Recipes

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

It has been getting too cold too quickly here in Minnesota, and while I am not excited that we have already had our first snowfall, I do love the joy of being able to make cozy soups each week!

Ask my kiddos what mommy’s favorite food is and they will say soup.  As a kid I always ate the soup out of a can, then as I got older I made the soup from the bags…it was quick and easy and ready to go!  The bad part was that all of them are high in sodium and let me tell you, I sure love salt, but not the amount of salt that you find in canned or bagged soup.  Also, my husband had a spout of high blood pressure right out of college. He was on blood pressure medication at the young age of twenty-two. I made it one of my goals in life to get him off of that medication and with my love of soup, I had to figure something out quickly.  So instead of making everything the “quick” way, I started to make things homemade. This is where I started falling in love with cooking!

At the beginning of the school year, we all seemed to catch a cold and we needed something to help our throats and warm our bodies.  Whenever I was sick as a kid, I always had chicken noodle soup. That is exactly what we love, but with a little creamy twist.

Check out this recipe that I make religiously and that my kiddos also love!

https://www.cookingclassy.com/creamy-chicken-noodle-soup/

Here are some tips I have.  I almost NEVER follow the recipe exactly the way I find it on Pinterest and I almost always double the recipe…you can never have enough soup!  Finally, I really don’t like doing dishes, so I usually try to keep it all contained into one pot. You can follow the recipe above and add some of the things that I do if you’d like!  Either way, I can promise you that this is sure to be a family favorite and a go to when you’re feeling a little blue.

I always start with the chicken.  If you want to make it extremely quick, just grab a rotisserie chicken and shread it, then all you have to do is add the chicken at the end.

If you want a little extra flavor, I cut up and cook my chicken with a few extra spices.  I love garlic and have found that it is a great substitute for salt.  Cook the chicken in olive oil and add some parsley, pepper and garlic.  If you don’t want to cut up garlic, add some garlic powder…not salt…that will make it extra salty.  Cook the chicken for a few minutes and then let it drain in your sink until you have the rest of the soup ready to go.

My food processor is one of my best friends when I am cooking.  Sure I enjoy being in the kitchen, but I don’t want to be in the kitchen all night cutting my vegetables, I’d rather spend time with my family.  If you don’t have a food processor, I would really think about getting one of these.

I chopped up the onions, celery, and carrots and threw them in with the leftover liquid from the chicken.  Let the vegetables cook for 3-5 minutes.

As I stated before, I like to play with the recipes and add a little bit of my touch to it.  I stated that we don’t use a lot of salt in our food, so in order to add more flavor without the sodium, I add garlic.  For this recipe I added four cloves of minced garlic.  Add the garlic to vegetables and let it cook until the scent of garlic fills your kitchen.  Oh boy do I love that scent!

I know I said I like to keep the meal in one pan, but…you do need two for this recipe.  While the vegetables are cooking you can get started on the creamy portion of the meal.  Follow the recipe as follows, but add a little extra spices to it…garlic powder, pepper and paprika to give it a little smokey flavor.  Make sure to continue to stir the entire time, or you will burn it and burnt cream sure doesn’t taste so good in a soup.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add your chicken stock.  This is where I end up doubling the recipe to get some extra soup.  I always buy the 48 oz. low sodium box of chicken stock.  Add the chicken stock and the cream along with the noodles.  Bring the soup to a boil so that the noodles can cook.

My kiddos are not big fans of vegetables, so I try to add extra vegetables to many things and soup is usually one of the best ways that I can get many vegetables in their dinner.  Kale is one of my favorite vegetables to add.  It is one of the most nutrient-dense foods out there.  I pull the leaves of kale off of the stems and chop it up.  For this soup I used 3 stalks of kale and chopped them up into small bite sized pieces.  Then add it to the soup for about 3 minutes to soften.

After 10 minutes of allowing the soup to thicken and the noodles to cook, you are ready to enjoy!  We had some homemade biscuts to go with our soup, but you could also add crackers as well.

I hope this soup can become one of your family favorites as well!  Enjoy a; low sodium, vegetables friendly, and healthy soup that will make your tummies warm and help to heal your sore throats.

 

food is comfort…

Now, I know that food really has nothing to do with design, but I am obsessed with cooking and baking.  I think that the food is just so comforting and it honestly is relaxing for me to come home and cook a meal for the family after a long day of work.

Dinner time is a special time in our home.  We make it a point to have a family meal every night.  This is starting to get hard with both of our kids being involved in sports and activities now, but it is really our time to connect as a family.  There is just something special about a home-cooked meal that just makes my heart melt and makes me feel all cozy inside.

Each week I sit down and plan out my meals for the week.  This makes it so much easier when I am at the grocery store, it also makes it easier to not pull out an unhealthy meal because I have all of the fresh ingredients for a wonderful healthy meal.

I get most of my recipes from pinterest, but I really love cookbooks as well.  There is just something about using a cookbook that makes me happy inside, plus I love always having the recipe available for me to use.  There are so many times that I go to my pinterest page to grab one of our favorite recipes and the blog post is no longer available…then I have to go through and find a new one or try to memorize that recipe.  Sometimes that can be too time consuming and I just need it to be easy and quick so I can get back to my family. So, cookbooks are truly my favorite tools to use when planning my weekly dinners.

On this page I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes that we use consistently.  I love to add little things here and there to my recipes, or change them completely to fit our taste buds even better, so I will be sharing those as well.

A cozy home doesn’t just come from the way your home looks, it also comes from how it feels and food, for me, can really make a home FEEL so comfortable, warm and cozy.

Stay tuned for some yummy recipes that you can make in your home!