Monthly Archives: April 2012

Chicken Noodle Soup

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I was talking with one of my wonderful friends tonight and turns out we both make our own chicken stock. It’s really a great thing. She told this story about how one of her friends is only going to have chicken bouillon for her food storage because she is going to grow the rest in her garden. I thought it was great.

So, I promised my chicken noodle soup recipe, and here it is. I came up with this one on my own. It was the beginning of me creating my own recipes. I did a lot of research for this one. I read a lot of other chicken noodle soup recipes that were already out there, and I asked a lot of people how they made theirs. This recipe is what I came up with, and it is really delicious.

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Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

  • 2 T extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 medium carrots, chopped
  • 2 celery ribs, chopped
  • Thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 2 quarts of chicken stock
  • 8 oz of egg noodles
  • 1 lb of diced chicken, cooked

Instructions

  1. Cook onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper in EVOO.
  2. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.
  3. Add noodles and simmer for 10 minutes.
  4. Add chicken and simmer for 15 minutes.
https://kstuff.net/chicken-noodle-soup/

TIPS:

I use a tiny little grater to grate my garlic into the pot.
I chop a bunch of baby carrots into fourths, so I don’t have to buy baby carrots and regular carrots.
I just add noodles by the handful until I think there’s enough.
I cut my chicken using cooking scissors to speed things up.

Using the Whole Chicken

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My grandma Shelton is amazing at this. My brother and I spent a week at my grandparent’s when our parent’s were in Hawaii. The first night, we had a wonderful turkey dinner. Then turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, turkey every day of the week. It was really cool. So, this week, I’m doing something similar. Tonight for dinner we had roasted chicken per the instructions in Everyday Food’s May 2012 edition. Then I pulled all of the meat off, which I plan to use for Teriyaki Chicken and Rice (this is the Teriyaki sauce I make) and Chicken Noodle Soup.

I put all of the bones and skin in my big pot, filled it to the top with water, and added two halved celery stalks, a handful of baby carrots, and a whole onion sliced in sixths. I let it come to a boil, and then turned the stove top down to medium-low and let it simmer for about two hours, covered. When it was done, I pulled the big pieces out with one of those spoons with holes to let the stock drain out. Then I balanced my strainer on my largest tupperware bowl and poured the stock through to catch all the smaller pieces. I had so much stock that I had to bring out my second largest tupperware bowl for the rest of the stock. The celery, carrots, and onion that I put in were totally lifeless. They had a very dull color and were completely tasteless, so I have very high hopes for this stock. I will use it for Chicken Noodle Soup and Zuppa Toscana, and if I have enough, Minestrone Soup.

I found the whole chickens at Costco for $.99/lb. My chicken was about 5 lbs, so for spending $5, I got Sunday dinner, enough stock for three soups, and left over chicken for two other meals. It’s definitely worth it to use the whole chicken.

Chicken Noodle Soup and Minestrone Soup recipes to come later this week.

BYU Light Suits

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Today at the Shelf Reliance Convention, I met an electrical engineering student who was there to take the FE exam.  (Or was it PE?)  Anyway, he was from BYU, and told me about a light suit project they had just done for the ballroom dance team.  I was fascinated.  I love Tron, and have plans to be Quorra this Halloween, so I asked him how they did it.  Well, apparently, you can just buy the light wire right off of Amazon.  Awesome!  I told him that we’d been considering LED lights, and he said that was the next thing they were going to do.  They have a YouTube video about the project that I thought was really interesting.

What’s faster than fast food?

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Well that would be Thrive Express Entrees, Soups, and Sides!  Announced at convention just two hours ago, in 15 minutes or less, just add water and stir.  These new products fall right in line with the Thrive food line.  They have a 5-10 year shelf life, are made using freeze dried Thrive ingredients, and are nutritious and tasty.  They come in 5-packs or variety packs, and the boxes have a tear-away front for grab n’ go access.  Thrive is already one of the fastest, ways to cook, with pre-cut food available at its freshest.  These Thrive Express products step up the convenience while maintaining healthy meals for your family.  Use Thrive Express to replace fast food, microwave dinners, and boxed dinners full of preservatives.

