Don’t hate me because I made bone broth.
I’m just kidding and obviously that made no sense anyway because anyone who wants to can make bone broth. I just hadn’t gotten around to it for, like, a year, and finally did it because I just couldn’t bear to see that gorgeous turkey carcass (?) go to waste. Yes, you heard me, gorgeous.
Rewinding back a few days to Thanksgiving now.
My cute little pilgrim/turkey at her Thanksgiving performance. It’s pictures like this that make me really bow down to good old DNA. Ya think there might be a resemblance?
We spent Thanksgiving at my parents’ house which is out on Long Island a little over an hour away. No traffic is a great way to start any Thanksgiving!
I made my Maple Pecan Apple Crisp, Paleo Pumpkin Pie, Butternut Squash Sausage Stuffing, and Paleo Candied Sweet Potatoes. Then my mom and I cooked the other goodies together after we arrived, like turkey, mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli, and also a had a small adventure in gluten-free gravy making. For some reason there is drama with our gravy every single year but yet it always comes out fine. On a typical non-holiday night I have no problem making gravy. Kind of a Thanksgiving mystery, or maybe just the rush of getting all the dishes to come together on time.
I never said we drink out of classy cups, no I did not. I actually don’t remember if I drank anything during the whole meal, but I’m sure my kids wanted several cups of juice/water and with kids plastic cups are never a bad thing.
The “veggie turkey” above was all my mom’s idea, and she definitely took ownership of the project while my kids asked if it was okay to start eating it yet. They ate half of it, at least, and wanted to keep going. Veggies in fun shapes and designs always win kids over, this is a proven fact.
How many times do you take a picture (selfie, I suppose) before it’s good to go? For my sister that number nears the double digits before I can convince her that a) this is what we look like and b) This is what we will look like 30 seconds from now. She settled for some sort of filter that actually did make us look a bit more polished.
The rest of our weekend, after recovering from the excitement of the holiday, was really relaxing with no one needing to be anywhere but exactly where they wanted to be. Which was mostly just at home, and nowhere near crowded stores with toys, thankfully.
The bone broth.
I had taken home all the bones from the turkey and was planning to make bone broth with them. Friday after we got home, I unpacked the bones right into the slow cooker to not waste any time! Here is what I did, in recipe format. Luckily it seems to have come out great, and even gelled in the fridge like it was supposed to. Score bone broth.
Holiday Weekend Scenes Plus Bone Broth
Ingredients
- 1 turkey carcass most of the meat removed. (I left bits here and there)
- 3 quarts 12 cups of filtered water
- 1 large onion peeled and quartered
- 4 stalks celery with leaves
- 2-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar to extract minerals from bones
- 2 carrots chopped
- Any other veggies you'd like for flavoring.
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in a slow cooker, set it on "high" and wait for it to boil.
- Once it is boiling, turn the setting to "low" and cook for another 18-24 hours. I cooked mine for 18 hours past the point of boiling. The longer it cooks, the richer it will be and the more minerals will be extracted from the bones
- Using a very fine strainer, strain the broth into containers and discard the leftover bits (okay I ate some of the remaining meat!)
- If the bones are not too brittle, you can save them for future use.
- Store in glass mason jars (let cool a bit first) for 4 days in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer. Drink plain or use for soups/stews.
- You now have bone broth bragging rights, and no one will question that you're the healthiest person that they have ever known.
I drank it plain the following morning before breakfast. Different but really delicious and something I could easily get used to. I’m curious now to see if my kids will slurp this in soup form (meaning in a kid bowl.) Definitely worth a try. For a quick read on the benefits of bone broth, this is a great summary.
How did you spend the rest of the holiday weekend?
Have you ever made, or been curious about making bone broth?
Do you do have anything you swear by during the winter months to boost immunity?
Hi guys! My website was down all morning and in fixing it somehow all your comments were deleted, but I’ve read each one in my email. I just can’t respond/publish them (or can’t figure out how to) but they were not lost to me!
