Very Good Very Easy Vegetable Stock

Genesis talks about Isaac loving Esau because of the wild meat he would bring him, and Rebekah loving Jacob more. In one commentary, it stated that “the children please their parents according as they supply what is lacking in themselves. Isaac, himself so sedate, loves the wild, wandering hunter, because he supplies him with pleasures which his own quiet habits do not reach. Rebekah becomes attached to the gentle, industrious shepherd, who satisfies those social and spiritual tendencies in which she is more dependent than Isaac.”

Often we admire or like those things in people that benefit us. We also admire those things that we lack ourselves. I have friends that are absolutely gifted in the organization of their home. I certainly admire this and benefit from their example and enthusiasm of their giftings.

I hope to inspire those around me to take an inventory of the natural food we are feeding ourselves and make better choices, perhaps when we thought we didn’t have the time or ability to do so. Why should eating better be a priority? Just like we are to be good stewards of our material possessions, we need to be good stewards of the physical body God has given us. Being a good steward of my time has motivated me to find faster ways to provide healthful food for my own family.

In less than 15 minutes you can make your own vegetable stock for soups, rice, and more. Why make your own stock? It’s not so much what’s in your homemade stock as what’s NOT in it, too much sodium, hydrolyzed oils, MSG; the list goes on. We choose vegetable stock over chicken stock to lower our saturated fat intake. How do I have the time to make my own stock? By taking 15 minutes after dinner…

Basic Vegetable Stock

6 qt. crockpot

2 onions, quartered

3 carrots, cut into thirds

3 celery stalks plus any leaves

1 garlic bulb/head, cut in half

2 tsp. sea salt

10-12 peppercorns

handful parsley

Wash but leave skins on. Use as many organic vegetables as possible. Toss in crockpot and fill with filtered water. Set to “high” and let work overnight for 8-12 hours. I like “high” to keep a good simmer and evaporate some of the water. In the morning, let cool, strain and put in freezable quart containers. You now have 4 quarts of clear, deliciously rich vegetable stock that took 15 minutes of your time to fix. The health benefits of the vegetables cooking in the water and the elimination of harmful ingredients make whatever time you took to prepare it, worthwhile. I often have 2 crockpots at a time going to have enough for the week. Freeze and thaw when needed.

What talents do others have that benefit you? What gifts do you have that others can benefit?