#emeals

Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

2 Tbsp butter

2 carrots, peeled and chopped (about a cup's worth)

Medium onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, sliced

1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed (I used both dried and fresh. About half and half)

2 Tbsp flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup shredded chicken (or you can use turkey if you want. I used a half a container of rotisserie chicken already cooked and then shredded it)

1/2 cup cooked seasoned long grain and wild rice (Uncle Ben's has a microwavable packet that is cooked in 90 seconds.)

Pepper (usually I would say salt here but there's plenty in the rice and the rotisserie chicken)

Heat the butter in a saucepan or pot over medium high heat, then add carrots, onion, celery, and thyme, then cook for around 10 minutes or until they're tender. I added pepper too here and let it really smell good. When I chopped my carrots, I cut the bigger discs in half to keep it around the same size.

Stir in the flour, then increase the heat to high. Add broth and milk, then bring to a boil. Stir constantly and let it cook for 5 minutes.

You'll see butter coming to the top. That's okay. Just stir and get it bubbly for a few minutes. Once it starts boiling, it'll mix in evenly.

Once the five minutes are up, turn the heat back down to medium and then add the rice and chicken. Give it a few stirs to mix in and let the chicken and rice heat up. You can add pepper here too if you want. I did and it was lovely.

And ta-da! Soup! I'm sure you can dunk some crusty bread in there for a good soup dipping experience!

Also yes, there are two loaves of bread on my counter. My microwave doubles as my bread box but I might change that to my little shelf I recently got. Brioche bread for french toast and bread pudding, and regular bread for sandwiches.

I got this soup recipe from eMeals! They have a couple more soups on there that I want to try, but I have some eating to do to make room in the fridge!

 I love cooking for people (a lot of my friends know this already) but there are days where I just have no ambition to go to the store or actually cook. So I did a meal service for a while, mainly Hello Fresh, which was great for variety and the amount of time it takes to actually make the meals.

I've stopped doing it for a while (I couldn't keep up with it as I battled a few personal things at once), but kept some of the same aspects of prepping. I use the brown paper bags to separate my ingredients for my meals, and measure out the dry ingredients like pasta. It helps, honestly.

But I've also started doing eMeals. It's different than Hello Fresh, in that you pick the meals you want to make and it makes a grocery list for you. After that, you can choose to have it done for you, or if you're like me and like to go yourself, you can use the list to shop. You can also bounce around on different meal plans. I primarily eat the Mediterranean diet, but there are days where I really just want a nice, 100% veggie meal. They have those! Clean eating, vegan, vegetarian, family friendly, 30 minute meals, budget friendly, you name it. Need a crowd pleasing dessert? They've got it. Drinks? Yup. (Don't worry, I'm not being paid to rave about it, thank goodness, it's just something I found that's really neat)

Anyway, before this turns into a huge scroll-fest, I made a new thing today. Roasted radishes with mint couscous and garlic rosemary chicken. Recipe is below the pictures!

Garlic Rosemary Chicken (from eMeals)

3/4 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 tsp garlic powder 

1/4 tsp salt (honestly, this is optional. I can’t tolerate a lot of salt, so most of the time I leave it out)

Give the chicken a pat-down and then rub with a teaspoon of the oil, the garlic powder, rosemary and salt. Heat a pan over medium-high heat with the other teaspoon of oil. Don’t worry, I typically use more than it says cause I don’t like things sticking to my pan. Oops. Anyway cook the chicken 5-6 minutes each side or until done.

Roasted Radishes and Mint Couscous

1/2 lb radishes, halved

2 tsp olive oil (or vegetable. I used veggie oil instead)

2 tsp minced garlic

1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

salt and pepper

1/3 c Israeli (pearl) couscous

3 Tbsp chopped fresh mint

2 Tbsp olive oil vinaigrette

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (204C). Toss the radishes, oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper together. Roast for 20 minutes or until golden.

Cook couscous according to package directions. Stir in mint and vinaigrette. All done!