Chicken Noodle Soup

Every year around this time I make a huge batch of chicken noodle soup to have on hand in case someone in my family gets sick. And by someone I mean my husband, because he is a BIG BABY when sick and it usually drives me crazy to tend to his every need when he thinks he's dying (and simply has a stuffed up nose). I try to go into the winter with at least 10 individual servings of soup, frozen, just waiting for someone to start hacking. This soup can be frozen for about 3 months without any decline in quality. My husband will usually heat this up on the stove and add some egg to it for extra protein. This recipe will yield about 16 servings, no joke.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp of olive oil

1 1/2 yellow onions, chopped (I use food processor for this, saves me the tears)

6 stalks celery, chopped

6 carrots, skinned & chopped

3 parsnips, skinned and chopped

5 bay leaves (or more- I will often put 6 or 7)

3lbs of chicken, grilled & chopped (we use our George Foreman, love that thing)

3 cups water

16 cups chicken broth (I shoot for low-sodium, fat-free)

2 bags of wide egg noodles (they are about 8 oz each)

3/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup of fresh parsley, chopped (can use dried parsley if you need to)

2 Tbsp dill, chopped (I don't recommend dried for this).

1. Using a large stock pot, heat olive oil. Add chopped onions and saute on medium heat for 5 minutes.

2. Toss in celery, carrots, parsnips, bay leaves, chicken broth, water, and black pepper. Bring to a boil on high heat. Once boiling, add chicken and reduce to simmer.

3. Add noodles & simmer until tender, usually 8-9 minutes.

4. Remove the bay leaves, and add chicken, parsley & dill.

Optional: The nice thing about chicken noodle soup is that you can swap out vegetables really easily based on your personal preferences. You can add potatoes, peas, turnips or leeks. You can also add more flavor by adding a 1/2 teaspoon of thyme, sage, garlic, cayenne or rosemary to the mix. We try to keep the recipe fairly simple since we have a toddler, and then add the seasonings as we see fit to our individual servings. This is also helpful if your taste buds are a bit wonky when you're sick, if there's too much seasoning, you're not going to eat it.

So, now we are officially ready for Winter. Well, we will be once I pick up the oyster crackers to go with the soup!