1. Local Organic Greens

Sometimes I will get a big bunch of kale, but that was before I went to my new favorite farmer’s market: Virginia Avenue Park on Saturdays in Santa Monica. This market is on the smaller end, but has a great selection of conventional and organic produce at good prices. They don’t have a lot of prepared food, which I prefer . The people here come to get groceries, not eat or hang out (which means less crowds) and the vendors are very friendly towards regulars. Even though it’s in a city, it has a neighborhood feel…crazy right? Parking can fill up so I get there between 8:30 to 9:00 and have no problems. I get a ton of organic baby greens (kale, spinach, mustard greens, swiss chard, and arugala) and use that in my smoothies and salads. These are the same greens that supply my whole foods so I feel that I get a great deal at this market for a high-end product. Sometimes I also use the tops of beet greens since I love my beets, and don’t want to waste the nutritious leaves.

2. Fruit

I’ve done lot of really low fruit smoothies with just a handful of berries, but they don’t taste great. I’ve started adding in a half to a whole banana depending on my mood. Sometimes I will throw in a half an avocado if I want it particularly creamy. Yes, avocado is a fruit. It has a pit.

3. Supplements

Recently, I’ve been adding supplements back into my diet. For awhile, I wanted to focus on getting my nutrients from food, but I have been researching some products and wanted to test them out – plus I’m really happy with my diet right now which means it’s time to shake things up. Right now, I use 1 tbsp of collagen hydrosolate in my smoothie as a protein powder. The brand I use is Great Lakes. After much debate, I started adding 1 tsp of cod liver oil from Carlson Labs into my smoothie. This brand was recommended in Pain Free in 6 weeks by Sherry Rogers and this company is held in high esteem by my health conscious friends. I’ve read that this company tests their product for contaminants such as mercury and PCBs. Another favorite brand among health bloggers is the fermented cod liver oil from Green Pastures.

I was so excited to finally find locally sourced chicken bones last weekend. Normally, I get beef knuckle (aka soup) bones from my farmers market. While, that works on a regular basis, I love the chicken soup flavor and buying a whole chicken locally (which I have done) gets pricey. The chicken at my farmer’s market where I get my eggs is around $18, crazy I know, but they have grass-fed eggs with orange yolks there that are amazing. I found an easy recipe for roasting a whole chicken on epicurious. Just dry the chicken inside and out for a crispy skin and roast it for an hour at 350 degrees with salt and pepper. That’s it.

Anyway, I was looking for local chicken feet for the connective tissue which yields more gelatin and I finally found a butcher shop in West Hollywood called Lindy & Grundy, which is basically a paleo lover’s dream shop. They source all their animals from local farms, fed healthy diets. Plus, they make use of the whole animal not just the popular bits. I just stopped by without pre-ordering chicken feet and possibly the necks, which I plan on doing in the future. In the picture is a mix of chicken bones, which they sell ready to go in a sealed package. I got this package because I saw some feet, but it also includes heads, necks, and other mystery bones. I asked the woman behind the register and she said the heads and necks are great for flavor so I decided to give it a shot. Luckily, I’m a pretty adventurous offal eater.

I also bought two breakfast sausages, which had some liver in them. I’m always trying to get more liver into my diet, it’s incredibly nutritious, and a piece of their homemade scrapple. Scrapple is basically boiled down pig parts which they later use corn meal to make solid. It taste like a mix between foie gras and bacon…yeah I know what your thinking… how come I haven’t heard about this before? I have no idea, but it was a delicious way of eating more offal. Plus, I’ve missed bacon. They don’t sell pig at the farmer’s market.

Finally, I wanted to tell you what I normally put in my bone broth besides bones:

My Bone Broth

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

24 hours

Total time

24 hours 5 mins

 

Author: Lauren Bolanos

Ingredients

• chicken or beef bones (chicken feet and beef knuckle bones has the most connective tissue)
• 1 carrot
• 1 onion (white or yellow, include skin for additional nutrition)
• 1 sprig of dried rosemary (I get a ton from my farmer's market, and dehydrate it regularly for broth)
• sea salt
• 1 or 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (for drawing out minerals from bones)

Instructions

1. I add the bones frozen, they defrost in the warm water in the slow cooker.
2. Then I add the rest of the ingredients, and slow cook it on high until it starts to simmer.
3. Then I put on low for the rest of the time which is usually 24 - 48 hours for beef bones. For chicken bones, 20 to 24 hours should be more than enough.
4. I prefer to add pepper to the finished broth when I am finally ready to drink it.

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