It's A Turkey and Vegetable: Dog Food, Sick Food, Baby Food Kinda Day!

Outwardly, I can't tell you how happy I am, here on the first official day of Fall, to see the long, hot summer we've had, finally come to an end. . .bye bye summer  Today is cooler, in the low 60's. Jeans and flannel weather ☺️ calm, sunny. . .and pretty much perfect.

My internal body isn't always so quick to rejoice. For some reason, many people, and animals, take a while to adjust to each new season. With flu season cranking up again, and COVID showing no sign of being eradicated, we have to take responsibility to listen to our bodies, and enhance its ability to keep our immune systems strong however we can.

Our 'gut' is largely where the good bacterias reside. They feed a healthy immune system and keep it that way. Having had 3 intestinal surgeries, I know it's my bodies weakest link. Today, I'm switching back to smoothies to boost that. Basically full-fat plain Greek yogurt, banana, frozen pineapple and berries. Mexican vanilla, a big, BIG shake of cinnamon, and coconut milk, from a carton, to thin it to 'drinkable.' I eye everything up, I don't measure, and it creates a 2-1/2c smoothie  It's a lot, but I just sip on it for an hour or so because I know it's what my body needs.

Now onto this recipe. . .Fill a 5 quart pot about 1/3 full with fresh cold water in which you dissolve 1/2-1t of salt. Chop all the vegetables shown, starting with the sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Get these into the salted water right away to avoid big grey oxidation spots. This will fill the whole pot. Cover and simmer.

(My dogs don't like purple cabbage, I'll use that in coleslaw)

Once the water is at a very low boil, cover the pot and set the timer for an hour. Check the celery for doneness since that's the vegetable most resistant to heat. Once everything is cooked the way you like it, pour the vegetables to a colander over a big bowl. Save all the wonderful vegetable broth to add a little when serving, or for a future soup.

Clean the pot, then add 12-16oz. ground turkey and 3/4c good quality, single source, EVOO. It sounds like a lot, but it's a very good, healthy, and necessary fat. Chop and stir this until sizzling and lightly browned. Add a big serving spoonful of Turkey Better Than Bouillon - about 3 tablespoons. Stir this over low heat just until it bubbles again. Now add the vegetables back to the meat, a little at a time, mixing everything together well. Cover, turn off the heat and let stand a half hour to blend all the flavors.

I had a tiny bowl of this for lunch, with a ladle of the vegetable broth. I'm glad I did. The celery and cabbage were still quite fibrous. I didn't want to cook it any longer, so I used my immersion blender to make it easier to digest.  Once it's cool, I'll freeze it in 1c packages which will be enough for 1 feeding for both dogs. I'm pretty sure if each of us only had a smoothie as described above and a bowl of this each day for a week, we would go a long way toward healing our gut issues! I have a lot of cooking to do in the next week or two, but after that's done, I might do just it!

I think this recipe would also be excellent to use instead of commercially prepared baby food. This contains sodium, but that could be eliminated or reduced. There are no chemicals or preservatives, only good quality, healthy meat, oil and vegetables. I'm not a doctor or a trained dietician, but I'm very interested in all aspects of food and how it can either hurt or heal our bodies, and promote good gut bacteria, which, in turn, will eliminate the bad bacterias. This is all of much interest to me and will be one of lifelong learning.

I would also recommend this when recovering from a bad bout with a stomach and intestinal bug. After a day with just clear liquids: Coke or Pepsi that has the carbonation stirred out, and chicken broth for 24 hours. Then adding soda crackers and/or toast. This would be good on day 2 or 3, post sickness, if everything else was well tolerated. 

My old dog, Penny, is around 17. She's mostly deaf and losing her sight, arthritic and full of benign lipomas. . .But. . .she still gets around, goes on short, slow walks, and I want to keep her as healthy as possible for her remaining time with me. When she was much younger, maybe 4-6 years old, she started vomiting, pretty much daily. My vet said get her off grains. I switched her to a 'good' grain-free dry food, which worked right away! Then several years later, it was on the list of dog foods to avoid. I switched both my pups to another and all was well until recently when this food, that my vet recommended, and feeds her dogs, started making her sick again.

