A real "from the pantry" meal

While we didn't do much grocery shopping last month and we basically ate from our pantry, there weren't many meals that I just "threw together" with items that we already had. Each meal was pretty planned out and I pretty much only picked meals where I already had all the ingredients.

But this week is another month and another day, and I've been thrown off my rocker. After having such a precise meal plan and then taking a week off cooking (Thanks Marla!), I haven't really gotten my cooking groove back on yet. Which is partially why Kody made dinner on Monday night (Homemade chicken noodle soup! It was delicious!) and why we had spaghetti (the not-so-homemade kind) tonight.

But last night, I had a glimpse of brilliance. We bought potatoes a week ago and hadn't used any, so I knew I needed to make something with potatoes. We also had chicken broth I wanted to use up. So I searched through my recipe book and found my Aunt Teri's recipe for chicken and cream cheese potato soup! It was perfect!

The recipe used most of the potatoes, all the chicken broth, leftover cream cheese that needed to leave the fridge, diced onions that Kody probably wouldn't eat in anything but soup and chicken from the freezer! I did tweak the recipe a bit because I didn't have a few of the spices it called for.

The best part of all was that Kody LOVED the soup! He said it was something "like he would make." Not sure if that was a compliment or a diss on my other cooking, haha, but oh well, he liked this one!

Here's the recipe:

- 4 cups chicken broth
- 4 cups potatoes, peeled and cut
- 1/4 cup onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
- 1 8 oz. cream cheese, cut into chunks
- 1 cup cooked and chopped chicken

Saute onion in pan (I added olive oil and garlic) and add to broth, potatoes and spices. Let boil on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Smash a few of the potatoes to release their starch for thickening. Add chicken and reduce heat to low. Add cream cheese and stir frequently until cheese melts.

** Instead of the red and white pepper (which I don't have), I used black pepper and cayenne pepper, which I've decided is my new favorite spice. It really gave the soup a kick that tasted great! I also only used 4 oz of cream cheese and added a little bit of other leftover shredded cheese.

I had a hard time getting the cream cheese to melt - any suggestions Aunt Teri? Maybe it was just too old.

Anyway, after a month of "cooking from the pantry," I can now say I made what I would call my first true "from the pantry" meal! And it turned out pretty well!