Joan's Medicinal Chicken Soup

Well, with one grandchild with swine flu in the south, and a son with some kind of virus in the north, I decided it was time to share my amazingly wonderful, hearty, steamy, healthy chicken soup recipe!

Ingredients:

Chopped: 1 potato, 5 stalks celery, 1/2 sweet white onion, 1/4 green pepper, 3 carrots.

Butter: 1 Tbl in which the chopped vegetables are cooked until softened in a large soup pot.

Assemble:
2 13 oz. cans of chicken breast chunks with broth, or cubed cooked chicken;
1 large can chicken broth;
Whole wheat egg noodles;
1 can cream of mushroom soup (mix into vegetables with some of the broth to dilute the soup);
Spices: (as desired) 2 bay leaves, dressing spice to taste, salt, peppercorns, parsley;
Water, enough that the noodles do not soak up all the broth, but that the soup is not too thick for your liking.

Finally, just stir all but the noodles into the pot, bring to a boil. Then lower to low and cover. Cook at least for 30 minutes, raise to a boil, add the noodles and stir. Lower the temperature again once the soup comes to a boil. Cook to desired tenderness.

Options: Brown minute rice can be added, and dumplings can also be added.

This makes a large quantity of soup that can be frozen, shared, or get better in the frig for the next day!