Crock-pot Yogurt

This is the all-time easiest way I know to make yogurt at home.  You can spend a total of 30-45 minutes of time and have fresh, delicious yogurt for much less than you would pay in the store.  All you need is a crock-pot, some milk, and some plain yogurt with live, active cultures* in it.

Ingredients:
 - 1 quart to ½ gallon of milk (for best results AVOID “ultra-pasteurized” – usually you want to buy the store brand and it’s the best price so you win all the way around)
 - One 4-8 ounce container of plain yogurt with live, active cultures* (for best results – get yogurt made only from milk & live, active cultures* - and no other additives)

Method:

1. Pour the milk into your crock-pot
2. Set it on HIGH and leave it for 2 hours
3. Turn crock-pot off
4. After 3 hours pour a cup or two of warm milk into a bowl
5. Mix in the yogurt and stir well
6. Pour the yogurt mix back into your crock-pot & stir well
7. Wrap the crock pot with a heavy towel or blanket
8. Leave for 8 hours
9. Pour yogurt into containers and put into the refrigerator

Flavorings:
  You can add a teaspoon at a time to regulate sweetness.  Make sure the yogurt tastes good.  You’ll find you don’t add as much sweetener as the manufacturer does.
  -    Honey
  -    Maple syrup
  -    Jellies & jams
  -    Fresh fruit
  -   Canned pie fillings (look for ones without corn syrup)
  -    Frozen fruit
  -    Chocolate chips
  -     Nutella
  -    Vanilla
  -    Crumbled up cookies (try ½ a cookie first)
  -    Granola

If you want to make a drinkable yogurt you can experiment with adding more or less yogurt to the heated milk – this will affect how thick the yogurt gets.  Before serving add some juice or fruit nectars (unsweetened if you can find them). 

*Brands that have “LIVE, ACTIVE CULTURES”
          Cloud Top, LLC
         Red Mango
         YoCream
         Yoplait
         Dannon
         Gilsa
         Kroger
         Pinkberry
         Berry Chill
         Emmi USA
         Scott Brothers
         Johanna Foods
         OrangeCup
         Chobani
         Yoforia
         Mountain Top
         Stonyfield’s Oikos

During the hard, cold months of winter, when finding fresh and local vegetables gets difficult, traditional diets often focus on meat, grains and beans.  I’ll feature those recipes in the next few newsletters.  This month we look at bone broth which warms up your kitchen as well as your tummy!  Make it in a crock pot for pennies.  Add it to any dish instead of water or “store-bought” soup stocks to boost nutrient density AND add flavor. 

Using bone broth makes a great “chaining” choice when transitioning a picky-eater to more healthy foods for several reasons.  Many children like bland, slightly salty soups and easily accept a bone broth.  Homemade bone broth can transform even empty calorie foods like noodles into a nutrient dense meal.  Bone broths contain gelatin which acts helps us overcome food sensitivities by healing inflamed gastrointestinal tracts.

Bone broth’s nutrient quantities vary from batch to batch.  Since the cooking process slowly dissolves bones, its broth has all the ingredients in bone and cartilage.  Our bodies absorb and use the minerals and nutrients from bone broths even more easily and readily than those we get from supplements, making them an even better choice for keeping picky-eaters and everyone in the family healthy.

You will get protein from any attached meat, fat from marrow, skin or solid fat, and gelatin from the dissolved cartilage and bone.  Many nutritionists recommend bone broths for:  food allergies; colic; problems digesting dairy, beans, meat, grain (especially gluten); gastro esophageal reflux; gastritis; ulcer; hiatal hernia; inflammatory bowel disease; irritable bowel syndrome; leaky gut syndrome; malnutrition; weight loss; muscle wasting; cancer; osteoporosis; calcium deficiency; and anemia. 

As you can see bone broth will make everyone feel better.  Check out the list of nutrients at the end of this post.  If you take any of these as supplements consider adding a crock pot of bone broth to your weekly menus.  You can save money, improve the taste of your food and get healthy with no more than 10 to 20 minutes of your time per week.

Where to Get Bones for Bone Broth:

• Save up left over bones and keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer.  
  
• Buy a whole chicken on sale – use everything even the organs
  
• Use soup bones, neck bones and other inexpensive bones from the store

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 pounds of leftover meat & bones (if you can get pasture-raised meats they have even more nutrients from eating fresh grasses).  
  
