Man, I'm hungry.

My stomach is growling. I suppose now would be a bad time to go grocery shopping but shop I must.  I am out of protein.  A really easy source of lean protein is chicken.  I can't deal with chicken breasts though.  No matter what I do, they end up dry and a little mealy (read: nasty and bad to eat).

At your local grocery store I will bet they have bargain packs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  Poach those suckers:

Trim any blobs of visible fat.  Throw the thighs in a pot and cover with cold water until the water is about an inch or two above the meat.  Bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.  Take them off the heat, cover and let sit for 30 minutes.  Voila!  You have a pot of poached protein just ready for preparing with a variety of foods.  Drain them and put them into the refrigerator when they have cooled sufficiently.  If you add a TBS of peppercorns to the water and a tsp of kosher salt before cooking and skim the foam after cooking, you can save off the cooking water for a tasty, homemade, low fat, low salt chicken broth.  Oh... store it overnight in the refrigerator and skim the fat the next day.  You can freeze it or keep it for a few days refrigerated to make tasty soups or whatever.

Easy Chicken Soup - Serves 4

Non-fat cooking spray
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 cup red chard (or other hearty green), leaves sliced into very thin ribbons
4-5 cooked chicken thighs, cut up into 1/2 inch chunks
6 cups fat free, low salt chicken broth or stock
1 package shirataki noodles

Saute the chopped onion over medium high heat in a large non-stick skilled, 5 minutes.  Add carrots and celery, 5 more minutes.  Add the ribbons of chard.  Saute a few more minutes until the chard is wilted.

Add the chicken and toss around until the chicken absorbs some of the tasty goodness in the pan.

Pour in the chicken broth, bring to a simmer.

Dump the shirataki noodles straight into a colander.  Rinse very well.  You might also want to cut them into "egg noodle length" with scissors if they are the spaghetti or linguine kind.  Once they are rinsed to the point of not having any sort of aroma at all, dump them into your soup.  Continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.  Serve.

*NOTE - I use this recipe as a template only.  Sometimes I add chopped garlic or saute mushrooms with the other vegetables.  If you trim the end of the stems of red chard you can chop those and cook them like celery.  They add a pretty red color to the soup.  Or I will use dried herbs, thrown in with the vegetables and tossed around right before I add the stock (good herbs are basil, oregano or thyme).  If I want it to look fancy, I will sprinkle some fresh parsley over top before I serve it.  Let your imagination be your guide.

Enjoy!