I am going to try the zucchini the next time I make soup or stew. That is a great idea. I think I will put some in spaghetti sauce also.

That's pretty much the way I make broth, except that I almost always have some chicken pieces - the wing tips and necks, sometimes leftover pieces that have been stripped for chicken salad.

Sonni, The wing tips or bones, if I have them, is what I called trimmings in the post. I only buy a whole chicken occasionally, since I mostly use thighs and boneless breast. Sometimes instead of whole thighs in a recipe, I will debone the thigh and that bone goes in the freezer cache also.

When I make my own stock, I put most of it in ice cube trays, freeze, then pop them out and into a Ziplok. They are handy for adding to a sauce, and when I need more I know that 7 cubes is about a half cup.

There is usually a bag...or several...of frozen chicken bones, skin, etc. plus veggie trimmings in my freezer. When we have chicken pieces for a meal we cut the meat off the bones and add the bones and any other parts we are not eating to the freezer bag, too. Now that it is just my husband and me at home, we'll even chew meat off some bones and still save them. Of course we are the only ones eating stock made from those! The celery, onions, etc called for in many stock recipes get added to the actual soup instead. I'd rather have the fiber in my soup, not in a strainer.