I’ve had a few comments and emails lately, particularly on Meal Plan posts, that suggest that some of you out there:
- don’t cook
- don’t know how to cook
- but want to cook for your family (Yay!)
What you need is some easy recipes, I mean really easy recipes. I have a few for you. Let’s start with the way I make Chicken Soup:
Ingredients:
Chicken breasts**
Onion
Celery
Carrots
Starch of some kind (pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.)
Chicken stock or bouillon** (yes, you can make your own, but again this is easier for me)
Optional: Pesto and Lemon juice
**Yes, you can use a whole chicken and it would cost less, but this is more convenient for me. Same with the chicken broth; you can make your own stock, but this takes less time.
1. Set your water to boil. I measured, because I knew you would ask, and it was about 8 cups of water. While that boiled, I chopped up the onion, celery and carrots. How much? Depends on what your family likes. My kids love celery, so I put more of that in, plus I chop the onions tiny so they don’t notice them so much.
2. After the water boils, I add the bouillon, then the vegetables. Chop the chicken breasts into small pieces and add that as well. I use about half as much chicken in soup as I do when I’m serving chicken breasts as part of a meal. Soup really stretches your food dollar!
3. I set the stove lower and cover the pot, then let it simmer for a while, 45 minutes to an hour. Let the vegetables get tender.
4. If you want to be fancy, you can add a tablespoon or two of pesto and a good squeeze of lemon juice. It adds depth and a ton of flavor to the soup.
5. If you’re planning to serve the Chicken Soup right away, you can add your starch at the end; just pick pasta, rice, potatoes, whatever your family likes or whatever you have on hand. If you’d rather freeze it for a later date, leave the starch out. Just let it cool and put it in a zipper freezer bag.
6. Serve with some yummy bread or rolls. If you need ideas, check my Recipes page.
Maliha
Thursday 2nd of February 2012
I made this last night ... Delicious!
Gina @ MoneywiseMoms
Tuesday 1st of December 2009
I use thawed-out, cut up raw chicken breast and it cooks fine. If you have leftover already-cooked chicken, you can throw that in instead of raw.
Anonymous
Tuesday 1st of December 2009
do u have to cook the chicken first? i am confused.
Christina
Tuesday 10th of November 2009
I thought you had to cook the chicken first. This sounds awesome and easy!!
Brantley Riley
Thursday 29th of October 2009
We had this for dinner tonight and it was very tasty! I need to work on my ratio of veg-chicken-pasta. I added some leftover mixed vegetables (~1.5c) and 1/2 lb of pasta about 10 minutes before I was ready to serve. It was *too* much pasta and not enough veg, but the lemon and pesto still made for delicious soup.