Healing Stew

I shall call this version of Things I Can Eat Stew “Healing Gifts Stew.” That’s because most of the major ingredients were porch-dropped gifts from friends: the root veggies, the chicken, the greens. Made like a bonafide #domesticgoddess in my new Dutch oven. 💜 I am so #grateful for the friends who are supporting my #Healing2021 journey, who share their love and prayers and food and supportive words. Today was a better health day, and I am grateful for that too.

I read this line in my book club book: “Awakening proceeds with its own rhythms: sometimes slow growth, sometimes a plateau, sometimes sliding downhill, sometimes a breakthrough.”✳️ I think it’s true of healing too, of all our journeys. Yesterday felt like sliding downhill. Here’s hoping to more slow growth.

✳️ Neurodharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness by Rick Hanson.

I really wing it in the kitchen these days, but someone asked, so I’m going to try to recall this as accurately as possible:

What I Used:

1. 4-6 Chicken filets (these were gifted to us; when I do it again, I’ll probably do about 1 pound chicken breasts.
2. 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes
3. 1 golden beet, peeled and cubed
4. 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
5. 1 handful of collard greens
6. 1 15 oz. can Great Northern Beans, drained (I used canned because I did not plan this ahead—the chicken showed up, and so I improvised)
7. Broth (I used homemade trash or treasure broth, but store-bought chicken would work, probably one of the large containers)
8. Seasoning (I used Mural of Flavor Seasoning by Penzey’s
9. Onion, sliced (Prior to c-diff, I probably would’ve said something like ½ or ¼ of a large onion; these days I eyeball much smaller amounts, like I do just two slices of an onion)
10. Garlic, chopped (Similarly, I would have used a clove or two, maybe three in the old days; now, I probably used maybe half a clove. The goal with both the onion and garlic is to get a little flavor and a little prebiotics.)
11. Cumin seeds (I basically use these in everything now
12. Olive oil or ghee

What I Did:

1. Pat chicken dry and season (eyeball for taste/tolerance), set aside.
2. Sautee (in olive oil or ghee) cumin seeds, onion, garlic, and additional seasoning (again, eyeball for taste/tolerance) in a medium pan over medium-high heat.
3. Put the sautéed stuff into the bottom of the dutch oven, lay chicken on top.
4. Put dutch oven in oven and turn on to 350 degrees. Timer: 30 minutes.
5. Put root veggies in casserole dish, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning, mix well, put in oven. Timer: 20 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes, check chicken. It was ready, so I shredded it an then added to the dutch oven the broth, the beans, the veggies, and then finally the chopped collards. I put the lid back on the dutch oven but didn’t put it back in the oven, just let it sit there and heat everything up.
7. Checked it, looked good, so we served it up. I put a little kraut on top of mine to get my probiotics. Trent mixed feta cheese in with his.

Earlier in my recovery, I would have definitely skipped the garlic and onion and used less seasoning.