Simple Chicken Dumpling Soup

Creating simple and hardy meals does not always require slaving in the kitchen. It is hard to maintain a healthy diet when engaged in a busy life and convenience foods are at every turn.  A slow cooker can save time by allowing you to put food into cooker in the early morning and have it finish just a few hours before getting home. 

Chicken and Dumpling soup is both hardy and healthy. A bowl will range in calories depending on the size of that bowl and the ingredients one uses. At its worst it is under 300 calories while at its best 140 calories. Protein is high due to the white chicken breast. 

I do not like dry meat and white chicken breast seems to be the worst. However, when cooking with a slow cooker it will come out very soft and soaks in the flavors of the rest of the soup. It is tender and will come apart very easily even without almost any chewing. 

Ingredients: 

4 chicken breasts without skin (halves)

2 tablespoons butter

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup (10.75 oz)

1 onion diced.

2 packages of biscuit dough (10 oz)

Garlic or garlic salt to taste

Directions:

Step 1: Place chicken cut into large chunks, onion, butter and soup in slow cooker.

Step 2: Fill with enough water to just cover the ingredients.

Step 3: Cover and turn on slow cooker for 5.5 hours

Step 4: Rip biscuit dough into pieces and place in cooker.

Step 5: Cover and cook for 30 minutes until dough is nearly cooked.

1 bowl 150-300 calories

Protein 7-14

Easy to Make Peasant Potato Soup

Soups are a great way to lose weight and get your dosage of vegetables. Most importantly they are nutritious and generally do not cost a lot of money. As I bought a slow cooker over the holidays I occasionally like to try new recipes that range from steak to desert. In this case I was impressed by this peasant potato soup. It was easy to make and tasted hardy. 

Since it is a basic soup for peasants you can add other items like sausage, additional vegetables or even shrimp. When you understand the basics you can do anything you want to the mixture and experiment. Some things will work well and others won’t. 

8 potatoes chopped

3 leeks

1 onion diced

2-4 tablespoons margarine

2 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes

2 cloves garlic

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

Water

Chives for garnish

Cheddar for garnish

 Salt, pepper and other preferred seasonings to taste. 

Cube all of the mixture pieces and place within the slow cooker. Leave the evaporated milk until the end. Put enough water into the mixture until it just barely covers the potatoes. Cook on high for four hours. Mix in the evaporated milk. You may either mash or puree the mixture. If you want a chunkier soup then mash and a creamer soup should be pureed. 

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chives and cheddar. You can add additional spicing before serving. The batch should make somewhere around 12-16 servings. 300 calories per serving, 48g carbs and 8 protein.