Comfort foods.

One of the staple comfort foods to me is soup.  I love love love slurpy noodly soups.  So now I have to cut down on the salt AND the noodles..... so no soup?  I kicked around lots of ideas for noodle substitutes but none really sounded that great.  Earlier this week I was in the grocery store checking out the tofu and I  saw chilled soba noodles.  The carb content checked out less than regular pasta so I decided to give it a shot.  A three pack of Yakisoba brand noodles was 3.50 and I would split each pack into two meals.....seemed pretty cheap as well.  Around $.58 a serving.

I remembered I had a chicken carcass in a ziplock baggie in my freezer.  My frozen veggie garbage container had stuff in it.  When I trim any vegetables I tuck the extras into a plastic container in the freezer.  Carrot/parsnip butts and tips, scrubbed potato peels, thick onion skins, mushrooms,  trimmed celery that is getting old, the leaf tops of the celery, green beans that are getting soft, asparagus that has started to flower, and any other junk I don't want to throw out.  Those can all be stored in that vegetable container in the freezer for soup.  Waste nothing.

Garbage soup

Into a large pot goes (all still frozen):

Chicken carcass
1/2 a bag of frozen peas that were on the verge of freezer burn
Celery trimmings
Carrot butts and tips (plus about 10 baby carrots)
Onion skins peeled off before dicing (plus a whole large onion, lightly chopped)
6-8 cloves of garlic.   I pull the loose skins off and then smash the cloves with a knife before tossing in.
1 Tsp salt (I know, salt BAD but it's only 1 tsp split between 6 or 7 servings)
a palmful of peppercorns
Bay leaf?  Lots of people add a bay leaf but I don't like the taste so I leave it out.

If I have any other veggies I toss them in as well,  basically any vegetable garbage I don't want to throw out.  Clean out the refrigerator and the freezer.  Waste nothing!!!

Add water to cover ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 6 or 7 hours and then strain.  Pick off any edible chicken pieces and toss back into broth along with any vegetables you want to keep in the soup.  Throw away bones and vegetables you don't want.

Cook soba noodles according to package directions and put half a serving into a bowl.  Add soup and .... SLURP.

It's hard to give nutritional info since the soup changes each time I make it.  This one was roughly 35 carbs and 328 sodium.    A bit high in carbs, but it really hits the spot when I need a hit of comfort foods.