Spicy Chicken Soup

Ben and I made our first dinner at my new apartment. It was spicy, yummy and quick. A perfect mid-week dinner.


To figure out what we wanted Ben and I listed the things that we were craving. I said I wanted spicy, Ben said soup, I asked chicken? and Ben agreed. I then searched for something that would match our key words on Cooking Light's website. Low and behold we found Spicy Chicken Soup!

Spicy Chicken Soup

3 Tbsp chipotle salsa with adobo sauce
1 tsp olive oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium to small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno without seeds, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups cooked chicken breast strips
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans fat-free, chicken broth
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
1 can whole-kernel corn with sweet peppers, drained


Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onions, jalapeno, and cumin; saute 4 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Stir in salsa, chicken, broth, tomatoes, and corn. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes.

We grated some reduced fat cheddar cheese over the top, with some crackers on the side it was a fabulous dinner. This recipe makes 4 servings of 2 cups.


So this dinner takes about 15 minutes to put together but tastes like it simmered all day, the flavors are so good and spicy. This soup warmed us up on a chilly fall night. (The cooking light nutrition facts are about 350 calories, 11 grams fat, and 40 grams protein.) Ben reheated the extra for lunch and it was just as good the second time around.

Thai Fish and Noodle Soup

Tuesday night dinners with Ben has become a bit of a substitute for Ben's Poker night with the boys, and I love it (saves him money and gets me a yummy dinner.) I usually look around blogs and Cooking Light to find a recipe that looks good to us. For some reason I've been trying to make a lot of fish on these Tuesday dinners. I saw Thai Fish and Noodle Soup and instantly sent the link to Ben. He was very excited about it and said "yummmm." That was it, we were making Thai Fish and Noodle Soup. I thought the recipe would be so good because it had all the flavors that Ben and I love but instead of a Spanish or Mexican flavoring it was Thai influenced. We love jalapenos, spinach, lime, asparagus and rice. This soup had all that and more.


But...there was something missing. Ben said he wanted a sauce on the noodles which I kind of agreed with, there was not a lot of soup in this soup and since it is made with water it's really thin with not a lot of flavor. It needed that little extra punch of something, I'm not sure what. But it was good for what it was and very filling. I don't know if I would make it again...I want to be clear it was good, just not great it just needed something more to make it great.

Thai Fish and Noodle Soup

1/4 lbs uncooked pad thai rice noodles
4 cups water
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tbsp diced jalapeno
2 tbsp thin sliced lemon grass
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp salt
6 cups sliced mushrooms
2 cups julienne red pepper
1 cup asparagus cut into 1 inch slices
1 cup julienne carrot
4 (4 oz) fillets halibut (we used cod since halibut is out of season)
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
10 cups chopped spinach
1 1/2 cups thin sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Preheat your broiler and prep you fish, wash and dry the fish spray your pan with Pam and then place the fish on the pan and coat with 1/8 tsps of salt and pepper.

Place the noodles in a bowl and cover with warm water for 3 minutes and drain.

Meanwhile in a medium sauce pan heat the water through the salt in the above ingredients and bring to a boil. Add in the noodles, mushrooms, red pepper, asparagus and carrot, bring back to a boil then let simmer for 7 minutes.

Put the fish in the oven to cook, will take 6 to 7 minutes depending on thickness of fish, it will turn white and flake easily when cooked through.

Stir in spinach, green onion and cilantro into soup, let cook for a minute until the spinach wilts. Ladle and serve one fillet over a cup of soup.


This will make 4 servings (2 cups of soup and 1 fillet per serving.) Ben and I halved the recipe so that it would be enough for just the two of us. We could not finish the soup. There was a lot and the whole dinner was very filling.

We followed the cooking light recipe, we usually make some changes and we did have to use a different kind of fish but for the most part since we are not familiar with Thai cooking and did not want to make changes that would hurt the flavors in the recipe.

