Better Consommé

When I was little,  my mother used to make me this clear soup with ground beef, it's so simple and yet so tasty. Even though it does not compare with a long and slower simmer of bone broth, it is a quick and nutritious way to an easy bowl of soup. 

Better "Consommé"

Ingredient

• 1/2 lbs grass fed ground beef
• 3 c cold water
• 1/4" slice ginger, smashed
• sea salt to taste
• garnish with chopped green onions and parsley ( optional)

Instruction

1. In a small pot, add all ingredients and give it a stir
2. soak for 20 mins until the blood has been drown out of the ground meat
3. Bring mixture to boil uncovered for 2-3 mins
4. Cover and turn heat off and let sit for 5-10 mins
5. Laddle into bowl and garnish with chopped green onions and  parsley

You can serve only the broth or with the ground meat. If you want to enjoy the traditional style of consume, you can strain through a sieve. 

This make a super quick broth to serve with meal or as a stand alone snack. 

Back to School AIP easy crispy tender chicken legs

For families with children, school is starting tomorrow. I am thinking up easy yummy recipes for the busy pace. Here is my AIP low FODMAP chicken legs served with a side of pan fried brussel sprouts, garlic greens and pancetta. A squeeze of lemon juice adds a spark to this meal. 

AIP easy crispy and tender chicken legs

Serves 5  Prep time 20mins ( up to 2 hours of marinade time)  Cook time 1hr 10 mins

Ingredients

• 5 chicken legs with thighs attached

For marinade

• 2-3 stocks of garlic greens
• 2 green onions ( greens only for lowFODMAP)
• 2 stocks of celery
• 1/2" ginger root
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 c water
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp himalayan sea salt

Instructions

1. Put all marinade ingredients into blender and blend until somewhat smooth
2. Put chicken legs into a zip lock bag and pour marinade into bag
3. Clean bag and shake to mix 
4. Open bag to remove as much air as possible and reseal the bag
5. Let marinade in fridge between 30 mins to 2 hours. 
6. Preheat oven 315F
7. Remove chicken out of bag and lay in ( raised ) oven tray - the ones that came with the oven.
8. Bake at 315F for 30mins per side ( flip once) 
9. Turn oven to Broil and broil for 5 -10 mins to brown and crispy up skin. 

Moving Forward - Heal me through my feet update

Happy New Year everyone! I am really excited that 2015 is here and thought it would be fitting to report about my feet retraining progress. Get it, moving forward! This is also an update to my post in September " Heal me through my feet"

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This past summer, I reconnected with an old friend who had quit her desk job and become a Restorative Exercise Specialist Our catching up conversations brought us to sharing our healing journey, me on my gut and hers on her alignment. I was inspired by her to go more bare feet and attempt to rebuild my fallen arches.  I had watch my body go through so much amazing healing that I want to give my feet a go. After all, I am physically lighter and my feet are much stronger from my dedicated yoga practice. I bought myself a pair of Five Finger running shoes to walk around in, they feel like I practicing yoga all the time. Another thought is since I spend so much time standing in the kitchen, I thought I would do my arch retraining there too. Here is a photo of my feet lined up along the tile lines for alignment. Apparently, you are supposed to line up the outside of your feet to be parallel instead of the inside.

Always on my feet while cooking, might as well strengthen those little muscles to better support my body

I brought up the idea up to my chiropractor and his vague responds was " it's possible but not probably"

The other day, I stepped out my shower onto the wooden stool, mainly used to help the little ones climbing in and out of the tub, and noticed the shape of my foot print were narrower. There were less print around the middle of the feet where the arches are, which means... I am regaining some arches.

I am pleasantly surprised to rediscover my long lost arches and wanted to thank my friend for the knowledge and encouragement.

Here is my friend's link that explains more about who to strengthen those feet and better your alignment. http://www.movementrevolution.ca/dear-friend-get-yourself-some-alignment-here-part-1/

Book Review: 28 days of Low FODMAP AIP by Christina Feindel

Low FODMAP AIP Sherpherd's Pie

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase through the product links, I’ll receive a small commission to support my time in reviewing the product, although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own. 

