Bjork and Chicken soup

Hello friends!

Once again, it has been aaaages!

What's the relationship between Bjork and chicken soup? LOL - I just hear myself saying "Bjork" out loud and then looked at the word chicken.. it sounds like the noise a chicken makes, but that's not the link!! Bjork recorded a song "Oh so quiet", and at this moment, that's what it's like in my house (Won't last for long, though!)

It's 5.50am on a Saturday morning and I'm awake.... I could have gone back to bed after feeding Miss Baby C at 4.20am, and I did, but that was a pointless effort, really. Perhaps I made the mistake of taking my iPhone back with me - checking out what the latest is on Facebook while I was sleeping (not a lot!). I sometimes live vicariously through my Facebook friends who are single and childless ;)

So anyways, I lost the momentum of sleep and with many things on my neverending "to do list" I made the decision to get up, enjoy the quiet solitude and get a few things done.

I must admit, blogging wasn't the first thing on that list, it has ended up being third - I think about blogging every day, but I have been so caught up with life in general, it has taken a backseat to everything else. I could probably blog more often now that Hubby dear has installed the Blogger app on my phone, although I suspect the entries would be much shorter. That may not be such a bad thing, I suppose!

First item of business was to make some chicken soup for a dear little friend at work. The poor thing had three wisdom teeth removed in the chair last Friday and she is worse for wear. She is fresh out of Uni , her loved ones are 400km and needs some TLC. I gave her my number and said to ring if she needed anything, I got an SOS of sorts yesterday. A week after the procedure she is still suffering- probably something to do with the fact that some silly dentist took teeth out while there was still an infection AND didn't give her an extended course of antibiotics... but we won't go there, I might just start ranting and raving about it a little (grrrrrr). So, I offered to make her some soup :)

I started chopping up veges into little cubes and began to revel in the whole concept of preparing food without grizzling and/or groaning children around me. It was actually enjoyable! Lately, like all mothers no doubt, I shudder when I hear the question "What's for dinner?" not long after I have walked in the door, or even in the car, on the way home from work!! Surely they can see the steam coming out of my ears???

Hubby is getting much better at helping to organise tea, because I have really started to drag my sorry feet in that department. After a few times of me almost ripping everyone's jugular out he has improved somewhat. Perhaps it's a pipe dream, my ideal scenario is that I don't have to cook dinner during the week, at least not until I am home all day on school holidays. Anything is possible, you never know! The other solution is to get back into a long forgotten habit of menu planning... sigh. I had grandiose dreams of trying out the once a month cooking thing, perhaps I need to start small and work up to it.

Well, the silence has been broken, 2 out of 4 children have emerged, Baby C is stirring again. It's ON!

Today is going to be a HUGE day.. dancing for Miss H, friends visiting at 11am, 4 yo birthday party at 2pm, 14 yo birthday party at 4pm and a church family games night at 6pm... phew! Christmas is definitely coming, it's getting madder by the minute.

oh, before I sign off, I'll include the recipe I used to make the small batch of chicken soup..

SOS Chicken Soup (Single serve)

1 chicken breast, roughly chopped into large pieces
2 sticks of celery, cubed
1 medium onion, cubed
1 medium potato, cubed
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon of parsley, finely chopped
S&P

Prepare ingredients as above, chuck it into slow cooker and cook on high until done...
If you don't have a slow cooker, heat a little oil in a heavy based soup pot, saute veges and then add stock and seasoning, submerge chicken in the liquid. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a slow simmer then place lid on. Keep checking and stirring it regularly until veges are super soft and chicken is cooked. Carefully remove chicken and shred with a fork.
NOTES:
Because it's painful to chew, I'm going to puree the soup and then put the finely shredded chicken back in.
I also LOVE to add small shell pasta shapes towards the end - today I am leaving them out cos I don't know if little one is able to tolerate gluten products.

That is all.

TGBTG

Anje xxoo