The Diet Begins

In the spirit of Just the Recipe CLICK HERE for the post that just contains the recipe. For the story read on.

While I am still not 100% on this diet, it's got to start sometime right?

Of course the week I decide to start this life change I get sick. Head pounding off rhythm to my heart, the tickle in my throat, and the worst part is: a stuffy nose. It makes it hard for me to want to cook at all. And actually the only dishes I did this week was wash the pot I made the soup in to make it again. I made this soup twice this week and used different vegetables each time. This soup is something that is very versatile. The tricky part is I was making it without using bouillon.

I found out that a lot of dried bouillon can have wheat and soy products in it. My Grandma gave me a container of powdered bouillon from her Costco style bulk bin. It means that I don't know what is in my bouillon and as I embark on this diet better to be safe than sorry. Which means making the broth from scratch.

If you look online you can find plenty of recipes on how to make a really good chicken stock, most of them take three hours or more to simmer down to what you want. As I feel sick that simply wouldn't do. I had to make a good broth in under an hour, that was all my head would be willing to do.

This is such an easy recipe to change everything around and use what is in your fridge. The first time I made this is I had sugar snap peas and carrots, the second time I had celery, carrots, and frozen peas.

Everyone has a preferred method to shred the chicken, my favorite and my mom's favorite is to drop the full chicken into the mixer. Turn it on and it shreds quickly!

I cook like my grandma, because she taught my mom and she taught me. I do a pinch of this and a taste of that and that's how mom taught me to cook. So with out too much poking fun at my recipe for having "to taste" throughout here it is.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Time: 1-1.5 Hours        Prep Time: 10 Minutes        Servings: 6-8 People        Course: Dinner

Ingredients: 

• 2 Chicken Breasts thawed
• 3 Celery Stalks, roughly cut into inch pieces
• 1/2 pound of Baby Carrots, halved
• 1/2 yellow Onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2-1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 4 tsp Salt, add more to taste
• 1 tsp Pepper, add more to taste
• 1 tsp Basil, add more to taste
• 1 tsp Sage, add more to taste
• 1-2 Bay leaves
• 1/3-1/2 box Ronzoni Gluten-Free Elbow noodles
• Water

Steps:

1. Saute the vegetables in the olive oil with light salt and pepper. 
2. Add the chicken and all the seasonings. 
3. Add water until the chicken is covered. Set it on the stove to boil. 
4. Once it has been brought to boil, taste the water, if needed add more seasonings. Add more salt than other seasonings. 
5. After 20-30 minutes check the chicken, pull it out and shred once it is cooked. 
6. Reintroduce the chicken and add at least 4 cups of water with another 2 tsps of salt.
7. After it has come to boiling add pasta. 
8. Taste the water again, if needed add more seasonings. 
9. Wait until noodles are al dente, they should have a slightly bite or hardness as they will sit in any leftover broth and continue to soften.

Substitutions:

All the vegetables are interchangeable! You can use frozen vegetables when you reintroduce the chicken. 

Chicken thighs or bone in chicken breasts work. The bone in will help give the broth more flavor.

Any pasta can be used, elbow noodles are easy, but spaghetti works great.