A Little Rant and a Recipe

I should be studying right now. I'm sitting in a study room, with all my books out, prepared to review my notes for my stats (ew) test (ew) next week. But I can't concentrate. All I can think about it what I'd rather be doing - in this case, baking. All I want to do with my life is bake delicious and healthy things, and I guess cook things too, and share them. Last night, instead of reviewing for today's lecture, guess what I did? I baked. And do you know what? I was happy to do that. I want everyone to try these pumpkin spice muffins, so I made them to bring to work. To give to Lee's friend. To bring to my parents. 

So now today, sitting in class I started thinking that all I want to do is quit my job and bake for a living. It doesn't help that works sucks so badly right now that I feel like I'm started to look as defeated as I am. To the point that today in tutorial my TA was asking if we understood whatever we had just reviewed, and then looked at me and whispered "are you okay??". Maybe I should have brushed my hair. 

Anyway, I digress. Right now I just feel like I have the Grand Canyon in between what I'm doing, and what I love to do. I mean, I get to do what I love every morning at some ungodly hour when I go to the gym, and I get to cook and bake on (most) Sundays, but then I have to go to work. My brother likes to talk as if this is some no-brainer that I should just do what I love, but unfortunately, I'm very qualified for the job that I have, and very unqualified to make any sort of living in the kitchen. Frustrating, right? 

Times like this my instinct tells me to run, or bike. Cardio is out of the question right now though since I'm still experimenting. Anyway, here's a recipe. 

Shredded Chicken Soup

I'm a lover of soups. Only chunky soups though, other than potato leek soup, pureed soups make me kind of sick. Up until I was about 18, I thought that chicken noodle soup typically came with beef meatballs in it. I have my Dutch background to thank for that, but regardless, it has always been my favourite soup. Unfortunately, the nutritional value of it is pretty minimal, so this past weekend I decided to make a healthier version of it to satisfy the delusional Dutch girl in me. 

First throw 3 chicken breasts into the crockpot with 2 cups of chicken broth, fresh pepper and some sage. Let this cook on high until the chicken can be easily shredded, about 2-3 hours. You want it to look like this:

While that's cooking, chop up your veggies. For this I used:

onion

carrots

zucchini

broccoli

corn

sweet potato

Add a bit of EVOO to a big pan with the onion and brown slightly. Then add the rest of the veggies and cook until soft:

Then add:
8-10 cups of chicken broth (I also used one cup of beef broth, just for fun) - I can't remember the exact number of cups that I added (stupid draft was deleted, again), but this is really to your preference. 
1-2 tbsp sage 
1-2 tbsp Maggie (this is a Dutch seasoning, and it doesn't count as clean, but I can't let it go. You could replace with a low sodium soy sauce)
fresh pepper to taste
the chicken and whatever broth is left with it. 

Let this sit on low heat to soak up the flavours. I kept trying mine and added more pepper/sage/maggie as needed. That's the fun thing about soups, they're super easy to adjust to your tastes! 

I've made this with chicken meatballs as well, and that's also fantastic. I'll post that recipe too next time I make it (and measure what I do). Can we all just take a minute to appreciate the amazing "countertop" in my house? I can't wait until I have my own beautiful kitchen. 

What's your favourite soup?
Do you have any advice for me?