Chicken Quinoa Vegetable Lemon Soup or something...

Finally Cooking Again!

It has been a bit since I have had a chance to write or to even do anything with my blogs and pictures lately. The kids have this insane school vacation and my little darling angel baby has been fussy (teething??? at 4 months?? ugh I am hoping it is just a bad dream...). I also have been slacking majorly in the cooking department which was what was giving me such great material to write about heh heh heh

Well today 2 of the 3 kids are gone overnight so I'm just left with P.O.'d little baby. Poor thing she just wants me to hold her constantly but when I try to nurse her she rips me a new one so I'm not real into that right now. I parked her in the high chair in front of the 55 gallon goldfish tank which seems to be keeping her amused intermittently. She already does this thing where she cries and then looks to see if I'm looking. At 4 months old. Oy. I am in for a ride with this little darling.

I also went on a Costco shopping spree this past Tuesday. For anyone who is using Food Stamps (EBT card) such as myself...YES I FINALLY GOT THEM WOOHOO AND THEY WERE PRORATED!!!.... you must be a member to actually purchase anything on the card there. You can't be a guest. That doesn't bode well for poor folk like myself who have the foodstamps BECAUSE they don't have a lot of extra cash for stuff like a $50 or $100 Costco membership card...

Luckily its Tax Return season so I used that to get this card since diapers and wipes are always better to buy in bulk and I think I will actually use it to my benefit. So hard to throw that money into something like that though let me tell you. *shudder*

My trip to Costco yielded numerous cases of various canned items which I will be dumping into my crack pot over the next few weeks. I also got this ridiculous 10 lb bag of frozen skinless boneless chicken breasts for under $20 that has so much chicken in it I can barely shove it into my freezer. No, I do not have a standalone freezer unfortunately. That is what I would have rather spent that membership money towards, but whatever. I'll make do.

I also purchased a 4 lb bag of Quinoa, the wonder grain. It looks suspiciously like Cecropia Moth eggs...but its supposed to be really great for you and is something I have wanted to use for years but I'm too Scotch to pay $7 for a little bag of it at the health food store. Well Costco has ORGANIC Quinoa 4 lb bags for $8!!! You better believe I bought some!!! Should have bought a couple of bags but I wanted to make sure everyone would eat it first.

Yesterday I made a beef stew with tomato basil soup, diced tomatoes, and red potatoes. Mmm Mmm Good for sure. All stuff I bought at the Big C.

Today I am being a little more adventurous. I decided to make something with all that damn chicken. Well, a couple of pieces ha ha

Betsy Cracker's Chicken Quinoa Vegetable Soup

1 can of chicken broth

1 can of diced tomatoes, drained or strained or hand squeezed, however you prefer!

1 can of sliced carrots, drained

1 can of green beans, drained

1 can of water (or, just don't drain all that other crap!!)

1/2 lemon, sliced

1 stalk of celery, or more if you like celery, chopped

3 shakes of basil

2 frozen chicken breasts

any other veggies you want to throw in!!

Yes, I color coded those ingredients. See there is a rainbow of healthy stuff in this soup!!! :)

I dug in the back of a cupboard and found a STRAINER!!!! YAY!!!

When you use Quinoa, make sure you put it into a fine strainer such as the lovely item in the picture above, and rinse thoroughly in cold water. Mush it around a bit to make sure you get the stuff on the bottom because it is sneaky little grain and seems a bit water resistant!

I put everything in the pot at 10:30am on Low. I plan to take it out around 5:30ish...by 12:00pm the chicken already looked close to done so hopefully you can't really screw it up by leaving it in too long...

I threw the lemon in because I am an artist at heart, and I like the way lemon slices look. Will it taste good? Who knows. The kids aren't eating here tonight so I figured I could be creative...

PS. The baby watching fish tank thing? Yeah that lasted about 5 minutes and now she's nursing. Oooch.