Health Improving Bone Broth

I have been wanting to make bone broth for months and months now. The issue was finding HIGH QUALITY bones at a decent price. With working full time as well as working out 5-6 days a week, finding good quality bones often isn’t on my top list of priorities (lol). I finally went to the farmers market over the weekend and found a local business that sells bones at a great price so I got some and made bone broth. It turned out so great and I am hooked!

Bone broth is so good for you because of the gelatin – it contains amino acids which contribute to its healing properties. Bone broth can heal gut issues and fix leaky gut! My favorite reason to love and consume bone broth is because it’s essentially liquid botox due to the collagen! It will help your hair, skin and nails as well as improve the strength of your bones (due to the phosphorus, magnesium and calcium). It’s very inexpensive to make and once you do it you will realize it’s actually quite simple. Bone broth has so many health benefits and with fall coming up you simply must learn to make it yourself and enjoy a soothing cup on a chilly day (or a warm day) to reap the health benefits. It’s also great if and when you are sick because of the immune-boosting properties! I found grassfed/pasture raised pork bones for $3 a pound and beef bones for $4 a pound! You only need a few pounds of bones and then celery, carrots, onion and garlic (which are all very cheap) so once it’s finished you are looking at a cost of less than $2 a serving.

HOW TO MAKE AND WHAT YOU NEED:

At least 2 pounds (2-4) of grassfed/pasture raised beef or pork bones (high quality bones are important because the healthier the animal, the healthier the bone broth)
3 stalks roughly chopped organic celery
3 carrots, roughly chopped
1-2 onions, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, smashed
Splash of apple cider vinegar
Thyme, parsley, pink salt, optional

Get your crockpot and plug it in. Put your bones in the crockpot (mine were frozen) and add 8 cups of filtered (important) water. Then add all of your veggies and the vinegar and give it a good stir. The vinegar helps draw out all of the nutrients so you can let the bones sit in the cool water with the vinegar for 30 minutes if you want before cooking. Then turn on crockpot and cook on lowest heat setting for 20-24 hours. I turned mine on low for 10 and then when that finished I restarted it and cooked another 10 hours. Just before it’s done you can add your herbs (I actually forgot this part but it still tasted amazing). Just place as much thyme and parsley as you want in the pot and let it continue to cook a little longer.

When it’s finished, simply remove all of the veggies/bones from the pot and pour through a strainer (it’s great if you have 2 people for this part). I poured mine through a strainer over a large bowl placed in the sink. Then you can ladle it into smaller containers and store in the fridge. This keeps for 1 week so drink a cup a day! Enjoy!! I plan to warm a cup over the stove – not in the microwave – as microwaves destroy nutrients in food so I do try to avoid using them as much as I can. **note that after this cools in the fridge you will need to scrape the fat layer off and into the garbage!

How it looked when it was finished – they say you will have a layer of nastiness at the top if the bones were not healthy – the healthier the bones, the less foam/junk floats to the top. As you can see I did not have any! Yay! Healthy bones.