Yesterday I was trying to think about what to make with the stuff I had on hand. I had boneless chicken tenders, veggies, only a pound of ground sirloin (not enough for my family of 5!). I didn’t have any tomato sauce – and then it hit me – I’ll make soup! But what kind?

Since I had the chicken tenders and I had lots of veggies since we had stir fry the night before I thought I would make chicken noodle soup.

Jenn's salsa chicken noodle soup

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves, chopped
4-5 mini bell peppers (I had red and yellow), diced
3 green onions, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 package boneless chicken tenders
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. pepper
dash of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 bottle of Pace salsa (or your favorite salsa)
8 cups water
6 tsp. chicken stock (the powdered kind in a jar)
3/4 bag of egg noodles

In a big pot, I added a few teaspoons of Canola Oil. Add all the chopped veggies and cook for about 5 minutes. I cut the chicken tenders into bite sized pieces and added that to the pot. I cooked that until the chicken was almost done, but still pink in the middle. Add the water and chicken stock and the egg noodles and salsa and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through and the egg noodles are done.

I know my family likes what I make when they ask for seconds! I was proud of myself for sticking to my one serving – since December I’ve banned myself from 2nd helpings and I’ve stuck to it

After dinner, we talked about what homework everyone had and I went back into the kitchen to clean up. I figured with the leftovers I would bring some for my lunch. When I walked into the kitchen I quickly realized that was not going to happen. This was what was left….

Yep – not a morsel left!!! I was shocked. But also a part of me was happy that my family liked this soup so much!

Do you make dinner so you have leftovers – or do you like to make just enough so there are no leftovers?

I personally love leftovers because then it is an easy choice for what I’ll have for lunch the next day.

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Now onto my work outs for the last few days. I could have run outside since its so warm out, but I have been working out after 8:30 p.m. when my daughter goes to bed. Over the weekend I found some more work out videos, I got 3 more Taebo work out tapes as well as a Beach Body one with Tony Horton.

So last night, I did a double work out – 40 minutes of Billy’s boot camp. Then I wanted to see if I could do any of the Beach body tape. It was level 3/4 and it had a huge label on it not to attempt unless you could complete the first 2 levels without stopping. Ha! I was going to try it anyway. I lasted about 20 minutes. It was so hard. At one point he did 1 1/2 minutes of straight push ups. One set with your arms wide, the other side with your arms closer together and the last set with your arms REALLY close together. Nope, that was not going to happen. Although I did do one 30 second set with my feet on my stepper (the actual way was putting your feet on top of a chair and doing push ups). During that set, my son happened to enter the room and he said “That’s impressive!”

And last nights workout brought back lots of memories. It’s the Taebo advanced workout and it is at least 13 years old I would say. My twin sister Biz and I once lived in a 2 flat together. She lived upstairs with Hannah and my family lived downstairs.

We would talk the night before about working out before work. So I would set my alarm clock early, get up, bring the baby monitor upstairs (the boys were small) and we would workout with Billy. We always had a great time and would laugh at each other if we couldn’t get a move right. I forgot how hard that work out was!!! It’s crazy hard. But I’m glad I did it!

Have a great day everyone!

So good!

I made this soup before work – it took about 15 minutes to make. If you have chicken base on hand (the powdered stuff in a jar) then you can whip up a soup in no time. I prefer that than buying cans or cartons of chicken broth – and it’s cheaper too!

I had three Trader Joe’s vegetarian pot stickers in the freezer, so I decided to add those too.

Serves 1 HUGE bowl of soup 5 WW+ points (according to my twin sister Biz)

3 cups chicken broth
½ cup broccoli slaw
1 small red pepper, diced
½ small bag mixed veggies, (mine had green beans, peas and carrots
3 Trader Joe’s vegetarian pot stickers (found in the frozen section)
2 tablespoons Thai chili sauce
1/8 cup uncooked elbow noodles

In a small pot, add the chicken broth, the frozen veggies, broccoli slaw, red pepper, and broccoli slaw. Heat on low for about 5 minutes. Add the pot stickers, elbow noodles and Thai sauce and cook for another 10 minutes or until the noodles are done.

This was a gigantic serving – I thought having so few pot stickers would make me sad and I wished I had more, but to be honest – it was just right!

You could do so many variations of this. Just start with whatever kind of broth you like, add some veggies, leftover chicken, or steak, if you want to add noodles or pasta – and whatever spices you like and you are done!

