It's known as Jewish penicillin and it's one of the healthiest, most cost effective meals you will ever eat.
To make chicken soup all you really need is a chicken carcass (leftover bones), a pot of water, and a few hours of simmer time!
Check out this easy chicken stock how-to tuturiol video:
7 budget stretching tips for getting the most out of a chicken:
-Use leftover bones (carcass) from a chicken you've roasted. You can freeze cooked (or raw) carcasses until you are ready to make a stock / broth.
-Pull off as much meat as you possibly can before you make the stock / broth. Use the little bits of meat for a chicken salad sandwich or save them and toss them in the finished soup.
-If you don't have any chicken carcasses, ask the butcher at your grocery store. Sometimes they give them at no charge, other times they charge a small amount.
-Vegetables are nice but not necessary. All you really need is chicken bones. If you have onion, carrots, celery, garlic available, by all means, toss them in! But if all you have in bones, that's all you need.
-After you simmer the bones and have a broth, strain the bones. You'll find a lot of meat in the remaining bones, pick the meat off the bones and add that to the soup.
-After you strain the bones and picked the remaining meat off, don't toss the bones! The French technique remouillage 'rewets' the bones (repeating the above process) and makes yet another stock!
-With your strained stock, you are ready to build your meal! Add in cooked rice, cooked pasta noodles, day old bread, carrots, or potatoes to make a great soup. Whatever is available, in season, or in your garden.
The final cost for this meal varies based on what you toss into your final soup. It can be made for literally just a few pennies if you use leftover bits.
The first time I met Mario Batali I was having dinner at his restaurant, Casa Mono. The next time I was at a Martha Stewart taping with my mom where Mario made this polenta dish.
"What did he just say?" I whispered to my mom.
"He said it's a dish born out of poverty."
'a dish born out of poverty,' I heard it correctly.
If you've been to Casa Mono, or Eataly, or any of Batali's restaurants, poverty is not a word that comes to mind. The decor, the plate presentations, the vast menu, the even more vast wine selection, the prices could almost suggest that poverty doesn't exist.
I've come to learn that Batali is indeed not only aware of the hunger crisis for those living in poverty, he is also a huge advocate for the hungry in America. Next week kicks off Live Below the Line a global challenge and international fund raiser to eat at the poverty budget of $1.50 per person, per day. (Last year raised $3 million!). Ben Affleck, Sophia Bush and many other celebs are participating. Batali is likely as well.
The challenge is not just eating, but eating HEALTHY on the strictest budget. I've seen first hand the consequences of poor nutrition (both in America and in the developing world). I've also seen families thriving nutritionally in extreme poverty. This week I'll be sharing a few simple, nutrient dense recipes that are Below the Line.
Are you up for the challenge? What healthy meals would you prepare on $1.50 per person, per day budget? Are you participating? If so, feel free to link your teams fund raising link in the comment below!
Is there anything better than a really good movie night? I mean really, even an evening of pinterest can't really top the feeling you get watching an amazing film cozied up with a yummy snack. Right?
Here are 3 films I love - and love all the more when I need inspiration in the kitchen. They celebrate food! These are films that just make you feel like the kitchen is the place where life can be exactly how you want it to be.
1 - Julie and Julia
2- Waitress
3- No Reservations
Have you seen these? Do you love them as much as I do?
When my amazing sister-in-law, who didn't cloth diaper, asked me if I was planning to cloth diaper, I knew there would be no judgement. My reply was immediate: "no."
But then she told me about her neighbor, a Floridian, who cloth SWIM diapers her children.
"Cloth swimmer?" This sounded doable. Genius even. I knew I wanted to try it. I found cloth swim diapers at Whole Foods (the price was even less than a bag of Little Swimmers) and SUCCESS.
Cloth Swim Diapers are:
- reusable,
- easy to clean,
- available in adorable prints
- have covered seams / minimum chafing for children,
- make you feel like you're saving the planet (what a great feeling),
- affordable!
Vanilla wafers are a diaper bag staple. I liked them like Carrie liked Mr. Big the first several seasons of SATC. Though he cheated on her, she just couldn't stop herself from going back for more.
The reality is, those Keebler elves are bad. In fact, when it comes to the Keebler Vanilla Wafer ingredient list, the only relatively decent ingredient is sugar. TBHQ, high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin are freaky and definitely not nourishing. Not knowing there were other options, I just kept buying them for years.
Then one late summer day my hubby and I were staying at an adorable Scottish B&B in Upstate NY. Located just behind the complimentary bottle of scotch (love, love, love scotch!) at check-in was a cabinet stocked with Walker's cookies. That's where I discovered that Walker's shortbread cookies have 4 delicious ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, salt. Since that gorgeous day Walker's have been our wafers.
Join me and kick the Elve's goodbye. Most major grocers carry Walker's. Sometimes they are on the cookie aisle, other times I find them on the "international" aisle. Always delicious.
Walker's Classic Shortbread Cookie Ingredients
WHEAT FLOUR, BUTTER, SUGAR, SALT.
Keebler Vanilla Wafer Ingredients
ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF SALT, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), BUTTER (CREAM, SALT), SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL VANILLA FLAVOR
