broth, though I personally have only used beef and chicken bones. Roast a chicken for dinner or buy a rotisserie chicken. Clean the meat off the bones, then crack the bones (as much as possible) and place in the bottom of a large pot. I use an 8 quart pot. Throw in a whole onion, a carrot, a stalk of celery, a few bay leaves, and a Tbsp of salt. Fill 3/4 full with water, and put on the stove at a medium-low setting. Alternatively, put everything into your crock pot, cover, and set to low. I let my stock go overnight and into the next morning. After a good long time, strain the stock into another large pot. Discard the solids that you catch in the strainer. Cool the broth to store and use later (it can be frozen in freezer bags) or use it for that night's dinner. Any vegetables will do. Today, I used: half a rutabaga, finely chopped; 3 whole carrots, chopped; a bag of frozen organic green beans; one-quarter of a head of green cabbage, finely chopped; and the remaining chicken meat from last night's dinner. If you have time, make it in the morning and leave on a low simmer all day. Serve with a nice green salad. Skip the bread, and eat two bowls of soup instead. You'll feel better later. I promise.
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Breakfast in Turkey is not a meal - it is an event. In fact, in Turkish, you don't say you "ate" breakfast - you say you "did" breakfast. Like so many of our cross-cultural experiences in Turkey, my first instinct was usually (and I am not proud to say this...) annoyance. I would ask questions (internally) like Where are the things WE want? Why do they do it like THAT? And then, wouldn't you know, within a few months I was wondering why I had never tried this or that, or done it this way, or seen that before. (See my post on yogurt as an example.) Our first introduction to Turkish breakfasts came at a hotel we stayed at. We brought our 2 sleepy kids (ages 4 and 7 at the time) to the breakfast buffet in the morning and looked around. Where was the cereal? Where was the toast? Not an English muffin to be found. And WHAT was up with all of the vegetables, olives, and cheese? As we took the kids through the line to get food, we had trouble finding things they would eat. They did have a cold cereal option, but it was muesli, which is essentially raw oats that you pour milk over. No Cheerios. No hot oatmeal. No sweet, fruity yogurt. I can't remember what we found for them to eat - probably some white bread and fruit. We experimented at the hotel with eating cheese and olives, fresh tomato and cucumber slices, roasted red pepper strips, boiled eggs, white bread all together on the same plate. It was surprisingly good. I had never enjoyed olives while living here, but Turkish olives were amazing. The only coffee option was instant coffee, so we drank the tea. It all tasted really good together. I still wasn't sure that I liked the idea of crunchy vegetables at breakfast time, after years of eating bread or cereal products first thing in the morning, but I opened my mind (and mouth) to the possibility. And within 2 years, we would be preparing that very breakfast every morning for ourselves. In actuality, Turkish breakfast goes far beyond veggies and eggs. There is often a large selection of different breads, fresh butter, jams and jellies and honey, salads, sausages in various forms, and yogurt. And as always, the tea flows freely. Some of our best memories from Turkey involve "doing" breakfast with friends and neighbors. Let it be known that Turkish hospitality truly does rival anything you will ever experience. But I digress. Since I don't eat much fruit, and I don't eat many grains, I depend pretty heavily on vegetables in my diet. Vegetables and nuts are the main sources of carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals for me. I try to make vegetables the central part of my meal, with eggs, dairy, and meats being simply side dishes. I don't think I would have ever considered breakfast to be a time for vegetables if not for our time in Turkey, outside of the occasional veggie omelet. But in actuality, it's a great way to start the day. I skip the bread and have veggies instead. Here are a few of my favorite options for veggie-centric breakfasts: 1) Turkish breakfast: Fresh vegetable slices, white cheese (Turkish cheese can be found at international markets, but any type will do), marinated olives (cured black olives stored in a bath of olive oil, lemon juice, dried oregano, and a bit of crushed red pepper), an egg or two. 2) Veggie Scramble (easier than an omelet): Gently saute onions, garlic, and finely diced vegetables of your choosing or grated zucchini. Stir up a few eggs and pour them over the sauteed vegetables; gently scramble. Sprinkle cheese over the top. 3) Substitute fruit juice with vegetable juice. Make your own or buy it prepared. Make sure there is no added sugar. 4) Leftovers! Re-heated stir frys, stews, and curries can make great breakfasts. 5) For breakfast on the go, try a boiled egg, raw vegetable slices, and a cheese stick. This can easily be packed and eaten in the car or at your desk at work. If you have other ideas or other favorite breakfasts involving vegetables, please share below! When I was 13, I developed anorexia nervosa. Really scary, severe anorexia nervosa. I went from a healthy, outgoing, bright girl to a shell of a person. I was not overweight to begin with, but by the end of my ordeal, I was down to an emaciated 75 pounds. I was constantly cold, tired, and quite frankly, wanted to die. It was not much fun, and definitely not a year of my life I would want to repeat. Anorexia is, in my opinion, nothing more than a slow, prolonged form of suicide - and I was well on my way to that fate. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. I am thankful every day that I am here and alive and well. I beat the odds.
