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16 reasons you should eat more bone broth stock-min

16 Reasons You Should Eat More Bone Broth!

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Bone broth (or stock), put simply, is made by boiling up animal bones. You can add in some veggies and herbs – but the most important thing is that the bones are from healthy animals (or fish) that were raised organically, humanely on a pasture, or in the wild; i.e. from grass fed cattle, pastured poultry or wild caught fish. Using some apple cider vinegar when making the broth helps draw the mineral s and nutrients from the bones – and make sure you break of crack the bones, to ensure you can access all of the nutrients and minerals contained in the marrow inside.

Whilst you can buy it, you definitely want to make your own to be sure it’s from good quality animals – without any nasty added extras. You can try beef, bison, fish, chicken, lamb or even venison broth.

16 reasons you should eat more bone broth stock-min

1. It is really cheap to make (your butcher or local farmer may even give you bones for free – or save the bones from your own cooking)

2. If you’re sick with no appetite, bone broth is easy to drink and will replenish much needed nutrients in your body – whilst the gelatin content will help to neutralise a virus.

3. Bone broth is high in a very usable form of calcium, magnesium, silicon, sulphur and phosphorous – not to mention lots of other trace nutrients

4. Broth is a great way to use up parts of the animal you wouldn't know what to do with – try adding in heads, feet, necks and skin!

5. Broth is a great base for many meals such as soups, stews – and a delicious home-made gravy

6. It virtually cooks itself – leave it in your slow cooker and come home to an almost ready bone broth

7. The high collagen content is great for your joints, hair, skin and nails.

8. It is even cheaper to make if you use bones of less expensive meat such as lamb and goat

Bone Broth Recipe Book Chicken Beef Stock

9. The connective tissue in ligaments and joints are kept healthy thanks to the high concentration of the amino acids proline and glycine in bone broth.

10. You can make up a huge batch of broth and freeze it in individual portions – giving you a meal base on hand whenever you need it.

11. By encouraging smooth connective tissue, bone broth is said to be a natural cure for cellulite

12. Damaged gut lining is healed by the gelatin – which offers relief to gastrointestinal issues such as IBS, Crohn’s disease as well as constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities and of course leaky gut.

13. The gelatin content helps aid digestion

14. The amino acid glycine (found in high concentrations in bone broth) is great to help detoxify the liver

15. Chondroitin Sulfate, found in bone broth, has not only be found to help with joint pain from osteoarthritis, it also helps to lower atherosclerosis.

16. It tastes good!

If you want to know even more about bone broth – and get lots of great recipes to make your own – check out Bone Broth: A Recipe For Health which is packed with recipes, information, tips and tricks.

How often do you make bone broth? I’d love to hear your tricks, tips and favourite recipes in the comments below.

Paleo diet chicken stock bone broth how to make recipe-min

Chicken Stock

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I had a big cooking session at the weekend and thought I’d use the leftover chicken I had to make some Chicken Stock.  When I have the time to cook I like to make things like stock or bone broth, as I can freeze large amounts and use them as the basis for many dishes over the next two or three months.  Stock forms the basis of so many meals, such as soups, sauces, stews and curries.  I always separate the stock into small batches before I freeze so I can just defrost the amount I need.Bone Broth Recipe Book Chicken Beef StockThere seem to be a lot of different ways of making stock and bone broth.  I like to keep mine as uncomplicated as possible as I’d rather add herbs and spices into the meal I use the stock for – not be limited by how I made the stock.

Out of interest, I had a look at the ingredients in the ready-made supermarket Chicken Stocks.

Campbell’s Real Chicken Stock

Chicken Stock (97%) (Water, Chicken, Herb Extracts), Glucose, Salt, Yeast Extract (Contains Barley), Natural Flavour.

Continental Stock Pot Chicken

Concentrated chicken stock (67%) (vegetables (onion, carrot, garlic), water, chicken, herbs, spices), salt, flavours (contain wheat), sugar, vegetable fat, yeast extract, thickners (xanthin gum, locust bean gum), natural colour (carotene)

Massel Chicken Stock

Water, Maltodextrin (Corn), Sea Salt, Natural Vegetable Flavours, Dehydrated Vegetables (Onion, Red Bell Pepper), Vegetable Proteins (Soy), Sugar, Yeast Extract, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Black Pepper.

