When you’re sick there’s nothing like a nice warm bowl of chicken soup and it turns out that it may be just what you need too! Bone broth made from bones of a healthy animal is an excellent source of nourishment. Not only is bone broth an excellent addition to your diet, it’s easy and cheap to make, too. Can’t get much better than that!

Why Bone Broth?

For years, scientists have known bone broth provides the body with numerous health benefits (too numerous to list all of them here). Minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphors, silicone, and sulphur are plentiful in bone broth.

• The collagen in bone broth improves your skin, hair, and nails.
• Gelatin is good for gut health. Many individuals in the US suffer from hyperpermiability of the gut (also known as leaky gut). The gelatin helps to fix the leaks and aids in digestion. In fact, the best bone broth will contain enough natural gelatin to set up like Jello when it cools in the refrigerator.
• For joint pain, it seems everyone is buying glucosamine at the store. Glucosamine is naturally occuring in bone broth. Skip the expensive supplements and drink a cup of bone broth every day to help with your join pain and arthritis.

If you want to learn more about the many benefits of bone broth, I recommend reading Gut and Psychology Syndrome. You’ll learn how bone broth impacts digestion, allergies, immune health, brain health, and much more.

How to Make Easy Crock-Pot Bone Broth

Ingredients:

• 2+ pounds of quality bones
• 2 Tablespoons vineger
• Scraps & trimmings from carrot, garlic, onions, celery
• Sea salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Brown any meaty bones you might be using for the bone broth. You can do this either on top of the stove or in the oven.

   

2. After browning your meat, place the bones in your crock pot along with the remaining ingredients.
3. Let your crock-pot sit and simmer for 24 – 72 hours.

   

4. Strain your bone broth. Save the bones and decide how you want to store your broth. If you will be using it soon, store the broth in the refrigerator. If you’d like to save the broth for later use, freeze the broth.
5. You can make multiple batches of bone broth out of each batch of bones. I usually make at least 4 batches each time I make bone broth, sometimes more! Continue to use the bones until they disintegrate or you don’t want to make any more broth.

Notes:

I usually make beef broth, but you can make broth from bones of any other animal you have on hand. We purchase 1/2 of a grass-fed cow at a time and always request soup bones. Remember, the healthier the animal, the better quality broth you will get.

Before making my broth to store, I typically brown my meaty bones on the stove and use stew meat and vegetables to make stew with my first batch of bone broth.  If you choose to do this, be sure to remove and save your bones after your stew is finished so you can make bone broth for later.

Often, I save some broth in the refrigerator to be used in the next few days. With the remainder I use icecube trays to freeze my broth. This way I can grab just 1 or 2 cubes if I want to use the broth when steaming veggies, or I can get a bunch out for soup or a healthy warm drink!

Use your bone broth in soups, stews, gravys, to steam or sautee veggies, or just drink cups of bone broth each day for added health benefits. Skip nutrient depleted store-bought broth that’s filled with MSG and other additives and make your own nourishing broth!

Trisha is a mom to 4 fabulous boys and 1 wonderful husband. She stays busy homeschooling Bradley (8), trying to keep up with Cameron (4), and loving on her twinsies, Dylan & Elliot (1). Trisha loves to research and read about a number of topics. She and her husband write about pursuing a healthy home life, including topics on faith, food, homeschooling, and physical health, on their blog Intoxicated on Life! They hope you’ll also enjoy following Intoxicated on Life on Facebook and Twitter.