Chicken Noodle Soup

Time Needed: 45 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 1 large onion, diced, 2 large carrots, diced, 3 ribs of celery, diced, 1 tablespoon garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil (I use garlic infused oil, personally), 8 cups chicken stock, 1 cup water, 1 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken, 1 1/2 cups diced potatoes, cooked, 1/2 package egg noodles, cooked, 1 cup instant rice, uncooked, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, salt and pepper, to taste

Directions: Heat the oil in a stock pot. Saute onion, carrot, celery, and garlic until they soften. Add the stock and the water, and bring to a boil. Add chicken and rice, cook until chicken is heated through. Add potatoes, noodles, and seasonings. Cook until rice is done or until you feel good about it. In case you are wondering, this takes less than 30 minutes to cook. I added 15 to the total time for chopping and pre-cooking stuff.

*Note - this is also really good if you leave out the potatoes done this way. If you heap the soup over mashed potatoes, that's really good, too (props to Aunt Jill on that one)