I don't know about you, but I just had a long and exhausting weekend. Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic! But that whole springing forward thing really has me outta whack! As some of you may know, Adam, I, and our girl, Zephyr, have recently joined the Michigan Search and Rescue. This past weekend they held a camp from Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon.

It was jam-packed with a ton of useful information and a lot of practice so that we can all be prepared for the next call we get for a missing person. I don't want to get into it too much, because I will make it a post all in itself, but it's completely volunteer and an amazing way to give back. I highly recommend it if you have a local search group near you and a most excellent canine friend. Here is a video of Zephyr learning how to find people. She has only been training for about 3 months, but has come so far already! It takes about 1.5 years to have a dog completely certified.


And, of course, nothing seems better after a long training weekend with search and rescue than delicious chicken vegetable soup! I know, I know.  You may be thinking "why in the world would she post a soup recipe when it's finally feeling like spring and might even be getting up into the 60?" Well, because the evenings will still be cool and soup is an amazing way to get a health-packed meal with meat and veggies and broth while still feeling light in the stomach. It is also a great way to use up veggies that might be sitting around what for some inspiration on what to do with them.

I used what veggies I had in my fridge; so, feel free to tweak this recipe to use up whatever veggies you have in your fridge. I even had zucchini, which I should have used before, but I forgot all about it. It would have tasted great in it though. It's a really easy one pot soup that takes less than an hour to make.  So, get chopping your veggies and boiling your chicken and go!


INGREDIENTS:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 medium carrots
• 1 onion
• 4 stalks celery 
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 c chicken stock
• 1 c heavy cream
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp squeezed lemon
• salt & pepper to taste

METHOD:

1. Prep your veggies and your herbs by dicing and chopping. The smaller you dice the vegetables, the quicker the soup will cook. 
2. Heat your stock pot or dutch oven on medium heat adding the butter and olive oil. 
3. In a different pot place enough water in it to fully cover the chicken breasts and then some. Bring this to a boil and let boil for about 15-20 minutes until chicken is fully cooked and can easily be pulled apart. 
4. Add your chopped veggies to the melted butter and cook for about 10 minutes until your onions are translucent and your carrots start to get tender. 
   
5. Add the chicken stock, heavy cream, bay leaf, parsley, and thyme to the vegetable mix. Mix well. Bring to a boil then bring back down to a simmer. 
   
   
6. At this point your chicken will be close to being done, if not completely done. Once it is cooked, pull it out of the water with a fork using a second fork to shred the chicken. 
7. Once you have all the chicken shredded add to the simmering soup. 
8. Simmer the soup until veggies are at desired tenderness. Once this happens (~30 minutes for me) salt and pepper and add lemon juice to taste. 
9. Serve while warm and EnJoY!!!