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Wellness Strategist & LifeStyle Mentor – let’s plan your next steps!

Bone Broth Meals Heal-Elizabeth’s Class at Online Nourished Festival

It’s happening again – a whole weekend of education – absolutely free to attend! SAVE THE DATE – I will be presenting this Saturday March 20 at 2PM Eastern Time.  My class will be: Bone Broth Recipes and Meal Planning. 


Here’s the class description:A pot of healing soup has been “medicine” for centuries. Come learn simple proven, and most important – great tasting recipes! Plus meal planning that will improve your food budget and boost your daily nutrition. Amazon Best-Selling Author Elizabeth Anthony Gronert will show you how to use everything from your fridge and freezer to create these yummy, tummy taming meals! Learn meal planning – start with a main meal made from a roast, stew pot, crock pot or instant pot. Then make soup, broth, sauce and gravy. Best of all she will guide you on how to accomplish all this affordably – your family will be eating the healthiest yet stay on budget. Where to shop, what to buy and other savvy advice will be included to perk up smoothies, snacks and mealtime while stretching your food dollars. #BoneBrothMealsHeal 

 
My class is offered as part of the Online Nourished Festival this weekend March 20-21, 2010 10-5 Eastern Time. A gathering of wellness experts, speakers, companies and manufacturers that support our community – people with food allergies, autoimmune diseases, cancer or others who have changed their eating & living lifestyle for their best health. We used to meet every year in ten cities across the US.

Due to the Covid Pandemic, our regional conferences have become completely virtual. We miss seeing you in person….but the upside is anyone can attend that has web-access and there are still lots of giveaways with ways to sample products! 


Put this weekend on your calendar – register here to get all the details:   https://live.nourishedfestival.com/coming-soon 


Visit my website at www.elizabethanthonygronert.com or on Social Media @ElizabethAnthonyGronert, Twitter @EAGronert  
#bonebrothmealsheal  #wellnesslifestylestrategy

Don’t Throw Out the Turkey Neck & Giblets BEST Turkey Gravy

Since receiving multiple texts in the last few hours, I thought you may need
some last-minute help making the BEST TURKEY GRAVY too!

When preparing your turkey, do not throw out the turkey neck & giblets
(heart, liver and any other little bits your found tucked inside the bird!
These parts will help you make a lovely quick bone broth to create the BEST  TURKEY GRAVY for your meal.

Place the neck and other turkey parts into a 3 to 5-quart pot. If cooking
multiple birds/serving more people, use all the parts to create more broth and double recipe below. I use a larger pot for two reasons:

  •  Add more water to start and it will cook down
    into a rich broth
  •  Use the same pot to make your gravy in later

Ingredients for Turkey Neck Bone Broth:

Turkey Neck & Giblets (Liver, Heart, Kidney) (I do not cut the neck or organ meat up)

Filtered Water – cover ingredients completely (6-8 cups)

1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Small Onion & 2 Garlic Cloves – cut into chunks

1 Teaspoon Sea Salt

1 Stalk Celery & 1 Large Carrot

2 Fresh Sprigs of Thyme & Sage (or use dried)

Optional: Bay Leaf

Place all ingredients in your pot. Set the heat to medium high till the
liquid is simmering. Then reduce to low and leave to cook for as many hours you have (I usually start first thing in the morning and cook for at least 6 hours. But have forgotten and made lovely broth in 2 hours too!)

Place a colander on a second pot or bowl. Pour the pot contents and you will have a lovely broth to use for gravy or as part of your bone broth soup.

Let the neck cool – gently separate the meat from the bones. Save the bones for when you make turkey bone broth from the carcass or discard the
bones. (Be sure to throw out poultry bones in a tightly closed garbage
container. Poultry bones are dangerous for pets/animals to accidentally eat. The poultry bones are sharp and may perforate their intestines.)

I use the neck meat to prepare my stuffing since we no longer stuff the turkey.

Collect the turkey drippings with a pan under a roasting, smoking or grilling bird. If there are no drippings (deep fried or some grills) or if you don’t have enough you can substitute/add/use chicken fat, butter, olive oil or ghee. (I keep my chicken fat from previous roasts in the freezer – easy to break off chunks for cooking or making gravy/sauces.)

