Noodle Me This: Thai Ginger Chicken Soup

I love noodles...I mean really love them. I could eat noodles every single day; noodles of any kind. I have a very odd love of Ramen noodles, which is terrible because they are so terrible for you. One whole package is almost 400 calories and when I cook them, I'm going for the noodles, not the noodle soup so I have two packages. Oh my...terrible, terrible.

I'm working my way through other noodle types, Barilla now makes gluten free noodles, Ancient Harvest has quinoa noodles but they are still relatively high in carbohydrates. I realize there is some other nutritional value to the quinoa noodles like protein but my body just cannot handle complex carbohydrates. What's a noodle-loving gal like me supposed to do with that?

Well, I have bought shiritaki noodles in the past and used them in stir fry so I decided to splurge and buy a case of them (no more excuses to keep Ramen in the cabinets) to make noodle soups. Here's the cool thing about shiritaki noodles, they are made from yam paste and the ones that do not contain tofu have "0" calories...yep, that's right, they are also high in fiber! I bought a case from Genki USA. They had free shipping, I ordered and I swear I had them in two days. I was able to find shiritaki noodles at Publix, when I lived in Alabama, but I haven't been able to find them in the two stores I buy groceries at here in Idaho, so with free shipping, it was worth the order. Plus I'm pretty sure I paid less per bag than I did when I buy the single bags at the grocer AND they gave me a coupon to use for my next purchase.

The next challenge was to come up with something that was good, something that I enjoyed. So, when I was at Albertson's buying chicken broth, I noticed that Swanson's now has Thai Ginger broth. Well, that sounded very promising so I bought it in preparation for my new recipe. For the whole carton, there is only 120 calories (that's for four cups of broth).

To make my noodle soup I used the following:

10 oz. fresh chicken breast (cut into bite size pieces). There was no rhyme or reason to the use of 10 ounces, that is just how much chicken was in the package I bought.
1 head of bok choy (cut into slices and cut the leafy sections into smaller pieces. I only used half the boy choy in the soup)
1 small can of straw mushrooms
2 pkgs of Angel Hair Shiritaki Noodles

(This recipe easily makes four servings or less, depending on how hungry you are). Let's do the math on the calories for the whole pot. 1 oz. of chicken breast is 35 calories, so we have 350 calories of chicken. There are 9 whole calories in a cup of bok choy (I probably used 1 1/2 cup). 120 calories for the broth and 15 calories for the whole can of straw mushrooms.

Total Calories for the Whole Pot: 500!!!

Pour broth into saucepan and add chicken. Cook on high until chicken is done. Add the bok choy and cook for five minutes on medium. Add the straw mushrooms and the shiritaki noodles and cook for three more minutes on medium. Remove from heat and serve.

 

 

The bottom photo is the finished soup in my bowl that I had for lunch today. I really did enjoy it, got my noodle fix, ate healthy and low calorie. Oh yeah!

#EatFreshBeWell
-Kim