Falling off the wagon

You know how it goes.   One day you just say, eh, fudge it and do something that you quit.  An old habit... mine was flour and sugar.  It gave me that good feeling, so I rode that dragon until over a week ago when my chest got tight and I experienced a severe GERD attack, or what I thought was a heart attack at the time.  Hello wake up call!  The doctors all say to use an over the counter antacid product.  But have you ever done the reading about GERD?  You don't need to suppress acid, you need more acid and to eat smaller meals. 

Lately I've wondered, are medicines just a crutch?  My cardiologist informed me that my PCOS is best managed by lifestyle modifications, but my high triglycerides, at this point, do need assistance. My naturopath said the same things, and reminded me that stress does so much harm on the inside that when it finally shows up on the outside, you are now chasing the symptoms, not the actual underlying problem.

Lifestyle modification.  Why aren't more doctors prescribing this treatment?  Because it's hard to do, or it's easier and more profitable to prescribe a pill?  The American lifestyle is partly, or mainly to blame.  We work very hard and try to live too big.  We don't really need 6 cars and a big boat and new wardrobes every year, but we want them.  Or at least some people do.  Items are not made to last as long, the life-cycle of goods and supplies has greatly lessened even over my short almost 40 years.  When these items don't last as long, people need to buy more, and that means more products need to be produced and more people are needed for jobs.  It's a vicious cycle of consumerism.  The other is our diet.  I have said it before and i will say it again, the american diet is not healthy.  Over indulgence and excessive stimulants has created a sick, stressed out populace. 

So how do we change our lifestyles?  Not everyone can return to the earth ways of the past, nor do we want to starve ourselves of the riches our country has to offer.  There has to be a happy medium right?  That is my goal.  My hubby doesn't have as many issues as i do with sugar, flour and grains, but he is supportive of my journey to wellness.

It all starts with one step, one minor change.  One step to change a habit, leads to repetition training, which leads to lifestyle modification.  You have to replace your thoughts of what you are giving up with what you are gaining. This isn't easy.  I fell off the wagon. While I'm still working toward my wellness, I know I have to make a conscious choice each and every day to improve,  to eat foods that are gut friendly, to be active, and be mindful.

What about you.  Are there things that you feel can be changed or reverted by lifestyle modifications?  If you like coffee, have you tried, to replace your creamer with a simple coconut milk or almond milk?  Have you tried coconut sugar? What about cassava flour? Cauliflower rice?  Roasted white sweet potatoes?  Moderation helps,  knowing that an indulgence is just that, a treat, not a staple in your diet. 

Be well this upcoming season, find one thing to be thankful for each day, and try to change one habit this month. 

St Patrick's Day 2018

Today embarks on another St. Patrick's Day.  Looking back, I have thrown some epic dinners.  But the first still makes me smile, in my apartment with a few friends. It started a journey and a promise to myself to keep family traditions alive. As the years have gone by, each year adds something a little different.   Be it a location, menu item, different guests, or different themes.

This year the focus is the Irish American movement.  When our grandparents (some great and great great) came to America, they came looking for a better life.  They brought with them a culture that evolved into Irish American culture of the USA as we know it today. 

The views of the non-Irish seem to think that our families do nothing else but drink, swear, fight and recite poetry. Some days that may be true, but like an onion, we have more layers than that.
Another is that most Americans don't know that corned beef is not irish at all (100% American) or that true soda bread is as simple as 4 ingredients. 

American ignorance (naive ignorance) to only accept the surface without research and looking deeper has led to people losing sight and remembrances of the struggles of those that came before us.  They didn't have fancy clothes, boats, mcmansion homes or white collar jobs.  Most of our ancestors who emigrated from Ireland were dirt poor and they fought to survive on pitiful wages by doing whatever they must. Fact of the matter, today we live like kings and queens compared to our great grandparents.

So with all of that being said, I am proud of my heritage, of those who try every day to be a good person, give a smile to others, welcome all, and embrace the diversity that America has to offer.
We celebrate today and all days my Irish-American values, give thanks to those that came before and give hope to those that will come after. 

My Irish-American values:

1.  Everyone is welcome so long as they are kind and respectful;
2.  Let there always be enough good food to share
3.  Family should be forgiven (may not forget transgressions, but in the end we forgive); f
4.  Friends are like clovers, you can have many, but the 4 leaf kind are special;
5.  Faith is personal and this world has fought too long over it, so if you can't agree to disagree, don't discuss it in my home.