Gravy Ingredients:

1 Cup/8 oz. Turkey drippings/liquid fat (2 sticks
butter/ghee/vegan butter/olive oil or combination)

3 Tablespoons Flour (we have been using brown rice)

3 Tablespoons Starch (we have been using Arrowroot)

24-32 oz broth – depends on cook time

Melt the fat in the pan, when it is nice and hot whisk in
the flour and starch till it becomes saturated, crumbly. Then start adding the broth slowly – first it will get thick, just keep adding a bit of broth and
whisking till it becomes creamy – don’t let it get watery. The longer it cooks, the more broth/water you will need to keep it a nice smooth texture. If you get lumps, you can use a strainer. With practice, you will not have any lumps.

Serve hot in a gravy dish or small crock pot.

I love gravy all over my meat, potatoes, stuffing and even veggies! Learned this from my German father – he always loved gravy and it inspired me to master the BEST TURKEY GRAVY – Such a treat!

Post a picture so we can admire your results!

Now go back to my home page www.elizabethanthonygronert.com for free download of directions of how to make the best homemade broth from the carcass and soup from your leftovers!

Enjoy!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Wellness Habits: My Daily Strategies

A few years ago, I used to catch every cold or flu exposed to – it wasn’t a matter of “if” I would be sick but how long it would take before I was sick. I have struggled all my life with an autoimmune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis. Which I have inherited from both sides of my family. I have been a caretaker for almost three decades for family members who have the disease. Then after two car accidents 23 months apart, this disease plus a new diagnosis of Fibromyalgia started me on my personal wellness journey. Armed with what I have learned these last almost three decades, I am honored to share my experience and resources to help others navigating their own wellness adventure.

I am relieved to say that I am not panicked as I would have been in the not so distant past. Rather, I am confident that I have as fair a chance of not getting sick as anyone else. The following personal practices evolved over the years as I was blessed to serve as a lay pastor at my church plus as an author/educator who has been speaking and meeting with thousands of people six to eight times a year at the Nourished Festival – a conference supporting people who are navigating alternate eating lifestyles and pursuing natural wellness therapies.

I originally wrote this article as a note for family members before embarking on a journey together – which would include air travel and time with our precious grandchildren. We have been looking forward to this treasured time away with family. I knew some of my sanitation habits may seem a bit much for some (not any more with Covid-19) so I just wanted to explain the “why” to them. It really helped – If you haven’t already, I encourage you to open lines of communication with your friends and family when your habits do not match up – when people understand “the why” they are ever so much more kind.

Here is a quick checklist of what I do when interacting with the world. While I was writing this for family, realized you (my audience & friends) may value this information too. *Reminder that I am not a licensed medical professional or doctor. I am licensed in the professional beauty industry and have been teaching some of these concepts for decades (see example in the photo at top.) This article illuminates what works for me and my family. Feeling safe affects our daily life and I thought this may help you too! This is personal experience that you may use as “cliff notes” to help you find habits that may serve you and your family. Always consult your doctor and health professionals regarding what might be best for you.

The purpose of this list helps me remember to do these things when I have spent time interacting with people outside my home. It helps put my mind at ease that I have done what I need to and to relax. Through online and in person clients, I am meeting many people that are becoming hyper-vigilant and scared of everything. Living in extreme anxiety – I pray my list may help you create a plan with your health professionals and give you some peace!

1. Choose safe, non-toxic products to wash or sanitize your skin and the surfaces around you. This will help you keep your skin intact – let’s avoid red, irritated or chafed skin from frequent handwashing. Use cleansers that have skin conditioning properties will help keep skin pliable and healthy. There are many products out there to disinfect surfaces – many are toxic. Check labels and be wise what you bring into your home or vehicle. I have found I am extremely sensitive and test all products on a small patch of skin first. I test surface cleaners/disinfectants in a room I can move from before using extensively in my house or in my car. (Definitions for the difference between washing/sanitizing  and disinfecting are in my article “The Hand Towel Did It” June 19, 2019 on my website www.elizabethanthonygronert.com.)

2. Washing your hands after interacting with people or being outside the home is a best practice. I also cleanse/sanitize all items that my hands may have touched during my time outside the home! When I clean my hands, I also wipe down my phone, my glasses & case, water bottle or any container/tool contacted while away (like steering wheel and door handles of my car.)  

