Chicken vegetable soup

Approx. 220 Calories per serving. Recipe makes 2 servings.

When I woke up this morning, I had a terrible headache, chills, and general feeling of malaise. I decided not to go to work in case I was coming down with the flu and also decided to throw together a pot of chicken soup before crawling back under the 4 blankets that were on my bed.

For the chicken, I just bought boneless skinless breast meat that was already cut into strips. I just added the full strips, and then once the dish was done cooking, teased apart the meat with a fork to make smaller pieces. This minimizes how much I have to handle the raw meat. The jalapeno I added was pretty mild, so it gave the soup a nice flavor without the kick.

My crock pot is very small (4 cup capacity) and I ran out of room before I could add the green beans and squash. This was a good thing, since I added them about a half hour before serving and they retained their color and a bit of firmness. This gave the soup more color and texture.


Ingredients

• 6 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 cup red potatoes
• 1 medium leek (approx. 1/2 cup)
• 2/3 cup carrots
• 1/2 cup green beans (I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup yellow summer squash
• 1 large jalapeno pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp dried basil
• 2 bay leaves
• water
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Clean and chop leeks, carrots, potatoes, and the jalapeno pepper (I included seeds).
2. Add to crock pot.
3. Add chicken.
4. Add spices. Cover with water.
5. Heat on low/medium for about 8 hours.
6. About 30 min before serving, add squash and green beans.