Chris & Tricia's BONUS Week Twelve Recipe: Chicken & Chick Pea Crockpot Soup

Tricia came over last night for dinner and some serious project knitting. (No, I can't tell you what the project is! Go ask her....) She requested my Experimental Cornbread and I thought of chicken soup. I went over the list of proposed ingredients with her and she suggested one that put this soup right over the top in terms of sheer goodness. Without further adieu, here is our recipe:

Chicken & Chick Pea Crockpot Soup

Poach or boil:

2 skinless chicken breasts

Cool, then chop into bite-sized pieces.

Saute:

1/2 medium onion, chopped

several cloves of garlic (quantity depending on taste), roughly minced

Peel and chop:

1 sweet potato

3 large carrots

Cook these in the microwave until tender (but not mushy).

Put all ingredients in a large crock pot and add

1-2 cartons chicken broth (I used about 1.5)

3/4 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen green bean - chopped if necessary

1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans) - Tricia's suggestion!

salt & pepper to taste

Turn the crockpot on high and bring to a healthy simmer. (This took quite a long time in my crockpot. Although many of the ingredients were fairly warm, most were not.) Serve with a little grated parmesan.

Would I make this recipe again? Often! Speaking without any modesty whatsoever, this is the best chicken soup I've ever made.

Chris's Week Eight Recipe: WWLD Hummus

No doubt many of our married (or otherwise tethered) readers envy the heady existence of a mature single woman. But remember, Gentle Readers, it's not all bright lights, handsome men and Stargate Atlantis. Sometime a woman's got to knuckle down and clean out the fridge.

And what promising ingredient did I find this time? Part of a can of garbanzo beans (aka chick peas) which is not really a surprise since I love to add the little guys to rice. Throw in some chopped red or yellow pepper and you've got yourself a tasty lunch. But instead of making a fresh batch of rice, I challenged myself to come up with a new recipe, and the first thing I do when I get into that frame of mind is think....

WWLD?

That's What Would Linda Do? for all those folks who don't know our esteemed guest blogger, Linda. In all fairness, you should know that Linda would never be caught dead with leftover garbanzo beans. Where did this antipathy to all things chick-pea originate? I have no idea, but let's pretend that she actually did have some leftover garbanzo beans....

WWLD?

Make hummus, of course! I dashed to the fridge and, sure enough, there was some leftover sesame tahini. Carbon dating revealed it to be something like 4 B.L. (Before Linda) and into the trash it went. Well, I'd just have to find a recipe that didn't require tahini. I found a nice prospect here on allrecipes.com. The following recipe is pared down and tweaked slightly to accommodate the fact that I love garlic and, being single, can eat as much as I want without worrying about who I'm going to be kissing next.

WWLD Hummus

3/4 c leftover canned garbanzo beans (chick peas)

1 T olive oil

2 cloves garlic - crushed & chopped

1 t Penzeys sweet curry powder

2 T fresh lemon juice

1 T water

pinch of salt

Toss everything into the food processor and blend to the desired consistency. It's good right off the bat, but letting it sit around in the fridge and think about itself for a while makes it even better.

Would I make this recipe again? Let's just say that when you live alone, nobody will see you lick every last morsel off the spatula...