Comfort Food for Uncomfortable Tummies

So, the game and family time was fun.  Right up until my sister called me Monday morning and told me that her youngest woke up sick and that she was extremely sorry.  Monday night it began.  One of my sons was sick right before bed.  And then another.  And another. 

I hoped and prayed my two youngest would somehow miss it.  But late in the afternoon on Tuesday, the last of the brothers joined in the party, followed by my oldest daughter.  And then Wednesday, the last of the 6 joined the group.  It's hard on a mama to watch her babies be sick, no matter how old they are!  Fortunately, James and I were spared!  I still don't know how, but I will take it.

So, I knew that it wouldn't be a heavy cooking week, but that these tummies would need something they could handle and still get some good protein and mama love.  I opted for chicken noodle soup.

This time I took my chicken breasts and while they were still mostly frozen, ran them through my food processor and made ground chicken.  I seasoned it all up, without overdoing it, but wished I had some fat in them just to make them more moist.  Then, I made tiny little meatballs.  I ended up with a whole cookie sheet of them.  They were adorable!

I took the broth that was left over from the wings, and removed all the fat.  This was easy as it had sat in the fridge over night.  It wasn't quite enough stock, so I added some chicken broth to it to fill my big stock pot.  The meatballs joined a little onion, garlic, carrot and celery in the pot.  I let it sit all day and even though they were sick, I could tell it was starting to do the trick!

For dinner I planned on making homemade egg noodles, but by that point, I was just tired from cleaning and sanitizing everything all day. I found some ditalini in my cupboard and added it to the pot.

I made such a big pot that we were able to eat it all week, which turned out to be a good thing because it was all anybody ever wanted.