Slow cooker Italian chicken and vegetable soup

Dinner or lunch doesn't get much cheaper than this!
This soup mix by itself is just $1.70 for 500g!
It's nutritious, delicious and very filling!!...and did I mention cheap!?!?!
Utilising nutritious legumes this soup mix contain dried peas, barley and lentils. Barley is not gluten free, you can use the italian soup mix which contains, beans, peas and lentils which is gluten free.
This mix contains 18% protein and 15% fibre which is great!
You can make this vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable stock.

Serves 6

Ingredients
3 carrots, ½ cm dice
3 stalks of celery, small dice
1 brown onion, small dice
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 bay leaves
1-2 tbsp dried basil
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock-this amount of liquid will make a souper thick soup, more like a stew. If you like it soupier you can add more liquid to taste at the end.

4 chicken lovely legs- You can find 'lovely legs' in most supermarkets. They have the skin and part of the bone removed. If unavailable, use chicken drumsticks, just be sure to remove the skin first or you will have bits of soft skin in the soup which doesn’t taste great. You could also just use 4 skinless chicken thighs, large dice.

250g or half a packet of dried soup mix- you can get this near the soup section at the supermarket and its really cheap!
Salt and pepper at the end.


Method
Put everything in your slow cooker and put on low for at least 8 hours. Everything should be nice and tender. When done you can take the chicken legs out, take the meat off and put the meat back in the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.