Good From Your Toes To Your Nose Chicken Noodle Soup

1 medium onion
6 stalks celery
6 carrots, peeled
2 cups corn, frozen or canned
4 cups cooked chicken
2 quarts Chicken stock or broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 stick butter
2 tbsp Dried Parsley
1 tbsp Garlic Salt
1/2lb Wide Egg Noddles
1 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Pepper

• Chop onion, carrots and celery into even bite sized pieces.
• Place about 2 tbsp Olive Oil in large stock pot over medium high heat.
• Add onions and cook about 3 minutes or until soft and almost translucent
• Add carrots and celery and cook about 5 minutes more or until veggies are just soft.
• Meanwhile in a small sauce pot, add cream (half and half or milk will work fine here too) and place over low heat. Add butter.
• Stir cream and butter mixture occasionally until butter is just melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Once veggies have softened, add Chicken stock and bring to a boil.
• Add noodles and boil until just cooked, about 6 minutes.
• Turn heat to low
  
• Then add corn, chicken, parsley, garlic salt, salt and pepper.
  
• Next add cream and butter mixture and stir to combine.
• Simmer for about 15 minutes so that all ingredients can marry and flavors can come together.
• Spoon into bowls and serve.

Word to the Wise:

I love this soup. It is so hardy and rich and make a perfect meal on a cold day. This soup will freeze well. If you want a lighter version, just omit that cream and use milk or you can omit the cream and butter all together but the soup will not be as good.

For the chicken in the soup, I have used left over Thanksgiving turkey, Rotisserie chicken, cooked chicken breast and grilled tenderloins. It is really about what ever you have in the house. I have not used ground chicken but I am use that would work. The only thing with the chicken is to make sure that it is cooked.

The above recipe makes one large pot of soup. The amount of each ingredient can be decreased or increased to best suit your needs. The consistency of this soup is more like a stew than a soup and that is how my family likes it. If you want a thinner soup just add more chicken stock until (water can be used too) it gets to the consistency of your liking.

This soup is really easy and comes together very quickly, it is the perfect busy weekend supper. Serve with bread and you got dinner.

Chicken and Vegetable Alfredo

1 small onion
1 medium zucchini
1 medium summer squash
1 to 1 1/2 Shredded cooked Chicken
1 jar Alfredo sauce
4 oz cream cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1lb Rigatoni Whole Wheat Pasta
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

• In a large pasta pot, bring salted water to a boil and cook pasta
• Cut up onion, zucchini and squash into small bit size pieces
• Heat oil in a large skillet and sautee vegetables until soft.
• In a medium sauce pan, heat Alfredo sauce and add cream cheese and Parmesan cheese.
• Stir until melted.
• Once veggies are soft, add chicken to the pan to warm
• When pasta is cooked, drain the water and return to pot.
• Add veggies and chicken to pasta
  
• Pour cheese sauce over the pasta.
• Mix together, add salt and pepper if needed.
• Transfer to a 9x13 backing dish.
• Place in an 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until dish is heated through.

Words to the Wise

This dish was a good one with the kids. They ate it up, including the vegetables. For the shredded chicken in this dish, I use Rotisserie chicken. I like to buy Rotisserie chicken at the store after they are marked 40% off, usually after 8pm. I will buy two or more at a time, pull the meat off, place in bag (from 2 chickens I get four 1 to 2 cup serving) and freeze until I need them for easy, quick meals.
You don't have to add the cheese to the jarred sauce but I think that it gives the sauce a more home-made taste and more flavor and creaminess. It is my way of making a home-made sauce with out all the fuss.

Penne with Roasted Vegetables

Eggplant
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Mushrooms
Onion
Red Pepper
Frozen Peas, thawed
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 lb whole wheat penne pasta
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella Cheese

• Heat oven to 400°F
• Chop all vegetables into 1 inch pieces
  
• Place on a large baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. You want the veggies coated so that they won't stick but not dripping in oil.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until tender. Let cool.
  
• Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and return to pot
  
• Pour sauce over pasta and stir in vegetables along with peas. I use about half of a bag (if you forget to thaw them, no big deal just toss them in).
• Mix everything together. Once combined but in a baking dish. (For my family I use 2 smaller baking dishes because this freezes so well and then I can get 2 meals out of it.)
• Sprinkle with cheeses and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and heated through

Words to the Wise
My kids love this dish and it is a great way to get them to eat vegetables. The don't even know that they are eating veggies because they are covered in sauce and cheese.
Also you can really use any veggies that you want in this dish. If you don't like one on the list then skip it and use your favorites. There is not a right or wrong amount either. The more you use the bigger the dish and the more for freezing or left-overs.
And if you want to know, if is an original creation made by me.