"Instant" Bone Broth

I made real, honest to goodness bone broth for the very first time!

I've had incredible bone broth from Pasture Bird but I had never made it myself. I was too intimidated, and I felt like it would be a big hassle that I didn't have time for as a new mom. I had visions of a messy kitchen and a fussy toddler, so I just didn't even seriously consider making it myself... until now.

Since I got my amazing Instant Pot (click for Amazon listing) , I feel so much more confident cooking delicious meals with some of my tougher cuts of meat (when you buy a full 1/4 beef once a year like we do, you get cuts you aren't too sure how to cook). 

I was able to throw everything for a great bone broth into the pot, turn it on, go for a walk with my son, and come back to fully cooked, nutrient dense and delicious broth ready to be strained and stored in jars.

Did you know bone broth is full of collagen, minerals like calcium and magnesium, can help reduce inflammation and joint pain, helps you grow gorgeous, strong hair, nails and skin, can help you look and feel younger, and can help boost your immune system?! It's so easy to make is it will save me a boatload of money compared to buying it pre-made.

There was no complicated prep, no standing over the stove, no entire days in the slow cooker. All I had to do was push buttons and leave it alone.  SO EASY! If you don't own an Instant Pot yet, it's one of the few appliances I can wholeheartedly recommend to help make your life easier, and more nutritious.

Easy Whole Healthy Bone Broth:
• Bones of 2 chicken carcasses (3-5 lb chickens)
• 2 leeks
• 2 large carrots
• 2 medium/large stalks of celery
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1-2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• fresh herbs as desired (optional)
• fresh, filtered water

Put the chicken bones into the stainless steel pot. Add chopped carrots, celery, leeks (see how to chop leeks here), and remaining ingredients.

Fill the pot with water to about 2/3 full. Close the lid.

Using the manual setting, set time for 120 minutes on high pressure.

When the Instant Pot time is finished, wait for it to fully depressurize before trying to open the lid. This may take close to an hour. Just wait, it will be worth it.

LOOK AT THAT BROTH!

When the pot is cool enough to handle, strain the broth into a big glass or stainless steel bowl, straining out all the chicken bones and other chunky ingredients. Throw this stuff away.
When the broth is cool enough, pour from the bowl into clean glass mason jars and freeze or refrigerate for later use.

Voila! You just made your own bone broth! *Does a happy dance for you*

When you make this, make sure you come back and tell me how it went! I can't wait to celebrate with you. 

XO Maggie

This post contains affiliate links which means I make money on purchases made via these links, which helps support this blog. I never recommend anything I don't use and love myself. All opinions are my own.

Holiday Pumpkin Spice Scones, Gluten Free

When fall arrives and it gets colder outside, it triggers something in me that wants the coziness of scarves, boots, mittens, a fireplace, and the warm scent of cinnamon and cloves. And I get extremely excited for all things pumpkin.

Roasted pumpkin seeds at Halloween, pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, and now... pumpkin scones at Christmas!

These little treats have the perfect blend of pumpkin spices, no refined sugar, and are completely gluten free.

I LOVE Christmas cookies but I don't love how all that sugar zaps my energy, or how it makes my body feel inflamed, gain weight, and make my skin break out.

These scones totally satisfy my sweet tooth and when you makes them, you can feel good because they're actually good for you! They even have a little protein and fiber so you'll feel satisfied and won't want to scarf down the whole batch in one sitting.

Bake, and enjoy!!

350º F --- 20 minutes --- Makes 9 mini scones

1 cup gluten free all purpose flour
*** My flour blend: 200 g Arrowhead Mills organic millet flour, 150 g Authentic Foods sweet rice flour, 150g Anthony's organic potato starch ***

1 scoop your favorite sugar free, vanilla, plant protein powder
*** see and purchase what I use by clicking here ***

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp each ginger, cardamom

pinch of ground cloves

2/3 cup canned organic pumpkin

1 TBSP melted coconut oil

1 egg

2 TBSP maple syrup

*****************************

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl with a fork until even distributed.

Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl until evenly combined.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix gently with a rubber spatula until fully incorporated.
Drop golf ball or large tablespoon sized spoonfuls of scone "dough" onto a baking sheet.
Shape with wet fingers into triangle or desired shapes.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until scones are slightly springy to the touch and brown on the bottom.
Allow to cool completely before eating.

This blog post contains affiliate links

Quick Scones, Gluten Free

I don't miss many foods now that I have to keep to a completely gluten free diet.

I don't have celiac disease, but I'm seriously gluten intolerant and eating gluten essentially shuts down my brain function. Debilitating brain fog that feels sticky and thick, headaches, difficulty forming sentences, crippling fatigue... it makes me feel like my brain injury is fresh. Which I HATE. So making a change to my diet to avoid all that was, and is, 100% worth it.

Sometimes I miss Montreal bagels, and real French pastries, but there is a bakery in Montreal that makes a mean gluten free croissant now, and they SHIP TO THE US! So I get my fix on occasion by ordering online. 

But good scones. Oh man, I haven't had one since I was a kid. Not too sweet, just the right crumb and texture, holds butter well... I've had few that are ok but they're all too sweet to be "real" scones in my book. I had pretty much accepted that I would never find a gluten free version that met my standard.

And then my husband made one by accident. And it was WONDERFUL. And fast, and easy, and all that good stuff.

So here's the recipe!

Banana Scones

• 1 cup all-purpose gluten free flour (no gums! Get the recipe for my custom AP flour blend instantly when you sign up for my newsletter)

• 1 scoop vanilla plant protein - get my favorite from my nutrition partner HERE

• 1/4 tsp sea salt

• 1 tsp baking powder  

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 2 mashed bananas

• 1 egg

• 1 TBSP avocado or melted coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350º F - Makes 1 dozen mini scones

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together until fully incorporated. Dough should resemble fluffy cookie dough. Spoon golf ball sized amounts onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Use wet fingers to shape into little triangles, or to your liking.
Bake for 15 minutes until springy to the touch and brown on the bottom. 

Let cool completely before serving, and enjoy! 

•••

 Original/Plain Scones

• 1 cup all purpose gluten free flour (no gums added to the flour mix!)

• 1 scoop vegan vanilla protein (get my fav from my nutrition partner HERE)

• 1 TBSP psyllium husk

• 1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda

• 1/4 tsp sea salt

• 1 egg

• 1 TBSP avocado or melted coconut oil

• 1/2 cup plain European style whole milk plain yogurt (also, no gums!)
 

Preheat oven to 350F Makes 10 mini scones

Blend dry ingredients together in a bowl until all one color. 
Blend wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then add dry ingredients to the wet and mix thoroughly.
Mix until fully incorporated. Dough should look and feel like fluffy cookie dough.
Drop golf ball sized lumps of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Shape into triangles or desired shape with wet fingers.
Bake for 15 minutes until springy to the touch and brown on the bottom.
Let cool completely before serving, enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon and Pumpkin scone attempts are up next! Keep an eye out for those before Halloween.

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5 Steps To Perfect Kale Chips

Prepared kale leaves for making kale chips.

Making kale chips is so easy to screw up.

They're the easiest thing to make but I see so many recipes online that give terrible directions! Recipes all over the internet completely butcher the nutritional value of this amazing snack so I'm going to tell you how to do it correctly.

I love kale chips even more than potato chips when I'm craving something salty and crunchy. They really are crazy easy to make, so there is no reason to pay crazy prices for them at the health food store, but you need to do it right. Here's how:

Step One: Get a large head of kale (preferably organic) or two - here I used a full head of lacinto (dinosaur) kale and a full head of curly kale - and tear it into bite sized 1 1/2 inch pieces, removing the ribs and stems. Rinse and dry thoroughly. Toss kale pieces into a large bowl.

Step Two: Coat the kale leaf pieces in extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. Use 1-3 tablespoons of oil, you want every piece coated but not swimming in oil. Massage the oil into the kale with your fingers.

Step Three: Season with sea salt and garlic powder to taste. I used 5-8 full grinds of sea salt and a light dusting of garlic powder, no measurements. Start with a light seasoning and add to it as needed.

