Chicken and Vegetable Bone Broth Soup

When meal planning for my family and I each week, I typically filter potential recipes thru a few basic criteria. Our meals must not only be healthy and easy to make, but  high in protein and satiating.

If I am feeling extra lazy (which is almost always the case when it comes to cooking), the recipe must also be applicable to crockpot cooking. I seriously could not imagine life without my crockpot!

Well, I am proud to say that this Chicken and Vegetable Bone Broth Soup recipe meets all of my criteria. Not only is it nutrient dense and low in calories,  it is particularly satisfying during the colder months as it warms and fills my belly while still complying to my caloric budget.

Now for those of you here for my DIY and interior design content…. fret not!

I am not throwing it all away to become some Rachael Ray wannabe. In fact, if I am being completely honest, I hate to cook!

With that confession, however,  the premise of my blog is based on living a beautiful life with budget in mind.

As I continue to “beautify” my home, I am constantly reminded that my material surroundings are only one component of the whole equation…. a beautiful life is also created by feeling good in our physical and mental bodies. Given I have struggled with my weight since adolescence, I have learned a thing or two about health and I simply want to share the hacks I pick up along the way with you babes….

I promise to return to my regularly themed content next week, but just know I may be occasionally sprinkling in more recipes and lifestyle content in the future.

Now that you’ve been warned, let’s address the “bone broth” aspect of this recipe.

What about the Bone Broth?

While I have made this recipe using canned chicken broth in the past (two cans of chicken broth will work just fine), I recently decided to start devoting a little extra time and effort into making my own bone broth (I use this bone broth recipe).

So why would a lazy cook such as myself go thru all of this extra trouble? Simply put… as it relates to health and nutritional benefits, canned/storebought broth doesn’t hold a flame to legitimate, homemade bone broth. If you would like to read all about the health benefits of real bone broth, check out this article. Otherwise, let’s move on to the recipe.

Crockpot Chicken and Vegetable Bone Broth Soup Recipe

I typically prepare this meal on Sunday and eat it for lunch throughout the week. This recipe makes about six servings. It is also great to freeze for later.

Ingredients:

• 4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 4 Cups of Homemade Bone Broth (I used this recipe) or 2 (14.5oz) cans of chicken broth
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp grassfed butter (optional)
• salt
• pepper
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• 3 bay leaves
• ground thyme
• Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 White Onion diced
• 8 Celery Stalks diced
• 4 Whole Carrots diced
• 1 Bag of Frozen Broccoli Florets

Directions:

1. Drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the bottom of Crockpot.
2. Place chicken breasts in crockpot. Drizzle more olive oil on top (optional). Then sprinkle salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder of chicken breasts.
3. Add diced onion, celery and carrots.
4. (optional) for added flavor, add sliced butter over vegetables.
5. Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder and ground thyme over vegetables.
6. Add 2-3 bay leaves
7. Add a few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce. (I love Worcestershire so I use waaay more than a few dashes).
8. Add 4-5 cups of bonebroth.
9. Place lid on crockpot and cook for 5 to 6 hours on high setting. Note: At the halfway mark on your cooking time,  add a bag of frozen broccoli. Cooking it this long does turn the broccoli to mush, but I like it this way as my body has a hard time digesting broccoli. If you want firmer broccoli, place frozen broccoli in crockpot when you only have one hour cooking time left.
10. Once fully cooked, shred chicken. (By this time, chicken is so tender that it shreds easily with a knife and fork within the soup…no need to remove the chicken from soup to shred).

To all my loyal DIY peeps, thanks for hanging in there while I shake things up. Next week, I plan to reveal plans for my first major DIY project of 2019.

Now  get out there and design some good vibes.

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