Chicken or Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

I posted this over at EAD Living last month, but thought I would share it over here. This is a really great soup for a cold evening. And it could be made "healthy" if you used fat free evaporated milk and reduced sodium chicken broth.

Enjoy!

This is one of my all-time favorite soups! It’s different in that it uses evaporated milk, plus it’s super easy!

Here is what you’ll need:

• Approx. 1 lb of either cooked chicken or turkey
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 can evaporated milk (not sweetened)
• 1 box of Wild Rice (I like the fast-cook kind)
• 1/2 of a white onion
• 1 stalk of celery (or more, if you prefer)
• 2 to 3 carrots (or more, if you prefer)

Cook wild rice according to box (this usually takes abou 15 minutes) - set aside when finished. While rice is cooking, chop up celery, onion, and carrots and add to a pot with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Saute for a few minutes until onions start to become clear.

Cut up chicken or turkey and add that along with the 2 cans of chicken broth to pot. Bring almost to a boil. When soup is hot, slowly stir in the can of evaporated milk and the wild rice you’ve already cooked.

Cook a little longer, stirring occasionally, to heat up the milk and rice. You can add more salt and pepper to taste, Italian seasoning, or my very favorite for this soup - Cavender’s Greek Seasoning (this is hands down, one of the best seasoning blends around!!). I usually add about a tablespoon or so.

This recipe is great after the holidays when you have leftover turkey, but is so easy to make at any time!

Okay, I'm on the bandwagon too...

Update: Recipe Review
This was actually pretty good! It was very filling, although I might have added a little lemon juice or something as it was a little bland. But, I didn't use any of the salt the recipe called for.
It does take a little time to make, it's not super quick to make, but it wasn't too difficult either. I think it would have been a little quicker if the chicken was already cooked, or if you used a rotisserie chicken.
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At the beginning of every year, millions of people make it their resolution to lose weight. And every year, I always think it's kind of silly. I mean, if you need to lose weight, then you should just do it - you don't need to wait for the new year. But this year... yikes. I'm one of them!

After the wedding, Chris and I kind of went through a food-free-for-all. We didn't really watch what we ate, or how much we ate, and we totally indulged in all the holiday goodness there was to be had. We also didn't exercise. So, we've been noticing clothes that are fitting tighter, jeans that are uncomfortable, bellies that are protruding just a little more than they used to! Really, this was brought to the forefront of my mind today because the dress I'm wearing is much tighter than it used to be only 3 or 4 weeks ago! Since Chris is in Montreal on business this week, he doesn't realize that when he comes home, we're going to be eating much healthier! (But don't feel too sorry for him, when he went to buy some new pants, he had to go up a size - and he was so bummed out about it).

I'm going to start trying out healthier and low-cal recipes. I like to think that usually when I cook, I try to be pretty healthy anyways. But it never hurts to really put more focus on it and trying to keep those calories down when you can. Tonight I think I'm going to try something like this Chicken and Broccoli casserole from Cooking Light:

I love regular Chicken Divan, so we'll see how this stacks up in comparison. I'm hoping to find recipes that are healthy and low-cal without TASTING low cal! Recipes that Chris won't even realize are low-cal and healthier (you know, other than vegetable soup).

I may also get myself to the gym.... but to be honest, maybe not as I have a lot of things to do tonight!!! But if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow! Just being honest here...