WIAW: Cheddar Chicken-Veggie-Potato Chowder
A very special happy birthday to my darling blend Kaitlin of For Love of Carrots! I will be visiting her this weekend so we can celebrate in person and I just can’t wait!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds it helpful to focus on goals that don’t have to do with food/fitness! Though I have to admit I was a bit of a fail with some of my goals the day I set them – blah.
- Appreciate More: I certainly kept my head up despite snow changing my gym plans and being a general nuisance. After all I got to go home to hang with my dad, who’d just returned from our FL condo (bad timing Dad!), and my boss was nice enough to let me leave work a bit early to try to beat snowy rush hour (I didn’t, but it was a nice thought!). I had plenty to appreciate, and I certainly did so.
- Cook At Home More: More on that later in this post!
- Separate From My Phone More: I was definitely on my phone less yesterday than usual, most likely due to writing my blog post, but I still didn’t want to leave it downstairs at all during dinner. I was watching SNL on the DVR with my dad and kept finding so many tweet worthy things to comment on – not things Drake said, but #shitmydadsays!
- Go Outside More: Another fail. I knew that a polar vortex and a storm was coming so I just did not go outside during the work day, not even to take one breath of fresh air. However I was feeling a lot more upbeat yesterday and didn’t really find a need to go outside to “center myself”. I had lots of paperwork to do and that is always nice for me, to just plug away at my desk with my music going.
This may look terribly ugly but trust me, it tasted delicious.
Cheddar Chicken-Veggie-Potato Chowder
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Pacific Foods Rosemary Potato Chowder
- 1 chicken breast (small to medium)
- 1/2 cup low fat reduced sodium chicken broth (cannot recall which brand I used)
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms
- 1 Tbsp EVOO
- 1 can of Campbell’s 98% Fat Free Broccoli Cheese Soup
- 1/2 package of Steamfresh Broccoli Florets (feel free to use all of it but my dad would only take so much broc!)
- Salt & pepper (to taste)
Directions:
- Cook chicken breast in a pot on the stovetop. Leave lid on but make sure you watch it (AKA don’t go upstairs to do laundry like I did and come down to find it boiling over).
- Shred chicken with fork, set aside.
- Prepare the broccoli in the microwave. Once done, place in a larger pot on the stovetop, on low heat.
- Sautee the mushrooms and onions in a pan containing the EVOO. Once done, add to the pot with the broc.
- Pour into the pot the chicken broth, Rosemary Potato Chowder, and Broccoli Cheese Soup.
- Add shredded chicken and salt/pepper as you wish, then stir everything together. Turn on higher heat if you are going to eat now. If not, you can keep it on low heat.
- Serve or put in a large container to keep in fridge for later!
The amounts of some of these ingredients are a bit ball-park, and of course the directions don’t have to be followed in exact order. This recipe is meant to be a guideline, kinda like the Pirate’s Code! The Pacific Foods Chowder was not nearly as thick as I’d expected it to be, so my soup was a bit watery. That’s why I added the Broccoli Cheese Soup (found it in my pantry!), which did the trick and thickened it right up. Plus you can’t go wrong with some added cheddar flavor!
I had two helpings served over a bed of MORE broc, plus some chopped spinach!
What’s your favorite type of soup?
Do you ever improvise in the kitchen when a recipe doesn’t go as you’d imagined?
Do you like to enjoy your soup with other food, or solo?
