Chicken Soup for the Stomach

Chicken Soup for the Stomach

Happy Sunday everyone! It is November 7th, and it is cold and rainy outside; the kind of day when a hot steamy bowl of soup would really hit the spot. Actually for lunch I had canned tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. It was very mediocre.


With the celebration of Advent right around the corner, and the traditional soup suppers at church, my mouth began watering for a great bowl of soup. Not something out of a can, but something homemade, filling and delicious.

My favorite, like the rest of the world, is the all time popular Chicken Noodle soup. With my recent discovery that my body doesn’t tolerate carbohydrates well, I will have to settle for my second favorite: Chicken Vegetable. It is quick, easy, and cheap. What’s better than all that?

Take a whole chicken, rinse and remove the giblet package (discard this, EWWW!). Toss it in a crock pot, fill halfway with water, salt and pepper lightly, and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Remove the chicken reserving the liquid in the crock pot. Take the meat off the bones and return to the crock pot. Chop your favorite vegetables into uniform, bite size pieces and add to the crock pot. You could even throw a package of frozen veggies in there if you are pressed for time. I like to use:

Carrots

Celery

Onions

Garlic

Corn

Zucchini

And potatoes

You could also add noodles, or rice, if you wish.

Cook on high for another 1-2 hours. Serve. Eat.

What is simpler? The house smells great. It is nutritious. It is cheap. You only use 1 pot, so clean up is a breeze. It can also cook itself while you are out running errands or at work. It’s hot and it’s perfect. It is also an easy meal to share with a large crowd. At my church, we have soup suppers on Wednesday evenings. This travels well, reheats in a snap, and satisfies a large, hungry crowd. Serve with buttered bread, or crackers (if you are not carb intolerant). Celery sticks with cream cheese, or grilled zucchini slices topped with parmesan cheese make a good side as well.

…John 6:57 “…so the one who feeds on me, will live because of me.”



Enjoy!



Lori Sinclair

Psalm 23:6 "...my cup overflows."



Coming Christmas 2010

Ho, Ho, Hey! What Just Happened?

Holiday enlightenment from an overworked Santa and his testy crew!



www.SinclairInkSpot.com

You can find me on my web site, Facebook, MySpace, Classmates, Shoutlife, Yahoo, or Twitter.

Bionote: Lori is the author of three business books, numerous church skits, and several articles. She lives in Sacramento with her two children, two dogs, and cat. She loves to hear from her readers, so please email your thoughts and questions.

Turkey Soup

Turkey Soup

When I was a kid my grandmother used to make turkey soup.  All of us grandkids would always make fun of her when she did.  We thought it was the most disgusting thing to boil the carcass of the poor creature that had given its life for our holiday meal.  It seemed somehow gruesome to me.  On top of that, after eating turkey for 3 or 4 days, then to stretch out the same meal for another 2 or 3 days was more turkey than I could take.  My father explained to me that my grandparents had lived through the depression so never threw anything away, EVER.  This was a woman who would wash plastic silverware to use again, and rinse out paper towels to reuse.

Now that I am older I realize that most of the flavor from any protein comes from the roasted bones.  Once the turkey has been roasted, the real flavor can be extracted from the pieces that most people throw away. Take the entire carcass, skin, bones, scrapings from the bottom of the pan, etc., and throw it all into a huge pot.  Add 1 tsp. salt.  Cover with water and simmer on low for 2-3 hours, keeping a close eye on the pot to make sure that the water doesn't completely boil out.  After the pot has reduced by 25-30%, taste the broth.  When it tastes like turkey, remove from the heat and strain through a fine strainer.  (Turkey soup can have many small bones and pieces, especially from the neck and backbone.  Make sure to get them all so no one will choke later).  You now have the base of your soup.  To this you can add anything you like:

Onions
mushrooms
celery
carrots
corn
beans
peas
potatoes
rice
noodles
leftover turkey meat
chicken meat

Add your desired ingredients, in your desired amounts and simmer for another 15 minutes to cook through. 
Make your soup any way that you like.  I throw the leftover gravy into mine too.  I also like mine a little thicker.  Leftover mashed potatoes can do the trick here too.  I like my soup pretty thick.  Rachael Ray calls it stoup - a cross between stew and soup.

Experiment.  Have fun.  But above all, don't throw anything away.  Someone from the Great Depression might get mad!  Thanks Grandma.


Psalm 118:22 (New International Version)
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;


Enjoy~

Lori

Psalm 23:6 "...my cup overflows."

http://www.sinclairinkspot.com/
You can find me on my web site, Facebook, MySpace, Classmates, Shoutlife, or Twitter.