Coles Chicken Stock

Chicken Stock* (97%) (Water, Chicken, Onion, Carrot, Celery, Bay Leaf), Natural Flavours, Yeast Extract, Sugar, Salt, Vegetable Powders (Onion, Garlic, Sweet Corn), Black Pepper, Vegetable Extract Powder

*Reconstituted from concentrated stock

The shop-bought varieties have so many more ingredients than my home-made version.  I can’t understand why sugar and flavours need to be added to stock, never mind “vegetable” fat, soy and colours (dare I ask what colour is it before they add the colouring?)  I might be wrong, but I’d be surprised if the manufacturers went to the same lengths I do to get good quality free ranged chicken…

I much prefer making my own as it uses up leftovers that could otherwise be wasted – and as it pretty much looks after itself, it isn’t much effort to make at all.

Chicken Stock
Recipe type: Poultry
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
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Ingredients
  • Left over roast chicken carcass
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 onions
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 2 bay leaves
Instructions
  1. I had already roasted a chicken and had a few other pieces left over, so I broke it up and put it in my largest pan.
  2. I roughly chopped up a couple of carrots, a couple of onions and some celery – without peeling them.
  3. I added a couple of bay leaves to the pot and added water until the pot was almost full.
  4. I then bought it to the boil, before reducing the heat to a simmer and then I reduced the heat further.
  5. Every so often I skimmed the top with a spoon to get rid of any residue that rose up.
  6. I let this continue for three or four hours whilst getting on with the rest of my cooking, adding water as required.
  7. I then strained the mixture and discarded the bones and vegetable remains, leaving the stock.
  8. I cooled this quickly by putting the pot in a sink of cold water before refrigerating it.
  9. Once cool I separated it into individual sized portions to freeze until I need them.

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I’d love to hear how you make stock and what you use it for?

Paleo diet chicken stock bone broth how to make recipe-min

The Great Aussie Meat Pie paleo diet primal recipe pastry grain-free gluten free-min

The Great Aussie Meat Pie – Paleo Style

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Australians love their meat pies, apparently 260 million a year are eaten here.  For a county with a population of just over 21 million, that’s a lot of pies!

A meat pie just wouldn’t be the same without some sort of pastry.  So I thought it was time to give the Paleo treatment to the Aussie Meat Pie.

The Great Aussie Meat Pie – Paleo Style
Recipe type: Beef
Cuisine: Australian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
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Ingredients
  • For the Crust:
  • the_great_paleo_aussie_meat_pie-min
  • 400g Almond Meal
  • 4 Eggs (free range, organic, obviously)
  • 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
  • Pinch of salt, onion powder, garlic powder & any other herbs you fancy
  • For the Filling:
  • 500g minced beef (I always try to get grass fed)
  • Approx 500ml Beef Stock (I made this a few weeks ago with lots of bones, and froze lots of batches)
  • 1 red onion (only because I’d run out of brown onions), diced
  • Half a sweet potato, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 4 mushrooms
  • Pinch of garlic powder, salt, oregano & any other herbs you select
Instructions
  1. Mix the crust ingredients together to form a big ball of dough
  2. Roll the "pastry" out and form into paper cupcake cases, reserving about a third of the dough mixture for the lids. You should be able to make about eight individual pie cases, more if you roll it out a bit thinner.
  3. the_great_paleo_aussie_meat_pie_filling_the_cases-min
  4. Cook these for ten minutes at 200 until they became hard, but not golden.
  5. Ssauté the onion in a spoonful of coconut oil, and add the minced beef after a couple of minutes. Once browned off, add the sweet potatoes and carrots and let that cook for a few minutes.
  6. Add the stock, mushrooms, seasoning and herbs and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so, until it had a good “pie” consistency.
  7. Take the filling off the heat and spooned it into the pie cases.
  8. Once filled to the top, roll out the remaining dough and cut it into lid shapes to match the cases.
  9. Put lids on all of the pies, forming a seal around the edges.
  10. Return the pies to the oven for another ten minutes, until they started to turn golden.
  11. the_great_paleo_aussie_meat_pie_finished-min

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I then took the meat pies along to a picnic in the sunshine this afternoon.  I didn't even need to tell my non-paleo friends I hadn't used conventional ingredients – they got fantastic reviews, despite having only good ingredients!

Have you given the Paleo treatment to any Australian or New Zealand dishes?

The Great Aussie Meat Pie paleo diet primal recipe pastry grain-free gluten free-min