Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A Cheap, Nutritious Staple Food

As the weather gets colder, soups make the perfect dinner. Chicken noodle soup is known to help when you're feeling down or have a bad cold or feel a flu coming on. Did you know that homemade chicken broth is not only just warm and comforting, but actually has healing properties? The inner lining in our intestinal system is part of our nervous system. When it is damaged or pulled away- from a weakened immune system or too much bad food, we feel sick. Homemade chicken broth is the most natural way to heal, nourish, and repair your body.



Homemade broth from beef bones is extremely nutritious as well. It contains minerals from the bone, marrow and cartilage. Chicken broth and beef broth (again, I'm talking about homemade, not the cubes or cans you buy in the store) also contain gelatin. First, and most important, this aids in your digestive system. It also is a protein...not a complete protein, but it does contain amino acids that help your body digest and absorb other proteins better.

You can make broth from pork bones, turkey and even though I've never tried it, fish bones. And it's so simple to make!

Place the bones in a large pot and completely cover them in cold water. Add a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (best option) or distilled white vinegar and let it sit for about an hour. This will help draw out minerals like calcium and magnesium.

Bring to a boil. You can scrap off the bubbly stuff that rises to the top. Turn down to a simmer and cover. If you want more flavor to your chicken broth, you can also add some carrots, celery and onion here. Let everything simmer for a minimum of 6 hours. I normally let mine simmer at least 12 hours.

Pour everything through a strainer. And now you have your broth! I usually leave some in the fridge and freeze the rest in 2 cup baggies.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I'm back!!

I know I haven't posted for awhile. 'Tis the season where everything gets super busy right?!

Starting everything off, Elliott's birthday was a success. I love planning parties and now I'll have an excuse to plan parties every year. ;)  Overall, it was a lot of fun, great getting to see friends, and Elliott loved all his new toys. (He wasn't too impressed with the idea of cake though.)


Another kind of stressful thing we had that weekend was our home inspection and joint interview for becoming foster parents. It went well though and there are just a couple more things we need to get done- and we have until December 13th to do it.

Then we flew to AL for Zach's twin brother, Elliott, and Meagan's wedding. It was my first time flying plus first time flying with an infant and I can say....it's no fun. haha. Overall Elliott did really well, but it's hard making him sit in that little plane so long! It was definitely nice flying with family and being able to pass him around.

Alabama was beautiful and I got to experience first hand the wonderful, gracious, Southern hospitality. Everyone was so sweet and it was fun getting to spend a week with Meagan's awesome family and getting to meet her friends. We will definitely have to go back to visit! The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and went off without any problems. I had a blast getting to be a bridesmaid (my first time!) and am so excited and blessed to have an amazing sister like Meagan.



Next we flew to San Diego. We started it off by leaving Elliott with his many aunts and uncles and grandma and Zach and I went out. We postponed our anniversary celebration last month until we were in SD. We had a yummy lunch and then just got to spend some quality time talking and de-stressing and walking on the beach. It was much needed and a lot of fun. :)


The week in SD we just went to all our favorite places, ate at our "only in San Diego" restaurants, and had a great time just being with family- talking, laughing, playing games, relaxing with and of course, eating delicious food. ^_^

The trip home was hard. It was way past Elliott's naptime plus he had been out of routine for two weeks now. Then, we had a two hour layover in LA and I ate an egg omelet at the airport that must have had something bad in it. I felt awful and just laid on the seats by our gate for the next hour while Zach entertained Elliott. When we finally got seated on the plane, I threw up breakfast. Ugh!

Although I miss family and SD so much, it just feels good to be HOME. We ordered pizza (yeah, one last day to blow eating healthy. haha), put Elliott to bed and cuddled watching a movie. The perfect end to our busy, crazy, fun, exciting past 2 weeks. <3