Wild Firebrand

Dad and I are sick — we won’t divulge who got us this way, but it rhymes with BoBaryn — anyway, it’s day for chicken noodle soup. But, of course, we are too ill to work hard so we’re gonna use what we have, take all the short cuts, and add way too much garlic.

We happen to have lemon pepper thinly sliced chicken breasts on hand and some garlic parmesan carrots, half a bag of egg noodles, leftover minced garlic, plus broth. We don’t have any celery, but nobody is crying about it.

Dump the chicken in a baking dish to cook at the same time as the carrots (because I’m too sick to NOT take shortcuts). Set the oven to 400 and the timer to 20 minutes to cook the carrots and chicken at the same time, and then boil the noodles on the stovetop.

After the timers all go off, take the chicken and carrots and chop them — roughly, no need to be perfect — just small enough to be bite-sized, but big enough to hold their own in the broth without turning into mush.

Taste the rainbow — we had orange and yellow carrots in the fridge…

OK — this part is important — SCRAPE the flavor off the sides of the baking dishes — it’s the brown bits that add the flavor to the soup.

Also add all that garlic left over in the pan and the chicken juice in the baking dish — that’s not to be tossed away, it’s to be tossed into the crock because it’s full of flavor!

YUM! Now, add your carrots, chicken, and pasta to the crock pot and let them all get real friendly swimming in their own sauces.

Add broth to cover and parsley for color.

Keep it warm and drink/eat it to get better and know — without a doubt — your Momma loves you (and is a whinging child when she’s ill….) but still LOVES YOU!