Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Oh blogger family, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love a good homemade soup.
At the moment, hubby has caught the bug I had last weekend except of course his has turned into a full blown summer cold. (Those are the worst!)
So since I felt a little guilty about spreading my cooties all over the house, I decided to make him some soup to help him feel better.
This is a recipe that I came up with a while ago and it is still a continuous work in progress.  One thing I've noticed with soups, is that you have to tweak it to your tastes.  Every time I make it, I work to make it even healthier, so here is my easy recipe.  Hope you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
3-4 medium-sized boneless skinless chicken breasts
48 oz. low fat/low sodium (no msg) chicken broth (I love the College Inn Light & Fat Free brand)
2 cups water
8 oz. package of No Yolks egg white noodles
4 medium sized carrots - washed, peeled, & chopped (can also use about a cup of frozen sliced carrots)
1/2 medium onion - chopped
4 stalks celery - washed & chopped
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 bay leaf
1/2 - 1 tsp black pepper (to taste)
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste)
1 clove garlic - minced
1 Tbsp olive oil

Here are some pictures of what went into the soup...

Chicken broth

Chopped onions, celery, and carrots

 Egg noodles

DIRECTIONS

1.  Heat olive oil in large pot.
2. Saute onions until translucent.
3. Add garlic and saute until fragrant (approximately 1-2 minutes)
4. Add onions, celery, and carrots. Stir well.
5. Add chicken broth and water.
6. Bring stock to a rapid boil.  Reduce heat to medium-high and boil vegetables in water for 5 minutes.
7. Add rinsed chicken breasts and bay leaf.  
8. Cover pot with lid and boil for 15 minutes.
9. Remove chicken breasts and chop into bite-sized pieces.
10. Add chicken pieces back to pot.
11. Add Italian Seasoning, salt, and pepper.
12. Add noodles to pot. Boil according to package directions.
13. When noodles are done, taste broth to determine if you need more or less salt & pepper.
14. Enjoy!

*NOTE: One thing I noticed was that as they cooked, my noodles started to absorb the chicken broth! I like my soup to actually be soupy and didn't want this to turn into a chicken noodle stew.  So, I  ended up adding another 2 cups of water to the pot along with a teaspoon of chicken bouillon, and a little more salt and pepper. We both really liked it and ate it for dinner tonight with some whole wheat crackers. Hubby said it tasted great and even asked for seconds! I won't tell him I made it with cholesterol free egg white noodles and boneless skinless chicken breasts! (Shhh, that'll be our secret! LOL)

Sauteed Summer Squash

One of the biggest draws to our new home was that the owner had a small garden out front.  In this garden, she planted tomatoes, collard greens, green beans, squash, and strawberries.  Since we didn't move in until the middle of June, we got a big surprise when we got the keys the day before move in. Apparently, the lawn man that the real estate agent hired to maintain the yard COMPLETELY mowed down the garden I was looking forward to harvesting. I was so ridiculously disappointed.  I even called my mama to tell her that the stupid yard man mowed down my veggies! I mean, who does that? (shaking my head)

We've had quite a few rainy days around here recently, so I wasn't surprised to find that the strawberries bounced back.  They really are quite resilient if you think about it.  We also saw what we thought were weeds growing in the garden now that the vegetable plants were destroyed.  Imagine our surprise when hubby came home from work the other day to say, "Uhh, babe, I think we've got some squash out front."
Huh???  Really???  Let me see!!!

Check it out! In the midst of the weeds growing in what was once a beautiful little garden, we had a squash plant to survive the mower too!  We had 1 medium-sized squash and 1 granddaddy squash out front!  I was so excited, we picked them immediately and I got ready to saute those bad boys up right away.  I'm not sure why I was so excited since I'm not really a squash eater, but hubby is and I will look for ANY REASON to find a new recipe online.  So, off to Google I went to find an easy recipe that I could whip up in a jiffy. :-)
The original recipe that I found can be found here, but you know I didn't follow it exactly, right? It just wouldn't be "Kesha's Kreations" if I did...

So anyway, here is my version with just a few modifications to it. Let me know if you try it and what you think.  Being a non-squash eater, I thought it came out really good (much better than the 1st time I tried to make yellow squash) and the recipe was easy.  You can't beat that with a stick!

INGREDIENTS
2-3 medium sized yellow squash
1/2 cup chopped onions
1.5 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 Tbsp sugar (optional - to taste)
1/4 cup water
salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS
1.  Wash and chop yellow squash.
2.  In medium-sized skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat.
3.  Add chopped onions & squash to skillet.
4.  Add sugar, salt and pepper. Stir well.
5.  Add water to skillet. Cover with lid and let steam for approximately 3 minutes.
6.  Remove lid and stir. Allow water to cook off, stirring often.
7.  When water has cooked off, squash should be tender.
8.  Enjoy!

Hubby's Plate...

Baked chicken tenders, northern beans and cornbread and sauteed yellow squash...

(He gave it 2 thumbs up!)

Hope you enjoy!