When I first learned about the e-book 28 days of Low FODMAP AIP by Christina Feindel,  I was super excited that I am not alone eating off of this seemingly limited menu. For the past few months, I have been stumbling along the AIP ( autoimmune protocol ) path, looking for low FODMAP friendly recipes and it hasn't been easy. Like Christina says in the introduction of her book " As if no grains, legumes, dairy, eggs, nightshades, nuts, seeds, or alcohol wasn’t daunting enough, you’ve also decided to try eliminating FODMAPs from your autoimmune protocol diet. " I did feel like I was crazy trying to embark on a more limiting diet than AIP, but I started to feel the difference after only a few days eliminating the high FODMAP foods like garlic and onions out of my diet. So the low FODMAP journey here I come! 

Instead of only telling you how delicious the recipes are in this book ( that will come later) I want to outline what I have learned about how to enjoy AIP low FODMAP cooking. 

• Use new herbs, garlic greens might not be as easy to find but are worth the search, no garlic? no problem, use the greens
• Explore and combine more vegetables; parsnip can beat potato hands down, it is our new stable root vegetables in the house
• Plan your meals; improving time management means less stress and more satisfied taste buds and happy bellies.

The more I learn about tweaking my healing diet, the more I have to be open to trying new things in the kitchen. As much as I am pretty open to new cooking ideas, I have my comfort zone that is sometimes hard to break out of... who doesn't? In the book, Christina showed me how to uses herbs and spices that are compliant and compliments each other very well. 

The recipe I chose to try in the book is from the "One Pot Meal" section. Running a family is busy business and as much as I am all about starting my healing in the kitchen, it is nice not to be tied to it all the time. Christina talks about batch cooking and meal planning which are key factors in making a busy family run smoothly.

 Sherpherd's pies is a fond childhood dish of mine. This was my go to family meal but as my healing diet changed, more foods had to be eliminated. Glutens was easy to replace, I used tapioca starch instead of corn starch or flour to thicken the mix, then with AIP, I replaced Worcestershire sauce with Apple cider and balsamic vinegar, but when FODMAP came into the picture, I was starting to loose my enthusiasm moving forward with my cooking. After all, how can I make anything tasty without garlics and onions on top of the void of nightshades.

Enters Christina's 28 days of Low FODMAP AIP book.

In Christina's ebook, a wide variety of root vegetables like turnips, parsnips and taro are used to create interesting textures and flavours. Using the greens of garlic, leek, green onions and more herbs means there is no shortage in flavor in these truly flavourful dishes.

Now comes the part that I tell you how delicious the Sherpherd's pie turned out.

Before dinner, my son asked me whether this Sherpherd's pie was sweet or savory, "... is it a dinner or dessert?" I answered that it is savory, but by the time I was trying not to finish the whole pan at the dinner table, I realized this recipe created the effect of a dessert sweet pie. I think the magic comes from the carrots, parsnip and turnip combination. These root vegetables are naturally sweet and pair with my himalayan pink salt flavored grass fed ground beef from my favourite biodiverse farm, the result is almost addictive. I had to remind myself that I wasn't having an off rail ( food cheating ) moment when trying not to polish the whole pan. I was also pleasantly surprised that no thickener was used and the dish did not get soupy. The one thing about the recipe that confused me a little was the topping, I almost missed the part that the cooked turnips were to be food processed smooth and used as the top layer.

I wish I had found this book earlier when I started my FODMAP journey, but then I might not appreciate it as much. I probably would have taken for granted all the hard work Christina had done with organizing the shopping list and meal planning for 28 days. If you are interested in watching out for FODMAP foods to help heal your gut and rest of your body, I highly recommend this book. It will make your life easier. Here is the link for your copy of the ebook.

AIP Key Lime Crustless pie

This recipe was inspired by two of my respected AIP recipes developer @ieatreadfood.recipe's zucchini cheese and Grazed and Enthused's peppermint fudge

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I have missed this dessert treat for awhile and here is my version of this sweet and sour treat. I left the crust part out but plan to try it next time with the Pie Crust recipe from another one of my favourite ladies The Paleo Partridge  Can you tell that I am still a hesitant AIP baker? 

