Our quick tip for today comes from a Southern Savers reader, Courtney! Courtney said that she makes homemade vegetable broth with the scraps leftover from preparing food. She collects potato peels, onion peels, apple peels, carrot peels, the tops and bottoms of celery stalks, unused parts of green onions, etc.

Then, she has a container in the freezer that she puts all the scraps in. When it is full she puts it in a big pot with salt, pepper, a bay leaf and enough water to cover and simmer an hour. After an hour, she strains and pours the broth into ice cube trays to freeze. Once frozen she puts the cubes in a Ziploc bag.

She does a similar thing to use leftover cooked vegetables. After dinner when there is only a tablespoon or two of corn, peas and carrots, green beans, etc left in the pot she would just throw them away. Now she keeps a quart mason jar in her freezer and put the scraps in there.

Once the jar is full she will use it to make dinner. Her favorite is to use the homemade vegetable broth and make ‘scrap soup’.

This is a great way to make a whole meal using scraps we usually throw away! She also uses scraps in shepherd’s pie, Frittata, and pot pie. Pretty much any recipe that calls for ‘a can of mixed vegetables’ you can use scraps for.

If you have a quick tip to share please leave it in a comment below or e-mail me.

(Thanks, Courtney!)

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