Cheap, Easy, and Tasty
No, I'm not describing myself. Perverts.
Another installment of my Lazy Bachelorette School of Cooking series (okay, I guess I'm not technically a bachelorette anymore, sorta, but I like the name): Homemade Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup. And I do mean hearty - this is actually more like a stew than a soup, I think.
Ingredients:
1 pound bag baby carrots
8 oz bag celery hearts
1 can mushrooms
1 onion
1 package of Purdue short cuts pre-cooked chicken strips (or similar)
1 32-oz container of chicken broth (I like College Inn low sodium brand)
Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (or other herb/seasoning mix of choice)
1 small box of pasta
Crockpot
1. Slice up 1/2 of the celery and 1/2 of the onion; mix with 1/2 bag of carrots and 1/2 can of mushrooms. Remaining 1/2 celery (sliced), 1/2 onion (sliced), 1/2 bag baby carrots and 1/2 can mushrooms can be mixed and stored for next batch of soup. Add vegetable mix to crockpot.
2. Cut up 1/2 of chicken strips to bite-sized morsels. Store remaining 1/2 bag for future soup. Add chicken to crockpot with veggies.
3. Pour in entire container of chicken broth. If you have a crockpot that is large enough to cook all the meat and veggies, you'll need to have 2 containers of chicken broth - if you've got a small one, like I do, and are doing the halves as listed in steps 1 and 2, then one is enough, and you can get a second container of chicken stock when you want to do the second set of ingredients.
4. Season liberally. Or to taste. Whatever. Turn the crockpot on - I usually do high at first, for like half an hour or an hour, and then turn it down to low to let it slow cook for a while. It's a crockpot, you can't greatly screw it up, so just turn it on. I let it go until the veggies are just losing their crispness - not soggy, but cooked to have a little softeness in them. It's like, what, 2 hours, I guess?
5. When the veggies are cooked to your liking, cook up about half the box of pasta (I did elbows, cuz they amuse me) in a separate pot on the stove. After draining the pasta, you can either add it directly to the soup (if there's actually room in the crockpot - there isn't, in mine), or you can dump some noodles into your bowl and put the rest of the soup on top. Eventually, there will be enough room in the crockpot that you can dump the noodles directly in and mix them into the soup.
6. OM NOM NOM AND ENJOY.
Another installment of my Lazy Bachelorette School of Cooking series (okay, I guess I'm not technically a bachelorette anymore, sorta, but I like the name): Homemade Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup. And I do mean hearty - this is actually more like a stew than a soup, I think.
Ingredients:
1 pound bag baby carrots
8 oz bag celery hearts
1 can mushrooms
1 onion
1 package of Purdue short cuts pre-cooked chicken strips (or similar)
1 32-oz container of chicken broth (I like College Inn low sodium brand)
Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute (or other herb/seasoning mix of choice)
1 small box of pasta
Crockpot
1. Slice up 1/2 of the celery and 1/2 of the onion; mix with 1/2 bag of carrots and 1/2 can of mushrooms. Remaining 1/2 celery (sliced), 1/2 onion (sliced), 1/2 bag baby carrots and 1/2 can mushrooms can be mixed and stored for next batch of soup. Add vegetable mix to crockpot.
2. Cut up 1/2 of chicken strips to bite-sized morsels. Store remaining 1/2 bag for future soup. Add chicken to crockpot with veggies.
3. Pour in entire container of chicken broth. If you have a crockpot that is large enough to cook all the meat and veggies, you'll need to have 2 containers of chicken broth - if you've got a small one, like I do, and are doing the halves as listed in steps 1 and 2, then one is enough, and you can get a second container of chicken stock when you want to do the second set of ingredients.
4. Season liberally. Or to taste. Whatever. Turn the crockpot on - I usually do high at first, for like half an hour or an hour, and then turn it down to low to let it slow cook for a while. It's a crockpot, you can't greatly screw it up, so just turn it on. I let it go until the veggies are just losing their crispness - not soggy, but cooked to have a little softeness in them. It's like, what, 2 hours, I guess?
5. When the veggies are cooked to your liking, cook up about half the box of pasta (I did elbows, cuz they amuse me) in a separate pot on the stove. After draining the pasta, you can either add it directly to the soup (if there's actually room in the crockpot - there isn't, in mine), or you can dump some noodles into your bowl and put the rest of the soup on top. Eventually, there will be enough room in the crockpot that you can dump the noodles directly in and mix them into the soup.
6. OM NOM NOM AND ENJOY.