Italian Chicken And Tomato Soup

So in honour of FREE FOOD FEBRUARY starting this week in group I decided to make this for my first offering! Completely SYN FREE and amazing flavours!

Ingredients

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and grated
2 lean back bacon rashers, all visible fat removed, finely chopped
2 large skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
600g canned chopped tomatoes
400ml chicken stock
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, to garnish

Method

Place the onion, carrots and bacon in a large non-stick saucepan and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add the chicken, tomatoes, stock, rosemary and lemon zest and juice.
Bring to the boil, stir, then cover and simmer on a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste and serve sprinkled with chopped parsley if you want to.

Lunch Ideas

I find the best things to take to work for lunch tend to be soups, I don't do salad and I get bored of pasta n sauces as well as mug shots and what not. Batch cooking and bringing last nights leftovers is also a good option but I rarely have leftovers :)

As you'll have seen from a recent post I tried the Pea & Ham soup and had that for lunch again yesterday but I've frozen the rest before I get sick of it like I do if I eat the same thing all week...

I whipped up a spicy tomato soup last night so I could have a 'speedy lunch' today. I love that I've picked up the basics of Slimming World and have the confidence to adapt them and make my own recipes up now.

For this I simply used:
Chopped tomatoes
Several pickled onions
Mini tin of baked beans
(like the speedy tomato soup uses)
Chicken stock cubes (as I didn't have any veg ones left)
Jalapeños
Tsp of Lazy Garlic
Tsp of Lazy Chilli

Just brought it all to the boil and let simmer for about 20 mins then used my hand blender to blend it all.
So Simple and it gave the usual tomatoey soup a lovely kick. All of it is syn free and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've got enough for a second portion too which is always handy!

I find potato and leek and those sort of soups really bland and boring but if anyone has any recipes that have a kick to them I'd love to know about them!?

Pea & Ham Soup

So today I finally attempted Pea & Ham Soup, I've never once fancied it and I honestly never thought I would enjoy some green soup as much as I have.

Ingredients
1 bag of Frozen Garden Peas
Chicken Stock Cubes (I used 3)
Dried Mint
Salt & Pepper
1 Ham or Gammon Joint (I used a smoked Gammon Joint)

Method
Add peas to pan and cover with boiling water.
Add stock cubes and dried mint (do it to taste I added 1 tsp to start)
Add Salt & Pepper to taste
Bring to boil and then simmer for approx 20/25 mins
Leave to cool slightly and then blend
Add seasoning if needed

For the Gammon Joint I simply put the joint in the slow cooker and cooked on high for approx 3.5 hours and then shredded and stored in a separate container. This is so I can add as much or as little as I like.

All of this is syn free and perfect for an SP Day which is why I ended up making it to be honest! Will definitely be making it again at some point.

Sensible Snacking

Sometimes I find it really hard to snack wisely when you aren't really hungry. When soup doesn't fill you but a meal would be overkill, so I think it's a great idea using chicken pieces etc to enjoy with some soup, it fills you without making you stuffed. I simple chopped my chicken up and cooked with some soy sauce and garlic and it was so nice! The soup is simple the 'Heinz' imitation soup which I actually prefer now to the real thing!!! Shocking I know, but it's syn free so it saves me a hefty chunk of syns!

Chicken & Tomato Soup

I'm finally at a stage where I feel I can make up my own recipes. I used to try to make soups but I didn't know what worked with what and it always tasted horrible. But last night I made a lovely fruity tasting tomato soup and then added some shredded chicken from Iceland just to bulk it out a bit and make it more filling.

To make the soup:
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 can of sliced carrots
2 stock cubes & approx 1 pint of water
frozen onions
1 carton of passata

Simply heat all the above and then blitz, I then added salt and pepper and a sprinkle of Paprika then threw in the shredded chicken that was frozen (pre cooked) from Iceland, I'd taken it out to defrost earlier so it was ready to add.

 

Speed Soup

Exactly what it says on the tin. Quick to make, quick to eat. Keeps you full and it tastes just like Heinz Tomato Soup but with a lot more flavour!

Chunky Soup

Lunches tend to be super hard to plan for me, I either bring too much food or not enough theres no inbetween. Although I find bringing a chunky soup fills me a lot more than one that is completely blended.

