Tuscan Chicken and Quinoa Soup | FoodsOfOurLives.com
Many of you know I have been doing a Soup of the Week post through the fall and I am actually not going to keep doing that but rather am switching gears for the New Year, to a Healthy Recipe of the Week.
So I wasn’t planning on posting a soup recipe at all for a while but I happened to make this soup the other night and it was divine and we all just loved it so much, I decided I should go ahead and share it with you anyway!
I usually post on Wednesdays, which was yesterday but I woke up to the power being out and the house freezing cold. So I stayed in bed since I knew I wouldn’t be able to post anyway. Thus started a bit of a trouble-some day….
Actually it really wasn’t too horrible but it was all topped of by me attempting to go get my kids from school and sliding down our VERY steep driveway that was covered in a sheet of ice (we typically refer to it as ‘The Glacier’) so smooth you can’t walk up it, and hitting our house. With my nearly 8000 pound Excursion… thankfully I wasn’t going terribly fast so the damage was somewhat minimal but I still jacked up my bumper and did some cosmetic damage to the house.
Gahhh! I feel awful about it but thankfully our landlord is being extremely gracious about it.
So not only did I not get around to posting yesterday, but I didn’t even really make dinner. I guess cheese quesadillas and carrot sticks count? Sort of? Everyone got fed…. So now I am all thrown off with everything but I am optimistic today will be back to normal and I will not be attempting to leave my house anytime soon.
So this healthy post thing… you may be wondering. Sorry this is such a long intro to this recipe, I typically try to keep it short but it’s not working this morning.
Everyone has their own definition of ‘Healthy’ now-a-days it seems like. Whether you are gluten free, paleo, vegan, traditional foods, whatever. There will be some people who look at my ‘Healthy’ recipes and think I’m crazy 
But I would probably say the same to them.
I tend to lean towards traditional foods myself. I like to ask myself if my great great grandparents would have recognized this as food, if so then it’s generally a go.
So you may be shocked to see I still cook with animal fats, even when trying to be healthy. Yes, I cook with bacon and lard.
And it’s amazing.
I eat a lot of eggs, with the yolks.
I am not gluten free.
I eat carbs.
I am however, eliminating sugar and wheat from my diet and finding amazing results. I have been replacing white rice with other grains, such as the quinoa you see in this recipe and shockingly my family has found they prefer it (so far!).
The other thing I am trying to be better about is which carbs I am eating and trying not to have so many of them. I tend to be a carb eater and will have my carb be the main portion of my meal. I am simply transitioning to having a lot less.
I am also working out 6 days a week.
I am pretty sure the key to being healthy is to find what works well for you and go with it. So I will share, over the coming weeks, what is working well for me and maybe you will find it helpful. I am not really trying to loose weight but rather to tone and strengthen and I do not want to sabotage my training by eating junk.
So what works well for you? Leave a comment below and tell us and be sure to follow along as we go on this journey of becoming healthy!
- 4 oz butter
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 3 large carrots, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 4-6 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 whole cooked and shredded chicken
- 1-2 large whole tomatoes, diced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1½ cups heavy cream
- In a large dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Once the butter is melted, add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic and basil, cook until the carrots are starting to soften, about 7-8 minutes.
- Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling add the quinoa, stir to combine and then let simmer on low for 15 minutes.
- Once the quinoa is cooked, add the shredded chicken, tomatoes, salt, pepper and cream.
- Bring back to boil and then you are ready to serve.
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[…] Tuscan Chicken and Quinoa Soup: I’ve made this soup a couple of times over the past year and every time I wonder if […]