Chicken Gnocchi Soup

 Every Friday night Shawn and I have date night. Some nights its dinner & a movie, some nights we go shopping (fun) some nights we stay home bake cookies and watch Dateline (our favorite)

A few Fridays ago we ventured out to see "2012". This movie was extremely intense and gave me a huge pit in my stomach the entire time. I actually found myself getting angry with Shawn because insisted on seeing this movie and it was so emotionally distressing. But I digress...

Before the movie we went to Macaroni Grill and had their Toscano Soup which was the best part of the meal.

I decided I could recreate this soup at home...and I did last week. Super scrumptious.

The recipe I started off with can be found here. But it lacked some serious flavor (plus it was only for 2 servings. Mine is 4) . So below is what I did.

Olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

2 cup chicken broth

1 cooked chicken breast per person

1 ripe tomato, chopped

7 ounces packaged gnocchi, cut in half

1 cup cream or half-and-half

1 1/2 cup fresh baby spinach leaves 

Herbes de Provence (about 2-3 dashes) 

Oregano 

Salt (kosher)

Pepper 

Parmesan cheese

Fresh basil

For Chicken:

I used chicken breast (1 breast each = 3). Seasoned with s&p and garlic salt. And then baked them. I'm sure for easier dinner night you could use a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket also.

Cook onions and garlic in olive oil (I used a big soup pot for easy cleanup). Add salt to this. Cook until the onions are soft and you can smell the garlic (5 minutes)

Add the chicken broth and bring that to a boil. Once broth has started to boil add chicken, gnocchi {I didn't cut mine in half because they we're frozen and I figured that would be an added step that I didn't have time for}, and tomatoes. Season that with a few dashes of herbes de provence, oregano, and s&p. 

Side note: I love fully flavored food and find that seasoning each step brings out more flavor. But I hardly ever measure my spices or herbs so just do what taste good to you. 

Simmer all for about 5-6 minutes. Then add the cream (again I seasoned this a bit too) add spinach last and cook until spinach wilts.

When serving sprinkle Parmesan cheese and basil.

And serve with bread for dipping.

This soup was super easy to make and pretty fast. I actually made it the night we got our tree so while Shawn got that all set up and straight I did the soup.

It was seriously delicious and want to make it everyday! Actually just typing it out has me thinking I might just make it again for dinner tonight!

And the bonus part was Phoenix LOVED it which as we all know is awesome, because its so hard to get a toddler to eat anything. Whenever I make something he actually eats I make all the time!

Most of the recipe I got from here, but tweaked it slightly.