AIP key lime crustless pie

Ingredients

• 2 c peeled, cubed and cooked white yams
• 1/4 c warm water
• 3/4 c coconut milk (I use AROY D organic )
• 2 tbsp grass fed gelatin
• 2-3 tbsp maple syrup or raw honey
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp zest of lime
• 1/2 tsp AIP friendly vanilla 

Instructions

1. Dissolve gelatin in warm water
2. Take cooled and cooked yam and combine with rest of the ingredients except zest of lime
3. Use a hand blender to blend until mixture is smooth, you can also use a high speed blender like a Vitamix.
4. Fold in zest of lime
5. Line 9X12 pan or glassware with parchment paper with extra to hangover edge
6. Pour mixture into pan and refrigerated until firm about 2 hours
7. Cut into individual sizes and serve with coconut cream and toast coconut flakes. 

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase through the product links, I’ll receive a small commission, I include affiliate link as a resource for ingredients I use,  all opinions are my own. 

Mexican comfort

I went out for Mexican food with my family last night. I watched them, as I sipped my thermos of bone broth from home,  enjoy their carne asada burrito and chicken flauta and to top it all... with rice and beans. I miss Mexican food, all I want sometimes are some rice and beans, but they kill me. So here is my safe version made with taro root for the consistency and purple carrot for the black bean coloring. I am continuing with my ginger train to add some kick in my dishes. 

AIP low FODMAP "rice and beans"

Ingredients

• 4c peeled and cubed taro root
• 1 small fennel bulb, chopped
• 2 stalk celery
• 1 small purple carrot
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 large sliced onions
• 2 tbsp fat
• 1/2 - 1c bone broth
• juice of 2" ginger root

Instructions

To make garlic and onion infused oil

1. Melt fat in med heat pan
2. Add garlic and onion
3. Let cook for 5 mins
4. Remove and discard garlic and onions

Now you have infused oil

1. Sauté celery, fennel and carrots for 5 mins at med heat in infused oil
2. add taro and sauté for 5 mins 
3. add bone broth
4. simmer for 10-15 mins until all vegetables are soft.
5. Mash with masher, add more bone broth if the consistency is too thick
6. Stir in ginger juice for an extra kick

Serve with cauliflower rice and garnish with cilantro, green onions and lime juice

Soupaholic

I am a bonebrothaholic and soupaholic, there is always bone broth at hand in my house. If my slow cooker is not simmering, I have a surplus bone broth ice cubes in the freezer.

To me, making bone broth is like second nature, but when a friend asked me how I make it, I realize everyone has their own way of doing it and here is mine. If you want to learn more about amazing health benefits of bone broth, here is a great link for you.

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Easy Slow Cooker Bone Broth

Ingredients

Paleo
Enough Bones to fill 2/3 of cooker, freeze leftover bones from dinners until you have enough or specially prepared knuckle, ribs, or bird carcasses bones just for the broth.
Filtered water add up to 3/4 of cooker
2 tsp sea salt ( I use Pink Himalayan Sea salt because it offers more minerals )
2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2-3 stalks celery
1 small onion cut in quarters
2-3 peeled carrots
3- 4 cloves garlic
1 tsp peppercorn

AIP
Same as Paleo but omit peppercorn, and choose to add the following other AIP safe herbs
like 2" ginger root, rosemary, thyme, cloves, cinnamon

Low FODMAP
Same as AIP but replace onions with green onion or leek ( just the greens )

Instructions

Bones preparation options

• Slow roasting them for 30 mins at 350F
• Blanching them in boiling hot water to remove impurities to give you a clear broth.
• Rinse the raw bones under tap water and add them directly in the cooker. 

You should try all thress methods of bone preparations to see which one you prefer when it comes to taste and convenience. 

Instructions

1. Put bones in cooker first
2. Add water to 3/4 full of cooker
3. Add vegetables. herbs and spices
4. Cook at low for at least 10 hrs, the longer the better. 
5. Remove bones, vegetables, herbs and spices
6. Strain over strainer into mason jars and place in fridge until fat forms solid on top. 
7. You can either discard fat, save fat to use in cooker.
8. Freeze in ice cube trays and put into freezer bags for future use. 

I try to wait until around 18 hrs and have left it until 36 hrs. 
You may need to add more water at a longer cook time from evaporation

Bone broths are great for cooking with in sauces, making quick soups with blended cooked vegetables and drink as is.