Cooking light had the nutrition facts as 338 calories, 4 grams of fat and 32.7 grams of protein. So a great meal all around. I served the soup with a few rolls (I know they're not Thai inspired but there was nothing in whole foods that I thought would work to keep in the Thai theme.) Both Ben and I like to dip our bread in the soup.

This meal defiantly warmed our bellies on a cold Tuesday night.

Italian White Bean and Spinach Soup

Yumm-O as Rachel Ray would say. This soup was beyond good, it was well balanced, flavorful and healthy. I found this recipe on Cooking Light and modified it slightly for our tastes. It was the perfect dinner for a rainy thursday night.


Italian White Bean and Spinach Soup

10 button mushrooms sliced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 small yellow onions diced
5 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 tsp fresh rosemary chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 16 oz can Cannellini Beans drained and rinsed
2 14 oz cans chicken broth
crushed red peppers to taste

Heat oil in a medium sized pot add the onions and mushrooms and let simmer until tender. Add the spinach, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, beans and broth to the onions and mushrooms let come up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Shake on a few crushed red peppers to the top of your soup bowl.

Serve with a hunk of crispy bread.

Ben and I absolutely loved this meal. Usually I get concerned about dinner that does not have meat in it for Ben, if it is enough food, if he'll be hungry in 10 minutes, but because of the mushrooms and the beans in this soup it had body, it was thick and filling.


I'm almost positive Ben and I will be making this again. So easy, so yummy and so healthy. (Cooking light nutrition facts list their version as 78 calories 2 grams fat for 1 cup.)

Chunky Veggie Soup

I like to make new things for dinner, but I, like a baker need to stick to the amounts and ingredients in the recipe strictly. Ben, the better cook in this relationship changes and adjusts things on a whim, and it always tastes good. In the grocery store I'm the one saying, "don't blame me if it doesn't taste good with that in it." But experimenting with this recipe turned out extremely well.

This past Sunday we made this soup for the first time, we changed a few things from the original recipe, which can be found here. We never made the original recipe, so I'm not sure how close it tastes to our version, but personally I'd go with ours. Tonight we are making this soup for the second time, this time for my mom and slightly crippled dad (he fell and broke his ankle two nights ago, and can't move much right now.) We think that with these changes we have created the perfect vegetable soup. I thought the first time through it was the best soup I had ever had.

Chunky Veggie Soup
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 14-ounce cans chicken broth
4 medium plum tomatoes, diced
2 cups diced cooked potatoes*
2 cups chopped mushrooms
2 cups frozen spinach (5 ounces)
5 ounces frozen corn
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
3 teaspoons dried basil

In a medium pot heat oil and add onions, cook until onions have started to brown. Stir in the paprika and let cook out for 30 seconds. Add broth, tomatoes, potatoes, mushrooms and pepper flakes; bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for about 12 minutes. Add frozen spinach, corn and vinegar cook and stir until heated through. Top each bowl or cup with basil and red pepper flakes to taste. This makes about 5 bowls worth, of yummy filling vegetable soup, and from start to finish takes about 30 minutes.

*You can find pre-cooked diced potatoes in most grocery stores, which makes the soup making go a lot faster. If you can't find them, or if you want dice and cook your own potatoes to use, just cut and boil until cooked (cooking time will depend on how big or small you dice the potatoes.) Make sure you drain and steam off the majority of the cooking liquid, if you don't, you may end up with watered down soup.

We're going to serve this with a hearty chunk of rustic bread (bought at the super market.) I'll let you know how it turned out and everyone's reactions, oh and pictures, I promise there will be pictures later or tomorrow.

OK, I know, I promised pictures, but I forgot my camera at home, and the soup making and Dad visiting was a little to hectic for picture taking. But the soup turned out great, except that I put in wayyy to many potatoes, not realizing we did not use a full bag the first time. Oh well. I'm pretty sure everyone loved it an had a great picnic in my parents bedroom. Ben and I will be making the soup again and at that point I promise pictures. I was just so excited to make my first blog post that I couldn't resist putting this recipe up. But I know whats a cookbook (or a food blog) without pictures, and I agree. So next time and forever after.