$30 weekly keto - day 6

Last night I made soup.  The recipe is almost exactly like the dinner update on day 1, and it really couldn't be simpler.  The last time I made it, I didn't explain it well, so here's how it goes.

• 2 green onions - the entire green onion except the very end root part.  I need as much flavor as possible.
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 romaine leaves
• 3 basil leaves
• 3 little parsley branches
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• salt & pepper
• 1 large chicken breast (mine was 18oz)
• oil/butter -- whatever you're cooking with

1. Heat your sauce pan over medium-low heat.  
• I use a 3 quart sauce pan over #4 heat, on a scale of 1-10
2. While your pan heats up, chop your green onions, garlic, romaine, jalapeno, and herbs.  
3. When the pan is hot, add your oil 
4. Once oil is hot, add green onion and garlic and stir a couple times for about 3-4 minutes. 
5. While the aromatics are heating up, slice your chicken up into about bite-sized pieces.
6. After those 3-4 minutes are up, add your chicken, and season generously with salt & pepper
7. Sautee chicken until it starts to get white on most of the sides.  Then add the jalapeno and herbs.  
8. Season lightly again with salt & pepper.  
• The majority of the tasting and seasoning will happen after we add water.   Be careful not to over-salt at this phase when you can't taste the food.
9. Sautee the chicken with the herbs until the chicken looks all white, but not quite cooked through; about 2-3 minutes.
10. Depending how much soup you want, add water accordingly.  I happen to like more broth with this soup, so I added about 7 cups of water.
11. Increase heat slightly to medium and bring water to a boil.  (#6 on my stove's scale)
12. Let the water boil for about 30 seconds, and then decrease the heat all the way down to simmer, or whatever your lowest setting is.  
13. Now is the time to taste and season.  Since I only have salt & pepper, and the soup should have a spicy hint from the jalapeno, I only add a little bit of pepper compared to salt.  This is my preference, but yours could be different.  Add a little at a time, stir, and taste.  It's always easy to add more, but it's impossible to take it out if you add too much.  

For lunch today, I had a bowl of this soup without the pork rinds.  I'm saving the rest of those for another breaded chicken day... I think.  

Dinner Update

I went to dinner last night so I couldn't stick with my meal plan.  The worst part is the dish I specifically ordered without sugar, I think it came with some sugar because I gained 5 lbs overnight.  (It was a Thai shrimp & broccoli stirfry with garlic, and it's very common for Thai dishes to include sugar to help balance the flavor. )