Chicken Soup

[FeelingLippy]

Hey everyone,

Today is my first day doing Whole30, I just discovered it on Saturday after reading something online. I read the book yesterday and went shopping to start today. I am recently diagnosed coeliac so hoping this can help heal my troubled insides.

I made the chicken soup from the book for lunch, although I omitted celery as it is the only vegetable I don't like. I sliced 1 chicken breast, used half an onion, 2 x diced carrots and diced half a sweet potato and cooked with a ping if stock an seasoning. The ingredients all said for one person, am I to understand I should have eaten this whole pot of soup for lunch. I ate as much as I could but i was very full and it was too much to fit in my bowl.

[Kirsteen]

It's hard to judge without seeing sizes, I just bought 2 chicken breasts which were huge and would each do 2 meals but normally they're a lot smaller. The easy way to judge is to look at the amount of protein. If you were just having chicken and veg, would that piece of chicken be one meal? Also would the veg fit on one plate? If so then, yes, the soup is for one. Did you also have 1-2 tbs fat? You need that with it. I love soup but, as you say, it can be very filling especially if there's a lot of stock. I usually have to refill my bowl to fit it all in

[FeelingLippy]

Yeah the chicken breast was huge, I am from UK but recently moved to Westerna Australia and they are so much bigger here. I think next time I will buy boneless chicken thighs as they are smaller. The veg would have fitted on one plate I think though it would have been a tight squeeze. With regards to the fat, I sauted the onions in 2 tablespoons of olive oil at the beginning, would this have been enough fat for the meal? Sorry for the questions, I have jumped right into this plan and read the book very quickly, maybe missed a few points

[Kirsteen]

Don't worry about questions, it's how we all learn. If there was enough protein for 2 servings, then that's fine. The oil you saute the veg in is fine, especially in soup as it all stays in it and doesn't get drained off. You could probably have done with a little more veg, but don't sweat it. When you start W30, it's very much a trial and error learning curve. There is a recomended meal template, a portion of protein 1- 2 palm sizes, 1 - 2 thumbs of fat and fill your plate with veggies. Within that, it's very much finding out what suits you. If you're really hungry shortly after, then you didn't have enough. If you last til your next meal then it was probably fine. You'll soon find out how much you need, after all we're all different and have different neeeds. Good luck

[praxisproject]

You might need more fat if you're diving it in two. Duck fat is great with chicken, if you can get it, mine is Luv a Duck brand (they only make duck things).

Aussie chicken breasts can be big, free range organic chickens they tend to be smaller (not sure if you can get them locally, but Lilydale chickens from Coles are free range, as are Macro from Safeway/Woolworths).

You can also shrink the soup in size by taking out the solids and evaporating some of the liquid (this will also make it taste stronger, so you may want to season after it's shrunk).