Sundays are for cooking

Every Sunday I spend most of the day prepping meals for the week. Here's what the usual list looks like.

• chopping veggies for at work snacks
• using the week's scraps to make stock
• planning out meals for every day
• making beans to be paired with rice 
• usually baking a chicken 

However, last week I got way ahead of myself so there are still a lot of left overs. So this week, I made stock with left over chicken bones (in the freezer) and whatever veggies were in the fridge that needed to be cooked fast. The recipe is simple:

Any vegetables, but some highlights include carrots, garlic (skins included), onions (also with skins), celery leeks, and so on. I usually save scraps of veggies that don't go directly in the compost for this purpose. The last few weeks I have also been adding chicken bones and bits left over from the baked chicken. To season I use whatever whole herbs I have on hand, and add peppercorns and corse salt to taste. I used to add ground spices, but found that they created too much sediment in the finished stock. 

All the ingredients go into the biggest pot you have. We are lucky enough to have a stock pot with a mesh insert, way less messy that post straining with cheese cloth or a colander. Fill with water, I usually do 18-24 cups. 

Turn the heat on high and bring to a boil. Boil for a solid 30 min. Reduce the heat to simmer and simmer for 2 hours. Strain and let cool. You can freeze in ziplock baggies and store a couple of cups in the fridge to use for rice or a quick soup later in the week. 

I have yet to figure out a less messy method, I am open to suggestions 

yielded 4 freezer bags full. 

Here's what else I made today:

Chicken and Rice Soup with broccoli and carrots

1. Boiled the chicken in a full pot of water.

2. Picked all the meat off the chicken. The bones went into another pot to collect for stock making, and the meat went back into the pot of water. Vegetarians beware, the following is graphic:

3. Add precooked rice (about a cup)

4. Added carrots and broccoli (from the Hollygrove box last week) and spices.