I would like to slowly share my story on this blog, in bits and pieces, as I feel inspired. I will subtitle these "Skinny Stories". The whole darn story could make a book, but rather than a long, linear, historical tale, I would like to tell it against the backdrop of my current life. You don't have an experience like that without it impacting the rest of your life, and my experience has become woven into the fabric of who I am. That starving girl is still there inside of me, and she has a story to tell. In my case, I had 2 tools of self-destruction: a calorie-counter book and the bathroom scale. My addiction was to weight loss. I couldn't stop. The calorie counter made me acutely aware of the numeric value of anything I put into my mouth, and the scale was my measure of success. Every morning I would wake up, excitedly anticipating my weigh in. I weighed myself at the same time (early morning, before I ate or drank), in the same place (scale lined up perfectly on the "correct" lines of the linoleum on the bathroom floor), and in the same condition (undressed, before my morning shower). That was the ritual, and it was my life. A weight loss meant a good day, maintenance meant a slightly agitated day, and gain was anathema. I would set a weight goal, and I (initially) always had the earnest intent to stop losing weight once I met that goal. The goal started at 115 pounds, but when I got to 115, I thought that 110 would be reasonable. And then I reached 110, and I thought Well, why not 105? And then 105 seemed a bit heavy, so I aimed for 100. By the time I got to 90, I had lost control completely. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to stop losing weight, but that I felt that I couldn't. Fast-forward to the time that I started eating again. (That will be another story for another day.) I remember sitting in the doctor's office, telling him that I was feeling better and wanted to eat again, and he said this to me: That's good. I'm happy to hear that. But you need to know something. Your chances of relapsing into anorexia, or developing bulimia, are very, very high. He was cautiously optimistic. And he was right. The relapse rate of anorexia is estimated to be between 30-50% in the first year of recovery, and 20% overall. Also, the development of bulimia in those who are recovering from anorexia is common. For a pediatrician in 1988, he was ahead of his time in telling me that. This caused 2 responses in me: The first was to say, Nope. Not me. The second was to develop a determination to not count, weight, or track anything. Not what I ate, and not what I weighed. After all, that's what had gotten me into trouble in the first place, right? So, throughout high school, I rarely stepped on a scale. If I had to for some reason, I would get nervous, agitated, and always felt shame and embarrassment over what I weighed, even if it was completely healthy. I finally decided to get rid of the scale altogether and just forget about it. My bathroom scale at home sat unused, and I stopped paying attention to weight. I was so determined not to become obsessed again that I ended up letting go. This was really good and healthy in some ways, but in retrospect, led to some new and different unhealthy patterns. In the past 4 years, I have realized that I need to find a balance. As I wrote in an earlier post, when a friend told me I was overweight, I was shocked and horrified and even mad, but she was right. And I had to make a choice to trust in the process of healing and growing that I had gone through in the last 20 years. I had to make a decision that it was okay for me to step on a scale, that I would not go flying into out-of-control weighing and obsessive behavior. I talked back to the starving girl inside of me, the one who is full of fear and worry that I will relapse and hurt myself again, and I said Guess what? I can handle this. I'll be okay. And so far, I have been. Weight is an important index of health. It's not everything, but it's meaningful. BMI, while it doesn't tell the whole story and certainly has its weaknesses, does matter from a disease perspective. All of my years of eating what I wanted and refusing to weigh or pay attention were sort of like writing checks out of a checking account but refusing to check the balance. And believe me when I tell you that I do NOT have a metabolism that deals with that well. I