Sick Days

I have been sick (cold, sneezing, coughing, chest and sinus congestion) all freaking week. It's been m-i-s-e-r-a-b-l-e! Or rather, *I* have been miserable. Just ask my son.

So I thought we should talk about staying on track ... even on those sick days.

Back in the day, (that makes me sound like I am 80), when I lived at home my mom would break out the sick day staples: white toast, crackers, noodles....and chicken broth. Knowing what I know about food and nutrition, all the processed white carbs did was provide calories (empty and unhealthy) while the chicken broth seemed to work its magic. (So did mom putting her wrist on my forehead to "check" my temperature. I always think of that when I am sick.)

According to Dr. Mercola, chicken broth made from the bones (carcass) of the bird has proven medicinal value. He states "Simmering bones over low heat for an entire day will create one of the most nutritious and healing foods there is. You can use this broth for soups, stews, or drink it straight. The broth can also be frozen for future use. Keep in mind that the "skin" that forms on the top is the best part. It contains valuable nutrients, such as sulfur, along with healthful fats, so just stir it back into the broth."

Bone broth used to be a dietary staple, as were fermented foods, and the elimination of these foods from our modern diet is largely to blame for our increasingly poor health, and the need for dietary supplements.

So our mothers and grandmothers were right! I think we'll find that a lot of the "medicine" we use today was developed to fill the gap between today's diet and the healthy nutrition we used to get from real food. But that's another blog altogether.

To make the stock, you'll first need the carcass of a chicken. (Sounds yummy, doesn't it?)

I am not a Suzie Homemaker, but I did happen to roast an organic chicken last Sunday and put all the bones in the freezer. Maybe I sensed a cold coming on.

I don't think there is a need for a specific recipe for this. I think some bones, water, veggies and time simmering in a crock-pot is all you need.  

But here's what I did:

• 1 organic chicken carcass (I think 2 or 3 would have been better, to make more, but I only had one. You want organic because you don't want chemicals and hormones and antibiotics leaching into your broth!)
• A few cups of water. I used 4 cups
• 1 onion cut up (large pieces)
• 6-8 baby carrots cut up (large pieces)
• 1 large celery stalk cut up (large pieces)
• 1 tbsp Braggs organic vinegar (to help extract the goodies from the bones)

I put it in the crock-pot before I went to bed and let it simmer on low all night, and all during the next day until I got home from work. I ended up adding a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper because with the cold my sense of taste wasn't that great and I felt it needed it.

I drained/sieved the stock from the veggies and carcass and voila! Chicken broth!

Then I picked out the cooked veggies and some of the little bits of chicken and put them in a bowl, added some of the hot broth, got out the hand-held blender and made a kind of cream of chicken soup simply by blending it all together. It was a nice, yummy, hot meal that didn't require very much effort and it felt great taking care of myself in this way.

You can make this in advance and freeze it, and since this is cold season...why not do it this weekend?

In addition the the daily broth, I have avoided ALL white processed carbs and have feasted on dark leafy greens (spinach, kale), broccoli, lean proteins (chicken, salmon, eggs) and have carried my water bottle with me everywhere.  And I lost 3.8 pounds this week!

A friend's brother is a doctor.  He likes to say that if you have a cold and treat it with medicine, you will get over it in 7 to 10 days. And if you have a cold and do nothing about it, you will get over it in 7 to 10 days. I'm sure that's probably true. 

But I think if you have a cold and eat healthy, vitamin-rich foods, those 7 to 10 days will feel better .... both physically and mentally. 

Just knowing that you didn't use being sick as an excuse to eat badly is worth the effort!

Carly
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