Dear Food Blog Readers,
I have been thinking about you a lot lately. You might have noticed that my postings have been a little, well, sparse.
Believe me, I have wanted nothing more then to cook up a huge lamb roast or crab cake or cassoulet. At least in the food loving part of my brain.
But I have to confess, I have had a grocery cart full of Stouffer’s Lasagne and canned soup. I have bought more junk food in the past 2 months then Honey Boo Boo’s mom June buys in a year. In fact her Sketti recipe didn’t sound half bad to me.
Why? Why would someone who loves to eat resort to can after can of Chickarini soup and Triscuits?
Because of first trimester nausea and food aversions, that’s why! I am 12 weeks pregnant!
We are beyond excited about having another little one in our family. I can honestly say that this has been my best first trimester yet (minus the food blog neglect). This is in a large part due to my best friend Zofran. This drug was invented to help with the nausea from chemotherapy for cancer patients, but was tested for pregnancy nausea and works amazingly. Also, ‘chemo cancer patient nausea’ nicely sums up how I am feeling without the drug for anyone who cares (basically just my husband and my mom).
With the drug, I am operating at full capacity. The only thing it doesn’t do is remove my food aversions. Which is almost everything. The one thing I have been wanting to eat is chicken noodle soup.
Since someone reading this might someday be sick and want something soothing, or know someone who is sick and wants to make them something, I thought I would share my version.
Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a plain old classic recipe in any of my go-to cook books. There was one that involved starting with chicken thighs and a can of cream of chicken soup(!), but I just figured out my own. I also found an easy, awesome tortellini soup that is so good and fit my cravings perfectly in a pinch. I basically made these two versions of chicken noodle soup every week for the past month. The secret to both of these is in homemade broth. Don’t be scared, it is so easy, and makes a BIG difference in quality/lick the bowl satisfaction.
Classic Chicken Noodle Soup
For Broth:
1 Rotissery Chicken, meat removed, cubed and reserved
4-6 cups water (enough to cover the chicken carcass)
1 carrot, 1 onion (peeled), 1 stalk of celery + extra leaves, all quartered
1 t. salt, 1 t. peppercorns, 3-4 cloves of garlic, big bunch of rosemary, thyme, parsley, and 2 bay leaves
Directions: Bring to a boil, removing any scum that forms on the top, then reduce to a simmer. Partially cover with lid and simmer for 2 hours. Taste after 2 hours for seasoning, adding more salt if needed. If it should taste watery, simmer for a little longer until it tastes like broth. Find a large bowl that you can rest a colander on top of, and strain broth into bowl.
For the Soup:
Put roughly 6 cups of broth into large pot and bring to a boil. Add:
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Then add
2 cups of wide egg noodles, cook for 5-7 min. Then add
cubed chicken from rotisserie chicken
Chicken Tortellini Soup
This soup is SO easy! And I dream about the lemony tang (I think I doubled the lemon juice actually). I saw a similar recipe from an old Everyday Food mag, and I tweaked it a bit by just throwing what I had into some broth:
4-6 cups of homemade chicken broth (or canned if you don’t have time)
1 package meat tortellini (surprising how good the meat kind is in this soup!)
2 T. fresh lemon juice (or more to taste)
1-2 cups cubed chicken
1 package of baby spinach or arugula, about 4 cups
Directions:
Bring broth to a boil. Add tortellini and cook for 5 min or according to package directions. Remove from heat, and stir in lemon juice, spinach, chicken, salt and pepper to taste.
I loved this soup with garlic bread (I can thank the Zofran for handling garlic! But it is especially nice if you are sick since garlic helps your immune system). Just melt 2 T. butter with 1-2 cloves garlic (I use a garlic press so it is finer then mincing it but if you don’t have one just mince). Add a pinch of salt, then spread on toasted bread (the munchkins love this job if the butter isn’t too hot).
Don’t worry – even though the first trimester means this is ALL I can eat, I make up for it in SPADES during the next two trimesters. I snap into pregnant mommy mode, where I start to look and cook like Ina Garten. So you are in for some GREAT posts for the next 6 months.
Until then, I will dream of eating Buffalo Chicken Greek Salads and then make up for it with a vengeance in around 2 more weeks.
Love, Katie
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