Healthy Chicken Noodle Soup

 Healthy Chicken Noodle Soup

It's been chilly here recently, although it will be in the 70's the next two days (good old Cleveland!), and I have been in the mood for some soup! There is something about soup that just makes me feel better.  Maybe it is because I always recall eating it while I wasn't feeling good as a kid or while I was pregnant with the girls! :) Well I tackled tomato soup last week, (see recipe in past post), so I thought I would give chicken noodle a try. I have to thank my husband for the inspiration.  I forgot about his night out with the guys Saturday and had chicken and salad on the menu.  I made a switch when I realized my error, and made this yesterday with that chicken.

INGREDIENTS:

* 2 cups of cooked, chopped chicken

* 4 cups of low sodium chicken broth

*1 cup chopped onion(used 2, yellow onions)

*1 cup chopped carrots

* 1 cup chopped celery ( used 2 stalks)

*1 tsp. of oregano

*1 tsp. of basil

*1/4 tsp. of black pepper

*1 cup  dry whole wheat orzo pasta ( I used 2- WAY too much)

*a little bit of sea salt- my broth had 140 mg of sodium- 3 times less than typical broth, and I needed a little bit more. Just a pinch to my serving was great!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Chop your veggies! I used my food chopper, and it makes the process so much faster. I bought baby carrots. I was able to just throw them in without any pre chopping.

2.  Add chicken broth to the pot. Combine all the ingredients EXCEPT the CHICKEN and the ORZO. Bring to a boil.

3. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Add the DRY orzo. Cover and simmer for 8 minutes.

5. Add the chopped chicken.

I made a couple mistakes while making this for the first time, so I want to share them with you so you can make sure you don't do the same. When I added the ingredients in step 2, I didn't turn the temp down to simmer. I forgot to do that and some of my broth evaporated. Mistake #2- I added WAY too much orzo which also sucked up some of that broth. I only had one 4 cup container of it, so when I heat up the leftovers, I will need to grab some more to add to individual servings. Regardless, it was YUMMY!! 

What's your favorite soup?!

Happy Eating!

XoXo