Paleo Chicken stuffed with Apple and Onion Greens

So As I prepared our dinner tonight I was also putting away onions that I had bought at the farmer's market. And I thought "what will I do with all these beautiful green onion tops? Then it came to me! Stuff the chicken with them! So I thought I would also put an apple that had seen better days in them as well. Just to add little extra juiciness.

Now anyone who has read this blog before would know that I feed anywhere from 5-10 people for dinner each night. And we generally eat only left overs for lunch so I almost always roast two organic chickens.

I roasted the fresh chickens on 350 degrees for about three hours. I had about 10 lbs of chicken in the oven so if you have one 5lbs chicken you could roast it for one and a half hours. I removed the fresh (not frozen) chicken from their bag and washed them with cold water. Then I put a half of an apple in each and stuffed them as full as I could with the onion tops, just the green parts. Then I covered them with foil making a tight seal to keep the steam in as much as possible. Then at about two hours I removed the foil cover and basted them in their own juices. I do not use a devise to raise my chicken up from the pan so that the juices drip away from the chicken. I want them to marinate in their own juices. I ususally end up with about an inch or two of drippings. I use that to begin my homemade chicken bone broth. I make broth with every chicken I make. Why waste such a healthy amazing resource! Especially if your chcken is organic.Let me know how this recipe works for you! Please leave a comment below.

Holy Sugar!

So I have been having trouble getting back on track with Paleo. I've been grain free but I kept dipping a little too deep into the dark chocolates, wine and honey! All super lovely yummies right?  And I was struggling with my weight loss in fact I have jumped up about 6 pounds. I was just saying to my partner that it feels like it is about 25 times easier to gain weight then loose it, so gaining 6 pounds was very discouraging.
So I decided to get off sugar. Holy crap! I had tried for about a week without success. I have been struggling and decided to enlist the help of friend who is also working on changing her health. So we made a deal that I could text her and she could text me when we struggling or felt we had made a good choice. So It took about three days of really suffering and lots of text like "I just put the bag of chocolate covered almonds back on the shelf and didn't eat one. Yeah for me!!"
It's good to have support but even better to use the support you have!! 

what's for lunch?

Ground grass-fed beef, sauteed kale and sweet potato.

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Roasted Fresh Herb Organic Chicken

What's for Dinner? Roasted Fresh Herb Organic Chicken

This is my favorite dinner to make because it feels like a twofer. We get to eat yummy homemade roasted chicken and after all the meat is off the bones then I make a healing natural chicken bone broth in my crockpot. Yum.
I started with two whole organic fyers that equaled about 7lbs total. I washed the birds in cold water and took out the organ meats. I always feel bad throwing thes away but we just don't eat them. I guess I could put them in the stock later. Maybe next time.

But before that I went to the garden and grabbed a giant handful of thyme, rosemary and chives. I figured I really couldn't put too much in my birds. Well I stuffed them full and decided to save the last bit for garnish after they were cooked.

I seasoned the birds with salt and pepper. Very simple. Nothing fancy~ well except fresh herbs from the garden!
I put them in a roasting pan with nothing under them. I didn't mind them marinating in their own juices. I know that good fats are really healthy for us. I know that low fat is a lie. I want those healthy fats in my foods.
I roasted them on 350 degrees for about 2.5 hrs.  And then I let them stand for about 20 minutes before I served them . oh I also restuffed them with a fresh round of herbs. I took my tonges and pulled out the spent herbs and refilled them with fresh plants. As you can see fresh plants look much more pretty.













This dinner plus mashed potatoes from my non-Paleo family and sweet potatoes for us Paleo eaters, broccoli and a huge fresh salad was tonight dinner!
Then the final step was putting the bones skin and whatever was left plus about a gallon of water in the crockpot for a two day slow cook. Then I stain the it and freeze for the next time I need chicken stock!

Homemade healing salves from your garden.

Calendula Flowers

Collecting the flowers that grow in and around my garden is a relaxing and soothing task for me. I also love to collect some plants that grow wild. Feeling inspired by a friend bringing St John's Wort bouquet to work~ I went looking for a few plants I like to work with.
The Calendula was easy to find. I grow it in my garden and it easily will take over an area with little coaxing. But the St John's Wort was more elusive this year.  In the past it seemed to grow on every untended neighborhood corner. This year I have had a hard time finding this wonderful plant.
After my son fell asleep in the car on the way home from the farmers market yesterday I decided to wonder the neighborhoods surrounding our house to see if I would find some obviously unintended St John Wort plants. I did this because I noticed I had none growing in my own garden. I have to say this is definitely unusual. Normally, I have it growing everywhere like a weed. Not this year.

