October 27, 2008

Chicken Noodle Soup and Pumpkin Bread

I did my grocery shopping Saturday at the commissary. I spent under $200 with over $40 being due to cookout supplies that we bought for that evening. I'll go over it more in detail later when I have the chance. 

Till then, I'll give the recipes for tonight's dinner and this week's dessert. I did not get around to making the chocolate chip cookie dough because our freezer is PACKED from leftover frozen burgers that weren't eaten Saturday night. I'll make it when I have room to flash freeze.

Chicken Noodle Soup
This is my homemade version. I boil (in a stock pot) a whole chicken in water. I had celery, so I added a few stalks of that. I season as I feel like it. No real measurements to it. lol. When chicken is done (skin starts to pull away from the meat), I pull the chicken pieces out. Meanwhile, I cubed and boiled a couple of large white potatoes. When boiling, you want to remove them while they're still slightly undercooked. I take the meat off the chicken and put it back into the stock. Meanwhile then, I boiled my pasta on the side. My mom likes egg noodles. They have a conspiracy against me. I stick with whole wheat or tri colored pasta spirals. Whatever floats the boat you can use pasta wise. I cheat and add to the broth and chicken a can of carrots. When the potatoes are ready, I drain and add them to the pot of broth. When the noodles are done I add them to a pot of broth. If you like celery, cut celery and put in broth. Otherwise ignore. My "secret" seasoning is season all. It makes the soup oh so much better in taste.  Be sure you heat everything up well after you add everything. This makes a HUGE pot of chicken noodle soup. And it's cheap. When I make this soup, I give away a large container of it my coworker. DH and I will probably eat off of this most of the week for lunches. I might have to give some more away. My family back home (4 grown hungry people) eats this for dinner two days in a row and still ends up having some leftovers for lunches.
Now please don't be like how I was tonight. When cooking the potatoes, CHECK ON THEM. I forgot I had them boiling. We ended up with very few potatoes in the soup. DH now has some great smashed potatoes for later in the week. *sigh* I also had issues with my first attempt at boiling pasta. lol. Remember how I said that I have issues with egg noodles? Well, DH asked for them...and they're still conspiring against me. Luckily I had a spare bag of tri colored spirals in the pantry and we were still able to have pasta in our chicken noodle soup. :) 

Now for the pumpkin bread. Unlike the soup, everything went GREAT with this quick bread. It was my first time trying this recipe and it's a definite keeper. I'll probably add it to my year around desserts.

Pumpkin Bread

From Iyra, the best I have ever eaten

 

3 cups sugar

1 cup butter, melted (can use oil)

4 eggs

1 can pumpkin (2 cups using homemade)

3 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cloves

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

½ cup water

1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (optional)

 

Sift dry ingredients together with spices. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and pumpkin and mix well. Mix melted butter and water and add alternately with flour mixture. Add nuts if using. Pour into 2 greased floured 9×5 loaf pans or one Bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done at 350*.

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