bread, bread, and more bread

Bread.  Fresh, warm, right-out-of-the-oven bread.  There's nothing quite like it--especially when it's smothered in a think layer of delicious good-quality butter.  Yum.  Bread.  We love bread.  

I've been experimenting with sourdough for the past year or so and have become quite the fan.  However, after making the same recipe week after week, my husband started to long for a bit more variety (and honestly, so did I).  So, in the process of looking for a few new recipes, I came back to a lovely cookbook recently published by Jennifer McGruther called The Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle.  I had checked this book out from the library shortly after it was released to see if it was something that I wanted to add to my collection.  To my delight, it included multiple sourdough bread recipes along with several more recipes that could put my ever-growing sourdough starter to use!  So, I added it to my Christmas list and was thrilled when I found it beneath the tree!  

Over the past month and a half, I have been busy baking and trying these new recipes.  And I must say, we have not been disappointed!  The recipes are not only well-written and easy to follow, but they produce the most delicious and beautiful loaves of bread I've ever made!  I realize I may be swooning, but golly, I'm in love!  From a simple whole wheat loaf, to Bohemian rye, to German-style sunflower, the recipes are fabulous!  

As for the many, many other recipes in the book, I've just started reading through them and I'm excited to give them a try.  For those of you interested in learning more about traditional foods and/or cooking more with them, this is a great book to add to your collection! 

teas and tinctures

I thought I'd share a little with you today about a new obsession of mine...herbs!  Now, I've been in love with herbs in the kitchen for many years, but right now I'm learning about using herbs for medicinal purposes.  As herbs are very powerful tools that should not be taken lightly, I have little to share with you other than my excitement for them.  I'm currently exploring the world of tinctures and teas, in baby steps and with much guidance from books and experts.  With  garden planning just around the corner, I'm also starting to dream about what herbs I want to tuck into underutilized spaces in my beds and to learn more about how to put them to use once they are growing strong.  

If you're interested in learning more about herbs, Mountain Rose Herbs is a great resource!  They sell all the supplies you could need, but they also have a great list of books to get you started.  I'm hoping to add one or two of them to my shelves in the weeks to come!

meal planning

This past fall was a hard semester for me.  I constantly felt behind--like several weeks behind.  While these feelings mostly came from work related things, they blended over into my home life as well.  I especially felt them when it came time to make dinner each night.  You see, I'm a planner and a strategist, even in the most basic things like dinner making.  However, because I was feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and behind at work, I felt that I didn't have time to plan out meals for us to eat at home.  The result of that, though, was me feeling directionless, uninspired, and last-minute.  Now, some people thrive in the last-minute side of life (my husband and best friend being two of them), however, I am not one of those people.  So, in the end, my lack of meal planning added to my feelings of being stressed, overwhelmed, and behind.

With all that in mind, I decided to be more intentional this spring about making time to really plan things out in the food department, which will hopefully leave us better fed, better nourished, and better satisfied in life.  People plan meals out very differently and my way is in no way a science, it's just what works for me.  I like to plan out a list of meals around the beginning of the month (when my grocery budget is full...ahem...) and shop for most of the ingredients at that time.  I add in produce and dairy as needed throughout the rest of the month in my weekly co-op trips.  This style of planning does two things for me.  One, it provides me with flexibility.  I usually pick out a few of the meals each week, depending on the time they take to make, the time we have at home in the evenings, and on the produce I have.  Because I've already shopped for the main ingredients (meat, root veggies, and grains), it doesn't take long to pick up any additional ingredients I need.  The second thing it does for me is it helps me to add variety our meals.  When I'm flying by the seat of my pants I tend to make whatever is easy and convenient and not what is best for our bodies.  Planning options out in advance helps me to be more mindful of the types of food I'm filling our bodies with.  Are we getting enough dark greens?  Are we getting enough good fats?  Are we eating a variety of grains and not too much of them?  Are we getting enough protein?  

Sitting down to make the list can take awhile, but in the end I always feel excited to get cooking!  Having good cookbooks, and not too many of them, is my key to success.  I wrote a post awhile ago about the cookbooks that I keep in my kitchen for day-to-day cooking.  This Christmas I added a new one to the list, The Nourished Kitchen, and I'm loving it!  It focuses on traditional food styles and recipes, which is quickly becoming a great interest of mine.  I also find that having a cookbook or two that is organized by season is very helpful for me both in inspiration and helping me to cook with more locally sourced ingredients.  

