Recipe CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Friday Lunch

4 boxes 'kitchen basics' natural chicken cooking stock (available at grocery and trader joe's stores)

2 boxes 'thai kitchen' or 'annie chun's' maifun rice noodles. (available at grocery stores in the 'ethnic foods' aisle. if you go w/ another label, check label carefully, most rice noodles still get made w/ corn starch)

4 chicken breasts, boiled and chopped into small cubes

1 bag frozen peas

2 cans water chestnuts

2 handfuls fresh, organic baby spinach (optional)

2 handfuls fresh organic snow pea pods (optional)

2 cups food processed/blender on 'food chop'ed carrots

2 sm bunches grn onions

3 TBLspn minced/chopped garlic

3 tsp parsley

real salt, to taste

bring broth to boil in large stock pot. add peas, blended/processed carrots, chicken, spinach & water chestnuts. simmer approx 45 mins, add herbs, salt & grn onions. add more broth if desired, to preferred density. add rice noodles, bring to a boil & reduce to simmer another 20 mins, untl grn onions are reduced. serve and enjoy !

i make this soup for neighbors all through the winter when i hear they are ill and everyone always says i should mass-produce and sell it. it's a huge hit and i think the secret to the success is the rice noodles. they are thin and slippery and don't get bloaty and mushy like wheat noodles tend to. they just make the soup lighter and somehow keep the broth like a separate soup and the noodles like another surprise in a fantastic soup - they keep their own separate integrity, even if it lasts for more than a cpl days in your fridge.