Tuesday Night Food Prep: Makin' Soup

I teach a night class on Tuesday night from 6:00-8:45, so typically by the time I get home, I'm completely wiped. This Tuesday, however, was different. My students took a test in class, so I actually made it home by about 7:45, which was perfect because I had some food prepped in the fridge just begging to be turned into some delicious soups!

Over the weekend, I made Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot, one of my favorite recipes because it's just so darn easy and frugal. Once the chicken is cooked, I pull all of the meat off the bones and return the bones and other scraps to the crock pot, add in whatever leftover veggies scraps I have on hand (this time, it was a bit of onion, some baby carrots, a jalapeno top, and some bay leaves) and fill the crock pot with water. I let the crock pot go on low over night and wake up in the morning to delicious, homemade, free chicken stock. And because I used an organic chicken from Whole Foods, I have the added bonus of organic chicken stock as well. 

That stock had been hanging around the fridge since Monday morning, so it was high time to make soup. On the menu? Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (I tweaked this recipe from sparkrecipes.com) and Red Lentil Dal (I followed this recipe from The Picky Eater with a few changes. I'll post my tweaked recipe for the Red Lentil Dal one day soon; it was my first time making it, so I want to try it out first.) 

 Here is my tweaked recipe for Thai Coconut Chicken Soup. I'll note the things I changed.

Ingredients
12 oz cooked chicken breasts (I used both dark and white meat chicken from my Crock Pot Chicken; I didn't weigh it)
1c coconut milk (I used light; it doesn't affect the flavor!)
1 1/2c chicken stock (used my homemade stock)
5 slices fresh ginger
8oz sliced white button mushrooms
2T Sriracha (original recipe calls for 1t, but that's not NEARLY enough!)
1 lime (original calls for a lemon)
Fresh basil

Directions
In a medium saucepan, bring coconut milk, chicken stock, ginger, and mushrooms to a strong simmer/low boil.

Then, add the sriracha and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the cubed or shredded chicken.

Finish the soup with lime juice and fresh basil.

If your chicken is already cooked, this soup takes only about 15 minutes! Definitely can't beat that! I had a delicious, healthy meal despite my late Tuesday night.

After my little cooking spree, Stephen definitely has some cleaning ahead of him! Think that comment will work to make him do the clean-up even though he won't eat the fruits of my mess labor?

Oh, I even have quite a bit of chicken stock leftover! Into the freezer it goes for some more quick soups :)