The new selections are: Creamy Beef & Noodles, Pasta Carbonara, Southwestern-Style Chicken & Rice, Garden Fresh Vegetable Pasta, Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, Baked Potato Cheese Soup, Broccoli Cheese Soup, Creamy Garden Vegetable Chowder, Hearty Chili with Beans, Chili Lime chicken Rice, Loaded Scalloped Potatoes, Wild Rice Pilaf.

Four New Wonderful Recipes

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Last night, for Easter dinner, I made Pan-Seared Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary Balsamic and Orange Sauce, Skillet Bacon Mac and Cheese, Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto, and for dessert, Crock Pot Cheesecake.  My mom made a salad to go with it, because that was a lot of meat.  Overall, the meal was delicious, though I overcooked the pork, which is sadly very easy to do.  Pork, like chicken and fish, doesn’t need very long to cook at all.  I will definitely make the mac and cheese again, and since I still have some prosciutto left, I’ll probably make the asparagus again.  I may even try to make the pork again, however pork tenderloin is expensive.

The whole meal took three and a half hours to complete!  I will probably never make all of these things at the same time again, but it was totally worth it.  I started with the Crock Pot Cheesecake, because it took two and a half hours to cook in the crock pot, and then about another hour to cool down.  Then I started working on the Skillet Bacon Mac and Cheese.  This dish probably took the longest amount of time, because there are a lot of steps involved.  I, also, used glassware instead of a skillet to cook it in the oven, and I cooked it at 350°F so that I could leave it in the oven longer, while I worked on everything else.

Next I made the Pan-Seared Pork Tenderloin, which I should have marinated while we were at church, but I totally forgot.  It got at least 20 minutes to marinate, though, so it had good flavor.  The sauce was not as thick as I thought it was going to be, and I’m not sure if that’s because I used cranberry juice (not the cocktail) instead of red wine, or because it’s just not a very thick sauce, but it still tasted amazing.  Despite being overcooked, the pork tasted good, because of the marinade and the sauce.

The Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto was amazing.  I wish that I had made more.  The prosciutto was just a little crispy, and the asparagus was tender and moist.  I could have easily eaten more of this.  It was really easy to put together, too.  I probably could have made this without the sauce, and it would have been even faster.

All in all, this Easter dinner was delicious.  I had fun making it, and we all enjoyed eating it.  I might do it again next year, but that seriously depends on what’s going on in our life at the time.

Salad!

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Salad

In February 2011, I went to my nutritionist complaining of post partum depression.  He explained that I wasn’t getting enough carbohydrates to my brain, which is the only nutrient that your brain can use to function properly.  Thus, I was experiencing this depression.  He gave me a high protein, high complex carbohydrate diet to use.  I started immediately, and in that same month I became pregnant with Miss Leah.  (If that’s any indication to how good it made me feel.)

My very favorite part about this diet is lunch time.  Basically, you make a massive salad, and spend about an hour eating it.  There comes a point where you feel full, but not stuffed, and can just put the salad down and go on with your day.  I usually eat this while watching Lizzy play, so that it doesn’t get in the way of our day.

To make this salad, I take every vegetable I can find in my house and put it in a big Tupperware bowl, so that I can save it throughout the week.  I love getting a Bountiful Basket so that I can have a huge variety of vegetables to put in this salad.  Today, this is the salad that I made.  Sometimes I will cook up a few chicken tenders and dice or shred them, and I really like cheese cubes in this as well.  Also, I included my homemade Ranch dressing recipe.  The key to making this dressing is tasting it.  If you can taste every ingredient that you put in it, and none of them overpower the rest, then you’ve done it right.

Today’s Salad

1 Romaine Lettuce Heart, sliced
½ Broccoli Head, cut into small pieces
1 C Grape Tomatoes
1 Celery Stalk, sliced
2 Green Onions, sliced
4 Mushrooms, sliced
1 Apple, diced
1 Orange, diced
1 – 15 oz can of Olives
1 – 15 oz can of Garbanzo Beans
1 – 15 oz can of Kidney Beans

Homemade Ranch Dressing

1 C Yogurt
½ C Mayonnaise
¼ t Pepper
¼ t Salt
1/8 t Garlic Powder
¼ t Onion Powder