Homemade Chicken and Noodles

My mom's knee replacement surgery went well. She stayed in the hospital an extra day because of a weird reaction she had to one of the pain medications, vicodin. She was hallucinating that they moved her to a kitchen and that there were ants all over the walls, ceilings, everywhere. Yikes! She kept asking my dad to take her home. I had no idea vicodin could do that. Since then, I've heard other people say that they experienced similar things when they took that drug. We were also told that a reaction like that is more common in older people. They stopped giving it to her and she started feeling much better by the next day. Whew! She's already been having some memory issues so that was a little scary. She's back home now. A physical therapist goes to their house a few times a week and is expecting her to ditch her walker very soon.

My dad is now in charge of cooking. He's not feeling very confident about that and seems to be a little lost about what to cook or how to do it. Some of their friends have taken dinner to them a couple of times. He really enjoys those home cooked meals. My mom tends to cook very simply with a lot of frozen foods and the microwave or they eat out and that's often at fast food restaurants. So, home cooked food is a real treat for them.

I wanted to help out and knowing how much they would enjoy another home cooked meal gave me a great idea. On Saturday, I made a batch of homemade chicken and noodles. It's a family favorite with a recipe that has been passed along for generations. The recipe is a little vague. So, I imagine that most family members put their own twist on it just like I do. It's always amazingly delicious!


This pot full was made with organic, free range chicken (we like to call that "happy chicken"). It always amazes me how different it looks, smells, tastes, cooks up and how tender it is. We try to never eat normal grocery store meat any more. Many of the other ingredients were organic as well. With the help of my Kitchen Aid mixer, I was able to whip up an extra large batch of noodles very easily. I love that thing! We roasted some brussel sprouts too. That's another one of my parents' favorites. The dinner was a hit with lots of "mmmm" going on throughout the meal. There was even enough left over for them to have it again the next day.

I know that a lot of people show their love with cooking. I usually show it with yarny things. I'm not comfortable cooking for other people because I don't do it very often. So, it was extra rewarding to not only cook something so tasty for someone else but to know that it warmed more than their tummies, it also warmed their hearts.