Sick Day

"In February it will be

My snowman's anniversary

With cake for him and soup for me!

Happy once, happy twice

Happy chicken soup with rice"

-Carole King

 

 Ok so even nurses and especially nursing students get sick, unfortunately for nursing students we don't get to call off sick. Just to put into perspective for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, lab and clinical time for nursing programs are very tightly measured. You MUST have a certain number of hours in clinical and lab in order to pass the semester, in our case this amounts to being able to miss ONE day.

  You can bet there was no way I was missing our sim lab today even though my stomach has been rejecting all attempts to give it any type of nourishment for the past 24 hours. Thanks to my great classmates I managed to get through the day with minimal dehydration issues and my hubby sweetly swung by to grab me from school. This leaves one problem, my stomach still steadfastly refuses to accept any offerings of food.

  Now going onto 36 hours with little other a tiny bowel of oatmeal and tea it is time to take matters into my own hands. I am pulling out the big guns! Chicken soup, yup that's right it has been proven that chicken soup is indeed one of the best remedies for all that ails you. So sorry guys, you are all going to have to admit that Mom knew best on this one.

  Let me break it down for you like this. The soup provides you with some much needed protein for healing, all those white blood cells being made deplete resources! The veggies provide vitamins and nutrients and since they are cooked in the broth you don't loose any water solubles, they're just in your broth. The pasta or rice give you some simple carbohydrates that are easy to digest, you need these for energy...fighting germs is hard! Warm hot broth helps loosen up pesky mucus in the nasal passage and apparently even some studies have shown that chicken soup with veggies packs a great anti-oxidant punch.  Look out germs!

  Now I certainly don't feel like making a huge pot, it's only me and the hubby and thank goodness I am the only sicky right now, so roasting an entire chicken is out of the picture. Well I must confess, I cheat. I know you are shocked. I simply take the quarter of the roasted chicken we bought at Walmart the other day and toss that into my large sauce pan with water and boil....voila soup!  Ok so not that easy but close enough, anyhow for any of you who are sick (or just hungry) here is my sort of recipe for chicken soup and a little flashback to childhood.

Kitty's Germ Fighting Chicken Soup

You will need:

1 roasted chicken quarter (store bought or home made whatever!), meat removed from bones and set aside

4 cups of water

2 bay leaves

1/2 bullion cube or some low sodium chicken broth

You will want any of the below:

2 cloves of garlic (great for fighting germs)

Carrots fresh or frozen (Vitamins!)

3 Tablespoon Long Grain Rice (Carbs)

Handful of dark green leafy things, Kale, Collards, Spinach etc (more vitamins and antioxidants!)

Mushrooms chopped (these are just yummy)

Onion, some roughly chopped

What to Do:

 Ok pull the meat off the bones and put it in the fridge, plunk any and all bones and skin into the pot and cover with water and 2 bay leaves. Stick it on the burner and let it come to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and walk away for at least a 1/2 hour.

 When you come back from your nap (you are sick after all!) strain the broth and toss out the bones. Don't forget to peel what ever meat you can from the bones BEFORE they go into the garbage.

  Put pot of soup back on the burner and add onion and garlic at this time. Add bullion cube or broth to richen up the broth before you add mushrooms, carrots now if they are fresh and rice. 

CAUTION! Do not add more than 3 tablespoons of rice, I know it looks like nothing but it will grow and eat up all of your soup! Trust me.

 Bring soup to a simmer and keep it there until you notice the rice starting to puff up add frozen carrots now. Then add green leafy stuff and simmer until wilted and tender. Season soup to your (or your stomachs taste) at this time and simmer for 10-15 minutes and serve!

This soup is ready for germ fighting duty!

  I added frozen leeks to my soup, and I use Trader Joe's cooking greens mix in my soup.  Try any combo of things you like.  If you prefer, add pasta instead of rice, just remember to cook it separately and add at the end with your greens. I seasoned this batch very simply due to the gastric issues, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and finished it with a touch of white wine for depth (hey I'm sick not dead!).  Get crazy and wild experiment with your favourite veggies. Post a comment and let me know what variant you tried I would love to hear from you!



Look out germs!