For the past several months we have all spent more time in the kitchen, like it or not! Maybe in March it started out with baking blueberry muffins or chocolate chip cookies, but as we finally have hit colder weather here in New England, it’s now time for soups and stews, the ideal comfort food…

There are over a dozen ‘go-to’ soups that I like to make on a regular basis, yet it’s still fun to try something new, whether a recipe I discover online or something I create myself…recently my daughter gave me some rich chicken stock that she made from scratch, simmered on the stove for 3-4 hours…yummmmmy! Instantly inspired me to make some chicken soup! 🙂

Instead of traditional chicken noodle or chicken with rice, I improvised and made chicken barley soup – barley is healthier, higher in fiber, and adds a nice, nutty taste…once the barley cooked in the hot broth, in went chopped celery, onion, carrots…easy peasy! But – I decided to make it even easier: instead of cooking my own chicken to add to the soup, I bought a whole cooked chicken from the grocery store and pulled off all the meat into shreds…not only was it easy, but it yielded so much chicken that there was enough to make chicken salad too!

Great! Now we have have homemade chicken salad as a lunch option, with or without a side of soup…

The last ingredients to my barley soup came from the freezer – a half cup each of frozen peas and frozen corn kernels…they add color, more healthy veggies, and more yummy taste! So good!

This soup was so good that I made it again two weeks later, making the broth from scratch by boiling a whole chicken and also adding a 14oz can of fire roasted tomatoes…

This isn’t really a recipe for soup, because I didn’t use one, it was more of a creative process…hope this has inspired you to try something different as soup weather is certainly upon us! I must point out that a rich, homemade broth adds fabulous flavor, definitely worth the extra effort if you have the time – and who doesn’t these days?! 😉

Glad to answer any questions!

Stay well. Eat well. Enjoy the NOW.