3. Instead of handshakes, I “elbow-bump.” This started years ago at church because I have arthritic hands and some people just squeeze uncomfortably hard or “wind up” for a powerful fist bump. This reduced the amount of palm to palm, finger to finger contact. Bonus!

4. I wear a long scarf  or jacket with pockets – yes, I have been called a “fashionista” but truthfully, it has become a simple way to open a door or hold onto a handrail for support. When I reach out, the scarf/hand in pocket protects my bare hands. Or in the winter, I wear gloves a lot. Both are simple to drop into the laundry when I return home.

5. Since I am always immune compromised with AS, I use these two additional steps. I blow my nose to clear the fine hairs that filter our air before taking into my lungs. And I drink plain water to cleanse the back of my throat of any germs collected there. Depending on my situation I just take a drink – stomach acid is one of our best defenders. Or I can swish with salt water and spit if home.

6. If I met someone who was ill or have a sick person in my home – I wash clothing, towels, and sheets separately. Do not commingle family laundry when there might be a “bug in the wash tub!”  

7. Take care of yourself. Eat well, stay hydrated, learn what are the best foods, nutrients and movement for your body to support a healthy immune system. Here are the big ones for me:

  • Daily Bone Broth: A few years ago, people started asking me what I had done to look visibly healthier. It launched my career into discussing and evaluating food choices with people. The primary thing that escalated these visible results to my skin, hair, nails, and balanced weight was my daily dose of eight to twenty ounces of my homemade Bone Broth. I control the ingredients according to my nutrition needs – need more iron, add this; need more vegetables, add that. The invisible benefit was my increased immunity and resilience.
  • Daily Smoothie: I feel better when I get most of my nutrition from my food. My smoothies are a mix of veggies and fruit from whatever is in season and in my fridge. And if I need supplements they are better received by my moody tummy if well mixed into my smoothie (can add to my bone broth too – things like turmeric!)
  • I make sure that I have at least half my body weight in ounces of water each day! If you add lemon to the water, it feels special and it aids your body flushing out toxins!

8. Ask your medical team if supplementation makes sense for you. I have an immunity boosting supplement that I take only when needed. It has been a game-changer for me. I take added supplementation:

  • If I have been around someone sick.
  • Will be traveling or overexerting myself.
  • And/or feel scratchy not feeling right.
  • It is a blend of vitamin C, zinc, echinacea and astragalus root. It has made the difference for me.

9. Essential oils (EO’s) are a medicinal gift from our ancestors. They can be diffused, diluted for application to skin and added to baths. After a day of physically being out and about with people, I use diluted Oregano EO on the soles of my feet when going to bed at night (my lucky husband!) Warning: EO are very potent and must be handled carefully. Please learn how to safely handle EO’s – consult your medical practitioner before use with children and especially do not use if pregnant or on a baby without expert help. Here are the things I evaluate before using an EO for my family:

·       Use essences derived from real plants, not synthetic.

·       I dilute the essential oil with plain oil (called a carrier oil) especially for my grandchildren and those with sensitive skin.

·       I use filtered water in my diffuser, so I am only inhaling what I add to the water.

·       I always do a test with new EO’s and blends for 24 hours to check for allergies and sensitivities. ** FYI: Be careful when using or wearing an EO in public. Others like myself can be very allergic – I have had two severe reactions to others spraying EO homemade sanitizer on their hands and I happened to walk through the “mist” just as they sprayed.

10. Get outside – the sunshine always makes my day! You can look up on the internet the many different reasons why – all I know is if I don’t get outside and feel the sunshine on my skin for about 15 minutes (in the summer and winter) each day, it noticeably affects me. Try it for a week and see if it helps you too!

11. Finally, don’t share! Here are a few examples:

·       Don’t share your towels at home (yep – you read why in “The Hand Towel Did It!” my article on my website (June 19, 2019) www.elizabethanthonygronert.com

·       Don’t share personal care items like lip balm, toothbrush or nail clippers.

  • Don’t share water bottles, drinks or eat off the same utensils.

·       If you share a phone or keyboard, sanitize/wipe it down before using.

