Mom's Chicken and Noodles

So I've been wanting to start a blog as a sort of personal online cookbook for a while now. I've got all these nice recipes I've tried sitting on my Facebook wall so I can find them later, but I have no way to really find them easily or document my experiences with the recipe for later improvement. So here we are.

I'm sitting here on the phone with my mom (who I only seem to call when I want something, terrible son) getting her recipe for chicken and noodles. I grew up on this wonderful soup, which I've always referred to as chicken stew because it's so hearty and filling. So below is the recipe for my wonderful mothers chicken and noodles, which is mostly here for my benefit. If anyone has actually read this, feel free to give it a try, it's delicious and wonderful for the cold season!

Ingredients

• 1 whole uncooked chicken, innards discarded
• 1/2 Lb. wide egg noodles
• 1/2 cup carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped, with lots of leaves (mince the leafy part)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 Heaping Tbsp poultry seasoning
• 3-4 Tbsp granulated chicken stock + more to taste.

Directions

1. Put chicken, onion, garlic, celery tops with leaves, and poultry seasoning in large stock pot and cover with water.
2. Bring water to a low boil and cook for 45 minutes or until chicken is soft.
3. Remove chicken and debone, leaving meat to the side for later.
4. Lower broth to a simmer while adding diced carrots, 2 stalks of celery, granulated chicken stock to taste, and water if necessary for volume.
5. Cook 20 minutes or until carrots and celery are softened.
6. Add Egg Noodles and bring to boil, cooking for 10 minutes or until noodles are softened.
7. Mix up flour and 1 cup water until homoginized and add to broth a little at a time until desired consistency.
8. Add pepper and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Serve with your desired bread.

Source: Mom!

Low Calorie French Onion Soup

This is a wonderful Weight Watchers friendly recipe for nummy french onion soup that is really easy and takes much less time to prepare than a classic french onion soup recipe. After about 10 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cooking time I had some delicious soup with all of the flavor and none of the fat of the original. And only 5 weight watchers points per serving, pretty good!

My only modification to this would be to use half as much onion total. The soup was a little onion heavy and felt a little too hearty for onion soup. I like my onion soup very brothy so I can soak up all that deliciousness in some bread or spoon it out slowly to warm up my whole body.

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet onions, sliced
• 2 large red onions, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 14-ounce cans fat free beef broth
• 1/4 cup minced fresh chives, or scallions
• 6 slices light, whole wheat bread (I used Sara Lee Delightful)
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère, or fontina cheese

Directions

1. Spray a large saucepan with butter flavored nonfat cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add sweet onions and red onions. Toss lightly. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until softened and starting to brown, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Add garlic, bay leaf, and thyme and cook, uncovered, stirring often, until starting to soften, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Stir in red wine, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper; increase heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until most of the liquid has evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in scallions.
5. Meanwhile, toast bread and divide it among 6 bowls; top with cheese. Ladle the soup over the bread and cheese and serve immediately.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Makes 6 servings
Serving size 1 ½ cups
Each serving = 5 Points +

PER SERVING: 138 calories; 6 g fat; 18 g carbohydrates; 15 g protein; 4 g fiber

Source: LaaLoosh

Slow Cooker, Easy Baked Potato Soup

I'm a real sucker for slow cooker recipes. Chop up some ingredients, add some seasonings and some liquid, and turn on the machine. What's not to love?

I had been looking for a baked potato soup to replace the one that Red Robin had years ago, which was so nice and creamy it was almost like a potato chowder pureed. This recipe caught my attention with the slow cooker title. Sometimes it's nice to get something wonderful for little effort.

This didn't turn out quite how I wanted. After the recommended cooking time, the potatoes were soft and edible but I was expecting something more like a chowder, so I took a masher to the soup and made things much better. My only mistake with this recipe was using regular stove cooked bacon and chopping it up for homemade bacon bits and still adding the salt. Make sure you don't add any salt until the end if using real bacon and not bacon bits! It turned out much too salty, but was still a good recipe that I will try again in the near future.

Ingredients

• 10 red potatoes, cut into cubes
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup real bacon bits (or regular bacon cooked and chopped)
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon
• 1 tablespoon ranch dressing mix
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (omit and add at end to taste if using regular cooked bacon)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup half & half
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, or to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped green onion, or to taste

Directions

1. Put potatoes in the bottom of your slow cooker crock. Scatter flour over the potatoes; toss to coat.
2. Scatter bacon bits, red onion, garlic, chicken bouillon, ranch dressing mix, parsley, seasoned salt, and black pepper over the potatoes.
3. Pour water into the slow cooker.
4. Cook on Low 7 to 9 hours.
5. Pour half-and-half into the soup; cook another 15 minutes.
6. Garnish with Cheddar cheese and green onion to serve.

Alternately, you can cook this on High for 4 to 5 hours.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: allrecipes.com

Double Tomato Bruschetta

This is a super easy and exceptionally good recipe for bruschetta I came across when on an italian kick one night. The use of sun dried tomatoes really kicks this one off. I've made this several times now and have been craving more for days after every time. It's that good!

The only things I change about this recipe are the amount of oil and the way the tomatoes are handled. I use 2 tablespoons of oil because it seems a little liquid and makes the bread soggy, and i like to strain and wash the tomatoes to get rid of the goo. Besides that, follow it to the T, it's perfect! A few notes, though: using fresh basil is pretty important in this one, none of that dried stuff, and make sure if you're using a food processor to chop the tomatoes separately, or it will be more like a sauce than chunky bruschetta.

Ingredients

• 6 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, dried or oil-packed
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 2 T olive oil (4 T if sun-dried tomatoes are dried)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, stems removed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 french baguette
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella

Directions

1. Preheat the oven on broiler setting.
2. In a large bowl, combine the roma tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes.
3. Cut the baguette into 3/4-inch slices. On a baking sheet, arrange the baguette slices in a single layer. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes, until slightly brown (move the sheet around by hand to brown evenly).
4. Divide the tomato mixture evenly over the baguette slices. Top the slices with mozzarella cheese.
5. Broil for 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted (again, move the sheet around to melt/brown evenly).

Makes 12 servings (though two of us used it as just a main meal and ate the whole thing no problem)

Source: allrecipes.com