It feels like it has been an age and a half since my last blog post! I have been thinking about the blog for a while now, and wanting to write a post – but after so long it was hard to know where to start.

I figured one way to start would be to explain where I have been for the last year and a half! The answer is I was pregnant and had a beautiful baby girl this past summer. While I was pregnant I had lost any and all interest in food and cooking. I was exhausted and nauseous most of the time and food was something I had to eat – not something I liked thinking about. I had little energy, and had to use what I had to get to work and back along with exercise every day to be as healthy as possible during my pregnancy!

After having our baby, I completely lost my appetite which I was not expecting. It was only in the last couple of weeks that I had become more interested in food again. Slowly I have started writing out grocery lists and meal plans for our family. I have loved making baby food for our daughter and I will write more about that soon.

For today I thought I would focus on how I gradually started getting back into liking food. Two weeks ago I made a really hearty and delicious chicken noodle soup. My husband used our sous vide to cook two chicken breasts. We added a lot of fresh vegetables to the soup.
I started the base of the soup by sautéing half of a large onion, celery and carrots in a tablespoon of olive oil. I chopped up parsley and scallions to add as well. Once the onions, celery and carrots had cooked down a little bit (I like the onions to be translucent) I added four cups of low sodium organic chicken broth and two cups of organic chicken stock along with the scallions, parsley and a cup of frozen peas. I put a dash of turmeric, paprika and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

On the side I cooked up half a bag of egg noodles. I always cook the egg noodles for my chicken noodle soup on the SIDE and not in the soup. That way, if you have leftovers your noodles do not absorb all of your tasty broth. Just store the noodles separately when you put everything away.

Once the chicken was finished cooking in the sous vide, we cut it up and added the chicken into the soup. I chopped up more scallions and parsley for a fresh garnish that really brings an amazing flavor to the soup.

On the side I always love having a rustic, crusty bread. On this night we had a loaf of rosemary olive oil bread from Wegmans. It was so delicious with the soup.

I made my bowl of chicken noodle soup by putting the cooked egg noodles in the bottom of my bowl, and then I added about a cup of soup and a healthy sprinkling of parsley and scallions. I ground some fresh black pepper on top. Sometimes I add a dash of hot sauce to my soup – it’s really great especially if you are having your chicken noodle soup while you have a cold! It really clears up your nose nicely.

Of course when I was making this soup, I was not thinking about writing it all up for the blog, so I do not have a wonderful photograph of the soup to go along with this post. I did happen to snap a quick photo before devouring this delicious soup – and as memory serves it was about ten o’clock in the evening when I finally sat down to eat, so I was pretty hungry!

I highly recommend making a hearty chicken noodle soup during these wintery evenings – especially if you have been suffering from a lack of a healthy appetite like I have for a few months. This soup was just what I needed to finally get excited again about food!