•  4 to 6 quarts water (filtered water is great – tap water will do fine)
  
•  2 tablespoons vinegar (white, apple cider or even wine vinegar)
  
•  1 teaspoon of salt
  
•  2 bay leaves
  

Method:

• Put meat, bones, vinegar and salt into a crock pot.  Add water to fill the pot ½  to ¾ full. 
  
• Set on high for one hour.
  
• Reduce heat to low and cook for 8 to 24 hours
  
• Turn off.
  
• Cool.
  
• Strain the broth through a mesh colander to get out all the bones and bits of meat and other solids.  Put in jars, freezer containers, or even ice-cube trays.  You can store the frozen stock cubes in a bag and add them as flavor/nutrition bursts in lots of dishes.  You can store broth for a week in the refrigerator.  It usually becomes like jelly which lets you know how much good nutritious gelatin you it contains.
  

Variations:
Perpetual Bone Broth – Keep your bone broth going for up to a week if you use it every day.  Add more water to replace the water you remove.  The longer it cooks the more nutrients leach out of the bones.  At the end of the week the bones will be mush.  This method works well for people on a GAPS diet or other diet regimen that uses lots of broths and soups.  (Thanks to Jenny McCarthy at www.nourishedkitchen.com for this variation.)

Clean out the Fridge – Add frozen vegetable scraps, vegetables that have wilted (not rotted) during the last hour of cooking.  Strain the cooked vegetables out with the bones.  Some vegetables turn the broth bitter (beets, broccoli, turnips) or sweet (carrots) if they cook too long so best not to add these to a perpetual soup.  Parsley and parsley trimmings, onion, garlic, celery and celery leaves add flavor and will do alright cooking longer than an hour.

Things to Make with Bone Broth
 Add bone broth anywhere you would put water or soup stock. 

Clear Broth - When you make perpetual soup you can strain the broth through a coffee filter or mesh tea strainer to make yourself a warming cup of pure goodness.

Kitchen Sink Soup – Add fresh or left-over meats, chopped vegetables, noodles and seasonings of your choice to make a hearty soup.

Egg Drop Soup – Whip up one egg for each cup of hot broth.  Stir eggs into broth.  A meal won’t get any easier than this!  Add some chopped green onions for flavor and color if you want to get fancy.

Doggies’ Delight – Throw a ladle full of broth into your dog’s dry kibbles and watch their eyes light up in gratitude.  Make sure you let it cool off before serving it.  Once the bones have cooked for 24 hours and gotten mushy you can add a few of those as well.  Make sure you can crush bones with your ladle before adding chicken or pork bones to a dog’s dish.  Some cats like bone broth, too.

Here’s the list of nutrients found in bone broths.
Calcium
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Sulfur 
Fluoride
Sodium and potassium
Chondroitin sulfate
Keratin sulfate
Hyaluronic acid
Elastin
Osteocytes
Chondrocytes
Collagen I, II, III & the amino acids found in collagen:
  Glycine
  Proline
  Ppydroxyproline
  Lysine
  Hydroxylysine

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose…

‘Tis the season for chestnuts and most of you can find some in your local grocery store.  Chestnuts grew wild in the American northeast until about 150 years ago when a fungus brought over from Asian chestnut trees spread quickly across the Appalachian Mountain range where wild chestnuts made up one quarter of all the trees in the forests.

We lost a wonderful wild food source with those chestnut trees, full of protein, calcium, vitamin C, copper and manganese.  Many growers around the U.S. have worked hard to bring back a fungus-resistant American chestnut.  You can order those chestnuts online, but much of what you see in the store still comes from outside the U.S.

Like most nuts, chestnuts come in their own packaging, so they travel very well.  Growers have to wait until they fall from the trees so they don’t get harvested too early.  When buying them, check for freshness by squeezing them.  The nuts should be firm with no give between the shell and the nut.

When you get them home put them in a bowl in the sunshine to “cure.”  Squeeze them every day and when you can feel a little give between the nut and the shell – get ready for a seasonal treat.

Cut a cross in each nut with a sharp knife to prevent the nuts from bursting while cooking.  Put a handful or two on a pan in the toaster oven and “roast” at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Let them cool just a little bit.  They peel much better when warm, which makes them a perfect treat for warming up cold hands after spending time outside in cold weather.

Uncured fresh chestnuts keep well in the refrigerator for weeks.   You can also freeze them.  When curing, take care not to let them dry out. Usually chestnuts “cure” in 2-3 days without refrigeration.