I got back into my meal planning routine last week and my time in the kitchen this week has been so much more enjoyable!  Hooray!  I do so love the simple things that make our lives just a little easier and help them to run just a bit smoother.  

organic

A few weeks ago, I starting writing about how our eating habits have changed a bit over the past year and a half (healthy bodies, happy lives and food, real food).  One of the changes was that we started buying more and more things labeled "organic."  Now, the label "organic" is quite an interesting one as it encompasses everything from carrots to cookies and kale to cupcakes.  What also makes the "organic" label interesting and at times unappealing is the price tag that often accompanies it.  For that reason, it took quite a bit of research to transition me from a conventional buyer to an organic one.  

First off, let's talk about the "organic" label.  Just because something is labeled as "organic" does not make it healthy.  In our house, we start first with whole foods and when we buy those whole foods, we buy organic versions when possible.  Because we live in a big city, we can usually find an organic version of any kind of food we're looking for.  I've realized recently that this is not the case for many who live in smaller towns and for that I've become very thankful for the resources that I have and also more passionate food issues in our country.  But, that's for another day.  However, even with access to almost any organic foods we could possibly want, we do not, by any means, buy only organic foods.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  First, we can't afford it.  With a limited grocery budget, it's just not affordable to buy only organic items.  Second, there are plenty of great foods out there that do not have an "organic" label.  It can be expensive for small farms to become certified organic and for that reason, many of them don't.  I find that it's more important for me to know how the food is produced, than it is for it to have the "organic" label on it.  Third, there are times when it's more important to me to buy locally grown food, then certified organically grown food.  Locally grown food has a direct impact on the local economy and it also hasn't had to travel across the country to get to our house--which, for produce, means it is likely more nutritious compared to the produce that has spent days or weeks in a refrigerated truck being transported from California or Mexico.  Harvard School of Public Health has a great little article on the nutritiousness of locally grown food.  

This leads me to the second reason that we try to buy organic--nutrition.  Organic farming practices require farmers to take a more holistic approach to the nutrients in the soil. The idea is that if your soil is full of nutrients, then your produce will be too.  The scientific field is not in agreement over whether organic produce is more nutritious (but the scientific field also brought us margarine...so there's that...); however, a recent study has shown that organic produce is higher in antioxidants (read/hear more about that in this NPR report).  From a gardening perspective, I know that if my soil is healthy, living, and full of organic matter (compost), then my plants grow better and produce better food.  So, for us, since better soil means better produce, buying organic produce rather than conventional produce is a way to know a little bit more about how our food is grown.

The third reason that we buy organic produce whenever possible is that it contains fewer pesticides.  Once again, the scientific field does not agree on the safety of synthetic pesticides, but for us, we've decided that we're not fans.  In general, we don't like the idea of eating chemicals, putting them on our bodies, or using them in our house.  So, for us, buying organic food is a way to reduce our exposure to unwanted synthetic pesticides.  You can read more about pesticide use in the U.S. on the Environmental Working Group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce.  

I've talked a lot of about organic produce (fruits and veggies), but what about organic grains, meats, and dairy?!  For us, when it comes to buying organic, we focus primarily on fruits and vegetables.  Beyond that, it depends on the food and the price.  I buy some organic grains.  We buy organic yogurt and butter.  However, the milk we buy is from a local creamery that uses great farming practices yet isn't certified organic.  Also, the chicken we buy is also not certified organic, but it is a much better option than its conventionally raised counterparts.  So, when it comes to organic foods, we start with produce and work out way out from there.  

If you're looking for more information on organic foods, the Environmental Working Group is a great place to start.  There are also a lot of great documentaries out there.  See my food, real food post for links to a few good resources.  Navigating this food system we live in can be a complicated and overwhelming process.  But, I think the benefits of learning to effectively navigate it far outweigh the frustrations.  

broth

Homemade chicken broth was one of the reasons that decided to start blogging.  One day, a dear friend of mine had asked me what I had done the evening before.  When I told her that I'd made broth, she looked at me and said, "You make your own broth, too?!"