St John's Wort

Finally after slowly driving around with my eyes peeled to the particular flower of the St John's plant, I found just a few stands of this delicate flower. Being mindful to not take every plant, leaving some to reseed themselves, I harvested a handful of young plant stems and flowers.
Calendula-
I collected a group of calendula flower heads today. I will let them wilt a little to ensure there is no water on the petals. Then I will submerge them in a canning jar of olive or almond oil. Calendula is known for it's skin healing properties. I will probably drop the flowers heads into the oil on July 3rd because that is a fill moon and that just seems to make sense. Begin a project at the beginning of a new cycle, right? Why not, It can't hurt. I will infuse the oil for a few weeks and then remove the plant material and store the oil until the fall or winter when I will make a salve or healing oil from the infusion.
St John's Wort-
This plant I will also submerge in oil for an oil infusion after they have dried a bit, just like the calendula. I will probably make a salve with both Calendula and St John's Wort together to create a soothing salve for my family and friends. These could be used for any reason you might want to add a little healing help to your skin. I might add some lavender or tea tree essential oil to aid the healing process of the skin. Calendula could also be used as a wonderful moisturizer. You could create an emulsion with the caledula infused oil. An emulsion is basically a homemade lotion.
Let me know what you are making this summer season. I'd love to hear your comments.

What's for dinner?

Soup and Salad of course!
Well, we have been fighting a bit of a cold in this household. So I decided to make Chicken soup with bone broth. And a good friend brought me some wild rice so I thought I'd throw some of that in there too! So as you'll see there are two pots on the stove. I started our with onions, celery, and carrots sauteed in some coconut oil. Then I added chicken breast and cooked that up.

At that point I separated the it into to pans. One for paleo and the other for the rest of the troops. Both pots got the homemade chicken bone broth that was in the freezer.  Oh That is going to be so healing for everyone tonight! I will add a little sea salt and maybe some pepper.

I feed anywhere from 5-12 people each night for dinner. The neighbors come over almost every night. Friends know our door is open and I love to feed people so our table fills up fast. Tonight we are feeding eight. two folks are paleo and the rest eat whatever I put in front of them. so two dinners but it's easy to do. The non paleo dinner gets 1 1/2 cups of wild rice. I like my rice to get puffy and full so I'll cook it extra long- about 45 minutes to one hour. I just throw it into the pot. With the rice more puffy and full it feeds more people too. Even my six year old will enjoy this soup.
And an organic green salad with purple cabbage and carrots. I need color in the meal. It needs to look pretty too right?

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Spring has Sprung!

And with it - it's brought crazy sunny days and downpours of rain- typical NW weather. So I looked outside, yesterday, I was home with a mildly ill child and realized the calendula were calling my name. So we put on our rain boots- you know just in case, and walked out to the garden to see if there were any flowers wanting to be made into homemade plant medicine.
Calendula is a fabulous plant from the Marigold family ( I think.) It's been used for forever as a skin soother and healer. It's super easy to make an oil infusion with this delightful plant.
Begin by picking the flowers that have not quite opened. They should be just on the cusp of opening. These beautiful flowers are orange yellow and gold!  Set the flowers a on mesh like surface. Something breathable.  I use a wicker-like tray and dry for a day or two. Be sure that there is no water on your petals. Because water and oil don't mix! In fact it will create an environment perfect for bacterial growth.
Then once they are thoroughly dry, simply put the flower heads in a jelly jar and fill with Olive oil or Almond oil. Make sure the flowers are completely covered with oil. They should not be exposed to air once submerged in the oil. If they pop up- add more oil.
Every day or so turn the jar so that the plant material and oil are thoroughly mixed. The jar shown below is only half full because that's all the flowers we had in bloom at the time. So we'll slowly fill the jar over several weeks. Then after about 4-6 six weeks strain the flowers from the oil and voila! You have Calendula Infused Olive Oil.
This would be used as a topical treatment for scrapes or cuts. You can get fancy and melt down a little beeswax and add it to make a salve. Then it works really well to apply to just about anywhere on your body. It's a great skin care treatment as well. It could be use as a facial oil.
So try a little calendula infusion and tell me about it! I'd love to hear how it works for you!

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