Chicken and Lentil Soup

What do you do when you desperately need to go grocery shopping, but it's way too hot to even think about going outside?  Or you're just too lazy busy to leave your hectic domain?  Or maybe you stayed up past 4am trying to watch the Delta-Aquarid meteor shower and you don't have your life together today? Ahem. None of those apply to me.  Promise.

So what do you do?  Pinterest.  Obviously.  Because I cannot feed my entire family on just two chicken breasts (which, at this point, are still frozen).

Or can I?

I'm desperately looking around my kitchen trying to get an inventory.  Let's see, I've got some veggies, tomato paste, some lentils... I can do this.  I found a very inspiring chicken and lentil soup recipe, and upped it.  What do I call it? A whole bunch of delcious stuff thrown into a pot.  With grilled cheese.  That's too long.  Whatever.

Problem: the chicken is still frozen.
Solution: cook it while I prep the rest of my ingredients.  Drizzle with avocado oil, season both sides with salt and pepper, bake at 375°F for about 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through.

This would be an amazing recipe for some straggling left over chicken.  And it would take less time.

Side note about tomato paste: even though it comes in a teeny tiny can, you never really ever need that much.  You can put it in a Ziploc bag, divided in sections, and freeze it.  Just break off a piece whenever you need it.  Like so:

Shown frozen with two sections missing.  I would guess they're about a tablespoon each.

What you'll need:

• 2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced (I actually had about 6 baby carrots, which worked wonderfully)
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can cut green beans, drained
• 1 cup frozen corn (coincidentally, the exact amount I had on hand)
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 4 cups chicken broth
• Avocado oil
• salt and pepper

What to do:

Heat a large drizzle of oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onions, garlic, and carrots and cook for about 4 minutes, until onions are soft.  Add seasonings and lentils and stir until well combined.

Add in the rest of the ingredients: chicken, green beans, corn, broth, tomato paste.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for about 25 minutes, or until lentils are soft.  Season with salt and pepper.

And that's it!  Serve it up with some grilled cheese sandwiches and enjoy!

Tip: if you like a more soupy soup, you can add about 2 cups of water.  We like thick soup in my household.  For some reason, my husband is against eating with spoons and would rather sop up the broth with bread, or grilled cheese in this case.

Prep time: about 30 minutes if you have to cook the chicken
                  about 5 minutes if chicken is already cooked

Cook time: 30 minutes

Makes about 6 servings.