Step Four: Lay seasoned kale pieces out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Try to avoid any overlapping pieces! If they overlap, they will stay soggy.

Step Five: Place in a 200 degree F oven and allow the kale to dehydrate (NOT bake) until crisp. Check the kale after the first hour and then as needed. The oven isn't hot enough to burn them quickly but you don't want to leave them under even low heat any longer than you have to. 

Serve as finger food and enjoy your chips! My favorite thing about kale chips is how they disintegrate and melt in your mouth. So yummy.

*** Keeping the heat in the oven low helps to preserve the nutrient value of the kale. High heat destroys vitamins. High heat will also burn the edges of the leaves.

*** If you have a dehydrator, use that instead! Your chips will be even better and will retain most of their nutritional value.

*** Organic kale is important because it is a crop that consistently lands on the EWG's Dirty Dozen.

*** Using oils like extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil add healthy fats to your chips instead of the inflammatory oils high in Omega-6 essential fatty acids typically used on potato chips. Their flavors also work well with the kale!

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Live Healthy on a Budget

We've all felt like eating healthy food and buying natural, non-toxic products is expensive! And it can be (stores love to charge us more for the good stuff).

But it doesn't have to be.

My goal is to give you as many resources as possible to achieve your "whole healthy" without spending a ton of money. We all need to eat, we all buy groceries, so why not save money on as many things as possible while making amazing, healthy choices? You can do that.

Thrive Market offers organic, non-GMO, paleo, gluten free etc. foods, plus non-toxic cleaning and personal care products, beauty products without all the chemical junk, vitamins, baby food and products, home goods, pet care products...

all at 25-50% off retail prices. 

These are just some of the products you can get from Thrive Market. They carry so many amazing products and brands. Click the image to browse their site.

It's like Whole Foods, at Costco or Amazon prices (or better) with the convenience of ordering online and having it arrive on your doorstep.

Shipping is FREE on orders of $49+, a purchase total that's easy to hit since we probably spend that at the grocery store anyway. I don't think I've ever paid for shipping on my orders.

There's no need to opt for the nutritionally void, "cheap" food because Thrive Market makes healthy food affordable and accessible. You don't need to live next to, or spend your whole paycheck at, a store like Whole Foods.

Order from Thrive Market and the health will come to you.

In recycled, carbon neutral, recyclable packaging, too! 

Thrive Market is a buying club, like Costco or Sam's Club but their $59.95/year membership fee makes it cost less than $5/month to belong, and you aren't stuck buying giant bulk sizes.

To add to the excitement, you get 25% off your first order, AND a 30 day free trial after your first purchase to see if you actually like it, PLUS the free shipping on orders of $49 or more. How cool is that?

So when your first month is free anyway, and you get 25 % off your first order, and it's easy to get free shipping, why NOT sign up right now?!

I am a Thrive Market Ambassador, so if you click one of my links to subscribe, I will get a small commission, but that's not the point and not why I'm telling you about this. I mean, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to make a little money but if you sign up for Thrive, you SAVE money on things you'd buy anyway, I make a little money, and then I can keep providing you with free content. It's win, win, win all around and this is a way for you to get amazing, healthy stuff for SO MUCH less than retail prices.

My whole platform is about giving you ways to get healthy and be healthy without spending a lot. Food was a big factor in my healing so having access to organic, gluten-free food was, and is, essential to my health. I want you to have your essentials too because the foods we eat and products we use can often impact how we feel within minutes, not to mention their effect on our health over the long term.

One last thing, Thrive Market believes all families deserve access to healthy food. Many families on a fixed budgets  have struggled to buy organic, healthy products because of the often prohibitively high prices. (Raises hand... This has been me for most of my life!)

Thrive Market matches every paid membership with a membership for a family in need, so nothing stands in the way of everyone accessing nutritious choices and truly non-toxic products. If you sign up, you also help another family who needs this but can't afford it.

Please use the Share link below to share this post with your friends. Post it on social media, email it, however you want to spread the word. Get your friends and family to use the links in this post to go to Thrive and sign up! 

SO SO sorry, Canada. Thrive Market isn't available to you yet but I'll let you know if that changes in the future!

XOXO Maggie

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