Creamy Chicken Rice Soup

I was able to get another round of cough syrup and z-pak – hopefully this second round will knock out this cough.  The worst part is that I feel fine, I just have this nagging cough.  I am worried too about the 5k I signed up for – luckily its still three weeks away!

Over the weekend at the farmers market I bought a small bag of granola that is was a fund raiser for a one room school in a town near where I live.  He was giving out samples, and holy shizz, was it good.  I love granola but am always looking for a way to get granola clusters, not just loose granola.

The man explained that they made sheets of granola, then after it was cooled, they broke it into pieces – why didn’t I think of that??  These totally reminded me of Nature Valley granola bars – I much prefer crispy granola bars to soft ones.

Breakfast was 6 ounces of Chobani Peach yogurt (delish!), 1/2 a cup of cantaloupe and some granola clusters.  Breakfast comes in at 330 calories, 7 fat, 44 carbs, 1.8 fiber and 19 protein.

If anyone has a crispy granola recipe, please let me know!

When I was cleaning out the fridge/freezer over the weekend, I realized I had quite a bit of chicken left on a whole grilled chicken Tony and I cooked the last weekend.  I also had a can of cream of chicken soup, so chicken and rice soup it became.

Creamy Chicken Rice Soup

makes 4, two cup servings:  304 calories, 9 fat, 24 carbs, 3.4 fiber and 28 protein

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces cooked chicken
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 cups celery, chopped fine
• 2 cups carrots, chopped fine
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 6 ounces cooked brown rice (what I had in the fridge)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• salt and pepper to taste

I have to warn you about this soup if you have a sodium issue (Skippy, I am talking to you!) each 2 cup serving has 1433 grams of sodium!  You could use low sodium chicken broth if you wanted.

Heat oil in a stock pot.  Add celery and carrots and cook for 10 minutes.  Throw everything else in the pool except the cooked chicken and rice, simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the veggies are tender.  Add the chicken and rice in for about 5 minutes to warm up.  With a 2 oz. baguette with swiss cheese, lunch comes in at 540 calories, 17 fat, 55 carbs, 5 fiber and 39 protein.

Still no working out for me – weird thing though yesterday.  It was partly cloudy but sunny most of the day, then all of a sudden there was a complete down pour for about 15 minutes – so hard the rain was coming in sideways!

I have to thank an anonymous commenter!

Just an FYI on your roof. The sealing spray stuff they sell on TV where they spray the screen door in a boat actually works great! We use it in a pinch all the time at work. It has saved us big bucks until we actually repair or replace a roof. We buy it at our local Ace Hardware store.

Tony bought some of this spray and Sunday I got back on our roof and sealed in the leaks again.  Even though this wasn’t a sustained rain, he said nothing leaked yesterday – woop!  And our local store sold it for $4.99 a can.

Last night I made Company Salisbury steak, although this time I forgot the cheezy bread on the bottom.  Um, Tony noticed that I forgot!  I also didn’t have packaged brown gravy, but I went with an easy gravy recipe – 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon flour and 1 cup of beef broth.  Just melt the butter, stir in the flour for one minute then slowly add the broth, perfect beef gravy in about 5 minutes.

My spinach froze, so I ended up sautéing some up for the base of my Salisbury steak.  I’ll use the rest for smoothies later this week.

So delicious – this plate comes in at 487 calories, 25 fat, 27 carbs, 2.2 fiber and 35 protein.

Alright, time to get my shit into gear and put my food together for the day and get dressed.  Pretty sure I can’t go to work in my pajamas, just sayin.

Make it a great day!