I've posted this recipe before but I think it's one of my favourites. I tend to mix it up slightly based on what veg and herbs and spices I have in the this is the original recipe:

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (I got a bag of the precut onions from asda and just chucked the whole packet in)
1 red pepper, diced (I used two this time)
2 large skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
800g canned chopped tomatoes
400ml chicken stock - I used 3 stock cubes to make sure it was relatively thick
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp crushed chillies
2 tbsp. tomato puree
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
I also chucked in a packet of cherry tomatoes (halved and quartered) as they weren't going to get used otherwise.

Method:-


Place the onion and pepper in a large non-stick saucepan and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add the chicken, tomatoes, stock, rosemary and lemon zest, chillies and juice.
Bring to the boil, stir, then cover and simmer on a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste and serve

This recipe is completely syn free and so filling!

Chicken & Tomato Soup

For anyone interested in this here is the recipe...

You will need:-

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 red pepper, diced
2 large skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
800g canned chopped tomatoes
400ml chicken stock - I used 3 stock cubes to make sure it was relatively thick
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp crushed chillies
2 tbsp. tomato puree
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:-

Place the onion and pepper in a large non-stick saucepan and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add the chicken, tomatoes, stock, rosemary and lemon zest, chillies and juice.
Bring to the boil, stir, then cover and simmer on a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste and serve

This recipe is completely syn free and so tasty!

Today's food!

Breakfast was this...

2.5 syns for goodies yoghurt, strawberries and 2 Weetabix. Forgot half my lunch so only had a packet of Piri chicken, so used half a punnet of strawberries and a 0.5 Syn yoghurt to get me through the afternoon. 

Had 2 Hifi bars aswell as was doing an SP day. 

Made some chicken and tomato soup, will post the recipe and picture of that later!

Perfect for an SP day packed full of S and P foods! Was absolutely delicious! 

Drank 4 pints of water too and hex a was for milk!

Chicken & Tomato Soup

This recipe is freezer friendly too!

Ingredients

1 onion peeled and finely chopped

2 carrots peeled and grated

2 lean back bacon, all fat removed, cut into small pieces

2 chicken breasts cut into thin strips

600g chopped tomatoes

400ml chicken stock

1tbsp chopped rosemary

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Salt & pepper to taste

Parsley to garnish

Method

Place the onion, carrots and bacon in a saucepan and stir fry for 2-3 mins. 

Add chicken, tomatoes, stock, rosemary and lemon zest/juice. 

Bring to boil and cover then simmer on medium heat for 15 mins stirring occasionally. Season to taste and sprinkle with chopped parsley then serve.

Perfect for those wintery days where you want something more substantial than just soup!

Batch Cooking

Made all three of these tonight. You can find the soup recipe on a previous post. 

Will add the others to my blog tomorrow. 

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

What you need: 

Low calorie cooking spray 

One chopped onion 

Smoked paprika 

Cauliflower florets 

200ml vegetable stock 

2-3 extra light cheese triangles 

What to do: 

 1. Spray a large sauce pan with low calorie cooking spray and add chopped onion and smoked paprika and cook for 5 minutes. 

 2. Add cauliflower florets, around 200ml vegetable stock and simmer for 15 minutes until the cauliflower is just tender.    

 3. Stir in 2-3 extra light cheese triangles and blend until smooth. Season and serve.

Soup!

Couldnt resist making another pot of this amazing soup!
Recipe can be found in a previous post!

Lunch

Keeping on plan today with SW tomato soup, my HEB bread, some strawberries and a syn free yogurt. Delicious. Can't complain! Stuffed. 

What are you having? 

X

Italian Chicken & Tomato Soup

This recipe is freezer friendly too!

Ingredients

1 onion peeled and finely chopped

2 carrots peeled and grated

2 lean back bacon, all fat removed, cut into small pieces

2 chicken breasts cut into thin strips

600g chopped tomatoes

400ml chicken stock

1tbsp chopped rosemary

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Salt & pepper to taste

Parsley to garnish

Method

Place the onion, carrots and bacon in a saucepan and stir fry for 2-3 mins. 

Add chicken, tomatoes, stock, rosemary and lemon zest/juice. 

Bring to boil and cover then simmer on medium heat for 15 mins stirring occasionally. Season to taste and sprinkle with chopped parsley then serve. 

Lovely!