Chicken and Rice Soup

There is nothing better than a big batch of soup on a rainy or a cold day. Chicken noodle or chicken rice is always a hit in our house. If I have egg noodles it will be chicken noodle, if I don't it's chicken rice. Sometimes it turns out to be just chicken and vegetables. Anyway you make this it is delicious and super easy!

What you need:

6 cups chicken stock

2 cups cooked chicken

1 medium onion

3 stocks of celery

5 medium carrots

1 cup rice (sometimes I use brown rice, lately I have been getting organic jasmine rice. It's very good)

2 tbsp butter or oil

salt and pepper

What to do:

 Dice all vegetables into about the same size pieces and saute in the butter or oil in a large stock pot (the pot you will be cooking the entire soup in) until tender. Add salt and pepper.

While the veggies are cooking shred the chicken into bit sized pieces. This is another use for the rotisserie chicken that I keep in the freezer!

When the veggies are tender add the rice to the pot. Cooking the raw rice directly in the pan will give it a toasted flavor which is very good in this soup.It only needs to cook for a couple of minutes.

Finally add your stock and the chicken. Let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes, just until the rice is tender. It can certainly cook longer but it doesn't take very long. 

 Season again with salt and pepper. Serve with a sandwich or some crusty bread! ENJOY!

Strawberry Almond Chicken Salad

When I was at the grocery store recently I did my normal shopping. A lot of produce, meat and dairy. They also had rotisserie chicken on sale again, so I always get a couple to divide up to have the meat in the freezer. When it was supper time I gave my boys each a leg off the chicken with some veggies and yogurt. I was trying to decide what to do for myself...I came up with this and it was one of the best salads that I've made at home.

What you need:

1/2 cup romaine lettuce

1/2 cup red leaf lettuce (frankly any lettuce you have would work, I always get romaine)

1/4 cup strawberries

1/4 cup diced apple

tbsp slivered almonds

1/2 cup shredded chicken

2 tbsp strawberry balsamic vinaigrette (I had this on hand, I am going to try and make my own next time...)

 ENJOY!

*This is a serving for one, of course you could make a larger portion if you are making this for a crowd!

Chicken, Spinach, and Cheese Taquitos

My kids love anything in a tortilla shell. I thought I would get sneaky and hide some nutritious things inside the tortilla and see how they do. It worked pretty well for the first time around and I will definitely be doing it again. The nice thing about something like this is you can change out ingredients with whatever you have on hand.

What you will need:

1-10 count package of tortillas (I used flour, you could use whatever you like)

1 lb cooked chicken (I used the chicken that I portioned up from the whole chickens I bought and froze)

4oz cream cheese (1/2 of a regular package)

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup Mexican blend cheese

1/2 small onion

1 clove of garlic

2 cups of fresh spinach 

salt and pepper

5 tbsp of butter or cooking oil

What you do:

Put 1 tbsp of the oil or butter in a pan with the onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes until onions are translucent. Add the spinach and salt and pepper and cook until the spinach has wilted down. In a large bowl mix room temperature cream cheese, sour cream, the spinach mixture, chicken, and the Mexican cheese. Spread a thin layer evenly on all tortillas and roll them up tight.

 I put them into a pan and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours so they were able to set, you would not have to do this step.

In a large pan melt the remaining butter or oil and begin browning all the tortillas. Make sure to brown them evenly on all sides, this just takes a few minutes.

 

 Place browned tortillas in a 9x13 casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes on 375 degrees. 

 Serve with your favorite Mexican side dish (rice, beans, chips etc.) I made Spanish rice with green chilies and cheese! ENJOY

Homemade chicken stock

I was at the store doing some major grocery shopping and there were whole rotisserie chickens on sale 2 for $10.00. I got 2 and when I got home divided them out into 4 portions. I put them into the freezer so when I make something like chicken alfredo or chicken taquitos (what we are having for dinner tonight) I already have cooked chicken ready, it just needs to be thawed. After I was done picking the chicken apart I really didn't want to waste the perfectly good chicken carcases, so I decided to make some stock.

What you will need:

2-chicken carcases (skin, bones,and all)

1-large onion (skin and all)

1-stock of celery

1-clove of garlic (skin and all)

5-carrots

4-medium potatoes

handful of parsley (not necessary, I just had some in the fridge, so I put it in)

salt and pepper

water

What to do:

In a large stock pot put the carcases and all the vegetables with salt and pepper and add water until it covers everything. Cook in the stove top on a low heat setting for about 2 hours. Strain all the liquid into a bowl and let cool. I divided my stock and put it into 16oz storage containers and put them into the freezer. The next time I make a soup, a hot dish, gravy, or anything else that calls for stock I have it. Store bought stock is very convenient but when you have the ingredients to make your own it is totally worth it.

 

I got a total of 6-16oz containers of stock out of this batch. 5 I put in the freezer and 1 I kept in the fridge.