Broth and why I love/hate/love it.

Broth is awesome. You can make so much stuff with it. Soup without broth? You can pretty much forget about it. (I'm not talking about the fruity cold summer soups.) BUT, have you read the labels on the stuff at the store? It's ridiculous. Finding one that actually SAYS it is dairy free or vegan is difficult. Finding one that's gluten-free....I think there's one store that sells one brand in the city. And I'm talking about Las Cruces, not Silver City. SO, I've been making my broth for a while now. It's super delicious and is more nutrient dense than the boxed or canned stuff, too. And it's EASY. You literally throw stuff in boiling water and wait. And then if you're using bones, you can reuse them a few more times. That's like 4+quarts of broth for about $2. And you can freeze it! Yes, please!

Bone broth
Beef, chicken, or turkey bones (or whatever other kind)
Water

Vegetable broth
Onion
Celery (~3 stalks)
3-4 medium-large carrots
Bay leaf
Optional--fennel fronds
Salt and pepper to taste
Roughly chop all veggies

For both broths, boil water and add stuff. Wait a while. An hour is probably good, but to really break down the bones to get the micronutrients you can simmer up to 24 hours. Strain stuff back out and you have broth! Voila! Use it right away or freeze it in batches. If you boil it down too much you can just add more water and cook a little longer.

Paleo Nut Clusters

So, these are the delicious morsels of nutty goodness that I took to Santa Fe in a variety of favors. I got the original recipe here : http://betterwithbutter.com/a-little-nutty/. So far nobody has told me they're gross or anything and you can personalize them as much as you want. Here's the recipe with the changes I made.

1 cup walnuts
1 cup almonds
1 cup cashews
1-2 Tbsp ground flax
2-4 Tbsp chia seeds (because seriously, who couldn't use more chia seeds in their diet?)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crush/blend/grind nuts and set aside.
Add flax and chia seeds to the nuts and mix well.
Warm honey and vanilla over low heat until it gets more melty.
Pour honey mix into nuts and mix well.
Spread on a cookie sheet, preferably over a piece of parchment paper or a silpat. Mainly because I hate washing cookie sheets.
Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes and cool. The fridge would probably work well, but I never have space. I have put a tray in the freezer before overnight after it had been out of the oven for a while and it worked well.

If you want to try different favors, add dry ingredients to the bowl of nuts and wet ingredients to the honey mix. Keep in mind that you might need to add a little more honey if you add something like coconut that will soak it up more than, say, cinnamon powder might.

Some of my favorites are:
Coconut curry: add lime juice, salt, curry powder, turmeric, unsweetened coconut shreds
Coconut chocolate chip: add chocolate chips and unsweetened coconut shreds
Double chocolate chip: add chocolate chips, a little unsweetened coconut shreds, and cacao powder
Red chile chocolate: add cayenne powder, chocolate chips, and cacao powder

Go nuts!