Saturday, February 8, 2014

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Yes, I know.  I have been on my diet for 12 days and I haven't lost the ten pounds I want to lose. I'm tired of dieting and want a cookie.  Or a loaf of bread.  A whole loaf of fresh baked bread, slathered in butter.  Well, to be fair, I CAN have butter on Atkins.  I just can't have any bread, potatoes, or rice to put it on.  sigh

It is cold so I made some soup.  Not a soup with rice or noodles or barley.  But it was delicious, so I should quit complaining.  Lee did not gain 10 pounds last year, or if he did he went on a diet for a week and lost it, because he is a man.  And life is not fair.  Ever.  But particularly when I am on a diet.  Good thing I have such a SUNNY nature.

I did mention to Lee that he could have a happy, fat wife with no wrinkles or a thinner, grumpy wife with wrinkles.  But we have been married almost 35 years and he knows better than to enter a no win argument. 

And it was cold.  So I made soup.  He got crackers with his.  I got Sprite Zero.  sigh


 

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

32 ounces of chicken broth
3 chicken tenders, you can use more, but I had these left over from another meal
1/4 onion, chopped
2 or 3 ribs celery, sliced.  I chopped up a bit of the celery leaves, too
Broccoli and cauliflower, I bought a frozen bag or just chop about 3 cups of fresh
Italian Herbs
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

 

Pour the broth into a Dutch oven and add the chicken tenders.  I trimmed off the tendon first.  You can use chicken breasts, but the tenders will cook faster.  Add the onions, a pinch of salt and a few turns of a pepper grinder.

 

Bring to broth to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.  If there is no pink in the middle of the largest tender, they are cooked.  Remove the chicken and add the celery, broccoli and cauliflower. 

 

Sprinkle in about 1/2 teaspoon of the Italian Herbs.  I didn't measure, just sprinkled about that much in the palm of my hand, crushed it a bit with my finger to release the flavors and dumped it in the pot.

 

While you bring the vegetables to a boil, use two forks to shred the chicken.  Return the shreds to the pot and reduce to a simmer for 10 more minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with the cilantro just before serving.

 

Serve with crackers.  Unless you are eating low carb.  Gaze enviously at anyone at the table that DOES get crackers.  Remember the 10th Commandment.  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's crackers.

Feel virtuous and, dare I say it, just a tad bit thinner.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds good! Atkins was the only diet I ever lost weight on but after a couple of weeks I got pretty sick so I had to stop.

    Men will never understand how difficult it is to lose a few pounds.

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  2. Soup is a good thing even when not dieting, and we usually have a few containers of homemade in our freezer, in fact we too had soup last night. It probably had stuff in it that you would not want on your Atkins diet, but it was good and tasted better than most of the heavy meals we eat this time of the year. Gook luck on your 10 pound loss! xox

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