Quite by chance, I read the ingredients on a bag of SPROUT Dog Food and decided to try it. Immediately the vomiting stopped. I'm on my 3rd big bag of it, and they're doing great! Oliver is my 10 year old 'puppy,' and then there's Daphne, my 13 (?) year old wonderful cat. I'll even let her try some of this food. For each of the dogs, I'll use this to supplement their dry food - 1/2c dry and 1/2c vegetables and turkey - plus a Vit. E and fish oil gel cap and a Cosequin for the old gal, at one feeding each day, until all 11 1c packages are gone. 

They're Family! . .Feed Everyone Well...☺️...Lin

Sick Food for Stomach-Intestinal Viruses

About once a year I get it. It arrived last night around 11pm, after I had been asleep a couple hours. And no, flu shots don't touch it. The stomach-intestinal virus is not what people get vaccinated for. The vaccine is for the upper respiratory, fever, headache, feeling like you were hit-by-a-truck sort of flu.

When you get the stomach-intestinal flu – often accompanied by a variety of symptoms, including but not limited to nausea, vomiting, headache, body aches, intestinal and stomach cramping, and lastly BAD diahrrea. The very BEST thing you can do when this hits is to follow these instructions.

Back in the '80's I was the only K-8 School Secretary for our Teachers, Principal and 330 Students. So many times sick children would be in my office holding a bucket in front of them waiting to be picked up by a parent and taken home. These sick students would be back the next day, looking very pale, in my office buying lunch and milk tickets! Not a good idea at all. I had to send so many of them home two and sometimes three days in a row, it was clear some educating was needed. I typed up a sheet, similar to this, to hand out to parents the first day they came to get their child. This paper earned me the title of School Puke Doctor :o)

When you find yourself sick in this way, if there is vomiting involved, wait 4 hours after your stomach finally stops revolting, then begin liquids. If vomiting wasn't a part of the mix, well, lucky you! You can SLOWLY start the liquids as soon as you begin to get hungry, thirsty. Don't eat anything solid though, or you'll have to start the process over again. For the next 24 hours, all you should do is treat your headache, body aches with NSAIDS if you can. Drink or eat clear liquids. No matter how hungry you get, remember NO solid foods!

Start by preparing the following liquids. Jello, chicken or beef bullion, naturally sweetened tea (real sugar, honey or maple syrup) your body NEVER likes artificial sweeteners, and especially not when it's stressed like this. For cold drinks, such as regular (not diet) sodas, colas are best. There's something in the cola bean that relaxes the long muscles of the stomach, take away the cramps and spasms and are especially beneficial right now. Later, for a little variety you could also drink some ginger ale, clear lemon-lime soda, 50-50 or Squirt. (the Jello parfaits shown have half regular set jello topped with a little of that same jello whipped with a beater just for a little extra touch to make your sick person feel special.)  The balance of salt (sodium) and sugar in these easy-to-digest foods will restore the energy your body needs now.

Once the magic 24 hour has passed you can begin to introduce bland solids. A few fine pasta noodles in your bullion, soda crackers, very thin potato soup that is NOT cream or milk base. Stay off all dairy products for at least a week. During a very bad stomach-intestinal bug, the good bacteria in your intestinal tract needed to digest the lactose in all dairy products is wiped out. Dairy will really irritate that and cause the symptoms to return. If you would like to help jump your body's ability to reintroduce the good bacteria, go to your local food co-op or health food store and get a good quality 'probiotic' and take it for a couple weeks each time this virus hits.

Here's hoping for a Happy Healthy Winter for all my Food Blog and Facebook Food Page friends. Listen to your body and remember to eat smart, especially when you've been sick. . .Lin