Orange you glad: A Cure for the Rainy Day Blues

So I'm kind of late posting this, but last weekend was really dark and rainy and all three of us were feeling a bit under the weather. The solution? Make some homemade chicken noodle soup and hunker down indoors!

We made a super delicious soup and Clay's famous grilled cheese sandwiches ( I don't know what it is about them, but somehow he makes the BEST grilled cheeses!!), and I thought I'd share my recipe with you guys. I didn't really follow a "recipe", I just kind of did my own thing and luckily it turned out pretty darn good! Chicken noodle soup is actually surprisingly very easy to make. It would take a concerted effort to mess it up. Perfect for someone like me, who is not always gifted in the kitchen...

Sooo here we go! I only took a picture of the finished product, but next time I do a recipe I'll take pictures of the process as well :)
Now, the great thing about this (especially for moms like myself who are lazy or short on time) is that you can make this a super fast way, or take a little more time and effort to make it the real way. Even the "slower" way is really simple. I'll go ahead and show you the fast way and interject with alternative ways you can make it even more homemade.

Ingredients:

- 1 Rotisserie chicken
- 1 package egg noodles (16 oz?)
- 4 cans of chicken broth
- 2 cans of vegetable broth
- 2 or 3 celery stalks
- 2 or 3 large carrots
- 1/2 a red onion
- 1/3 stick of butter
- basil, sage, rosemary, and oregano (or herbs of your choice)
- salt and pepper to taste

This will yield a good amount of soup! We ended up having leftovers for about 5 days. Make sure you have a large pot, otherwise it's going to overflow. I just used a standard large stock pot. You can easily alter the amount of ingredients if you don't want to make as much, or want to make more, or want to add additional veggies... but this is just the recipe as I made it.

Alternative: Instead of buying canned broth and a pre-cooked chicken, you can make your own! Chicken stock is realllly easy to make, it just takes more time. The cool thing is that you just need the same ingredients for the stock as you do for the soup, so no need to buy any extra ingredients! Just buy raw, bone-in chicken (drumsticks would be a great choice) and boil them in water until the meat is cooked through. Take the chicken out and separate the meat from the bone. Put the chicken meat in the fridge. Break the bones in half and put them and any leftover chicken (fat, skin, etc.) back into the pot of water, add celery, onion, carrots, and seasoning, cover, and let them all simmer together for 3 hours. That's it! Now, I've never made vegetable broth before, but here's a recipe that I've found for that, it seems pretty easy.

For the herbs, I just plucked fresh ones from my mini herb garden, but you could also use dried herbs as well.
Also, I am a huge lover of red onions, but if you prefer a different type, use that instead. Personally, I love the spiciness of red onion.

Directions:

1. Chop up the celery, carrots, and onions.
2. Put the celery, onions, and butter into a large stock pot and let them cook together on low heat for about 3-4 minutes.
3. Next, add all the broth into the pot.
4. Add carrots, noodles, and break up the chicken a bit as you add it to the pot.
5. Stir so that the ingredients are evenly distributed in the pot.
6. Add seasoning, and bring everything to a boil.
7. Once it boils, turn down the heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes.
8. Eat and be merry!