Oh, and my menu today:

Starters:
Irish cheese and crackers
Guinness pretzels and Guinness honey mustard
Irish sausage rolls

Sides:
Roasted beets and carrots
Steamed cabbage
Boiled carrots and cabbage (ode to the one pot Irish)
Traditional soda bread
Mashed potatoes
Champ

Entree:
Corned beef

Beverages:
Irish coffee
Homemade irish cream

Dessert:
Apple tarts

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Just another Sunday

It's just another Sunday here at BNB.  I asked B if he wanted cookies, I'm making the weekly meal plan, and tying to figure out what to prep.   It's also time to make another batch of bone broth, and I'm going to attempt it in the pressure cooker - and this time I'm using beef and ham bones.  We'll see how it turns out.

This Sunday is also the last Sunday that Missy Kitty will have both eyes.  Our mascot has  one eye that has been diagnosed as "lens luxation".  Due to the other associated conditions of the eye, the only course of treatment is removal; which will happen this week.  We are confidant that she will transition well and even have some eye therapy planned (see google play for an app called Mouse).

Thus with things on my mind, I plan to make cookies.    But not just any cookies.  I am craving my grain free - almond cookies, but I'm out of almond flour.   I  could try the recipe with coconut flour, but after several attempts at baking with coconut flour, I think I'll hold off.  So husband cookies it is!! 

Next you may wonder how cookies and AIP go together.  I recently read an article which reminds us that AIP is a template, a tool designed to help you identify your trigger foods and to aid you in creating lifestyle and dietary changes (note I did not say diet) so that you can achieve optimal wellness and healing.  I have identified several key triggers that cause immediate reaction for myself (corn, milk, chemical additives) and am working toward seeing which others cause mild symptoms.  So baked goods are an experiment.

My own health journey starts with an AIP baseline and may veer off the path from time to time to include foods that may cause inflammation in others - but for me it doesn't.  You never know until you try.  Sometimes that experiment can be painful (spent four hours with abdominal cramping Friday night due to packet au jus or pepper jack cheese)

Life is too short to restrict everything you enjoy - but for those items that cause your quality of life to be diminished, Life is too short to be in pain by factors you can change.

Be blessed this Sunday, live kind, humble, and smile.

AIP, bone broth

You may have heard all the rage about nutrient dense bone broth, or seen cartons in the stores.   I'm here to tell you, don't buy it, you have to make it to get all of the health benefits!

Actual bone broth, in a chilled state should resemble, at minimum, a runny jello.  This means that you have extracted the gelatin and collagen and all the minerals from the bones that you cooked.  While some use a pressure cooker, I prefer the slow cooker.   When I first made a batch, I was home recovery from carpal tunnel surgery, so I had the three days it takes to make this!  One day soon I will adapt this for my programmable pressure cooker, just not today.

Warning, this method makes over a gallon of bone broth!  Make sure you read this all the way thru before starting.  Once you have, come back to this starting point.

Basic ingredients (feel free to add more or less per your preferences)

Filtered water up to 3 gallons
Raw apple cider vineger, 2 TBSP (do not sub white vinegar)
Sea salt, dash
3 lbs Bones from organic animals   **
Celery, 3 stalks rough chopped
Onion, 1/2 medium white or yellow, rough chopped
Garlic, 2 cloves, smashed and chopped
Bay leaf
Carrot, 4 , scrubbed, not peeled fresh carrots, rough chopped***

Notes:
**Use the most healthiest animals you can find to avoid added toxins and chemicals.  You are what you eat, as are they!  I use chicken and turkey bones, equivalent to several quarters, thigsh, legs, wings, and a whole chicken carcass.  I put cooked bones in a freezer bag for later use.  You can use raw bones or previously cooked bones, with or without some meat left on.
***I grew carrots this year so I knew mine were organic, and contained no toxins in the skins so we left the skins on.   Purple cosmic carrots from Baker Creek heirloom seeds, they are pretty and a bit sweet (still pulling them out of the coldframe box). Check them out here: https://www.rareseeds.com/cosmic-purple-carrot/

Instructions:

Day 1
Place the animal bones (poultry or beef/lamb, or combination thereof) in your slow cooker.  Hopefully the bones will fill the pot at least 3/4ths.  Cover with water, add a dash of salt and a TBSP of raw apple cider vinegar.  Cook on low with the lid on for 24 hours.

Day 2

About this time you should be able to see the smallest bones start to disolve. Check back every few hours, removing any scum that forms.  I also like to help break the bones down by smashing them (good stress reliever), its not required as once this process is done, if any are not disintergrated, you can cool and freeze them for one more use (beef bobes may work best for that).   Using the crockpot will help maintain your water level as you do not want to start reducing yet.  Continue on low in the crockpot.