could easily become obese - it runs in my family and I have to be careful. I have to pay attention. I spent a lot of my 20s and part of my 30s at a weight that classified me as overweight on the BMI scale. Not good. And "dense bones" only explain so much of that weight... I don't weigh myself every day now, but I do try to check in every few days. I don't always want to weigh myself, but I do it to keep me accountable to taking good care of myself. I don't let the number determine if I will have a good or bad day like I used to, but I use it as an indicator that I need to start paying closer attention to what I'm eating or how I'm moving. For me, weight gain means high blood pressure, increased risk for type 2 diabetes, hormone disruption, and other health-related fallout. I won't lie - I do have days where I see a number lower than it has been in the last 20 years, and I think Maybe just 5 more pounds... But I know that voice now, and I know how to quiet it. And then I move on. Cutting out grains seemed like such an extreme step for me that it actually took me over a year of reading about it before I was willing to try it. I still eat rice from time to time, but outside of that, have found that I feel better without wheat and other grains in my diet. One of the challenges of eating this way is finding substitutes for old standards - like pizza - that taste good and are still satisfying. I have found a few different ways to build a yummy pizza using vegetables as a crust. The conclusion I have come to is that a good pizza is more about the toppings than the vehicle for the toppings, anyway. Smother your pizza in caramelized onions, mushrooms, and spinach, and suddenly the crust doesn't matter a whole lot. A loaded veggie pizza covered in finely chopped peppers, onions, mushrooms, dried tomatoes and olives tastes really good without bread products underneath. Below are my favorite options for veggie-based crusts.
If I'm cooking for the family, I make a "normal" pizza with a gluten-free crust for the kids along side my veggie crusted pizza. I hope one day they will love vegetable crusts, too, but we're not there yet. Option 1: Broiled eggplant slices Slice an eggplant into slices about 1/2 inch thick Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle generously with salt. Let stand for 10 minutes. Rinse the slices off under cold water and pat dry. Grease the baking sheet with olive oil and lay the eggplant slices on the sheet. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside until you are ready to build your pizza. Cover eggplant slices with sauces, desired toppings, cheese, etc and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 450 degrees, or until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown. Option 2: Grated zucchini crust Grate 2 zucchini and wrap in a cheese cloth or clean dish towel. Gather into a tight ball and wring out excess water. Let sit for 10 minutes. Dump contents into a bowl and mix with 1 egg, 1-2 Tbsp rice crumbs (bread crumbs if you're not gluten free), and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir well. Press into the bottom of a well-greased baking pan or pizza pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with sauce and toppings, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes at 450 degrees or until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown. You will have to eat your veggie pizza with a fork, but when the tastes of the toppings mingle under the high heat of the oven, you still get to have a very nice pizza experience. Enjoy! This past spring while reading current science headlines in preparation for my biology class, I stumbled across an article about gorillas in the Cleveland Zoo. In 2005, a 21-year-old gorilla died of heart disease. Then in 2008, it was discovered that two other resident gorillas were developing heart disease. At the time, they were being fed specially formulated biscuits developed by experts as feed. Because the biscuits had been fortified with everything gorillas theoretically need, it was expected that they would develop and grow and be healthy. Turns out that's not the case. This past year, they tried an experiment: Take the gorillas off the processed chow and give them ample raw vegetables in an effort to mimic what they would eat in the wild. (Now I'm no zoologist, but really??? This didn't occur to anyone sooner?)
