Canned Soup with Fresh Vegetables

Hmmmm....it's been a while since I actually posted a recipe. Sorry about that, guys. I swear I have excuses. I was sick; I was busy; it's getting toward the end of the semester so everything's hectic; and most importantly, I really haven't made anything lately. Every meal has been purchased (even breakfast...which lately has been a bagel and a banana, since they sell those at the coffee stand in the building all of my morning classes are in). But I have a recipe for you today. Isn't that nice of me to do since this is pretty much my equivalent of a job?
Actually, today's recipe isn't much of a recipe either. It's just the last thing I made in my room. So, here's the story:
I had this can of soup (which you might remember from Homemade Soup on a Very, Very Long Day). And, this can of soup has been sitting in my food crate beneath my bed for a very, very long time (try like 2 months). I've been saving it for my first cold. But, the other day (well, more like three weeks ago), I decided I was no longer waiting. I was tired and it was cold outside and I did NOT want to go all the way to the cafeteria just to grab dinner. And since I had nothing else edible in my room (with the exception of candy and Easy-Mac), I was left with only the can of soup to eat. So I ate it. Even though I wasn't sick. And then a few hours later (when I decided around 11:00 that I really, really wanted a cookie and walked all the way to the cafeteria to get one) I started getting a sore throat...which turned into a horrible sore throat, a cough, a runny nose, a sneezy nose, watery eyes, muscle aches, and general fatigue (on top of my "normal" stomach aches).
Beyond the poor timing, I did have one wise idea. I decided that since the celery in my fridge was getting rather old (and was still unopened...why do I buy food if I'm not going to eat it before it goes bad?), I would add some vegetable to the soup (since last time I was quite upset to realize that there were, in fact, no vegetables whatsoever in my canned chicken noodle soup).
Steps to making this canned soup with fresh(ish) vegetables:
1. Cut off all the bad parts to your celery and throw away any completely bad stalks. This left me with about 1 1/2 stalks...which ended up being enough anyway.

2. Cut the celery into fairly small pieces.
3. Steam the celery or cook it in some way. (I didn't do this step, so I can't really tell you a good way to do it. All I can tell you is the celery ended up a little bit crunchy because it wasn't cooked first).
4. Combine in a microwave-safe bowl your can of vegetable-free chicken noodle soup and your celery. Stir it.
5. Cook in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes, keeping an eye on it to make sure the soup doesn't bubble over and create a mess in the microwave.
6. Stir it once more, to make sure that the heat is properly distributed and the celery is mixed thoroughly and evenly into the soup.
7. Eat, enjoy, and clean up the mess. (And make sure to take out the trash...celery in the process of becoming rotten smells up the room.)

Dorm Food

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Homesickness Soup

I'm not homesick. I feel guilty for two reasons:

• I bought this soup specifically for if/when I become homesick, but so far I have not had this need. I have missed my boyfriend, my cat, and my friend-friends (in that order... apologies to everyone listed below my cat...), but have yet to miss my family, my hometown, my bedroom, or the other animals at my house. This makes me feel like a horrible person. But I just don't miss them. Like, at all. What kind of person am I?!
• I also feel guilty. I just didn't feel like going down to the cafeteria after a rather long, sweaty, intense bike ride this afternoon, and I wasn't in the mood for, well, anything I have (which happens to include A LOT of food). So I made this soup.

The soup I made was on sale for 59 cents, so I decided to get it. It happens to be Grandma's canned soup (chicken noodle soup with the long, skinny noodles, thick chicken broth, and no vegetables). Just the smell takes me to my grandmother's dining room, where I have spent many a lunches eating canned chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese with cheddar cheese and wheat bread (which differed from my mother's American cheese with white bread...and only tasted good when Grandma made it). I wouldn't be surprised if the only reason we had this so much every time we spent a week with my grandparents is because it was the only thing they knew my little sister would eat (and now, she won't even eat the soup...seriously, she becomes pickier of an eater with age, though some parts of it I know aren't her being picky since she also gets sick eating certain foods, other parts (like her hating the "taste and texture of meat" and her distaste for any vegetables besides peppers) can only be summed up with one letter: Elle).

