Here There and Everywhere

Breathe in, breathe out, and woosh, it's Wednesday. We are hitting the mid-point of the week already!

It's been a rough few days for me over here. I was all pumped up on Sunday after getting in my early morning run and then spending the day with family ... and then the same stomach virus that I had in early December made a reappearance. One horrible sick day and one slow recovery day later, and I am feeling almost back to normal today. Except now I have a sore throat and a cough. Is my immune system taking a late holiday break?! It's like my body knows I was hitting a groove with exercise and eating right and decided to mess with me a little bit.

As I drink down vats of tea today, I am incredibly glad that we spent some time on Sunday making a huge vat of chicken noodle soup. That soup, while intended for freezer restock, has been a miracle food for me the last few days as I battled upset stomachs and congested lungs. The great thing about chicken soup is that it is really versatile. We took advantage of leftover chicken and roasted potatoes for ours, but you could easily drop in pre-packaged cooked chicken breast strips and more pasta instead. Adding butter replicates the richness of the drippings that get from leftovers, too.

If you aren't currently sick, I highly recommend making a batch of something like this now, so that if/when you get the plague, you can just pop out one of these frozen containers into a saucepan for 10-15 minutes, no effort required. When you can barely get off the couch from the sickness, this is a clutch thing to have on hand.

Chicken soup for the soul? This week for me, you better believe it! Hope you all stay well and warm!

Chicken Noodle Chowder
Serves 6-8

One medium onion, diced
One poblano pepper, seeded and diced
One shallot, diced
Three cloves of garlic, diced
Two cups of mushrooms, mixed variety, roughly chopped
Two cups of cooked chicken
One cup red potatoes, diced into half-inch cubes
2 Tbsp. butter
Two containers of reduced sodium chicken broth
One large bunch of asparagus, diced into one-inch pieces
One package Ramen noodles, spice packet discarded
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
2/3 cup flour + 2 Tbsp. tap water

Saute onion, pepper, shallot and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add mushrooms and saute for additional 3-4 minutes. Add chicken, potatoes and butter, stirring to melt butter. Add chicken broth, and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes. Increase heat and add asparagus, Ramen noodles, salt and pepper, cooking for 5-10 minutes or until the asparagus is tender and the noodles are cooked.

Mix flour and water in a separate bowl until it is a smooth, thick liquid, adding more water/flour as needed. Stir mixture into chicken soup, and cook soup for 5 more minutes or until soup thickens. Serve with crackers, bread or your choice of Gatorade!

Note from Katherine: We utilized leftover roasted chicken, roasted potatoes and 2-3 Tbsp of the drippings from that dish in lieu of butter for our soup, which added a great, slow-cooked richness.