The result: even though these two gorillas are eating twice as many calories in a day, they are losing weight and there are promising signs that their heart disease is reversing. There are some confounding factors, of course. Back in 2008, they were started on blood pressure medications. And there is the factor of chronic stress from living in captivity - that must play a role in their overall health and is most likely contributing to their heart disease at some level. But they are getting healthier. And losing weight. Did I mention they are eating twice as many calories a day? Go figure. To investigate further, I looked up the ingredients of an example of prepared gorilla food. Here's the list: Soybean meal, corn gluten meal, soybean hulls, sugar beet pulp, corn hominy feed, yellow corn, sucrose, dehydrated alfalfa meal, zinc sulfate, soybean oil (stabilized), dicalcium phosphate, flaxseed oil, niacin supplement, apple fiber, manganese sulfate, ferrous sulfate, calcium carbonate, d-calcium pantothenate, sodium chloride, copper sulfate, L-lysine, riboflavin supplement, thiamin mononitrate, cobalt oxide, folic acid, menadione nicotinamide bisulfite (vitamin K), pyridoxine HCL (vitamin B-6), l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), propionic acid, choline chloride, ethylenediamine dihydriodide, FDC # 40, biotin, sodium selenite, vitamin B-12 supplement, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D-3 supplement, vitamin E supplement. These feeds are high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals (sounds like a breakfast cereal ad, right?), specially formulated for the daily needs (sounds like a vitamin ad, right?) of gorillas. And yet they aren't truly healthy foods - as evidenced by declining health and premature death. Note the presence of highly processed soy and corn? Now check out the ingredients of a popular snack bar sold to humans: WHOLE GRAIN OATS, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, SOYBEAN OIL (WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SOLUBLE CORN FIBER, SUGAR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, WHEY, WHEAT BRAN, SALT, CELLULOSE, POTASSIUM BICARBONATE, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, WHEAT GLUTEN, CORNSTARCH, NIACINAMIDE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, CARRAGEENAN, ZINC OXIDE, REDUCED IRON, GUAR GUM, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID. (Sorry for the all caps - I copied and pasted this list and am too lazy to re-type it.) Anyway, see any parallels? Or a cracker that is marketed as a healthy snack for kids: Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid), Cornstarch, Cheddar Cheese [(Pasteurized Cultures Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Annatto], Dehydrated Vegetable Blend (Split Pea, Carrot, Tomato, Sweet Potato, Cornstarch, Maltodextrin, Soy Lecithin), Vegetable Oils (Canola, Sunflower and/or Soybean), Wheat Gluten, Dehydrated Potatoes, Contains 2 Percent or Less of: Salt, Yeast, Maltodextrin, Autolyzed Yeast, Leavening (Ammonium Bicarbonate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Yellow Corn Flour, Lactic Acid, Onion Powder, Paprika, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Natural Butter Flavor, Garlic Powder, Spices, Buttermilk, Sodium Phosphate, Calcium Lactate, Citric Acid, and Spice Extract. Common ingredients include vegetable oils (but aren't those heart healthy?) and a number of soy, wheat, and corn derivatives. Now, all of that being said, obviously none of us live in captivity, and most of us don't rely on processed foods for most of our calories. (The gorillas were receiving about 50% of their food in the form of lots of fruit and a few vegetables previous to the overhaul.) BUT most of us do deal with some form of chronic stress in our lives - commutes, financial worries, job stress, family issues - and, thanks to marketing, we do tend to take in a steady stream of foods labelled as heart healthy or whole grain or trans fat free. And many of those foods have ingredient lists not too different from those above. A bowl of cereal for breakfast, a few slices of commercially prepared bread on a sandwich at lunch, some whole grain crackers for a snack, a "nutrition bar" to stave off the afternoon hunger...it all adds up. Add to that a lack of fresh vegetables, and it would be pretty easy to have the diet of a captive gorilla. My experience is this: As I choose foods that are healthy for me and avoid processed foods containing vegetable oils, soy, wheat, and corn derivatives, I too can eat many more calories in a day and keep my weight, cholesterol, and triglycerides lower than ever. It's about the choices we make, the composition of what we eat, and figuring out what our bodies respond best to. As I said in my earlier post, I do not believe that there is one perfect diet that the whole world should be on. But I do believe that the human diet, like the primate diet, has very little, if any, room for highly processed foods. I do believe it is worth the experimenting and troubleshooting to figure out what works best for you, just like the zookeepers did for the gorillas. It's about finding that "sweet spot" where you can enjoy food, optimize your health, and eat worry free. This is another recipe that I have discovered works really well in the crock pot. Throw it together in the morning, set on low, or even warm, and leave for the day. By evening, you have a rich sauce, in which the flavors of onion, garlic, basil, and the juices of the meat have mingled all day long. This method for making meatballs uses slow, moist cooking to minimize damage to the proteins and nutrients in the meat. You can do it on the stove top, as well. Allow about 2 hours for the sauce to simmer if you do it that way. It is a gluten-free recipe, as is everything I post on my blog.
