Happy Friday! I finished up at work a couple of hours early today and headed back towards home, cold, hungry and ready for a warm and quiet night in. Before I got to head home, I stopped in at the dentist.

I got braces around a year ago now and I’m enjoying the results so far – I’m just a touch over the mouth ulcers and the tightening visits. Today’s visit was horrific. I got some new wires put in place and I was absolutely certain my teeth were going to come out as she was doing her work. I may have even cried. After a harrowing half hour, I pottered over to the supermarket with the thought of putting a soup together for dinner.

I love Winter and especially because it is a great excuse to eat soup. For me, a good soup is chunky and has a lot of vegetables in it. Tonight I thought I’d put the cookbooks aside and create my own chicken noodle soup recipe. I’m so happy with the results. I adore fennel and it brings such a nice flavour to the broth. If you’re feeling the cold or have a cold, I suggest giving this a try. You won’t be disappointed! Now to tuck into the watermelon kiwi pops I made last night!

INGREDIENTS for two portions (or one huge bowl if you’re hungry like me)

generous handful of brown rice spaghetti, broken into small pieces

4 cups home-made chicken stock

2 tbs tamari

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp crushed chilli

1 clove garlic, crushed

kernels off one small corn cob

200g chicken breast fillet, chopped

large handful green cabbage

1 baby fennel

4 swiss brown mushrooms

6 snowpeas

1 small celery stalk

parsley to serve (optional)

slivered almonds to serve (optional)

METHOD

Bring stock to a boil, adding the tamari, ginger, chilli and garlic. Season with pepper. Pop your raw chicken pieces into the pot and let it cook in the stock for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your brown rice spaghetti separately until just soft and chop all of your vegies up into bite sized pieces.

After 15 minutes, take your chicken out and shred it up finely. Place the chicken with all of the vegetables and spaghetti back into the pot and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve garnished with parsley and slivered almonds.