Home-made stock recipe

I bang on about it enough so it's about time I shared some of my stock making tips with you. The beauty about this recipe is that it changes every time I make it. Different bones, different veg, different strengths, different tastes.

Bones

I get my bones from various sources. I always try to ensure they are from grass fed/pastured animals but sometimes this is not possible (check with your butcher where his meat comes from if you want to find out) so I have a freezer full of bones on standby.

Currently I have chicken carcasses, pigs trotters, lamb bones and some beef marrow bones. All uncooked and waiting to be flung in the pot. I also have a large plastic container (in the freezer) where I chuck any bones from meals, I have taken to buying a lot more meat on the bone so usually this fills up reasonably quickly too. Cooked or uncooked bones can be used for stock.

By far the most generous bone I have worked with is a beef knuckle. They are pretty big but I took 3 lots of stock off one. You will need a big pot.

And lets not forget fish! Fish head stock is known to be especially therapeutic to those of us with low thyroid function as fish thyroid glands are in their heads so you get all that T3 goodness in your stock. The last batch I made was used for a chowder and I felt amazing after eating it.

Vegetables

I generally use carrots, celery and onion but have been known to throw in whatever is getting old in my fridge: cauliflower and brocolli ends, green beans and even peppers! Sometimes all I have is a couple of carrots so thats all that goes in. Just use what you have. And dont forget to chuck in a bayleaf if you have one!!

So here is a basic recipe here to get you started but please don’t forget you can mix and match your vegetables, based on what you have available and you can mix and match your bones. I would go a step further there and say you SHOULD mix your bones as you can make the most amazing stock with a mixture. My last soup was made with lamb and chicken bones and was A-MAZ-ING.

Basic chicken stock

1 chicken carcass/chicken bones (Cooked or uncooked. After a roast chicken we pick the meat of and cook up those bones for our next soup but the carcasses I buy in the shop are uncooked)

1 onion quartered

2 celery sticks trimmed and broken in half

3 carrots trimmed and snapped in half

8 peppercorns

1 bayleaf

A dash of cider vinegar (to draw out the minerals from the bones – I promise you won’t taste it in the finished product)

Put all ingredients into a slow cooker or pan large enough to allow it to be covered with water by an inch or two. In a slow cooker a centimetre over should be fine.

Slow cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 12-24 hours. If cooking on a hob bring to the boil then leave on a high simmer for 3 or 4 hours. Please ensure the bones are covered for the most part.

Once cooked you can allow to cool or drain straight away. 

Store carefully! 

If I am putting it in the fridge I will let it cool fully then place in glass jars but I have learned from losing too many batches to store it in plastic in the freezer, the glass tends to break on freezing or defrosting. 

Then use as you like! Make a tasty soup, add to stew. Cook your rice in it if you like! And if you are feeling adventurous you could boil down some of your chicken stock so its nice and strong (maybe half the volume, or less of your original stock) then pour into ice cube holders for some amazing homemade stock cubes! These can be chucked into any recipe that requires a stock cube!

Et voilà.

Impress your family and friends with amazing meals - the incredible taste you get from home made stock is second to none.

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Heal your gut

For my first informative post this year I have decided to be more inclusive and so this post is likely to be beneficial to anyone and everyone who has a digestive system (about 99.9% of us I would reckon) and not just to those with a thyroid condition (which might only cover about 80-90% of the population (1))

 

The reason I am starting with gut health is because on my own healing journey it was the first thing I managed to do, before I took T3 medication, before I took liver tonic, before I took supplements, before I did anything else I took a huge step to mending my digestive system. And with good reason….

The state of your gastrointestinal tract (or GI tract) could well dictate the state of your health one way or another. They say that around 75% of your immune system resides in your intestine so it’s definitely an area worth looking after, not just if you suffer from an autoimmune thyroid condition where your immune system is impaired and can be tricked into attacking your gland. 

If you're still unsure it’s worth doing, think about this: if your gut aint working right, your body won’t be able to absorb and make use of nutrients quite so well from the food you eat and any supplements you ingest, so I think we can all now resolve to look after our gut in January and beyond.

It’s a two-step process

When you are trying to heal something you want give it nourishment to actively repair it and you also need to prevent any further damage being done. And luckily I can tell you how to do both of those things!

Nourishment: In order to actively repair the gut lining you should start consuming homemade bonebroth/stock/gelatin. (I will post a recipe soon). Make it part of your daily routine, drink a cup of broth before your meal, turn stock into a tasty soup for lunch, make a gelatinous sauce for dinner. There are so many benefits from consuming this stuff it should actually be given out at the doctors surgery to everyone who visits to help people get better.

Damage prevention: You’ve heard it before but I will say it again. A month off the grains will allow your gut to heal no end. Take 4 weeks without wheat, corn, rice, oats etc….instead eat potato latkes, roasted butternut squash, mince and tatties, homemade chips done in coconut oil even! Just lay off the grains and I assure you, your insides will heal noticeably. You will feel better.

Oh yeah – and another thing you should be aware of is legumes and pulses. They are fine in themselves but it’s just that the commercially prepared variety are not likely to have been properly prepared and will contain antinutrients which - as they sound - prevent you from absorbing nutrients! It would be of great benefit if you prepared your own properly. See here for details

Its as easy as that!! Get on it :)

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(1) I reached this conclusion going by increasing numbers of underdiagnosed hypothyroidism according to Dr Broda Barnes who had great success treating thyroid disorders and who wrote several books in the 1970's. I read, 'Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness'. Have a look through a copy if you get a chance!

A happy and healthy 2014 to you all!

I always find I am very reflective around the New Year and resolve to live better, be better, try harder etc etc. This year I have been reminding myself how far I have come on my recovery. I look at how tired I used to be, the constant fatigue I would feel from morning through to night. Waking up exhausted was part of normal life for me and I am incredibly relieved that I have moved on from there. 

I ponder where I might be had I not taken charge of my healthcare. Being in a position that I know many are currently in, where the levothyroxine was not working and the doctors were assuring me that my symptoms were not related to my thyroid I felt hopeless and lost in a life I no longer recognised as my own. When a dear friend talked to me about alternative treatments and methods of dealing with hypothyroidism I felt like I had been given a golden opportunity to recapture my life and I grabbed it with both hands. 

I am only too aware that it is very likely I may have experienced difficulties maintaining a pregnancy yet here I am, well into my second trimester and feeling as good as I can expect to with a 2 year old to run around after :). 

My point here is this: I was once unwell and now I am a lot better. Things are happening in my life that I could never have expected had I remained on my previous trajectory. It is true I have followed non mainstream diet and lifestyle advice but it has succeeded in turning my life around, contrary to the advice from my doctors but this has allowed me to take control of my illness and my life, I now trust my body and learn from its reactions daily. 

My wish for the New Year is that I am able to continue sharing my story and hope that it may help some of you on your road to good health. I believe it is possible – I hope you do too.