Flu Season

Flu Season

We got our flu shots at work this week. It reminded me of how miserable I am when I get sick. I am not at all pleasant to be around. All I want to do is sleep and have some hot chicken soup. Canned soup is good, but nothing compares to homemade. It is both tastier and cheaper. I try to keep a big pot around at least once a week. If not for me, then for someone else in my household that may not be feeling well either. There is a special feeling when you care for someone else who is ill.

Matthew 25:36 "... I was sick and you looked after me..." NIV

Here is my favorite chicken soup recipe.

1 whole chicken
3-4 cloves garlic
6 cups water
salt
pepper
3-4 stalks celery
2-3 carrots
1 potato
2 C. egg noodles

Take one whole chicken, clean, remove the giblets, and place into a large crock pot. Season with salt and pepper. Add chopped garlic, celery, carrots, potato, and onion. Cover with water. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-8 hours. If no crock pot is available, simmer the chicken on the stove top on low heat for 2 hours. Remove the chicken from the heat. The liquid is now the base of your soup. Salt and pepper to taste.

When the chicken is cooled, remove the meat from the bones, taking care not to get any small bones into the meat. Return the meat to the pot, discard the bones. Bring to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook until tender. Serve warm with crackers.

Enjoy, and stay well this flu season.

Lori
Psalm 23:6 "...my cup overflows."

www.SinclairInkSpot.com
You can find me on my web site, Facebook, MySpace, Classmates, Shoutlife, or Twitter.

Stuff

John 6:12
"Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."

When I was a teenager I used to go spend the summer with my aunt. She would make this dish that she called "stuff." "What is it?" I would ask. Her reply was always "stuff". Being the analytical one in the family, this answer wasn't good enough for me. I pressed. "What stuff?"
"It's different every time," she would say, enjoying the irritation that I would feel.
"How do you make it?" Bingo. It took some time but I had finally landed on the right question.

Here's the recipe:

Take a large air tight plastic container, with tightly securing lid, and place it, empty into the freezer. As you finish each meal, if there is a scoop of something leftover, place it in the freezer in the airtight container. The requirements are that the leftover has to be too much to throw away, but not enough to save for another meal. Other than that, the ingredient list is wide open. She generally tried to stick to potatoes, vegetables, rice, meats, gravies, and the occasional hot dog. In other words, savory dishes. Deserts are off limits. They can make their own "stuff" later. When the plastic container was full, she would throw it into a crock pot and cook it all day, letting the flavors marry and meld together. She was right. Each and every dish of stuff was completely different than the one before. Most were quite tasty, I am told by my cousins. Others... well, you know.

This is strangely reminiscent of a traditional Scottish dish called the Hunter's Stew. As the men would set out hunting in the morning, the women would prepare the base of the stew. They would go to the garden and bring in whatever vegetable was in season. Potatoes and leeks were common. Onions and other greens would be harvested too. These would be prepared and thrown into a large pot of water. Whatever meat the hunter would bring home would be cleaned and thrown in too. Hunter's stew could be anything from venison, beef, and mutton to rabbits and squirrels, or any type of seafood imaginable. It is different everytime. Often there would be some small leftovers from one meal, that would be added to with a new kill, changing the taste completely. Whatever the hunter brought home went into the stew. There was no recipe. It was "stuff."

I take a slightly different tact with my leftovers. Rather than one large plastic container, I have numerous small ones. I make what I call "TV dinners." Being a finiky eater, I am a little more cautious with my combinations, but the idea is the same. I will place into these containers, one scoop of potatoes one night, some vegetables the next night. One day a leftover hot dog or a chicken breast - whatever my hunter has brought home that day. When an individual meal is done, I put it on a special shelf in my freezer. These are what I bring to lunch at work every day. When the kids are gone and I have a meal alone, I dine on one of these leftovers rather than going out, or cooking another whole meal just for myself. It works out well. I save tons of money on lunches out at work, and no matter how tired or sick I am feeling, I know there is a good, nutritious, home cooked meal waiting for me at home, made of scraps and pieces that some would throw away.

After Jesus fed the 5,000 in the book of John, he took care to tell the disciples "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." Jesus had some "stuff" too. If it's good enough for Him, then it's good enough for me! Try it, and enjoy - just leave out the ice cream and pumpkin pie.

Enjoy!
Lori Sinclair
Psalm 23:6 "...my cup overflows."
You can find me on my web site, Facebook, MySpace, Classmates, Shoutlife, or Twitter.