Crock-Pot Chicken & Tomato Soup

Hello!

   How are we today?
   Well, our holidays are finally over! After being away for 10 days we got back and had a day of rest before heading to a friends house for New Years Eve...where we stayed up late! Super duper late! The kind of late that reminds me I'm not as young as I think I am... 
   We headed home and had a day to rest/tidy then we had my sister, brother-in-law and all their kiddos coming for a visit for a few days. In the midst of their visit our youngest had her 5th birthday party (which I'll share about later). 
   I didn't send the kids to their first day back to school because we still had family visiting, and also because our middle child barfed the night before! Whomp whomp.
   So, to tally, since December 18th when we left our house for the holiday we had: 3 out of 5 of us barfing, one with chicken pox, one got diarrhea. Visited/met up with: 60-70 people (I won't lie, it could be more but I got tired of counting!). Ate: 3 Christmas dinners (we had to miss one), and a few Christmas get-togethers that weren't "dinners" but sure had a lot of food! Did: New Years Eve all nighter, had guests over, and threw a birthday party. 

The End. 

   It's been a whirlwind few weeks, it was fun too, but I am glad to be settling down and getting back into real life.   

   So, getting back into the swing of things and eating right often means soup! 
   I love soup for a lot of reasons. 1. You can make it out of anything! 2. You can make it super healthy by packing it full of veggies. 3. You can make it in the crock pot. 4. It makes great leftovers for a quick and healthy meal.
   When it comes to crock pot recipes though, having to prepare meat before putting it into the slow cooker seems dumb to me. The point of the slow cooker is to make a meal as crazy simple as possible (thats what I think, at least!) 
   So, I've started adding my meat un-cooked, and in many cases, completely frozen.
   With this soup, I find the chicken is actually more tender when I make it from frozen, so, all the better! You don't even need to remember to thaw the meat out!
   It's -18 degrees fahrenheit here today (that's almost -28 in celsius!), so I'm feeling the need for soup!!!

Crock-Pot Chicken & Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, diced
• 2 Large chicken breasts, frozen or thawed

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 3 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 cups broth
• 1 Tsp garlic powder and paprika (if you have any)
• Salt & pepper to taste

*Add more veggies if you want, we were just low so I used what I had!*

Method: 

1. In a 5 quart crock pot place the diced onions, then the chicken breasts, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, celery, then stock. Add the seasonings and gently stir
2. Turn slow cooker onto low for at least 5 hours if the breasts are frozen, or 3-4 hours if they aren't. This can stay in the slow cooker for up to 8 hours on low
3. Once ready to eat, get the chicken breasts out of the slow cooker by using tongs, or two spoons, or whatever. Just pull them out and place them onto a cutting board
4. Cut or shred the chicken, then place back into the crock pot (you will find the chicken is very tender and may fall apart as you take it out of the crock pot, but that's a good thing so don't worry about it!)
5. Give it all one good stir, add salt & pepper as needed, scoop it up and serve! 

 
On a crazy cold day like today I like to add a splash of hot sauce to my soup to warm me up even more. 

   Well, stay warm today! I'm wearing a big, multi-coloured knitted sweater my Mom got for me at the Salvation Army to keep warm. When it gets this cold, only a good wool sweater will keep you cozy, and all the better if it's just a bit ugly, ya know, so you look artsy and individual. :)