Veggie Pucks

Ok, I had a friend on Facebook ask me what veggie pucks were. Since, I was making another batch of chicken stock and boiled chicken I thought I'd share with you how to make veggie pucks and not waste valuable nutrients and veggies. :) I like to get my money's worth when I'm making chicken stock and boiled chicken. I don't throw anything but the bones away. I put to use my hand blender and make these wonderful veggie pucks. How I got the name was looking at them after they were frozen. I was trying to figure out what to call them. They look a little bit like a hockey puck and are veggies. So I decided to call then veggie pucks.

With a lot of parents trying to figure out how to get their kids to eat more veggies and I'm struggling with the same thing, I figured that this would be a good way for me to "Hide" the veggies into things that you wouldn't normally add them to, so they can get the nourishment from them. I have added the veggie pucks to two different recipes so far, and I've got lots more in mind. So keep checking back on how to incorporate more veggies into your kids meals. :)

Directions:

Follow directions for making chicken stock. After you separate out the broth, chicken and veggies here is what you do.

Since when I pull the chicken out I seem to always pull some of the veggies out too. I remove

chicken from the bone, set the onion peels, bay leaf and bones in my trash pile.

Chicken pulled off of the bone.

Chicken broth

Chicken bones, onion peels, bay leafs

Veggies and spices left.

I add the leftover veggies back into my veggie bowl. After my chicken broth has been strained, the added spices and veggie debris left in my cheese cloth I add back to my veggie bowl.

blending the veggies and spices

Once I have all of the veggies and leftover spices, I use my hand blender to blend them all down. It turns into an orange mixture that resembles canned pumpkin.

a fully blended veggie mix

After it's well blended, I pull out two muffin pans (12 total muffin cups). I take my 1/3 measuring cup and place 1/3 cup into each muffin cup. Once the entire mixture is in the muffin cups, I place the muffin tins into the freezer to freeze the veggie mix.

adding by 1/3 measuring cup to my muffin tins

a perfect fit into my muffin tins.

Once they are frozen (usually 2-4 hours)

I remove from the muffin tin

and place in a freezer ziploc bag.

The veggie pucks are now finally ready for use in any dish you desire. These would be good to use when your making homemade chicken fingers as part of the dredge, or added to pretty much anything. Enjoy!

They are not the most beautiful thing to see, but full of wonderful nutrients for a healthier diet :)