Chicken Soup for the Soul :)

Well we had a slight change of plans on our meal last night. I'm sure you know how this is you go in the fridge and the meat isn't thawed all the way yet and then you look at some of your veggies and see the tell tale signs of make me now or lose me forever. I try to buy organic as much and it does cost a bit more so I can't waste a thing! Well I pulled out some of my chicken stock from a recent batch...

I'd like to point out that as you see there are 5 bags there, most in 2 cup bags, I think I had a total of 9 cups! That was just from 1 chicken!!! Talk about a money saver and it's frozen in the amount I use for soups or cooking (most times I need 1-2 cups so nothing goes to waste!

Making Chicken Stock is about the easiest thing you can do by the way! It also makes your house smell A-Mazing! You can do it in a crock pot but my large one bit the dust recently so I've been doing it on the stove top.

So before I post the soup recipe I'll post my chicken stock recipe!

Michele's Homemade Chicken Stock

1 whole chicken with most of the meat picked off and put away for another time (you can leave some on but you won't really want to eat or use it when this is done)

1 onion chopped in half

2-3 cloves of garlic chopped in half

2-3 stalks of celery (I use the inside stalks that you don't usually eat with the greens still on.)

2-3 Carrots (cut off the ends and wash but I don't worry about peeling them)

2 bay leaves

1-2 leaves of basil (or a tsp or two of dried)

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp pepper

Water

Put your chicken in a large pot or dutch oven toss in all of your ingredients and fill with enough water to cover the chicken. Put the heat on high and bring to a boil then drop down to a low simmer and cover. I cook for 3-4 hours. Let it cool down for about an hour and then strain the broth to get the liquid separate from the chicken (I use a larger strainer then a fine mesh one), and veggies. Bag and freeze. You could also freeze it in ice cube trays if you like for smaller (1 tbsp) sized amounts.

So from that I get this...

Michele's Very Veggie Soup!

I make this in smaller batches you could of course make a larger one and freeze that for another day!

2-3 cups of chicken broth

1 yellow zucchini chopped

2 stalks of celery chopped to bit size

3 carrots chopped to bite size

1 can of beans (I like red kidney) drained

2 cloves of garlic run through a garlic press

1 and 1/2 tsp of Tarragon

1 and 1/2 tsp of paprika

2 tsp of basil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

a quarter of an onion chopped (optional)

2- tbsp grape seed oil or 1 tbs butter

In your soup pan (or pot) put the oil and get warm on a medium heat then and garlic, onion in for about 1-2 min your garlic and onion should not be burnt! Add the celery and zucchini for another two min's.

Put the remainder of the ingredients in a soup pan bring to a boil then drop down to low/med simmer for about an half hour.

It's that easy!! Enjoy!