mulberryshoots

2nd time around. . .

You know how frustrating it is and full of obstacles the first time you go somewhere and don’t know how to get there? Or trying out new equipment that doesn’t turn ON even though it seems like it should be a piece of cake by just pushing a button? Well, if you’ve been reading my posts about making bone broth, you’ll be able to see in this post that it’s all downhill the learning curve from here! YAY!

First of all, I got to take my first precious cargo of bone broth out of the freezer this morning and to my relief, the fat had all risen to the top and congealed into a waxy pod that was easily removed by sliding a knife around the container. Next, I was glad to see that underneath it, the broth was gelatinous just the way it’s supposed to be in order to be healthy. Finally, I warmed some up and drank it in the nice cup that C. gave me a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t as bland as I had feared and the taste was satisfying. I plan to have it when the spirit moves me throughout the day with a light supper tonight. That’s less than 500 calories which meets the quota to count as a mini-fasting day.

Then, I got the idea of doing fasting with the bone broth more often than twice a week. How about semi-fasting most days at breakfast and lunch, then eating a light high-protein supper with a salad or small serving of vegetables? Sound good? It did to me.

So I took out 3 lbs. of marrow bones and beef ribs from the freezer this morning and put them into a big pan to roast for an hour and ten minutes at 425 degrees. Afterwards, I’ll cut up the carrots, celery, onion and start up the Instant Pot to 75 minutes.

When it’s done, I’ll have three more containers of rich bone broth to cool and put into the freezer. One difference I noticed is that yesterday, I manually vented the steam early since I was anxious to look at the broth. Today, I let it “cool down” on its own and the heating part went on for another hour. Lo and behold when I opened it up, strained the broth and poured it into the containers, it was much darker than the batch yesterday. Richer looking. I don’t know if the extra gestating time had to do with that but I’ll know more when I compare the taste too. In any case, I’m going to follow the slower regimen that I did today – and see how the next beef broth batch comes out. I also harvested all the cooked marrow and beef bits although I don’t have any idea what to do with it besides chucking it into the freezer and figuring it out later.

Then, I’ll be able to experiment with a) how hungry I feel; b) whether my body wants solid food or not; and c) how to balance the two out as the days go on the remainder of the week. If it feels manageable, I think I’ll try out the semi-fasting with bone broth for two meals awhile and see whether it makes an impact by Thanksgiving (about 11 weeks from now.) (This morning, I ate a few tamari almonds to slake any boredom that might hit with just the bone broth.)

It’s so interesting (to me at least) to observe and learn something new like this with new equipment to boot. The true “reveal” will occur when I see what this does to make me feel healthier and to lose some weight. Fingers crossed and results to come!