What is your favorite soup?

This is the chili sauce I used. It’s so good! You can find it in the Asian section at pretty much any major grocery chain:

I tried a new recipe that was a take off of a recipe I saw here - at Spabettie. I forgot the recipe going to the store and I knew that the squash should have been butternut, but I accidentally picked up acorn squash instead.

It still turned out great! Here is my version:

spicy chipotle butternut soup

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter
1 small acorn squash, roasted*
4-5 cups vegetable broth
2-4** chipotle peppers, seeded and chopped
2 carrots, sliced thin
3 roma tomatoes, chopped fine
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cumin

*To roast the acorn squash, just cut it down the middle, scoop out the seeds and place open side up on a cookie sheet. I drizzled it with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and bake at 350 for 45 minutes-1 hour, until the inside is tender. Mine was done at 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop up the veggies. This is all going into a blender later so you don’t have to be specific.

In a big pot, add the butter and let it melt. Add the carrots, onions, garlic, celery and tomatoes. Cook the veggies for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Next add the vegetable broth. **I used 2 chipotle peppers and the heat factor was perfect. If I used a few more I think it would have been too spicy for my family to eat. Next take out the acorn squash from the oven and just scoop it into the soup.

I cooked it on low for about 25 minutes. Now, being super careful, ladle the soup into a blender. DO NOT PUT THE TOP ON THE BLENDER – or else you will have hot soup explode all over you! I just placed a kitchen towel over the top and that way the steam can escape.

What are your plans for Turkey Day? Are you cooking at your house, or do you go somewhere?

My daughter Claire got a nice surprise today. My oldest son Paul’s girlfriend gave Claire her American Girl doll clothes/case she doesn’t want anymore – how nice is that?

She got at least 20 outfits, 2 pairs of American Girl glasses, the case and a bracelet

There are literally 20+ places within walking distance to eat by my office so when we were talking about where to go and she suggested Penny’s Noodles, I of course jumped at the chance. I know there is a location in Chicago, but there is also a location in Oak Park. They have pot stickers, fried rices, noodle bowls, etc…

I usually get fried rice but decided on trying something else. I got this:

Egg Noodles with Barbecued Pork
Sliced BBQ pork served over egg noodles then garnished with bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro, and ground peanuts.

It was so good! And I was proud of myself that I only ate half! So with the other half I decided to make a soup out of it. I brought 3 frozen pot stickers from my house and some frozen carrots and peas. I have chicken base powder at my office so I could make chicken broth and in less than 5 minutes I had this delicious soup!

And the best part was I could only eat half of this bowl, so now I’ll have a 3rd meal out of one restaurant meal!

I am happy it’s Friday! What’s everyone’s plans for the weekend?

Earlier this week, I made a few things with soy chorizo. It was so good, but by the end of the week, I still had half a tube left and wasn’t sure if I could freeze it, so I decided to make a soup with it! I just used things I had leftover at the end of the week, and you can do the same thing.

Ingredients I used:

1/2 tube of Soy chorizo
1 chicken breast (mine was frozen)
3 large carrots. sliced
2 baby green peppers
1 jalapeno – seeds removed, and chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 stalks green onions (white and green part) chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/2 cup uncooked macaroni
fresh cilantro
6 cups water with 6 tsp. chicken broth

Directions:

In a large pot add the chorizo and cook for several minutes, breaking up the pieces. Next I took the green pepper and jalapeno pepper and added 6 cups of water with 6 tsp. chicken stock mix into a blender and blended that altogether.

I poured that liquid mixture into the pot with the chorizo. Next I added the frozen chicken breast, it was pretty big, so I just added the one. Bring the broth to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes until the chicken is done. I took the chicken out of the broth, shredded it with 2 forks, then added it back to the broth.

The vegetables come next WITH the 1/2 cup of elbow macaroni, add the rest of the veggies into the pot and cook on low for another 20 minutes or so until the veggies are tender and the pasta is done.

I actually didn’t put any other seasonings into it because the seasonings from the soy chorizo gave the broth such great flavor I didn’t think it needed anything else!

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On another note, I wanted to let you know of my blogger friend Amie of The Healthy Apple. She and Silvana Nardone have launched a new online magazine called Easy Eats. If you have to follow a gluten free or restricted diet, this magazine is for you! Check it out when you get a moment.