After reading My Vintage Kitchen's post Tutorial: Make Your Own Veggie Broth in the Crock-Pot I had an apifany! For all these years I have been throwing out all my veggy scraps when I could have been savings them, recycling them, and making free stuff out of them. FREE? OH I love free!! It only took me a week to have a zip bag full of veggy scraps in my freezer. You name it I had it in the bag.. a ton of garlic and onion skins and some pieces. Asparagus and bell pepper pieces, oh yeah and green onion ends too. The bag was just full of veggy "trash!" A few nights ago we had a roasted chicken for dinner, and I knew it was time to make my chicken broth.
I had a large chicken so I knew it was never going to fit in my crockpot.I ended up cooking my broth in a large stock pot instead. I decided to add some flavor by sauteing the vegetables pieces first. The pot looked like something I would normally be putting down the garbage disposal.
Once they were a nice dark color I added the chicken and filled the pot with water leaving about 2 inches from the top of the pot.
I brought the water to a boil, then dropped my temperature down to medium/low. I put the lid on the pot and let it simmer for around 8 hours, then it was ready.
I ended up with 28 cups of broth that I split up into 14 bags (2 cups each) that are now residing in my freezer. That's 14 cans of broth for free!! I only had to pay for the freezer bags which cost $1.99
I figure I saved a minium of $12.
Please visit My Vintage Kitchen you will be so happy you did. I know I am!!
