Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers

I just had one of these for the first time today. I had Grilled White Meat Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo sauce with linguini and broccoli Florets.

I must say, this was FABULOUS!! I was VERY pleasantly surprised. I normally hate microwaved food, but this wasn't bad at all.

Now, I'm not a food snob, but I was raised by my grandparents and my Mommy (yes I called my grandmother Mommy)cooked 3 hot meals a day. FROM SCRATCH!!! So, I didn't get a lot of microwave stuff until I was out on my own and realized my mistake in racing from the kitchen everytime she tried to teach me to cook. You could tell the Cafe Steamers was a micro meal, but it was as close to gourmet/homecooked as a micro meal can get.

The meal was filling and not too hard on the budget. Now, I only bought it for today cause I have 4 kids at home for Fall Break and they ALL like PB & J sandwiches and that's just not a favorite of mine nor is it on my diet. So, this isn't something that I would normally buy, but on a rare occasion when the schedule demands quickness, I'll know that for less than the price of most kids meals at the local drive thru fat factories I can have something nutritious, delicious and FAST!!!

Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I'm in the mood to cook!! YAY!!!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, I'm so excited. I just can't wait.

See I told you, sometimes store or generic brands are cheaper. The McCormick grinders were on sale for $1. Happy Donna! Happy Donna!! LOL! Ok, sorry. Wild tangent. Back to Chicken soup.

The ingredients for Chicken soup are simple. Noodles, salt, pepper, chicken, chicken broth, carrots, celery, onion and garlic. OOPS!! No garlic and onion in the picture. Just pretend. You know it's there.

Here's how I do it.

INGREDIENTS

-48 oz of chicken broth
-2 BS chicken breasts (no not Bull Snot chicken breasts. boneless and skinless. Keep your minds out of the gutter) You can do this without even thawing the chicken out.
-1 large onion, peeled, halved and sliced

-3 bay leaves
-about 10 turns of the pepper grinder
-2/3 bunch celery (Now you could reserve the leaves for later if you want to get fancy)
-1 pound carrots sliced (I use baby carrots cause they are already cleaned and I have enough to do during the day.)

-1 package dry noodles

-water

DIRECTIONS

1. Place everything, but the noodles in a large pot over High heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. (This may take longer if you didn't thaw your chicken.)

2. Remove chicken. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin and cut meat into bite-size pieces.

3. Return chicken to pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Stir noodles into pot. Simmer until noodles are cooked, about 10 minutes more. At this time I normally have to add a bit more water.

4. Serve with warm crusty bread or grilled cheese sandwiches. YUM!!

FYI-if you like a bit more chickeny flavor you can always add some a bit chicken base or a couple buillion cubes to add a bit more chickeny taste.