Quick & Easy Chicken NOODLE Soup

I have had my littlest kiddo home from school sick this week. The stomach flu, YUCK! I mistakenly told someone that my kiddos had been unusually healthy this winter. I totally jinxed myself. Trying to find something that sounded good to my little one and that everyone else would enjoy for dinner was challenging. Chicken Soup!

She sipped the broth and ate some of the noodles. There were enough leftovers to feed her for lunch the last couple days. Today she had been up and around and everything has stayed down. Hallelujah! And she announce a few minutes ago that she was bored. That's always a good sign that we're ready to go back to school.

Has your family stayed healthy this winter?

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Printable recipe

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1/4 cup finely diced Onion

2 Garlic cloves, minced

2 ribs Celery, sliced thin

2 Chicken Breasts, sliced into thin strips

1 teaspoon Seasoning Salt

64 ounces Chicken Stock

2 cups Carrots sliced thin

1/2 pound Extra Wide Egg Noodles

(prep time 10 minutes, cook time 20 minutes, serves 6-8)

Heat olive oil in a pan, saute' onions, garlic, celery, and chicken over medium heat. Cook until chicken is just cooked through and no longer pink.

While chicken is cooking fill a sauce pan with water, lightly salt and bring to a rolling boil, add noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Do not over cook noodles, drain in colander and set aside.

Add sliced carrots to pot.

Now add 1/2 of the chicken stock.

Bring to a boil.

Cook until carrots are tender, about 8-10 minutes.

Add the remainder of the chicken stock and the noodles. Cook on low for 5 minutes longer. Serve with a French Baguette.

This soup is great for anytime you need a hearty dinner quick.

Hope you enjoy!

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

Soup-a-Palooza!

Soup-a-palooza couldn't have landed on a better day! After a crazy weekend of driving all over in horrible weather and then the last two days spent in Med Centers or Dr. offices because my son did a number on his arm snowboarding. I am ready for a warm bowl of soup, my blankie, and a good movie!

Kristen at Dine and Dish and Cheryl at Tidy Mom have put together Soup-a-Palooza for your Soup eating pleasure!! Bloggers and non-bloggers alike can head on over to either Kristen or Cheryl's blogs and reap the benefits of Soup Lovers Everywhere! The last I checked there were 118 soup recipes posted! You can also share one of your favorite soup recipes and be entered to win prizes from Bushes Beans, the Hip Hostess, Pillsbury, and Westminster Crackers!

I had planned on sharing one of favorite soups recipes with you, but well... as I said, life kinda got in the way. So I ended up sharing two previously posted recipes. Do you remember these?

Spicy Thai Soup

Curried Squash Soup

I could only post two at Soup-a-Palooza...but here's another soup that I've shared with you, that you might like.

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup (This is a family FAVORITE!)

I hope you enjoy and maybe even share a recipe of your own!

SOUPS ON!

Sunday Dinner~Beef Stew

What could be more comforting on a cold winter day in the great white north than stew? Beef Stew. I have a long list of comfort foods, and Beef Stew is for sure in the top ten. Hearty, rich, full of flavor. We like ours a little spicy. Beef Stew always brings smiles to our dinner table. This recipe makes enough for an army. Make this stew, and invite someone over after church on Sunday. Make some dinner rolls and an Apple Pie and they will think they died and went to heaven!

The list of ingredients may seem long, but really this recipe is quite simple. A little bit of cooking on the stove, then pop it in the oven for a couple hours. It will make your house smell fabulous. Make things easy on yourself by, giving the ingredient list a read through and get all your vegi's and meat prepped before you turn your stove top on. Ready, Setty, Go!

Beef Stew

printable recipe~ Tasty Kitchen

4 pounds beef stew meat or round steak cut into one inch cubes

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon season salt ( I love Morton's Natures's Seasonings)

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 whole sweet onion sliced thin

12 ounces white button mushrooms, cleaned and chopped in half if large

1/2 red pepper diced

3 cloves garlic minced

1 cup dry red wine (Cabernet, Burgundy, Merlot all good choices)

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes

10 whole carrots peeled and chopped into chunks

32 ounces beef broth

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (NOTE: I highly recommend you get yourself some SMOKED paprika, it adds an amazing flavor to stews and sauces! It's one of my favorite spices, polka dot period)

2 heaping tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, feel free to add more if you like spice

1 cup of water.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Start out by trimming the fat and grisle off 4 pounds of round steak.

