Italian Chicken Vegetable Soup

This is a hearty, EASY, soup that we will be making again and again. I was surprised at how good it was and best of all I had all the ingredients in the house already!

Italian Chicken Vegetable Soup

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 T. olive oil
2 14.5 oz can of Italian Tomatoes (with garlic, basil, and oregano)
4 cups chicken broth
2 small zucchini, chopped
1 small onion diced fine
3 small carrots, I sliced them into coins
2 lg stalks celery chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 t. Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large dutch oven over med-high heat. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes or until it's no longer pink inside. Add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until onions begin to look translucent. Add zucchini, tomatoes, chicken broth and Italian seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste. I used about 1 t. salt and probably 1/2 t pepper.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

Garnish with shredded Parmesan cheese.

*I cooked some whole grain rotini pasta to add for those people that wanted pasta.

Nutrition Information:
Calories 175.87; Total Fat 4.68g; Total Carbohydrates 7.49g; Fiber 2.06g; Protein 24.98g

Seriously, it was SO.GOOD.

S'mores Cookies

Who doesn't like a S'more? The gooiness of a roasted marshmallow combined with the sweetness of a chunk of milk chocolate all balanced out with a cripsy graham cracker....it's heaven. Creating them away from the campfire however is a little more problematic. As I am not fond of smelling like smoke and sleeping on the ground, when I saw recipes for S'more Cookies and Brownies popping up all over the internet I was intrigued to say the least.

This starts with your basic chocolate chip recipe, I would be willing to say that you can use your favorite one if this one doesn't seem right to you. You substitute some of the flour with graham cracker crumbs and you are well on your way to s'morey goodness.

This recipe is adapted from Baked Perfection. I added more flour than was originally included, an extra teaspoon of vanilla and cut the chocolate chips in half. I think with the amount of chocolate that you have from the Hershey's bars you really don't need to go overboard with the chips.

S'Mores Cookies
Adapted from Baked Perfection

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (to save time buy them already crushed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Mini Marshmallows
Hershey's Bars, broken into pieces (I used 4 regular sized ones)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and salt. Stir or whisk all together. In a separate large bowl beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until well mixed and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes, and remove from the oven. Push 3 or 4 marshmallows and a few pieces of chocolate bar into each cookie. Return to the oven and baked an additional 3-4 minutes until fully cooked and the marshmallows are beginning to brown. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Makes 4 dozen cookies