Before going to the grocery store this weekend, I thought I would make a batch of soup for my lunches this week. I just put in whatever veggies I had leftover from the week so I wouldn’t have to throw them out. My daughter Claire, who is 9, was helping me chop veggies. She asked if I got this out of a cookbook and I told her I was just using up what was in the fridge. She asked me what should we call it, and I said “What about Claire soup?” Her face lit up and she said, “Can you put that on your blog!” Of course I had to say YES!
I had ground chicken, parsnips, carrots, quinoa, green pepper and I just started throwing stuff in the pot.
Ingredients
1 lb. ground chicken (I used Purdue brand)
1 can spaghetti sauce (the 26 oz. can)
3 parsnips, cut into circles
3 carrots, cut into circles
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 green pepper, diced fine
6 cups water (with 6 tsp. powdered chicken stock) (or you can use canned chicken broth
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1-2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
In a big pot, add the chicken and break up and cook until no longer pink. Next add the veggies, spaghetti sauce, water and spices.
Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer and cook for about 25-30 minutes until the veggies are soft.
Add the quinoa and cook another 15 minutes on low.
The good thing, is Claire and my son Paul both had 2 servings over the weekend, and I ended up having some for lunch today, the bad thing is I may only get a few lunches out of it this week! Oh well, I’m glad they liked it! 🙂
The quinoa kind of absorbs a lot of liquid once you put it in the fridge. When I heated it up, I added another 2 cups of Chicken broth to thin it out some more.
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My sister turned me on to a great grocery store tip: Cheese ends!
If you ever go to your local deli and they have a variety of cheese ends that they can’t sell, they’ll package them all up for a great price.
Check out what I got for $3.00:
I’m not even sure all the cheese in there. I know there was muenster, swiss, mozzarella, american, etc…
Using my food processor, I shredded it all up. My food processor manual said its good if you freeze the cheese for a little bit, so it’s easier to process. I froze it for about 30 minutes. I ended up with 3 pint size bags of shredded cheese!
It’s perfect for adding to eggs, put in a salad, make quick nachos, grilled cheese, whatever you want. Thanks Biz, that’s a great tip!
Have a great Monday!!! Tune in tomorrow for my week 4 weigh in results!
I’ve read about Biz and her cheese ends but have never seen them at my grocery store – I should ask at the deli counter next time I go. I love the though of pre-grating it – how handy!
Claire Soup sounds good! Nice that you have such a good sous chef in the kitchen. 🙂
That’s smart – I love all of the different ways you can use it!
Wow! That’s a lot of cheese for $3. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for that at the store.
Claire soup looks great. I’ll have to mark that as a recipe to try.
That looks delish! I have to start freezing veggies more often. I’m trying to cut back on the cheese, but sometimes… it’s just so hard :-/ haha.
Claire soup looks great. Lucky girl to have a soup named after her!!! and WOW…score on the cheese! Way to go Jenn. Have a great week.