Cut trimmed streak into one inch cubes. Or you can simply buy 4 pounds of stew meat from your butcher.

Mix 2 cups of flour in bowl with 1 teaspoon season salt, set aside and heat 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil together in a large dutch oven on stove top. . Dredge beef chunks in flour.

Drop them in pan to brown.

Be careful not to crowd meat pieces, while browning, you will most likely have to do this in two batches.

Remove browned meat, and continue to add meat until it is all browned. If pan starts to get dry add an additional tablespoon of butter and or olive oil. Adjust heat as needed you want to brown meat but not burn bottom of pan. Remove all browned meat from pan and set aside.

Slice one medium sweet onion, clean 12 ounce package of white button mushrooms, dice 1/2 of a red pepper, mince 3 cloves of garlic (more if your husband is not a vampire and can tolerate garlic better than mine).

This is good, this is very good, this browned, on the verge of burned goodness will give your stew flavor...don't even think of scrapin' any of that goodness out of there in less of course you are going to have a taste....then by all means scrape baby scrape.

Toss in pepper, onion, mushrooms, and garlic sautee' on medium heat. The moisture from the vegi's will loosen up all the brown crusty goodness from the bottom of the pan. Sautee until onions are starting to caramelize and mushrooms are browning, about 8 minutes.

Now for the good stuff. One glass Merlot or Burgundy wine. FIRST you must take a sip of the wine. Heaven for bid you pour nasty wine in your beef stew! Take another sip....are you sure it's good enough?

OK, pour it on in with the caramelizing vegi's. Kick up the heat get the party started, take a spatula and scrape all the goodness from the bottom of the pan. This is called deglazing.

Bring the browned beef chunks back to the party.

Carrots...aren't they purdy? Yes carrots come in all shapes and sizes and colors. They are not all uniform and bite sized and sealed tight in plastic. Do you have a peeler? Use it!

Confession: Cloned Carrots scare me.

Sorry, sometimes I don't know what happens to me, I get all bossy and sassy. Feel free to use the cloned type of carrots, what ever floats your boat.

Toss in your carrot chunks. Add cans of tomatoes, and the remaining ingredients.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Place covered pan in oven for 2-4 hours. I if you are going to be baking this stew on the longer end of the cooking time, be sure to check it and add water if stew appears to be cooking down too much.

We eat our stew over noodles. If you prefer potatoes, you could make yourself some mashed taters and ladle stew over them. OR you could cut up chunks of potatoes and add them into the stew, add extra water if you are going to add potatoes. I love peas in my stew, but my kiddos think peas will kill them, so I leave them out. The sacrifices I make...let me tell ya!

Now don't ya wish you had smell-o-vision? MMmmm-MMMmmm Good!

Enjoy!

Many Blessings!

curried SQUASH soup

Come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dishsponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers

I love squash. I am not particularly in love with it's name though, SquwASH. Maybe it's my Midwestern accent, when I say it out loud it sounds so, so, um squwAshy and harsh. Like I am hitting a bug or something. Maybe I should become part of the "new word" movement and think of a better word for squash. Got any good ideas?

I always roast squash. Then I puree it, which is a favorite side dish at Thanksgiving time for our family or sometimes I just eat it smack dab off the pan. For lunch. It never even makes it to my family. Lots of butter, and salt and pepper. MMMmmm heavenly. This is how I roast squash.

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees, then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds...as in the above photo.

Then I chop it in to big chunks.

and I cut or peel the skin off. Cut it into smaller chunks and drizzle with olive oil.

Salt and pepper.

Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes or until fork tender. Voila! Roasted squash, you can do this a few days ahead of time, store in airtight container in the refrigerator.

Now if you want to make Curried Squash Soup out of those delicious roasted morsels you can proceed to the second half of this post. But if you just lost control and ate all that squash...well then....you have two choices 1. start over with your squash roasting or 2. go take a nap and sleep it off.