Day 3

By now even the largest turkey breast or leg bone should be soft and you can crush it to see all the minerals (yum yum).  Wash, chop and add the vegetables and bay leaf and cook for 2 hours on low, lid on, checking every hour and removing any scum, smashing and pulverizing the bones even more.  Many reciepes show adding the veggies at the beginning, like I do for a normal chicken broth, but this method is all about the bones first. Make sure when you do the first read thru, you make note of this.  Cooking the veggies too long gives the broth a bitter taste. So on the second read thru (hello!), you are excited to get to this point!

Now, after about 2 hours, remove the lid and start the reduction phase (up to 4 hours). This is where your house will smell of the good stuff!  So let everyone know there will be amazing smells and be thankful that you don't have a fully open concept home!

The reduction is actually the trickest part.  The more you reduce, the more dense and gelled your broth will become.  This step is evaporating the water, not the minerals, gelatin and collagen.  I prefer to reduce by at least a 1/3.  Some broths you may be able to reduce by 1/2, so you will have to use your best judgement.

After the desired liquid amount is reached, strain twice with a fine mesh strainer to remove large particles (the tiny ones will sink once chilled). If there any large bone chinks not disolved, you can chill and freeze those for one more use.   Place the warm liquid back in the slowcooker, unplug and leave the lid off to let the broth cool for a few hours. Once it reaches room temp put into a container with a lid (large juice pitcher works great) and then chill overnight.
The bone broth is done correctlty when the results are gelled, kinda like runny jello!  If it has not gelled, you can put the broth into a stockpot and reduce further as this means you did jot reduce enough.  But if its kinda gelly and looks a little yucky, congrats!  You did it!  You have created a bone broth to be envious of!

How to use.

This reciepe lasted about 4 weeks for us as we would use a cup here and there, adding it into just about every receipe that called for any liquids, cream or butter. 

We store it in a 2 gallon pitcher with a lid so the heavy particlds settled, and top was luscious bone broth.  I couldnt bring myself to drink it straight, but it was added to steamed veggies, soups, meats, rice, potato mashes, used in place of broth (added more water), added to canned chicken noodle soup instead of half the water, used in place of milk for mashed sweet potatoes or cauliflower puree.  I really can't say enough about this stuff!

There you have it.  3 day bone broth using a slow cooker.  It sounds daunting, sczry, and a bit, weird.  But the benefits?  Better gut health, stronger nails, hair, glowing skin and less stomach issues.    Of course bone broth can't magically heal all your health issues all on its own, but this is one of the primary builing blocks to acheiving better wellness for yourself.  Give it a try!

The last little bit of bone broth, time for another batch,

AIP - super ginger tonic

This past Christmas, our nephew gave everyone a present we could not return.   The norovirus.  A nasty stomach bug that attacks the lining of your stomach and gi tract.  Had we known how bad it was, we may have delayed crossing the mountains to spend the holidays. But, since we had gifts for the OK kids that were too delicate for shipping, we pressed on. 

Skip ahead to Christmas day, we returned home from the sick fest only to be caught in the nasty web ourselves.  I brewed a batch of this tonic, and while hubby refused to drink more than a sip, this kept the nausea and vomiting at bay for myself.   The only reason I can contribute to me not getting this, but 7 others did, is the prior 45 days of AIP (healed leaky gut) and this tonic.

Amy's Special ginger brew to ease nausea and stomach upset.

Ingredients

6 cups cold filtered water

1/4 cup raw honey

1 large piece of ginger root(4-5 inches in length), peeled and chopped into slices.

Dash sea salt

Splash of raw apple cider vinegar

Bring water to just under a boil, add a splash of the vinegar, salt and drop in the ginger.  Heat on medium for 10 minutes, then reduce to simmer.  Stir in the honey until dissolved, then keep on low simmer for another 10 minutes.  Strain and keep in a mason jar with tight lid for up to 1 week in the fridge.

How to use:

When warm, sip on 1/2 cup to ease bouts of nausea, alternating with plain water.

Add to a hot green tea (my fave), add to water, and/or add ice if it's hot outside. 

To rewarm, use the stove top as microwaves are known to zap out the nutrients in the raw honey.

Warning.  Do not consume more than 2 cups per day as this could cause the same ill affects you are trying to avoid.

I sipped on about a cup of warm brew whenever I felt nauseated.   For B, I made him a concoction of ginger brew, kombucha, seltzer water and Gatorade which he sipped on during the worst bouts of vomiting.

The actual plan for the ginger was to make homemade ginger ale using a home-brewed ginger syrup (ginger and honey), then mix with club soda to provide the fizz! That's next up!