nothin' like homemade cns

I'm holding myself accountable to my 5 goals for 2011. One of them is to cook more from scratch. I truly hold firm that fresh and organic is best. However, I get busy and tired and then I rely on my personal chef Joe, as in Mr. Trader Joe. I have the frozen bagged dinners down to a science.

And on the nights when I do cook from scratch, you can pretty much bet that it is one of 5 meals that I know how to perfect. I feel so sorry for my poor husband. His dad is a professional chef and his mother comes from a long line of Italian mamas who kill it in the kitchen.

And then there's me. Not only am I a picky eater, but if a recipe has more than 5 ingredients, I usually brush it off as too tedious.

But, my lovely hubby has been requesting homemade CNS (chicken noodle soup) since the shift of seasons. Yeah, this meal is so legit, it can be given an acronym. It was time to get myself into Martha mode.

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped, cooked chicken meat (I cooked a whole chicken 1st for 1.5 hours @ 350 degrees)
1/4 c. chopped carrots
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. butter
8 ounces of egg noodles (I prefer whole wheat penne)
12 c. water
9 cubes chicken bullion (not large ones)
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (I skipped this)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp dried parsley
*I also added a bag of organic baby spinach and cut up stewed tomatoes. It isn't your traditional cns, but try it!

Directions:
In a large stock pot, saute celery and onion in butter. Add chicken, carrots, water, bullion cubes, majoram, black pepper, bay leaf, and parsley. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add noodles and simmer for 10 more minutes.







Serve with corn bread muffins and salad.

Enjoy!