What's for Dinner 1-31-11

Chicken Noodle Soup is what is for dinner! I love Chicken Noodle Soup. It's probably one of my favorite comfort foods. There's just something about it on a cold, January day that just really hits the spot. But I must admit that I make soups even in the summer. I just like soup! Anyway, here's how I make mine.

Ingredients:

 1-2 cooked and cubed boneless, skinless chicken breast

 2-3 stalks of celery

 2 cups crinkle cut carrots (in a bag. I'm lazy and don't like chopping carrots unless I have to)

2 32oz cartons chicken broth

Egg noodles (this time I used Smart Taste egg noodles, but my favorite to use are frozen noodles)

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp garlic

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

Chicken boullion cubes and water (if you need to add broth at the end)

 First, you need to wash your celery. Give it a pretty good scrubbing. These had lots of dirt still stuck on it, so make sure you get it all. We don't want mud in our soup!

 Then chop the stalks up into small pieces; like so. The next step is totally optional:

While chopping celery, go ahead and chop your thumb too. Take a break from cooking to feel a little unsettled and bandage up that bad boy. DISCLAIMER: DO NOT PURPOSEFULLY CHOP YOUR THUMB. I know you all are smart enough to know I'm joking about actually doing it. ;) Anyway, I didn't injure myself too badly. I just took off the nail pretty far up on the nail bed, so I didn't actually chop off my thumb or anything. It wasn't even bad enough to go to the doctor.

 After bandaging up your thumb, dump the celery and carrots into a crockpot.

 Chop up the chicken. I used one (huge) chicken breast, but sometimes I use two depending on how thick I want the soup to be. Add it to the crockpot.

 Add in the spices and then put the broth in. Now, put on the lid and cook it on low for a few hours. DO NOT ADD THE NOODLES UNTIL LATER. I started mine at noon, and at four I was ready for the next step.

About an hour before you want to eat the soup, add in the noodles. If you add them at the beginning, the noodles will get all mushy and gross. Not something you want. Anyway, add in the noodles. I used a half of a bag of Ronzini smart taste noodles. My favorite to use, though, are frozen noodles. I just add the noodles until I feel like there are enough in there. Make sure all the noodles are covered, and then return the lid and cook for about 45min-1 hour. About 20 minutes after adding the noodles, check to make sure the broth level is good. For this pot, I had to dissolve two boullion cubes in two cups of water to make it more soupy. Keep cooking until the noodles are done and you're ready to eat!

This soup also freezes well. Any leftovers we have I freeze in individual serving sizes and pull them out when we need a quick and yummy lunch. In our house, lunches are generally eat what you want. There's no organization to it all. Haha.

Enjoy your soup!