Since these strategies have become habit for me, it doesn’t seem like a lot – I just do it intuitively. But it does “look” like a lot of steps when I write it out here. There’s hope for anything new I start to improve my immunity and wellness – practice makes it routine.

I share this because I am reliably less affected by people that are sick than I used to be. It is worth taking these steps for me. Hope this information blesses you and your family! You have my permission to share with anyone you feel it would support!

Nourished Festival Education & Sampling

The next six weeks are full of opportunity for us to connect in person at three different Nourished Festivals and a Hacking Your Health event in Denver! Would love your support sharing this information with your friends and family who would be blessed by these events! Here are the dates for your calendar – and watch the events page for virtual classes to follow up each event. Can’t wait to see you!

May 4: 10-4 & 5: 11-4 Nourished Festival – Salt Lake City/Sandy, Utah

              May 4: 12PM – Survival for Sensitive & Autoimmune Skin*

May 5: 11:30AM – Bone Broth Meals – More than a Pot of Bones!*

May 18 & 19 10-3 Nourished Festival – Denver, Colorado

May 18 5-7PM Hacking Your Health – Denver, Colorado

              5:15PM Survival for Sensitive & Autoimmune Skin*

June 1 & 2 10-4 Nourished Festival – Schaumburg/Chicago Area, Illinois

              June 2: 10:30AM Bone Broth Meals – More than a Pot of Bones!*

*Go to my events page for the seminar descriptions and current schedule! elizabethanthonygronert.com/events

Turkey Bone Broth White Chili Recipe

Many of you asked – so here I share one of our favorite nutritious recipes using our Turkey Bone Broth. (Download the “updated & complete” recipe on our website landing page here: www.elizabethanthonygronert.com )

After the bone broth is completed and before making any soups, we fill two old fashioned ice cube trays with the bone broth and put in the freezer. We use these cubes when boiling potatoes, cooking rice or the water when cooking/steaming vegetables! This adds wonderful flavor and loads of nutrition to the meal.

Turkey Bone Broth White Chili Recipe (using Elizabeth’s Turkey Bone Broth)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 1/2 pounds organic ground turkey (I use organic turkey meat from carcass)
  • 2 (4 ounce) cans canned organic green chili peppers, chopped
  • 1-2 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1-2 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp Salt
  • ground cayenne pepper to taste (1/2-1 tsp)
  • ground white pepper to taste (1 tsp) (I do ½ black, ½ white)
  • typically, I use 3 beans: cannellini, navy beans, Great Northern white bean 2-3 lbs (soak beans while cooking down the turkey carcass for bone broth)
  • Turkey bone broth from cooking Turkey carcass for 10 hours with vegetables
  • Organic Carrots – food processor
  • Organic Celery – food processor
  • Organic Parsley – chopped/food processor

Follow Turkey Bone Broth directions (download here https://elizabethanthonygronert.com/ ) After removing the carcass and “cook down veggies”, after making the trays described at the top of this post; I usually divide the broth into 2 pots – half for this turkey bone broth white chili recipe and half for turkey bone broth vegetable soup recipe.

Drain the soaked beans. Then cover the beans with the turkey broth – the beans should have 1/3 to ½ more liquid in the pot than beans (liquid to cover additional veggies, and meat.) If you want thicker soup, puree some of the beans with broth to make the soup thicker and creamier. I food process the green chilies, too. Add the processed parsley, carrots, celery and any other veggies you want to the soup (my family prefers just the carrots and celery.) Cook them to the almost desired doneness. Add the reserved turkey meat and seasonings.  Cook for a few minutes to let the flavors brew. Taste and add more seasoning if needed – lately I have been adding in some powdered garlic. This dish always seems to taste best after a day of rest in the refrigerator.

Making this soup is a 2 day process for me – bone broth and soak beans on the first day. Then making the soup and storing on the second day.

Enjoy! Let us know how this dish blesses your family! We are here bringing your comfort for life! Kris and Elizabeth Gronert (847) 502-8394 elizabeth@elizabethanthonygronert.com

Turkey Bone Broth – More than “Just Soup!”

