Homemade Chicken Soup

I'm up late tonight catching up on laundry, freezing chicken soup, and prepping zucchini to be cooked tomorrow. According to the phases from SCD Lifestyle, zucchini is allowed in the phase after the introductory phase, but it must be peeled, seeded, and cooked. The introductory phase lasts two to five days. I want to make sure we have some foods for James to eat once the introductory phase is over, so I'm getting a head start on some of them.

I peeled the zucchini, then chopped them in half width-wise and length-wise. I used a spoon to scrape out the seeds in the middle. I had no idea how much of the zucchini is actually seeds.

Zucchini de-seeding in process.

If you're trying this at home, kids, don't throw away those peels and seeds! Don't throw them in the compost yet, either. Let me tell you how I handle such things.

I have a big old margarine tub in my freezer. (I know, I can't believe I used to eat that, either.) All of my vegetable scraps get chopped and thrown in the tub. They wait in the freezer until the tub is full, and then I make chicken soup or vegetable broth. So many nutrients live in the peels of things, and if you aren't going to eat them, might as well make soup! Since SCD legal vegetable broth is hard to find (and since broth is usually unnecessarily sweetened and over-salted anyway), making it at home is a great option. It only takes about an hour, and of that hour, only about 10 minutes involve actually doing something.

Zucchini peels and seeds in the veggie scraps tub.

Wash your veggies before you peel them. Ends, stems, just about anything can go in, as long as you're using SCD legal vegetables. Onion peels, garlic peels, greens. Anything except cabbage, Brussels sprouts, rutabagas, and artichokes, because those veggies will make your broth bitter. It probably goes without saying, but don't put in anything moldy or spoiled. If you wouldn't eat it, don't make broth out of it. I roughly chop everything but the onion peels and garlic peels. The smaller you chop them, the more flavor in your broth (and the more will fit in the container). To make vegetable broth, all you do is dump the tub in a pot, add enough water (preferably filtered) to cover (or more if you want), bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 to 60 minutes. Strain and you're done! Less work than prepping these zucchinis...

Chopped zucchinis, ready for tomorrow.

By the time I got them all peeled and seeded, I was getting tired, so the chop is not even. Lucky for me, Gordon Ramsay never eats here.

Earlier today, I made chicken soup. I didn't take pictures, because I was supervising Shelby's snacking and negotiating logistics with my dad on the phone, but I can at least tell you how to make amazingly yummy, SCD-legal chicken soup. It's a little more work than vegetable broth, but not much, especially if you have a crock pot.

I dumped my tub o' veggie scraps into the crock pot. I peeled and trimmed a pound of carrots. The peels and trimmings went into the crock pot, followed by the not-yet-chopped carrots. The whole mess was topped with two frozen chicken breasts, with bones and skin, and enough filtered water to cover. Turned the crock pot on low.

After Shelby's nap and a shopping trip, which took a couple of hours, I pulled out the chicken and carrots and used a mesh strainer to scoop out the vegetable scraps. Chopped the carrots and put them back in the crock pot, along with the chicken. After her next nap, I pulled the chicken out and separated the meat from the bones and skin, chopped the meat, and put it back in until dinner time.

Peeling and trimming the carrots takes the longest. It's pretty much smooth sailing from there.