Tag Archives: homemade chicken noodle soup

The Holiday Begins…

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And now let the Thanksgiving festivities begin!

I had every intention of going to bed immediately at 10pm yesterday but I was all worked up after watching Biggest Loser – argh.  Vicki makes me so mad, I keep waiting for the week that she goes home.  My mom and I both agree that if she wins the contest, we won’t watch next season!

Anyway, since I went to bed after 10, it was definitely a struggle getting up this morning… Luckily, I made it to work by 7, but my morning was definitely rushed.  I started out with a bowl of hot milk + cereal which included 1 cup of fiber one, grape nuts, sliced banana, pom seeds, and skim milk.  Delish and ultra-flavorful.  Kept me quite full too.

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Mid-morning I resorted to a trivia oatmeal packet – sorry for the redundancy here, but I can’t help it.  They fill me up AND keep me warm!  Looks like Kersten got the correct answer in the comments from yesterday’s post!  Way to go :)

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Lunch was a Thanksgiving PB sandwich… I just came up w/ this name since the combination of pumpkin & pb reminds me of fall & thanksgiving!  On the side I had a yogurt & fiber one.  I also THOUGHT I packed an orange to have w/ my lunch, but it appears that I misstakenly left it at home :/  Booooooo!

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Mid-afternoon, I excitedly tried the Clif Z Bar in Apple-Cinnamon flavor.  Again, the flavor completely jumped out at me – it smelled so yummy.  I wanted to warm it up, per Mrs. LC’s suggestion; however I ate it around 3pm when I was driving home from work, so no microwave was available!  See above for picture :)

I was contemplating either doing spin OR other cardio and I decided since I’m not doing spin tomorrow (they are having a class but I don’t like the teacher) that I should take advantage and do it tonight instead.  I ran around and did errands at the bank & Target and then headed to the gym to do about 30 minutes of lower body strength training.  The spinning class wasn’t until 5:30 and at that point it was 4:30 so I knew I didn’t want to spend an extra hour in the gym waiting around, so I improvised and did my own 30 minute spin class.  It was great and I burned 250 calories all by my own instruction.  I did sprints, climbs, accelerations, hover, and isolations.

When I got home, I pulled out the remaining leftovers of my homemade chicken noodle soup and reheated a bowl each for Bill and I.  So warm, yummy, and comforting.

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A little while later, BellaEats cranberry pumpkin bread called my name, so I had a warm slice with Promise Light on it.  Divine!

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I was contemplating whether I should make my applesauce tonight OR tomorrow morning and ultimately decided, that I should wait until tomorrow to make it so it would be “more fresh” = lazy me.  So now I’m about to throw in some laundry and just RELAX w/ Bill.   Maybe a cup of tea will even wind up in my hands :)

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow, can you?  I will be posting tomorrow, but for those of you who will be unable to read, I’d like to wish all of you and your friends/family a very happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

2 To Go

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One down, two to go until vacation starts!

I started off the day in a great mood, knowing that Monday was really “Wednesday” haha… I was cold and craving the warmness of oatmeal, but craving the flavor of yogurt & the variety of mix-ins… so what did I settle for?  Warm cereal!  I decided to try a different method of preparing it by heating JUST the milk first to see if it provided a slightly different texture.  I poured a mixture of fiber one, grape nuts, and heart to heart and topped it with a sliced banana and flax.  Delish!  The texture was pretty similar but a little bit less mushy.  I will definitely do this again :)

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Although my breakfast held me for 4 hours, I had a snack mid-morning to hold me over until lunch… oatmeal :)   It warmed me right up – my office is cold – and satisfied my daily oatmeal quota!

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Lunch was provided at a meeting that I had today, so no pictures to provide.  They brought in wraps from a local sandwich place so I had a veggie wrap with some Baked Lays.

I was SUPER excited for my mid-afternoon snack because it was courtesy of Andrea from OffHerCork.  We decided to do a bar exchange since I can get the fun seasonal Clif bars and she can get the fun seasonal Z bars.  Look at all the delicious bars she sent me!!!

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Thank you SO much Andrea – you made my week!!!

Today I couldn’t decide on what flavor to have first, so I let Bill choose for me haha.  He selected the Blueberry Z Bar, which I am now a HUGE fan of.  Upon opening the package, I was pleasantly greeted with a strong blueberry aroma.  Eating the bar was no different – it was awesome and totally beats out my normal chocolate chip Z bar – yum.  I think I’ll be ordering these in bulk from Amazon ha!

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I headed off to the gym for my great 5:30pm spinning class (burned 458 cals), but got there a little earlier so I decided to do an upper body circuit & abs.  I did the following:

  • pull ups
  • chest press
  • bicep curls
  • tricep dips
  • love-handle machine
  • captain’s chair abs

I was really looking forward to a super easy dinner.  Yesterday I made a huge batch of homemade chicken noodle soup, I honestly just kind of winged it as I went along, so that we would have a meal already prepared for us for Monday and Wednesday nights!  I love doing this because it makes the work nights so much easier.

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Here’s the recipe:
1 tbsp olive oil to coat
4 cans light chicken broth
4 medium carrots, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 chopped turnip
1 medium onion, chopped (even though I hate it I thought I had to include it for an authentic soup)
2 chopped cooked chicken breasts
1 cup uncooked whole wheat rotini noodles
sprinkling of chopped leeks
tons of fresh parsley, salt & pepper, 2 chopped garlic cloves

Bring olive oil & veggies to boil.  Simmer until veggies are soft.  Add in pasta and bring to another boil.  Lower heat to medium and add in cooked chicken & seasonings and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from heat & enjoy.  I’m not quite sure how many servings this will make but it appears to be a LOT!  I think we will easily get 5 LARGE bowls of soup out of this recipe.

On the side, I also made up some quick biscuits using Biscuick HeartSmart for Bill, but I had probably two servings (aka rest of the bag) of Kashi Crackers. 

The verdict?  The chicken noodle soup was amazing.

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This was my first time making it from scratch so I was SO happy that it turned out well.  It was the ultimate comfort food and was heartier than most chicken noodle soups I had because I doubled up on all of the vegetables.  I prefer chicken noodle soup to be heavy on the veggies and light on the broth, noodles, and chicken and this definitely fit the bill.  Bill was a fan of it too.  I can’t wait to have it again on Wednesday night :)

Now it’s off to watch Heroes!  Have a great night everyone :)

On a side note, my laptop is currently going to be MIA after tonight (fixing it), so I will still be posting, of course, but my time on the computer will be limited because of Thanksgiving + I’ll have to share with Bill to use his!

I didn’t have time to go and comment on everyone’s blogs tonight, but I do read em all… I wanted to thank each and every one of you for your super sweet comments regarding the wedding pictures I posted the other day and the BSI wrap-up post.  I truly am blessed to be a part of this wonderful community – thanks guys!