Copycat Soup: chicken and Wild Rice
Well it’s day three of “Snowmageddon” here in balmy Atlanta. And while the novelty was peachy the first day and a half, let’s just say it’s worn off. Being of ambitious mind we did our fair share of baking, board game playing, closet cleaning and snowman making. And only three time-outs to boot! But now it’s time to get back to reality. The 24/7 breaking news coverage has got to stop. The entire country is laughing at us. The entire country that gets 5,6,7,8 inches -even feet of snow- and somehow manages to function. Our strategy of “Wait ’til it melts” doesn’t seem very efficient. Southerners, man, we really are dumb.
Yeah, I know. We get ice. Well so do airplanes in Toronto and Syracuse but they seem to take off okay. Can’t we borrow stuff from Alabama or is our civil war relationship too tarnished to send snow plows across the state lines? There has GOT to be another way to clear the roads.
I’m impatient. I’m sorry. It’s one of my not so great qualities. Project oriented, check. Fun, check. Nice, check. Motivated, check, check. But patient. Nope. Once the excitement has worn off I’m on to the next thing. And that next thing is when does flippin’ school start again before we’re off again for Martin Luther King Day? I’m happy to help shovel the carpool line if that helps. And I’ll even bring the teachers hot chocolate. That’s the kind of mom I am. Just please don’t cancel another day, kay?
We’ve rationed our eggs on what I feel to be extremely useful foodstuffs. Two batches of brownies, one batch of chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon buns and a trifle. I think I gained ten pounds just writing that sentence.
On a regular day I spend a lot of time at Panera Bread. I don’t love it but it’s convenient, has other people inside and I can get free Wifi if I time myself right. I do like their soups, especially the Chicken and Wild Rice Soup but I don’t like the fact that it’s laden with cream. And now that I haven’t been to “my second office” in three days I will attempt to turn my house into a Panera Bread by making my own version of their Chicken and Wild Rice Soup without the extra cream. Stay tuned…
…6 hours later…
Wow. It turned out great. And it’s much healthier than theirs. Having a little too much time on my hands can sometimes be a good thing.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 package cut up chicken (with skin and bones)
- 4 heaping tablespoons powdered chicken broth
- Few stalks celery, sliced or diced
- Couple of carrots, sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cans low-fat cream of chicken soup
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Olive oil
- Parsley
- Package of wild rice
Directions:
- Put chicken in crock pot.
- Cover with water until 3/4 full.
- Add powdered chicken broth.
- Set crock pot to low (6-8 hours).
- Saute carrots, onion and celery with spices in a drop of olive oil.
- Add low-fat cream of soup and flour to veggie mix until everything is smooth, no lumps.
- Dump this mixture into your soup mixture.
- Cover and leave. Oh wait, you can’t leave because this city doesn’t know how to plow.
- Go into another room and pretend you’re far away.
- When cooked, remove chicken and take off skin.
- Shred chicken with fork and return to soup.
- Cook wild rice according to directions on box (with spices).
- When done, add rice to soup.
*This soup lasts for an eternity which is how long this snow storm is lasting. But it’s hearty and really, really yummy.