mulberryshoots

It’s Sunday and my Instant Pot arrived from Amazon mid-morning. I’m going to open it up, rinse it out and read the directions for making beef bone broth.

But first, I read this great article which helped me to decide to ROAST the beef bones first before putting them with carrots, celery, onion, garlic and apple cider into the Instant Pot. So I took out a pack (about 3 lbs.) of beef marrow bones from the freezer which I bought yesterday and heated them up in the microwave to defrost them. Then, I put them into the oven and roasted them for about an hour, turning them over midway – smelled divine.

Then, I opened Dr. KellyAnn’s book, “Bone Broth Diet” which arrived in the same delivery as the Instant Pot. I decided the Instant Pot could wait until I read through the parts of the book that I needed to get started. I thought it was written well with lots of supporting nutritional information and anecdotes. The most important thing I noted is that her recipe for beef bone broth included beef short ribs in addition to the bones which would enrich the broth and enhance the flavor.

Since I also needed to buy carrots, I went to the grocery store and bought a pack of beef rib bones and some spring water to replenish our supply. Back home again, I turned on the oven from roasting the bones and put three pieces of beef rib bones in to roast for about 45 minutes.

With the beef bones/ribs roasting away in the oven, I sat down to read the manual for operating the Instant Pot. Looked pretty simple to me: open the lid, fill not too high, close the lid, push the right buttons to cook “soup.”

After waiting a half hour for some steam to come out, it didn’t look like the pot was heating up or building any pressure. I looked online at some Youtube videos about how to turn the pot on properly. Not much help. I then stopped the machine by pushing “cancel”, unplugged the pot and opened the lid. The liquid was barely warm. Baffled, I put the lid back on, plugged it in and pressed “soup” again. I then tried to add more minutes but suddenly, there were 3 beeps and the LED window showed “ON.” Well, that was an improvement. I then learned online from a very helpful guy that he NEVER uses any of the pre-programmed buttons like “soup” or “stew.” He just presses the manual button, adds on the time he wants and the machine beeps and turns on to what he’s programmed. Why wasn’t that obvious from reading the manual or watching the videos? Go figure.

Back to the diet book while waiting for the Instant Pot to act “instantly,” I also noted that in addition to making and mini-fasting with the bone broth two days a week, that this miracle diet requires you to do what every other diet in the world requires you to do:

1. Drop gluten foods – breads, flour, pasta
2. Drop glycemic vegetables – corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, kabocha squash
3. Drop sugar, fast food and anything that we all know is bad for us.

DO eat high-quality protein meats (grass-fed beef, organic chicken, etc.)

DO eat lots of organic vegetables. Tons!

DO eat organic eggs with bacon (yep!)

DO NOT EAT english muffins, toast, sandwich bread, rolls with hamburgers, pizza crusts, (you get the picture.)

So, outside of the bone-broth twist, (because there have been 2-day mini-fast diets around too,) this seems like most diets out there: Paleo et al. that caution low carbs, non-gluten, no sugar etc.- including getting off the couch and getting some exercise even if it’s limited to walking every day or so.

Meanwhile, I am encouraged to report that the aroma alone of roasting beef bones and ribs in the oven almost justifies making the bone broth whether you’re on a diet or not. Can’t wait to taste it after it’s had its run in the Instant Pot pressure cooker, false starts and all! If it makes the 2-day a week mini-fast endurable, it might all be worth it!

[Maybe the glitches in getting the machine to work is due to Mercury still being in Retrograde until the 22nd, eleven more days from now.]

Note: Here’s a ‘bare bones’ recipe without all the editorializing above:

1. Take 3 lbs. marrow bones and 2-3 pieces of beef ribs; roast in 425 degree oven for an hour, turning pieces halfway thru
2. Cut up 3 organic carrots, 3 stalks of celery, a small whole vidalia onion and 1-2 cloves of peeled garlic (I used 1 cut in half)
3. Place bones/meat/vegetables into cooker pot
4. Add spring water to an inch lower than “maximum”
5. Add 1 tablespoon Bragg’s apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 bay leaf

Turn on Instant Pot manually to 75 minutes. See if that’s long enough once the pot pressure has vented and you can take a look at the broth. Cook longer if desired. Cool, pour through a strainer; store in quart containers and freeze.

Honestly? the aroma of it smells like this beef bone broth could be an elixir for life! I’m glad that the ‘unseen hand of the Universe’ led me to it!