Soup Recipe and GAPS Update

Earlier today I promised a soup post. I really don't want to do it. Haha. But a promise is a promise, so here goes.

 I first made some beef stock that gelled marvelously! I don't have a picture of the beef, but here's a picture of venison stock:

So, then I took my filtered beef stock and added carrots, an onion, a red pepper, a bit of broccoli, and meat from the stock. Then I let it simmer until the veggies were soft and added some salt. It was really good!

Breakfast and lunch on Day 1 of GAPS

I added some sauerkraut juice (probiotics) and some crushed garlic to my soup. (Jon should have, too, but I didn't realize it until later.)

(I don't know why all the pictures turned out reddish. It was night time, and I had bad lighting. But the soup was not red at all. Very nice brownish color.)

We had butternut squash soup (pureed) with boiled broccoli and a bit of venison. Pretty decent dinner. All the food has to be "well boiled" and very soft, so it's all the same texture, but flavors are varied and some are really liquidy while some are more solid.


I was doing really well this morning, feeling really good. My sister and I went to the farmer's market and got lots of broccoli, squash, onions, carrots, leeks, and an acorn squash (never had one before... wanted to give it a try). Then we went to Weaver's, a store in the area, and I got some cauliflower. We got back around 2, and by 2:30 I was feeling really tired and my muscles were heavy. I was surprised that it's already affecting me.  I have no energy, I'm suddenly overwhelmed with everything I need to get done, and I'm just... tired. I still feel good about the diet as a whole, I think. The food is pretty varied and tastes good, but it is a lot of work and requires a lot of preparation. With work and other household chores, that seems daunting. Hopefully I'll find a rhythm soon.

HOLY COW DO WE GO THROUGH STOCK. Wow. I think I'll be making stock 4 or 5 nights a week for a while. Anyone want to give me some meat bones?  We go through so many! I do have two chickens, and some more beef bones though, so that should make 3 more pots of stock. Then I'll have to buy more meat and bones. Maybe I should call around to a few butcher shops, see if they have any extras they want to give to me...

Please pray for me for tomorrow. I will be working all day, and they have LOTS of JUNK FOOD in their house that will be calling my name loudly and incessantly. I'll have to make sure I have a lot of good food available to eat. Which is going to be hard, because I'm going to have to make it tonight, and it's already after 7. *Sigh* Did I mention I'm tired?

Jon's had a rough day, too. He does hard physical labor, and by mid morning he was really tired, had no energy, felt weak, etc. So we'll have to figure out a way for him to get more food more often, with as many [veggie] carbs as possible. Another learning curve for us.

So, over all I'm still pretty optimistic about this whole endeavor. But I was so not ready for it--no food made in advance (except stock), I haven't been able to read much in the book, and I didn't expect it to hit me this fast. But we'll figure it out. I should have expected few rough days in the beginning. I'll be sure to do more updates and post more recipes.

There you have it. How my day went. Hope yours went well, and please try to remember to pray for us tomorrow!