I felt so many things in that moment.  I felt the pressure of the DIY trend--making people feel that they can and should make everything themselves, just for the sake of doing it themselves.  And I felt the pull back to more traditional lifestyles--which remind me that people have always been making their own broth, they just don't anymore.  It was in that moment that I wanted to teach, to inform, to show people that there are things that are so easy, so affordable, and so much better to make at home.  And chicken broth is one of them.  

So, with Turkey Day nearing, I thought it'd be a good time to share this lovely tutorial with you!  If you find yourself with an empty turkey carcass come the weekend, you can easily turn it into delicious and nutritious bone broth!  

Now, there are lots of different methods for making broth--some use the stove, the oven, a slow-cooker, some cook for a hour, a few hours, 24 hours!  The important thing to know is this: whatever your preferred method, all are better options to store bought canned broth simply because you know what you're putting in it!  

The tutorial below is the method I use both for its nutritional value and for its ease.  It is a bone broth, meaning that the bones are slow cooked for about 24 hours, which allows them to release a lot of their nutrients into the broth.  Here's a little about the nutrients in bone broth from the Nourished Kitchen:

Homemade broth is rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and other trace minerals.   The minerals in broth are easily absorbed by the body.   Bone broth even contains glucosamine and chondroiton – which are thought to help mitigate the deletorious effects of arthritis and joint pain.     Rather than shelling out big bucks for glucosamine-chondroitin and mineral supplements, just make bone broth and other nutritive foods a part of your regular diet.

Further, homemade bone broths are often rich in gelatin.   Gelatin is an inexpensive source of supplementary protein.   Gelatin also shows promise in the fight against degenerative joint disease.   It helps to support the connective tissue in your body and also helps the fingernails and hair to grow well and strong.

The key is the long cooking time.  When you cook the bones for at least 24 hours, the bones become soft where you can mash them between your fingers--this is how you know it's ready!  

Besides health benefits, there are financial benefits as well to making your own broth.  The broth, for one, is super cheap to make!  All you need are some bones, water, veggie scraps, and herbs!  Buying a whole chicken is also far more economical than buying pieces of a chicken, or even a cut up whole chicken.  Not to mention, the mixed white and dark meat is much more flavorful.  I tend to buy our chickens whole, or once in a while cut up for a quick grilling meal.  I occasionally roast a whole chicken, but I find that when I do this we eat far more of it in one sitting than fits the grocery bill.  So, instead, I often cook a chicken in water in the crockpot, pull the meat off the bone to use or freeze, and then continue on to making broth in the Crockpot.  I find that this process fits our lives the best--both in time and budget.   

Bone Broth

1 whole chicken (3-5 lbs)

veggie scraps (carrots, celery, onion, garlic, leeks, etc.)

seasonings (bay leaf, thyme, sage, peppercorns, salt)

apple cider vinegar

water

Cook the chicken however you'd like (roast, grill, boil).  I place mine in the slow-cooker, cover it with water, and turn it on low for 6-8 hours or until the meat starts to fall off the bone.  Pull the chicken out of the water and let it cool.  While it's cooling, add the veggies, a few teaspoons of seasonings, a teaspoon or so of salt (if you want), and a slash of apple cider vinegar (raw is best!) to the leftover water in your slow-cooker.  Once the meat has cooled enough to touch, pull it off the bone and set it aside to be used for meals.  I like to freeze mine mine in 2-4 cup portions so that it's easy to throw into a recipe.  Once all the meat is off of the bone, throw all of the bones back into the slow-cooker.  If you have the neck and aren't going to eat it, you can throw that back in as we'll.  (If you've cooked your chicken another way, just fill up the slow-cooker with water, add the veggies, seasonings, and bones.)  Turn it on low for about 24 hours.  After the broth has finished and the bones have reached the crumbly stage, strain out the veggies and pour the broth into containers for freezing.  I use wide-mouth pint jars and leave about 1 inch headspace.  If using glass jars for storage, the broth can easily be thawed in room temp water or in the microwave.  I often pull broth out just before I need to use it.  With a wide-mouth jar, you only need to thaw it a little bit for it to be able to slide out in a frozen chunk into your soup.  

If your finished broth has a lot of gelatin in it, it will be very noticeable as the broth cools and solidifies.  This is a great sign!  As it's warmed up again, it will liquify and add great nutrients into your body!  

See...that wasn't so hard!!  So now, you, too, can make your own broth and it doesn't need to be some new daunting DIY skill you need to learn!  It's so simple and so worth the minimal effort.  Enjoy!