Curried Squash Soup
printable recipe

1 large butternut squash roasted

1 large tart apple, peeled, cored and cut in chunks, roast with squash

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup onion chopped

3 cloves garlic minced

3-4 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 heaping teaspoon curry powder

pinch allspice

salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt butter and saute onion and garlic in it. When onions are translucent then add 1 heaping teaspoon of curry powder and whisk, let bubble in pan for a few seconds. Take a deep breath...mmmm I love the smell of curry.

I discovered a great little store in Holland (Mi) this summer, The Seasoned Home. They carry all sorts of spices and spice blends and they will even grind them fresh right there while you wait. Plus they carry an assortment of other fantastic items for your kitchen and home. It's my new favorite store in Holland.

Now, my friend, you will need to get out your blender or food processor and scrape your roasted squash and apple into it. Scrape it all in there.

Add 1 cup of chicken stock and the sauteed onion curry mixture.

-Blend until smooth. Pour back in to the pan that you sauteed the onions in.

-Take a cup of the chicken stock and pour it in the blender, give blender a whirl...this will help you get all of the squash puree out to of the blender, you don't want to be washing any of that wonderful goodness down the drain.

-Pour that in pan. Now add the remaining stock. It really depend on how thick you want the soup.

-Add salt and pepper to taste.

-Let simmer for aproximately 5 minutes and serve.

Once every three months my husband has a board meeting at our home and I fix the members lunch. This is what I served to them this time, along with my Roasted Tomato Basil Soup a crusty baguette, and my Pumpkin Donut Muffins. I made both soups the night before, stored them in the refrigerator and reheated them in crock pots the next day. The Squash Soup was gone...gone, all gone. I did scrap some out of the bottom of the crock pot for a few bites....I think they liked it.

Have a great weekend!

SPICY thai SOUP

Come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dishsponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers

My family loves Thai food. We have our favorite mom and pop place that we go to every now and then, and we pretty much get the same thing every time. They have this soup on their menu, that we always start our meal with. After eating the soup from Bangkok Taste 100 times, and attempting it at home 25 times, I think I finally got it right. Theirs is still better, but this is a close second. It will warm you up from the inside out on a chilly Fall day.

Spicy Thai Soup

printable recipe

ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips

1 can coconut milk

2 tablespoons red curry paste

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup shallot sliced thin

1 tablespoon Sriracha hot chili sauce

1 cup mini bella mushrooms sliced thin

1 cup oyster mushrooms trimmed and sliced

1/2 cup julienned carrots

1 red pepper sliced

2 Roma tomatoes diced chunky

1/4 cup cilantro leaves rough chopped

2 limes juiced (1/2 cup lime juice)

3 cups chicken broth

This soup can be made very quickly if you first prep all your veggies and chicken. 10-15 minutes prep time and 10-15 minutes cook time. If you are quick you could have dinner on the table in 20 minutes. We like to eat our soup over white rice. So if you do too, then you might want to get your rice going, then start in on the soup and your dinner will be done all at the same time!

I apologize for the picture of sliced chicken that looks like brains....just wanted you to see how I cut it up. Thin strips, you want it to cook fast. If you prefer vegetables only well, then no problem leave the chicken out, or if my picture just totally grossed you out and now you never want to eat chicken again, I understand and I am very sorry.

1. melt butter in pan, add shallots, saute for 2 minutes

2. whisk in the red curry paste, cook for a minute longer

3. whisk in coconut milk

4. add chicken strips, bring to a low boil and cook until chicken is white and cooked through. Add 1 cup of broth at this time.

5. now add mushrooms, carrots, and pepper, bring to low boil, cover pot and let cook/steam for 2-3 minutes.

6. Remove cover and add remaining 2 cups of broth and whisk in the hot chili sauce...if you don't like spicy, then you may omit this sauce. WIMP.

Let your soup simmer for a few minutes.

7. Add tomatoes, cilantro and lime juice. Turn off heat. Cover pan.

Set your table and serve! It really is that easy. Just takes a little chopping. And if you despise julienning vegetables, you can buy carrots already julienned in a bag at the grocery story!

Guten Appetit! (I speak a little German, but not Thai, sorry)