Basic Chicken Noodle Soup For Two

I know what you might be thinking.  It's the end of summer, it's 93° out... why are you making soup?  Well, starting on Friday I came down with a nasty cold.  Thankfully I'm starting to feel better, but now Paul is starting to show symptoms.  Great.  It is his first week of grad school and I don't want him to feel as crappy as I did the last few days.  I have nothing to do today, so I figured some good old chicken noodle soup would be a nice thing for him to come home to.  The problem is, it's hot as hell outside, and I don't want to make things even hotter by having a pot of soup simmering on the stove all afternoon.  So I decided to go for my trusty Crock-Pot.  I know my tastiest soups have started with sweating the mirepoix in butter, and letting the soup simmer for a couple hours, but A) I have a lot of chores I'd like to get done today after laying in bed the last 3 days, and the Crock-Pot is the perfect solution; and B) it's HOT.  I'm sure this will still be tasty, but most importantly, I want it to be healthy and hearty.  And that it is.

I pretty much threw this together spontaneously, so this is the closest I can come to a recipe.  It's very interesting and challenging to write recipes for meals in which I "wing it" -- but I just make sure I pay attention to the amounts I'm using as I go along.


Basic Chicken Noodle Soup For Two [for a small slow cooker -- about 4-6 cup capacity]

• 1 skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• about 1 cup of chopped onions
• kernels from 1 ear of corn
• salt and pepper to your taste
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped; or 1 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• enough chicken broth to fill your slow cooker about three-quarters full
• 6 oz. noodles

1. Combine first nine ingredients in the slow cooker; cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours.
2. Cook the noodles separately and add just before serving.

Veggies.

Everything but the broth and seasonings.

Labeling is your friend.

All ready to cook.

This is cooking as we speak and it has a few hours to go.  I was anxious to write a long-overdue new post, so consider this an unfinished work.  Check back later tonight for an update on how it turned out!

UPDATE:

That's one chunky soup!

 
Turned out pretty good!  This was a VERY hearty soup -- I may even venture out and call it a stew.  But that is basically what I was going for.  Chunky, lots of flavor, chock full of good nutrients.  I still prefer to make soup on the stove-top, but this was a great option for a hot day.

Cheers,
L