I made some resolutions for the new year; of course, I’ve made resolutions for previous years, too.  But, I plan on keeping my resolutions this time.  I need to keep them. They are the difference of doing things the same way and getting the same results or changing things now and living healthier and happier.  Like a lot of people, if I make too many drastic changes at once, I’ll get overwhelmed and go back to my old ways.  I’ve heard it takes anywhere from 21 to 28 days to form a new habit, so that is what I am committing to with my resolutions.

My plan for tackling all of the things on my list is to start one change at a time.  I think one to two changes per week is fairly doable.  First up on my list is to drink a cup of 24 hour broth every day.  Good broth has tons of minerals, plus gelatin and collagen.  Since most people are deficient in at least one mineral, due to depleted soils and other reasons, broth can provide an easily assimilated mineral source.  The gelatin in the broth helps out joints and is said to reduce wrinkles!  I’m all about my skin looking better, so that’s a benefit I’m looking forward to.

If you’ve done your math, you can see how I’ll be easily going through at least a half gallon of broth BY MYSELF each week!  That doesn’t even take into consideration all the broth that my family will be drinking, plus the broth that I cook with.  I can see us going through at least a gallon or more of broth each and every week!  Constantly making that much broth each week seems like a daunting task, but let me tell you how to make that much (or more) without much work.

I recently read a blog post about how to make “perpetual” broth using a slow cooker.  It’s so simple, it seems almost too good to be true!  Really, it is!  What I do is put a whole chicken in the slow cooker and fill with water.  Add a little apple cider vinegar to the water and let it set for about an hour before turning the slow cooker on.  You can add some chopped onion, celery and carrots for flavor.  I also like to add a palmful of dried Italian seasoning.  After the initial hour, turn the slow cooker to high for about 3-4 hours.  The chicken should be completely cooked after this time and it is a good time to take the meat off the bones to use for another time.  Put the bones back in the slow cooker and turn down to low.  The broth is now ready to use as much as you want, for the next week.  When you take some broth from the slow cooker, simply replace that amount of water back in the cooker.  Voila!  It’s as easy as that.  At the end of the week, compost or toss the bones and cooked veggies and start all over.

Two other resolutions that I’ve already begun to tackle are quitting drinking soda (again) and cutting back on sweets.  I started those on January 1st.

Have you made resolutions for the new year?  Tell me what they are!

p.s.  When I find the link to the original post for the perpetual broth, I will post the credits here, and link to it.