S is for Soup. And Summer.

I crave soup in the summer. Pretty much all the time. Odd, I know. You'd think I'd get that hankerin' in the winter when I need warming up from the bitter cold, but no, the hotter it is outside, the more I want soup. Don't ask me. Well, if you have a backwards day and find yourself craving soup these warm summer days, I have an amazing treat for you!

I've grown rather fond of cookinglight.com and their amazing recipe selection. In fact, I spend loads of free time perusing the endless pages of meal recipes that are lower in fat and calories than their typical counter part. My wonderful cook of a mommy used to make this Chicken Corn Chowder that is simply delicious. Well I got the bright idea to add potatoes. Who doesn't like a little root in their soup if you know what I mean? So then I found this recipe for Crab-Potato Chowder on none other than cooking light as well and have merged the recipes into one delicious Chicken, Corn, Potato Chowder that I think is simply the bomb.com. Now, it looks like a lot of ingredients, but when you look closely, you've probably got a lot of this stuff just lyin' around waiting to be included!

Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you try it and what you think!

Chunky Chicken, Corn and Potato Chowder:

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter (I use unsalted, boo sodium!)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery (If you're into that kind of thing...Graham doesn't like celery, so I omit)
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (A merger from the other recipe...another way to kick it up a notch!)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded
• 3 1/2 cups (1-inch) cubed red potato (about 1 pound)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk (I use skim and it is still delicious, so if you wanna cut out a few more calories...go for it!)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme (this time I actually just shook in a little dried oregano cause I'm too lazy and too cheap to buy fresh thyme. One day when I have a garden of herbs I'll go the fresh route!)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• A pinch of ground red pepper (just shake some in there--it gives it a little kick!)
• 1/4 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg (okay to just shake in a little of the powdered stuff here too)
• 1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 small can white shoepeg corn, drained
• 1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (not really needed...just there for the presentation at the end)
• 1 teaspoon salt (I don't add this either. The less salt in our diet the better!)

Preparation

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, jalapeno and garlic; sauté 4 minutes. Add potato; sauté 1 minute. Sprinkle with flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk, thyme, pepper (both red and black), nutmeg, corn (creamed and shoepeg), cooked chicken and broth. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender (may take more like 25-30 depending on how small you cut the potatoes), stirring occasionally.

Nutritional Information (Before I adjusted--less Sodium in my version!)

Calories:

265 (23% from fat)

Fat:

6.8g (sat 3.8g,mono 1.9g,poly 0.6g)

Protein:

16.3g

Carbohydrate:

36.5g

Fiber:

3.1g

Cholesterol:

47mg

Iron:

1.5mg

Sodium:

968mg

Calcium:

176mg