Anyway, I digress. So, I made this soup, despite the fact that I wasn't homesick, using the microwave directions. There were several off things about my soup (though it still tasted pretty good). The first was that the directions ask you to cover the bowl. The only thing I could think of that I had that could possibly be used for this was paper towel...but it fell into the bowl around minute 3 of the cooking process. The second, was that the soup was scalding hot. I cooked it for the lowest suggested cooking time, but still had to wait several minutes before I could eat it. The third was that there was something missing: the chicken. There were literally (and I'm not exaggerating) two pieces of chicken in my chicken noodle soup, making it, in essence, noodle soup with chicken garnish. Seriously. The final, and most important thing, was that it was missing something else: oyster crackers.

(insert family laughing here, other people not even caring). Oyster crackers in chicken noodle soup is just how it's done at Grandma's house. My sister does it. My older brother did it. Even my 6 year old cousin does it. It's just a necessity that there be more oyster crackers in your soup than chicken (though in my case, that only means there needs to be 3 oyster crackers...).

So, that was my diner tonight. It was...reasonable. It sort of reminded me of my grandparents' house, and wasn't used for a bout of homesickness. I feel full of guilt for the reasons I listed before, but also full in general because I ate 2.5 servings of soup today. But, hey, I haven't had any yogurt covered pretzels yet today. =)

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Homemade Soup on a Very, Very Long Day

Against all better intuitions, I decided to trek out to the cafeteria for lunch today. Perhaps I should go back and explain what my day has been today.

It all begins around midnight when I snuck back into my dorm room after hanging out with a friend all night (one of those you start talking at 9:00, then suddenly it's midnight type deals that I've always heard about but never quite experienced before...especially on a school night). Afraid to wake up my roommate (and also eager to go to bed), I got into bed without brushing my teeth, changing into pjs, or even feeding my poor beta fish. I seriously just walked in and got into bed.

Thanks to this late night, I woke up with very few hours of decent sleep (I'm still getting used to my bed). Luckily, I had class at 8:10 this morning! Hurray! So, I woke up slowly, got dressed even slower (unaware that it would be in the 90's today), and ate much quicker. Though I left with 10 minutes to spare, I was still one of the last students to reach class (the very last being the friend I had been hanging out with last night). Tuesday and Thursday classes are the longest classes, as they only meet twice a week, so the class lasted FOREVER.

As soon as it was done, I went back to my room to study (I have to have a history book finished by tomorrow and...it's not going so well...it's written in Old English). I fell asleep instead. It felt glorious.

When I woke up, I realized studying in my bed is not a good idea when I'm tired, so, around noon, I traversed to the cafeteria. And that's where this story begins to relate to food.

I am still lost in the cafeteria.

It' big and crowded and I don't want to look like a dumb freshman...but I am a dumb freshman. Luckily, I discovered soup today, so that's what today's blog is truly about.

My favorite soups in the whole wide world were, until today, as follows:

1. Miso soup (especially from Infinite Soup in Tacoma...where they include like three different types of mushrooms)

2. Clam chowder from the can

3. Brocolli cheddar soup (especially from Panera Bread, but I like it just about anywhere)

4. Chicken noodle soup with oyster crackers (I only eat this at Grandma's house, though).

5. Split pea soup

However, after today, split pea soup has proudly moved up to position number 2. Seriously, I loved the school's split pea soup. It had large chunks of actual ham. And, though you could tell it was from real peas, there weren't chunks of peas in the soup. The texture was smooth and creamy. And, best of all, there were hardly any spices. I could tell there was some salt and maybe a few other slight flavors, but, basically it was peas and ham. Soooooo gooooood. They don't seem to have it often, which is disappointing. But, I guess I'll just have to use it as a special treat. I am seriously in love with this soup. If it were possible to marry a soup, I'd marry miso soup and cheat on it with this soup.

In addition to soup, I had chocolate milk because I wanted milk (I didn't have choir today so I didn't have to worry about it coating my throat). And, after a bit of studying, talking to a fellow UP student who used to be in high school with me, and more studying...I ran into another friend and ate lunch with her. This time yogurt covered pretzels, which were expensive ($4 for a tiny bag), but oh so goooooood.

I went with this friend to class, ended up late for class, and then hung out with her and a bunch of other people after class. Then, I left the group to go with my roommate to get groceries (especially my missing cheddar cheese and some Ritz crackers). And now I'm back, and I'm blogging, and I still haven't finished the stupid book for history and I think my mind is going to either explode from all the stuff I have yet to do but don't want to do, or melt from the 90 degree heat (all my shorts are filthy and, since I still haven't done laundry, I am hottttt). I'm wearing pajama shorts but I'm still dying. I'm just not used to this crazy heat.

Dorm Food

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