Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

RE: Attacks of D at work, you said, "I would not be allowed to hang up on someone who was yakking up a storm because I had to go to the bathroom."

I was tempted to try being funny by asking if they could get you a cordless phone, but I won't do that.

RE: Soup stock.
Let's pretend you can eat meat and you enjoy it.
Get a really big pot (like a stock pot, which is why we call them that) and put some meat in it. The two bestest things are a carcass of roast chicken or turkey (that's the bones and stuff left over on the platter after dinner) or a bunch of bones and meat scraps of beef or pork (like prime rib or pork roast). You can also ask your butcher for soup bones AND YOU MIGHT GET THEM FOR FREE.

Put that in the big pot and add water till it's about 3/4 full. Start this cooking on high, then turn it down -- you want to simmer it slowwwwwwly for at least a couple hours, preferably all day.

Now add the "stock" vegetables. You don't have to peel these or chop them up -- they add flavor and nutrition to the stock and you're going to take them out later. Use any or all of these in your stock:

1-2 onions; 1-2 stalks celery; 1-2 carrots; small zucchini or chunk of squash

Now season your stock. Use any or all of these:

1 tsp worcestershire; 1 tbsp molasses; 1 cup wine; 1 tsp sage; 2 tsp dry mustard; 1 handful chopped fresh spinach; 1 small can V-8 juice; 1-2 cloves garlic; 1 can chopped tomatoes; salt and pepper

Let this simmer for at least a couple hours. Or use a crockpot. At the end of the day (or when you get around to it) put it in the fridge. In the morning all the fat will be solid and floating on the top and you can take it off so you don't have "greasy" soup.

Fish the stock veggies out and throw them away. Fish the meat and bones out, put them in a bowl or colander, and decide whether you want to pick through it and put the good pieces of meat back into your stock. Then re-heat the stock on the stove. Taste it and adjust for spices (add more water if it's really stout and add more seasoning if it's not).

Now pick out any of the veggies you like, peel them and/or cut them up, and add them to the stock. You can add more meat if you want, or frozen vegetables, or cooked rice or pasta (noodles, macaroni, etc.) or leftover vegetables. (Back when I had kids to cook for, I'd keep a covered container in the freezer compartment and keep adding little leftover meat and vegetable scraps to it. It would become soup.)

Though this might LOOK like an intimidating recipe for non-cooks, TRUST ME, IT'S NOT. You can do this really fast and easy in your kitchen, it's really hard to mess it up, it tastes way better than canned soup, it's extremely inexpensive, and the nutritional content is probably 3 times that of store-bought soup.

And for those who don't want to eat meat, just do the same thing with more veggies and no meat!

Good luck!

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