Tip #4 (with bonus recipe)

Today's tip is good both for your health and your pocket book.

Skinny kids fat world tip #4 is:

Save the scraps!

We have all had it happen. You go to the fridge and your carrots, while not "bad", have started to get dried out. They look woody and taste like cardboard. That's ok. Chop them up into pieces and throw them into a large zip top bag and place them in your freezer. Did you buy broccoli and chop off all the pretty green "tree" parts? Now your left with the whole stem, which you payed for, but you just end up tossing. WAIT. Use a vegi peeler and peel the stem the way you would a carrot. Chop into 1 inch pieces and throw that into the bag with the carrots. What to do when you only use 1/2 of a jalapeno? Chop it and toss it into the bag. Asparagus works great for this. You always trim off the bottoms, sometimes 2 inches comes off. Trim the very bottom 1/4 inch off the bottom and throw the woody stems into the frozen vegi bag. You can add onions, bell pepper, celery and green beans. Really just about any leftover vegis work. Obviously use parts of the plant you want to eat, not stems or peels, but just keep adding to the bag.

When you have a full gallon size bag of vegis in your freezer, it's time to make soup. Take the vegis out and thaw them either in the sink for a few hours or in the refrigerator over night. It comes in handy to have chopped the vegis before putting them into the bag because then you are completely ready to make soup without even having to chop anything. To make the most basic soup using your vegis, use a combination of low sodium vegetable juice and beef broth that adds up to 6 cups. I prefer 3 cups vegi juice and 3 cups beef broth. Bring this to a simmer. Add the vegis. That's it. seriously. It's vegi parts that you normally would have payed for and then thrown away and now you have a fast easy meal. To "jazz" this up a bit, you can add 2 cups of cooked pasta or cooked chicken (use chicken broth instead of beef). If you like a spicy soup, use spicy vegi juice or add cayenne pepper to taste. Want vegetable beef soup? Brown one pound of stew meat in a dutch oven, add 3 cups beef broth and 3 cups vegetable juice. Simmer for 1 hour or until beef is tender. Add the vegis and simmer for 30 minutes more. There it is... vegetable beef soup. Be creative with this recipe. You can add herbs such as parsley and rosemary. Once you have cooked the soup, you could put it in your blender to make a smooth, thick vegi soup and the kids won't be able to see the vegis if that's a concern.

The best part of this very basic soup recipe is that it can be made 1000 different ways. The most important part is simply using the technique of freezing all those parts of the vegis that you would normally waste or saving the vegis that are about to go bad. If you don't like vegetable juice you can use beef broth only. If your not a fan of pasta, you could use barley. The options are endless, so get creative!

Skinny kids fat world tip #4 (with bonus recipe)

Save the vegi scraps... it adds up to delicious vegetable soup later.