We do.  We believe that healing begins with intention.  All of our therapists hold that intention - because we have seen it work with the children who come to see us.Perhaps your child has worked with therapists in the past.  Most of your children probably receive therapy right now.  I have worked with families dealing with special challenges for more than two decades and I have heard their frustration over children who tantrum, refuse foods, have toileting accidents, or sleep poorly.  I know how much they want their special children to make friends, succeed in school and enjoy going out to a restaurant or special event with the rest of the family.  Perhaps you face some of these same challenges. 

This month I'm writing a bit about some familiar types of therapy and how we incorporate those into our 

Intensive Therapy & Family Vacation - Sunday, July 24th to Friday, July 29, 2011
Do you ever get overwhelmed by all the different kinds of therapies offered?

 Here's a short list of some of the most common techniques used by therapists who work with special needs children.Behavioral Therapy 

A "classic" methodology most therapists first learn about in their elementary psychology courses.  We learn that when animals get rewards for certain behaviors they repeat them.  As practitioners we learn a variety of ways to reward behaviors and how to organize a program so that the behaviors we want most get rewarded, and those we want least get ignored so that they go away.  We learn how to structure our treatment sessions to make this work for us and we share that information with classrooms and families.  Behavioral therapy can be very effective at times, but most of our therapists want more out of their therapy sessions.

Developmental Therapy 

Usually takes center stage during the course of our academic and professional educations.  Developmental therapy is another "classic" with an infinite number of interpretations from Freud to Piaget to Greenspan.  Each of us knows several of these developmental sequences depending on our area of practice.  We may know how speech develops, or tool use.  Walking, eating, toileting - each skill we possess evolved along a pathway of predictable steps governed by the maturity of our bodies and the amount of time we spent practicing those skills.  Our therapists use these developmental theories to figure out what skills to practice and when to introduce them during the course of treatment.

 Sensory-integration Therapy 

Grew out of the developmental therapies, but focused on the interrelationship of brain structures and functions - how they operate and how they develop in response to the environment. Sensory-integration theory began its life in occupational therapy practice and research, but speech therapy, physical therapy, psychology other disciplines recognized its usefulness and began incorporating this treatment approach into their own work. Our therapists use sensory integration to figure out how a child's brain is working and what kinds of environments will help them learn best.

 DIR® /FloortimeTM Is a technique developed and taught by Dr. Stanley Greenspan.  It also evolved out of developmental therapy and the DIR (developmental, individual differences, relationship-based ) model of emotional development has proved extremely useful for understanding how to help children with autism and other neuro-behavioral challenges. Therapists must study FloortimeTM through certified programs but we all recognize the developmental stages of the DIR® model and find that the FloortimeTM techniques for increasing "circles of communication" and getting children actively engaged in reciprocal play very closely mirror techniques we have found effective over the years. In every interaction our therapists will focus on getting children to spontaneously interact and communicate in meaningful ways.

Son-Rise® 

Is another effective technique for working with children who have autism and other neuro-behavioral challenges.   This technique was created and pioneered by a couple of parents who had a son diagnosed with autism at about 18 months of age.  At that time (the 1970's) autism was treated with severe behavioral measures (like electric shock/aversion therapy) and eventual institutionalization.  These parents, Barry & Samahria Kaufman, refused to believe in this option and began a vigorous program of "joining" their son in his behaviors as a way to make a connection and help him find his way to our non-autistic world.  Their success was unprecedented and has been repeated with other parents with whom they share their techniques.  Like Floortime®, Son-Rise®requires special training and certification.  Those of us who have learned about the techniques through the educational materials of The Autism Treatment Center of America (home of Son-Rise® ) recognize many of the playful approaches we have used to build relationships with our young clients. Our therapists will use your child's passions to make the connections that help your child emerge from their world and join us in this one.  

We know from experience, and from published research studies that intensive therapy produces quicker and longer lasting results.  We are EXCITED about this opportunity to help you see miracles happen in your own family.

No one else is providing 30 hours of therapy AND a family vacation in the same package. 

Miracles come in all shapes and sizes.  What's one thing you wish your child could do better?   Call us at 718-517-0807 and let us know what a miracle would look like for you.

Nourishing Bodies Nourishing Souls Intensive Therapy & Family Vacation: 
Sun, July 24th to Fri, July 29, 2011
Five Seasons Family Resort on Torsey Pond in Mt. Vernon, Maine 

Nourishing  Bodies Nourishing Souls is a place  where your special needs child gets intensive (& FUN) therapy while the rest of the family get to do what other families do on a summer vacation...HAVE A GOOD TIME! 

In honor of Autism Awareness month - 10% of a family's registration fee will be donated to the 
NY Metro Chapter of the National Autism Association - for scholarship assistance with therapy costs.