Spaghetti squash replaces the pasta. Spaghetti squash is delicious with a number of toppings on it - even just butter and grated parmesan cheese. When I can't find it at the store, I buy a few zucchinis and cut them into very thin strips, saute or steam the strips, and use it just like pasta. There are several options for the sauce, depending on your interest in cooking and how much time you have. If you have a favorite recipe, use that. Any tomato-based sauce will do. A splash of red wine added at the beginning of the cooking time will make any of the following options a little bit richer. Fastest: Buy 2 jars of your favorite sauce and empty into the crock pot. Next fastest: This is my personal default sauce. Add the following ingredients into the crock pot: 2 cans (28 oz) crushed tomatoes 1 can (15 oz) tomato puree 2 Tbsp tomato paste 4 cloves garlic 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp salt black pepper 1 tsp basil 1 tsp oregano Mix together. Labor Intensive: Put the following into a food processor: 12 medium tomatoes or 2 cans whole tomatoes 1 small onion, peeled and chopped 1 small carrot, peeled and chopped 4 Tbsp tomato paste 2-4 garlic cloves 1 tsp dried basil 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp salt Puree in the food processor, then pour into crock pot. Meatballs: Put the following into a mixing bowl: 1 pound ground beef and/or lamb 1 tsp salt black pepper 2 Tbsp rice crumbs (can leave these out if you want to be strictly grain free) 2 eggs Mix (using your hands to knead the gooey mess works best, if you can stand it...) until well combined. Form into balls about 1.5 inch in diameter. Place into prepared sauce in the crock pot. Cover the crock pot and set on warm or low, whichever temperature yields a very gentle bubbling. Leave simmering for the day. Serve over squash or zucchini, adorned with some high quality grated parmesan cheese. I cook gluten-free rice pasta for the boys. I have found Tinkyada Pasta Joy brown rice elbows and penne pasta to be the best tolerated. Spaghetti Squash Prep: Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Place skin side up on a baking sheet. Place in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until you can pierce the flesh with a fork. Allow to cool, then scrape out the flesh with a fork. This will yield strands about the size of angel hair pasta. This can be done ahead and reheated in the microwave or on the stove right before serving. I have found a GF bread recipe that is tasty, and enjoyed by both adults and children. I don't use any fancy grains in my GF baking because I have found that they are not well tolerated by various members of the family. So I adapt the GF recipes I find to rice flours and tapioca and potato starch. I have had a few failures, but some great successes. This is one of the successes. I find that if I bake 2 loaves once a week, it's enough for the whole week. This bread needs to be stored in the refrigerator in a sealed bag or airtight container. I recommend gently heating or toasting it before you eat it.
This is adapted from a recipe I found on Food.com called "Gluten Free White Bread". I have changed up the flour mixture a bit and left out a few ingredients. It comes out great every time, but you need to measure precisely and follow the directions. I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for beating the bread. I haven't tried any other methods, and can't vouch for how just stirring by hand might work. Ingredients: 1 cup brown rice flour 1/2 cup potato starch 1/2 cup tapioca starch 1 1/2 tsp xantham gum 1/2 tsp salt 2 Tbsp sugar 2 1/4 tsp (or 1 packet) active dry yeast 2 small eggs 3 Tbsp butter, softened 1 tsp vinegar (I use apple cider) 1 cup warm water 1. Combine all ingredients from flour to yeast and mix together. Set aside. 2. In a heavy duty mixer, beat the eggs and vinegar together. Add the butter and warm water. 3. Add the dry mix slowly to the wet mix with the mixer on low. 4. Turn mixer to high and beat for 4 minutes. The dough should have the consistency of a thick cake batter. It will not look or feel like regular bread dough. 5. Grease a loaf pan or 12 muffin tins (for rolls) with butter or olive oil. You can also drop it by large spoonfuls onto parchment paper to make about 6 "hamburger buns". Use a spatula to scrape the dough into the container. Using wet hands, smooth the top of the dough. This takes patience and a gentle touch. You may have to wet your hands more than once. 6. Cover and let rise for at least 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 7. Bake for 30 minutes for a loaf, 20 minutes for rolls. Should be lightly browned on top and sound hollow to the touch when tapped. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes. |
AuthorI'm Emily. I currently work in online education management, but I also have a Masters degree in Nutritional Sciences (my true passion). In addition, I am a mom, cook, avid reader, novice gardener, and enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities. On my blog, you will find articles on food, fitness, weight management, and eating issues. ALL recipes on my blog are gluten-free. Many are low-carbohydrate. Most are grain free. Enjoy! Categories
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