Bone Broth as the Backbone
An essential part of my weekly meal prep is to make a pot of bone broth. There are many ways to do this. My intent is to encourage you to just do it and give you some ideas of how to use it, get you motivated, the method is up to you. I personally use a crock pot. An instapot, pressure cooker and stovetop methods are fine alternatives that many people use. There is an endless amount of recipies online of how to use the method of your choice.
Any bones can be used. I do encourage you to pick one animal for each batch. Right now since it is still a bit cool at my place and my constitution can benefit from some supportive yang energy, I have been using organic, ideally grass fed, beef bones purchased at my local health food store. I try and pick the ones that have the most marrow in them, like the top of the femur, since I can also benefit from some blood building properties. I put them in the crock pot filled with water when I get up in the morning or at night before bed. I cook them on low for a good chunk of time, around 12 hrs, while I'm off at work or while I'm sleeping, so that when the broth is ready I have time to prep something with it, or it has enough time to cool a bit before it goes in the fridge or freezer to prep into other things later.
A prepping tip is to put a few containers in the freezer to use in moments when you haven't had enough time to make a batch for the week.
You can use any bones, from fish to goat! They do require different methods of prep, each supporting different aspects of yin, yang, qi and blood. I am indeed the gal that asks for a doggy bag for my bones when I go out. When I buy that whole roasted chicken, those bones go in the freezer for later. And yes, the bones come home in my lunch container if a bone in meat was part of my meal. It feels great to me as a meat eater to use as much of the animal as I can. In fact, after cooking the beef leg bones into broth, I bring them over to my neighbor for their dogs to munch on!
Why use bone broth as a base? Not only is it delicious, but it has numerous health benefits. In the context of Chinese Medicine, I tend to refer to it as "liquid blood" in the clinic. For those of us, especially women, who tend towards blood deficiency when out of balance, bone broth is an easily digestable, quickly assimilated, source of blood and Qi. That marrow is the source of blood, and the bone, related to kidney in TCM, is a source of qi. We can adjust how long we cook the bone broth so as to adapt to our needs; if blood building is our goal, cook for less time and if building qi is our goal, cook longer so those bones break down a bit more.
While it's nice make our own, just buy it pre-made if time is an issue, or, if you just know you won't do it! Just buy it pre-made bone broth wherever you shop. Luckily it's all the rage right now, so there is more availability to purchase it prepped for you. I highly encourage you to choose the organic option if it is available.
There are many ways to incorporate bone broth into your routine if drinking a cup of it in the morning is not your cup of tea! If it is, check out my breakfast soup idea. Otherwise, it can be the base of any soup, maybe not for breakfast....but I love me some soup for breakfast! In the future, I'll have a number of soup ideas for you to check out, so stay tuned. It can also be used instead of plain water in many recipes, for example, to cook grains, or check out my bone broth oatmeal inspiration. If you are sautéing or flash cooking using some water, use the bone broth instead. I keep some in a jar for this from a batch in the fridge to use as needed throughout the week. If I have refrigerated a batch before turning it into something else, I keep a container of the chilled fat skimmed off of the top layer to use as oil for cooking in the freezer. And for those who have not been meat eaters for a while and are deciding that at this point in your body's journey it would be supportive, bone broth is a nice way to gently incorporate meat back into your diet.