Grandma's Chicken Spinach Soup

This recipe comes straight from the grandma herself!  Raising 5 kids on a dime made her come up with a simple, fast, healthy dinner that is still requested to this day.  Now she used frozen spinach and sometimes canned chicken but in all respect I just can't bring myself to use frozen spinach in this soup, fresh gives it such a nice texture and flavor and just pops with color.  If you want to go with the can-o-chicken fine, I'll look away, but I take my spinach seriously!

If a picture is worth a 1000 words then this recipe would be a whole encyclopedia set. I just couldn't put the camera down (step away from the soup...). One of the reasons for all the pictures is that this recipe was passed on to me with the measurements "handful of this, a dash of parm, and some of this...".  I thought it would be fun to keep the whimsy of making this soup intact but for those who want a visual of what a "handful" is to me just check out the storyboard below :)

Grandma's Chicken Spinach Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 (32oz) box of Chicken broth, low sodium preferred (try to use a box-o-broth as the canned broth tends to leave a metallic taste in this soup)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1-2 large chicken breasts
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 handfuls of fresh Spinach
• 2 eggs
• several good size dashes of Parmesan cheese 
• 1 fist-full of whole wheat Spaghetti (reg. ok)

1.  Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook in a skillet with a little bit of oil over medium heat till done (about 3-4 min each side). Set aside.  Meanwhile place a pot of plain water on the stove on high heat to cook the spaghetti separately.

2. Pour the chicken broth and 1/2 cup of water into a separate saucepan on medium high heat.

3. Chop the spinach (removing any large woody stems) and dump in pot with the chicken broth.

4. When the plain pot of water comes to a boil take the handful of spaghetti, break it into fourths, and add to the boiling water. Cook according to the package directions to "al dente".

5. While pasta is cooking cut the cooked chicken into chunks. Add to the simmering chicken broth pan.

6. When pasta is done drain and add to the saucepan with the chicken broth.

7. Whisk eggs in a bowl and add Parmesan cheese.  Season with fresh ground pepper to taste.

8. Bring the broth pot back to a boil with the added spaghetti and chicken.  Turn off heat and carefully drop spoonfuls of the beaten eggs into the soup. 

9. Remove from heat and (this is my favorite part) stir with a large serving spoon.  So much fun to see the eggs take over!  :)