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Some people stock up by going to the grocery store and buying lots of canned soup. DW and I stock up a little differently--every month or so during the winter, we make a big batch of homemade stock.
Having stock on hand means we can cook up a great homemade soup anytime we want in less than an hour. (Last week, DW made ham and white bean soup with carrots, celery and onions. It was delicious!) When we have leftover beef or chicken--even fish--it often ends up in a hearty soup the next night. Sometimes the soup tastes better than the original meal, thanks to that rich homemade stock.
Making stock is not rocket science, but it can take time. DW and I have figured out a way to speed up the process. As we prepare our meals together, we save all the vegetable peelings and trimmings (except potatoes, which are too starchy) and all the meat scraps and bones. We toss 'em into a Ziplock and keep it in the freezer until it's full.
When the bag is full, we dump the contents into our big pressure cooker. We add 9 cups of water and pressure cook for 45 minutes. After the pressure has dropped, we strain the stock through a colander lined with cheesecloth. In about an hour and a half, we have 8 cups of rich-tasting, dark-colored stock. We freeze the stock in 2-cup containers.
We've found this "kitchen sink" stock is great in any recipe that calls for stock (whether it's chicken, beef or vegetable stock). Of course, if you prefer chicken stock, you can make it using vegetable peelings/trimmings and chicken bones.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can simmer up a stock the old-fashioned way. It makes the house smell great!
Here are a couple of recipes:
Homemade Chicken Stock
Homemade Turkey Stock