I have been drinking Pacific’s bone stock and bone broth–they make both and they are organic–in a mug. Never made it myself, but will this week. It’s very warming at three o’clock on a cold day and very nuturing to the digestive system. The color of yours is nice and rich looking. Your Thanksgiving looked wonderful.
It was so much easier to make than I thought and I’ll definitely be saving bones this winter so it can be a daily thing 🙂
I’ve definitely made bone broth. I love it, but I don’t make it very often. I am a big believer in juicing ginger when I don’t feel well, it always seems to nip any oncoming sickness in the bud. I usually mix it with apple and sweet potato. I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving!!
That sounds so good, unfortunately I have no juicer! I usually have ginger tea and of course ginger kombucha, but juicing it fresh I’m sure is so much better tasting and more effective.
I don’t think I could make broth. I could barely get through carving the turkey without passing out.
Haha then I guess saving bones is out of the question! I was never too squeamish with meat which helps, I suppose! Or you could have someone else make it for you 🙂
your dishes look and sound so yummy! i brought kale salad, pumpkin cake, and we made a raw pecan pie that was actually amazing! it was my fav, but not anyone else’s as it was not all that sweet – we added no sugar but it was chokked full of dates, so it tasted like an amped up lara bar in my book. loved it! i happily took leftovers, lol.
my favorite meal was actually dinner after our thanksgiving lunch – we decided to make homemade tortillas, and grilled fish tacos with a homemade salsa and veggies. it was so fun! i love making new traditions for our little family and future family 🙂
A raw pecan pie sounds right up my alley! I’d love to try something like that this holiday season. New traditions really are special, and with you guys just starting out you have so much to look forward to 🙂
Here ya go! this is pretty easy to me and doesn’t require anything fancy or crazy, aside from the ingredients lol 🙂
http://food52.com/blog/8824-raw-vegan-pecan-pie
Cool, thanks! I have a lot of dates leftover from thanksgiving and they will be put to good use 🙂
I have been very curious about making my own bone broth. It looks much easier than I thought. Glad you had such a nice Thanksgiving!
I always thought it would be a pain, but with a slow cooker it’s really easy! Just save bones and once you have enough go for it!
Oooh, interesting! I’ve always wondered how you actually make homemade bone broth. No kidding, it’s been on my “learn how to do” list for a while now. Seems pretty simple! My dad could use this especially now that he’s going through some medical issues and can only drink liquids or have pureed foods right now so the more nutrients and health benefits from the bone broth I’m sure would be great. I’ll let my mother know about it too!
It was on mine too! Finally just did it and it was so easy using a slow cooker. It would be a really great source of nutrients for your dad, wishing the best to him 🙂
Many thanks, Michele! I think we are going to try it with a smoked chicken a family friend made for us this weekend with the leftover bones. 🙂
Great idea, sounds so good 🙂
Thanks for the recipe and the link!! Good info!! I’ve always been curious about bone broth (both how to make it, and why everyone raves about it!) Definitely need to try that!!
I had been putting it off and I’m so glad I finally did it because it was a lot easier than I imagined. Definitely good to try for the winter 🙂
Thanks so much for the bone broth recipe! I want to make broth from our Christmas turkey carcass and was looking for a crock pot recipe rather than a stovetop one!
Bone broth = health in a cup!! 🙂
This was so easy and good, you will love it!
I absolutely love making soup from the turkey carcass! MY BIL always gives it to us so that I can make it the next day and it’s sooo good…I have a few friends who grew up with their moms making soup solely from canned chicken broth…that is the strangest thing to me since i grew up with my dad teaching me how to boil bones for the yummiest soup broth!! 🙂 🙂 You’re a girl after my own heart!!
You are so lucky to have had it growing up! I was a campbells kid for sure, so having homemade bone broth now is totally new and awesome to me! Can’t wait to make some soup with it too!