Getting frugal in the Kitchen: making soup!

Last night I didn't want to cook. A few weeks ago I won a $25 Kroger gift card in a twitter contest, so I headed over to Food4Less (a Kroger store) and picked up a few items.

• Rotisserie Chicken


• Tortillas


• Cheese


• Onions (for another night)

We had Chicken quesadillas with steamed veggies and salad.  After dinner and the baby was down, Mr. Coupondiva cleaned up the carcass, and put the bones and a little meat into a zip lock bag and the remainder of the meat into a tupperware container for later meals.

 

This morning I started the killer chicken stock:

• 10 cups of water


• Chicken carcass


• 2 cups of each: chopped onions, carrots, and celery


• 2 bay leaves


• 1 teaspoon garlic powder


• Salt and pepper, to taste

It will cook for about 6 hours. Then I will strain the solids off, and add:

• 2 cups chicken meat, shredded (leftover from last night)


• 1 cup chopped celery


• 1 cup chopped carrots


• 1 package of egg noodles

and cook until the egg noodles are done, about 8-10 minutes.

 

It should make about 8 servings. And the total cost is about $6.00.

 

Whenever you make/buy a roast chicken, or have a bone in ham, don't throw away the bone!  Toss it in a bag and make soup the next day!  Carcasses/bones can be frozen too, that way you can make soup up to 2 weeks later.  Ham bone can be used in split pea soup. Making soup this way really stretches your budget!