Friday, November 19, 2010

What's for Dinner? (Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup)

Um, hi! Do you remember me? Yeah so, it's been a little while since I posted on here. Mostly life and sickness getting in the way, but no guilt. Life is all about setting and keeping priorities and sometimes that means taking a break from things that you love (like blogging!)

I've been wanting to post this recipe for probably a month now. I've actually made it a second time ... it's that good (and easy). I never thought of my self as a "from scratch" kind of girl, but this is one of those recipes you want to try. With Thanksgiving around the corner, there's no reason you can't turn this into a turkey recipe! P.S. I learned how to make this from my sister and there are not exact measurements ... don't let this scare you!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
1 Rotisserie Chicken
Bay Leaves
Carrots
Onions
Celery
Garlic
Parsley
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Basil
Chicken Bouillon
Noodles

I bought a large Rotisserie Chicken earlier in the week, which we enjoyed for dinner. When we were done, I removed all the chicken and put in one ziploc bag and put the carcass (including bones that were on our plates) in a separate bag.

Around lunch time on the day I made the soup, I put the chicken carcass in my 8 qt. pot. along with roughly 2 carrots, 2 celery ribs, and one onion each cut in big chunks. (Note these veggies will not be in your final soup, so they don't need to look pretty.) Add some 1 tsp pepper, 2-3 cloves garlic, 1 tsp thyme and 2 bay leaves. Fill mostly with water and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for several hours, stirring occasionally. The aroma will fill your house and you'll feel like a domestic diva!

At about 4pm, I started cutting the veggies for the soup (these are the ones you'll want to look pretty). Chop approximately 4 carrots (or most of a small bag of baby carrots), several ribs of celery (I used one stalk total) and one onion (I diced it fine, since my kids wouldn't eat it otherwise). If you need more chicken, cook one or two chicken breasts at this time (I have a micro-cooker that I use to cook my chicken in the microwave, it's fast and easy.)

Around 4:30, I strained the cooking broth ... make sure to have a pan or bowl to catch the liquid! If not, all that simmering was for naught!!! ;) If there is a lot of fat in your broth, you can skim it from the top at this point. Discard the vegetables. Combine the broth with the newly chopped veggies in the rinsed out 8 qt pot. At this point is where you want to taste the broth and determine how much bouillon you want to add. Also add salt, pepper, garlic (I love garlic!), parsley and basil. Start with 1/2 tsp and add more to your taste. The first time I made the soup, I had to add quite a bit of bouillon, the second time not nearly as much. I think the second time I didn't have as much liquid and it cooked longer. 

Now that you've got the taste balanced, you'll want to let the veggies cook, so bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for 45 minutes or so. During the last 15 minutes, I cooked the noodles. (Fresh noodles are the best!)

You can choose to combine the noodles into the soup or serve them separately. If the soup will be sitting around, you may want to keep it separate because the noodles really suck up the broth. Serve with a yummy chunk of bread (we had sourdough!)

Enjoy! 


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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Stop Acting Like a Kid!

Or maybe you SHOULD act like a kid! The more time I spend with my kids, the more I think I need to be more like them.

For example, this week I ordered a Iron Gym Pull Up Bar from amazon.com in preparation for starting P90x next week (eek!) Here's what it looks like:

It goes over your door frame so you can do pull ups with out screwing into your walls. Pretty sweet deal. The kids (5 and 10) think this is the best thing ever. Braden (5) says, I'm gonna go on the ride! Aubrey can do pull ups on it already and can't walk by it with out trying it out. Today her abs and arms were sore from all the playing!

This got me thinking. Since when did exercise become such a chore? Maybe I need to start shadowing the kids and see what kind of results that brings!



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Monday, November 1, 2010

What's for Dinner? (Grilled Salmon)

For years, I've heard about all the health benefits of salmon & how it should be a regular part of your diet. But I just never liked it. Until now. I made this grilled salmon for Taylor's birthday dinner (yes, I'm one week behind!) and it was deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious. Like for real. Like I am not joking. Like, I'm going to stop saying like now.

P.S. When buying salmon make sure to get WILD, not farm raised. We bought ours frozen with the skin still on one side.

It looks a little beat up because it was majorly sticking to my grill, but it was delish!
Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
lemon pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
salt to taste
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil


Directions
1.Season salmon fillets with lemon pepper, garlic powder, and salt.


2.In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water, and vegetable oil until sugar is dissolved. Place fish in a large resealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture, seal, and turn to coat. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.


3.Preheat grill for medium heat.


4.Lightly oil grill grate. Place salmon on the preheated grill, and discard marinade. Cook salmon for 6 to 8 minutes per side, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Servings Per Recipe: 6
Calories: 318
Total Fat: 20.1g
Cholesterol: 56mg
Sodium: 1092mg
Total Carbs: 13.2g
Dietary Fiber: 0.1g
Protein: 20.5g


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