(Full “updated” recipe available for free download on our website landing page – download here: https://elizabethanthonygronert.com/)

Thanks to our wellness friends, our soup making skills have moved up a few notches in our home. Grateful for the experience and generosity of my friend Tiffany Hinton, GF Mom Certified. Tiffany has been a valuable health coach and resource for our family. She has introduced me to the world where “food is medicine”. Particularly grateful for learning about Dr. Terry Wahls. I found Dr. Wahls book easy to read and have applied her wisdom to the way we shop and cook for our family’s health.

As a result, it’s not just great soup! We make incredibly nourishing, healing bone broth soups. Bone broth soups help reduce inflammation – an important every day therapy! This tutorial is for our “after Thanksgiving” Turkey Bone Broth Soup. Being an artist – I enjoy instructions so much more if there is a visual to go along. Therefore, photos have been taken at each step of this cooking adventure.

Thanksgiving day we smoked a turkey, baked a turkey and grilled a turkey breast (with the bones of course!) In this photo you will see the start of our Turkey Bone Broth. Here are the three carcasses covered by filtered water.

1128160954 My husband, Kris, installed a grow light by our sliding glass doors. Therefore, we are able to continue to have herbs, greens and tomatoes growing indoors. From this garden, I have added freshly picked organic parsley, thyme, sage along with some chopped garlic, sea salt and organic pepper to the pot.

1128161005

Whenever possible, we invest in organic produce. If I see any starting to go soft, where it may not be enjoyed fresh anymore, I place in a freezer bag. In addition, I have collected stems, leaves and even the roots of some of the organic plants we had in our outdoor garden this summer before it got cold and froze them. I use these vegetables in the “cook down” of the carcasses. We add these vegetable right away to enhance the flavor of the remaining meat on the bones. Some may prefer to wait till after the meat is collected (after 2 hours of cooking) which does make the process easier. We feel the flavor and nutrition added to the meat, is worth the extra work later when collecting the meat.

1128161050Because we still have organic Brussel sprout plants outdoors, decided to add some greens. Snipped off the top and added the leaves and stems with some tiny Brussel Sprouts! (I love these fresh leaves cooked in ghee with garlic too!)

1128161051b

Let everything cook for about two hours.

1128161052

At two hours the meat should be starting to fall off the bone. Time to use tongs to grab the carcasses, loose meat and bones to glean the usable meat. I have a plate to collect the cook down veggies, cartilage, skin and bones that will go back into the soup pot to continue cooking for an additional 8 hours.

Most people don’t realize how much meat they throw away with the carcass! Look at all the meat recovered from the turkey carcasses! Place the recovered usable meat (I do not like any fat or chewy meat in my soup!) in a container in the refrigerator to add to the completed soups tomorrow. All scraps, cartilage, bones and cook down veggies go back into the developing broth to cook down for another eight hours. I personally do not cook longer. The broth gets a unique smell after cooking twelve hours. So we stop around ten hours. We love the taste, smell and nutrition after 10 hours of cooking!

Finally, after the eight hours (ten hours total) of cooking has passed, we will prepare to get the wonderful bone broth. You may wish to let the hot pot cool for a bit. Place an empty large pot in the sink with a colander on top. Then pour the contents through the strainer – the remaining bones, meat and vegetable parts will be caught by the colander with the nutrient dense bone broth going through into the pot. Throw the bones and leftover meat and veggies away in a safe container that animals cannot get into. Poultry bones are very dangerous to pets and wild animals!

Refrigerate the pot of bone broth overnight. Most broths when refrigerated get a layer of heavy fat at the top  – it is especially thick with turkey bone broth. I remove most of this really goopy fat from the broth before continuing.

This turkey bone broth is ready to use for sauces, gravies, cooking vegetables, potatoes, rice or making soups. I made 2 different soups from this pot of broth plus a tray of cubes to use for cooking veggies, potatoes, etc. to boost nutrition! The first soup was a turkey white chili and the second was turkey vegetable! My family raved about both – they keep getting tastier and more nutritious every year!

My goal is to have at least a cup of bone broth soup every day! So nourishing and I can really feel the benefits! Let me know what you think of this tutorial….happy to share the soup recipes with you!

Let’s connect if we haven’t already! Send us an email at elizabeth@elizabethanthonygronert.com or call/text at (847) 502-8394. Elizabeth & Kris Gronert bringing you Comfort For Life!