Chicken kebabs & Cheap chicken soup

When we submit to the take-away beast, it is usually a spare of the moment thought, or because we are not organised....or sometimes we are just too exhausted from the days workload, and have not organised anything for the night's meal. When I buy take-away it is always for one of these reasons....but then I always beat myself up at the huge costs, compared to making a meal from scratch.....

If I wanted to buy chicken kebabs on a stick from the take-away shop....I think they are close to $3.50 each.....Last night I made 20 for the family...way too many but I found this little gadget at the op-shop and just couldn't resist having a go at it. It cost me $2.00.

2 kg of chicken breasts...$18.00

Roll in seasoning from mostly home dehydrated vegies and mix herbs.

I forgot to take a photo of them after I grilled them, but they were delicious. They could have been better if I had just cut the breasts into thinner strips, so they would cook quicker. 

But I just had to try that gadget

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CHEAP CHICKEN SOUP

I had no idea that chicken frames were so cheap...If I want to make stock, I usually wait until I am cooking a chicken. At the price of $1.25 a kilo, I am not waiting any more. These four frames cost me $1.75. 

 I put them all in my large crockpot to cook....look at the meat that is on them....wow!!!
I then removed them from the hot stock to cool enough to take the meat from the bones....saved the bones to make stock. (mentioned later)   

After pulling the meat from the bones, I put the bones in my large crockpot and covered with water. I also added to the stock:
Vegie scraps from prep for soup.like the carrot ends.....and the ends of the swedes I got marked down....I also had kept the radish stalks, finding them lovely dipped in home made yoghurt the other day...so the rest of them went into the stock..... I picked some forgotten butter beans today which were getting too big to eat raw.....so some of them went in, but most of them went in the soup. I also added some dried herbs from the garden because its pouring rain....hey! I don't want to get wet...We are all suffering with colds at the moment, this is why I decided on a nice nutritious soup for tea.

Yes, I have two crockpots going, mine and my mothers.

Below: As it took a while to do a little shopping, because I simply had no energy to do it in the first place.....I knew that putting the vegies in the crockpot would probably not cook them in time for tea, so I cooked them on the stove until nearly cooked....also adding 'soup mix' and dried cracked wheat to the water. All good, cheap fillers.

While shopping, I found two french bread sticks for $3.00....I cut them in three, then halved them....smearing my home made pesto on them, and adding some grated cheese and parmesan cheese from the freezer....I never store grated cheese in the fridge, it goes mouldy too quick.  On to the griller, ready to brown at the last minute.

Here is the stock I am cooking....it has the chicken bones in it.
I will leave this to simmer all through the night....making a lovely stock to strain...
Don't stir your stock and it will be lovely and clear.

 Here is the chicken soup, nearly done, but I forgot to thicken it.....

 I opted for thin noodle pasta, but added some dehydrated mushrooms as well...

Once cooked, I will add this to the soup.

 The Pesto bread turned out yummy.

 Here is the chicken soup finished, after adding the cooked noodles and mushrooms....I also thickened it with 3 beaten egg whites, and have frozen the yolks to be used at a later date. You can freeze eggs as long as you separate them...its handy if you write how many yolks on the bag...or how many whites in a bag.

Not a bad meal for 5 people with leftovers to have in toasted sandwhichs tomorrow for lunch.

Everyone was full, fed well, and at a limited cost.