Vegetable Stock

Yikes!  I was checking out my blog today, and I realized it's been almost a week since I've posted anything.  I've been slightly busy, but I have been eating amazing food.  I went to two great places on Saturday for my birthday, but of course I forgot to take my camera with me.  I'm trying to change the way I eat by added more snacks.  I'll do a post tomorrow explaining why, but for now I'll talk about stock.

I save all my vegetable peelings and scraps and put them in a gallon sized freezer bag.  I keep adding to this bag until it's full.  After the bad is brimming with carrot peels and onion skins it's time to make stock.  Below is a picture tutorial.  I also do this with chicken or turkey bones.  If I lived in an area with better seafood I would save shrimp peels too.  I just don't see any reason not to do this; it's basically free food.  

Place peeled garlic cloves, bay leaves, and pepper corns in crock pot.

Open bag of frozen veggie scraps (carrot, celery, onion, bell pepper)

Full bag of scraps

Place frozen scraps in crock pot.  If you forgot to put in the garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns, do so now.

 

Fill crock pot with cold water.  Let cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 8 to 12 hours.  Your house will smell like soup and make you very hungry.

 At the end of cooking time, place mesh strainer in large bowl.

 Cooked stock before draining.  Pour veggies and broth through strainer.  Discard veggies.

Here is the stock waiting to be used or frozen.  I freeze the stock in quart sized batches.

The stock can be used in soups, gravies, for basting, in sauces.  It's very handy to have in the freezer for very little effort and money.  Start saving those scraps!

What I ate today:

10:00 am: wheat thins and sharp cheddar

12:00 pm: spinach salad with tomato, cucumber, carrot, avocado, colby jack cheese, hard boiled egg and homemade agave mustard dressing (I'll post a recipe for this soon).  I wish I had taken a picture of this salad because it was beautiful.  I also had an orange.

4:30 pm: grilled cheese sandwich, canned chicken noodle soup, pecan pie.  I was happy to have the soup in my cupboard for emergencies, but really I need to cook more, so I can have frozen leftovers.  I've eaten them all and don't have any back-up meals.

9:30 pm: wheat thins and cream cheese.