Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

2-3 Boneless Chicken Breasts

1 Quart Organic Chicken Broth

1-1.5 Cups Water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 Stalks Celery, medium diced

3 Carrots, peeled and medium diced

1 Leek, diced

Dried Thyme

About 2 cups uncooked whole-wheat egg noodles

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1. Turn oven to 400 degrees, and roast chicken sprinkled with salt and pepper (or any desired seasoning) until fully cooked (abt 30-40 minutes for 2 breasts). When done, shred and cut up chicken to bite size pieces.

2. Put oil in pan, and saute celery, leeks, and carrots for about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, pour chicken broth and water into pot, and bring to a soft boil. Pour in egg noodles and let them start cooking. As noodles cook, add more water if necessary.

4. After sautéed vegetables are tender, put them into broth mixture. Also add the chicken to the broth.

5. Add a couple teaspoons of thyme and some salt and pepper.

Ready to eat once the egg noodles are cooked!

Leek Potato Soup

This recipe is very simple, and pretty tasty. If I had bacon bits, I would've topped the soup off with them (for extra color, and a different flavor). I made my soup by combining two different recipes and creating my own. Some soups call for more spices, but I kept it simple with just salt and pepper and just a little bit of basil.

Potato Leek Soup
1 Tbsp Butter
2 large leeks (for tips on how to properly cut leeks click here. BTW, my leeks were much larger than the one pictured here, so if you use small leeks like this, then I suggest using 3 for the soup.)
1 lb potatoes (abt 3-4) peeled and cut into quarters. (We used red)
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 -2 cups water
salt & pepper to taste

1 Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan. Cover pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Check often. Do not brown leeks! Browning will give leeks a burnt taste.
2 Add water, broth, and potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are pretty soft. Scoop about half of the soup mixture into a blender, puree and return to pan, or do the entire soup for less chunks.

That's it! Serves 4-6 I served ours with crusty garlic bread. Croutons would work well too!
Bon appetit!

Cabbage Potato Gratin

My gratin^

I'm pulling this recipe straight from blog "Small Potatoes". With St. Patrick's Day and all, cabbage is really inexpensive at most stores, so I wanted to try something new with it. Actually, I don't think I've ever bought a cabbage since being married so it was fun to cook with.

Potato Cabbage Gratin

1 pound yellow potatoes (about 3-4) I used Red Potatoes
about 1 pound green cabbage
4 tbls. butter, plus more for dish
1 garlic clove
1 1/3 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese (Parmesan or other hard, white cheese)
1/3 cup AP flour
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 2 quart baking dish. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. Peel and slice potatoes to 1/4 inch thick.
3. Slice the cabbage roughly into ribbons.
4. Add potatoes and 1 tbls. salt to water. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove potatoes to a bowl.
5. Drop cabbage into water and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cabbage from water and place on an old dish cloth. Squeeze out as much excess water as you can.
6. Melt butter in small skillet and toss garlic in for one minute.
7. Gently toss cabbage, potatoes, butter and garlic, and salt and pepper (to taste) together. (Your potatoes may break up a little, but no worries, it will all bake up nicely.) Pour into baking dish.
8. Whisk milk, eggs, cheese, and flour together. Pour over potato mixture. (Reserve a little cheese to sprinkle on top.)
9. Bake for 50 minutes and cool slightly before serving.

4 to 6 servings
We served it with crusty bread and sausage, but this could easily be a vegetarian main.

We served it with crusty bread as well as lots of fruits. Richard didn't hate the dish, but considering it was mostly veggies, he didn't love it either. He thought it was a little bland, but I found it to be plenty flavorful since I like the taste of cabbage and potatoes. But, just adding more pepper helped dramatically. If I make it again, it will probably include some ham chunks in it (because men don't think a meal is a meal without meat). Lol. I would love to hear your feedback if you make it! Also, if anyone has any other cabbage recipes, please share them! I'd love to give them a try.