A Look Into My Fridge & A Week of Bone Broth

As you can see, like most people who drastically change their diet, the contents of my fridge are not yet perfect.  Especially when it comes to our condiments.  We are very slowly getting rid of them and then to do more with what we have I am making my own versions of them that is healthier and then putting that in the empty bottle of the store bought condiment.  Its amazing how many eggs and how many vegetables it takes to get through 2 weeks.  Normally that 2nd shelf is full of just eggs, but this week I did it a bit different.  On the top shelf right now I have 13 quarts of homemade bone broth that I have made this week.  I am planning on making lots of different types of soup with them.  Wow... bone broth is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be and I can get about 4 quarts a day and keep the same bones cooking in the crock-pot for a whole week (just add new veggies every couple days or so).  The longer it sits in the fridge the darker it gets, so fascinating.  Here's a few pictures from making the chicken bone broth.

13 quarts of homemade bone broth (a week of doing broth gave me a lot more than this, I just have used a bunch for cooking and soups since it is soooooo nutritious) & 6 + dozen eggs

The bone broth on the third day right after adding fresh water and 3 cups of new veggies - 1 small onion, 1 celery stalks, 1 carrot, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup cut up kale, 1 Tbsp Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 Tsp Sea Salt

This is the way the broth looks when stirred when the veggies have been cooked for 8-12 hours.  You can cook anywhere from 8 hours up to 3 days without taking out the broth liquid.  The sooner its removed, the more broth you get, but the longer it cooks before being removed the stronger (and better) the flavor and the more nutrients go cook into it from the bones.  I like it to simmer for 12 hours before I switch out the liquid for new water, but there were a couple days this week that I did 24 hours (the first day it seemed better to do a full 24 hours).

This is the bone broth right after I used a measuring cup to spoon out the liquid through a sieve into a 2 quart mason jar.  I like using the mason jars cause they can be vacuum sealed to preserve the food in them longer and better.

I found that to strain the broth well enough I needed something similar to a cheese-cloth on top of the small sieve.  I also found that it turned out better to use the sieve in a pot and then pour it into the mason jar from that because it spilled so much less onto my counter that way.

I love this picture because it shows so well the bones  once they have just started to break apart after the broth has been taken out.  Every time I remove the liquid I use my wooden spoon and push the bones against the crock-pot.  After the first 24 hours to 3 days this is what the chicken bones look like, just the ends break off first, then as the week goes on they fall apart more and more until they are basically a mush at the bottom of the pot. 

 For those of you that have been thinking about doing a bone broth for a while now like I did, it's so fun!  To see how the bones change is fascinating.  It doesn't have to be as intimidating of a task as it seems.  Once you get it going for the week in the crock pot it only takes around 30 minutes a day to change out and get 2-3 quarts of the broth out twice (every 12 hours - morning and evening) along with add new water & veggies (if you want more veggies - this is optional).  This broth/stock is one of those super foods that helps the gut heal and provides so many nutrients people in our society are deficient in.  I recommend it to everyone.  Take my word for it, you'll love this, and you're body will love all the micro-nutrients in it too!