Thrifty Thursday: Saving Ends of Veggies in the Freezer

I really thought that this was a little silly and resisted for the longest time but I read about throwing extra food in the freezer before it went bad.  I started with a little bit of chicken here or there.  I did a pretty good job of pulling them out and making panini, quesadilla, and fried rice with them.  We normally did that on the weekends so that I had time to dig around and see what I had in the freezer.  Who can ever find something in the freezer when they need it?

The last time that I cleaned out the freezer, I put a plastic container in on one of the shelves to hold all of the little plastic bags that just had a little something in them that I had to use up.  Talk about a time saver!!  I now knew what I needed to use up and it took really little time to find it.  Currently I have chopped onions, a slice of bread to make garlic bread, cranberry sauce to make cocktail meatballs, and some small packages of chicken.

Since this adventure was so positive, I went to the next level and decided to save the ends of veggie.  This time I had one baggie labeled ends of veggies.  I cut up an onion to make a recipe and cut the rest to save for another time (which I put directly in the freezer).  I saved the ends and put them in the bag.  I added the ends of the celery when I got them from another recipe that I was making.  Then, it came time to make chicken broth and I had the veggies that I needed without having to use new veggies.  I just dumped the bag of leftovers into the pot and added some spices.

I have now started to add to the bag again so that I am ready the next time that I need it and there really is no cost because it is only scraps that were headed for trash (or compost if you are better than me).  Carrots are another great one to throw in the bag.  I have been known to save the ends of the asparagus that you cut or break off which also add a different taste.  These veggies add tons of flavor to chicken stock or could even be used to make their own veggie stock.

I hope that you decide to start your own container of leftover veggies so that you have a bag ready the next time you make chicken broth.  If you are looking for options for how to make your broth, check out these posts on my broth making, here or here.

If you are putting off making chicken broth because you think that it is too much work, I promise that it is really easy and totally worth it.  I do lots of versions but each time it is chicken bones, veggies, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves.  I boil for around 3 hours and then use my fine mesh strainer to take out all of the solids.  I refrigerate the broth overnight and then remove the hardened grease from the top and put through the strainer again.  I put the broth in containers for the freezer and take them out when I need them.  I use them for the following recipes:

Simple Chicken Fried Rice
Homemade Stuffing
Easy Baked Potato Soup
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Mexican (Spanish) Rice

Hope that you try to save some veggies, make some broth and try a few recipes!!