Tomato Chicken Chowder & New strength routine.

This is a slightly modified recipe from Weight Watchers.  It is a fast soup and very delicious.

Ingredients:

4  teaspoons olive oil 

2  carrots, thinly sliced 

6  scallions or 1 med onion, chopped 

2  celery ribs, chopped 

2  cloves garlic, minced 

1 (14 1/2  ounce) can crushed tomatoes 

2  cups chicken broth 

2  medium potatoes, peeled and cubed  (red work best)

1/2  teaspoon marjoram 

1/2  teaspoon oregano 

1/4  teaspoon ground pepper 

1/2  lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed  (about 2 breasts)

1/2  cup canned Chick peas

2  tablespoons parsley 

Preparation:

1    In a dutch oven or large pot, heat 2 tsp of the oil.
2    Saute the chicken until cooked through, 6-8 minutes, remove from pot and set aside.
3    Add and heat the remaining 2 tsp of oil.
4    Saute the carrots, scallions, celery and garlic until softened, 5-7 minutes.  Work the bottom of the oven with a spatula to scrape off the browned bits of chicken.
5    Stir in the tomatoes and broth; bring to a boil, then stir in the potatoes, marjoram, oregano and pepper.
6    Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes.
7    Add chicken into the chowder; stir in the beans and parsley.
8    Simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes.

This recipe makes 4 servings.   There are 277 Calories; 7g Fat; 32g Carb; 5g Fiber; and 24g Protein.

To save time, I buy the pre-shredded carrots and chicken tenders, instead of breasts.  Also,  it's even better if you use home made chicken stock.  Weight Watcher recipes are typically very low in sodium, so I always add salt, but some chicken stocks are saltier than others, so taste first!

I've also replaced the chicken with hot turkey sausage (or turkey hot sausage?). Either slice it down thin or remove the casing and break it up while you're browning it.

Now that I've typed this all out, I'm kind of craving it... I'll have to make a batch this weekend.

I was off work today, so I took the opportunity to change strength routines.  When I had joined the gym last time, I paid for a couple sessions with the personal trainer and ended up with three different exercise routines.  They were based on the equipment at the gym, so I had to go through each one and make sure I could do the exercise or one similar with my equipment.  It took a little tinkering, but I got it straightened out.  The first routine consisted of 1 set of 25 reps for the following exercises:  Chest Press, Shoulder Press, Seated Row, Curls, Tricep Pulldowns, Leg Press, Calf Press, Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Seated Crunches.  Now I'm doing 3 sets of 8 reps of all those exercises plus: Butterfly, Lat Pulldown, Lateral Raises, Hammer Curls, Tricep Extensions, Hip Abductions, Hip Adductions and Leg Raises.  Around May I will switch to my 3rd routine which is mostly free weights.  I don't have a lot of free weights, so I'll have to see what I can do with dumbbells.