soup, or how to feed a family of four on one chicken breast

Kathy's youngest child, C*, is obsessed with making soup.  His grandma bought him the book Stone Soup last year, and after successfully feeding the family stone soup, he asks pretty much weekly whether he can make soup.  Since Kathy and C are both home sick today, and I am stuck here because of the snow (I actually tried to drive to work today, and turned around and came home because the roads were so bad), it seemed like a good day to indulge C's inner chef.  In case you're interested, this is how a kindergartner makes a very basic chicken soup.

Ingredients:
5 cups broth
2-3 oz. uncooked brown rice (a grownup handful)
3 smallish, kind of pathetic looking carrots
2 stalks celery
1 chicken breast

C put 5 cups of water in a pot.  Because adding spices is his favorite part, we made the broth with bullion so he could measure and add the "spices."  He added the rice and stirred it.  While it was coming to a boil, I cut up the carrots, celery and chicken, while he watched cartoons and the rice simmered.  After about 15-20 minutes, he came back and added the chicken and vegetables, and stirred some more.  That means he got to touch raw chicken.  That simmered about 20-30 minutes more, and Kathy, C, and I ate the soup for lunch, with lots of leftovers.

A few notes:  1.  The rice will not look like enough.  Don't worry, it is.  I think every time I make soup with rice that it's not enough, but it soaks up broth and also plumps up a lot.  Even 3/4 of the way through, I am regretting not adding more rice, then suddenly there is LOADS of rice.  2.  Cut the chicken really small even though it's a pain.  Our ingredients looked like this:

And our finished soup looked like this:

And that is why I think it would be fun to be a stay-at-home-mom.


* Note that "C" bears no relation at all to his actual name, but the internet is full of creepsters, and once you hear how cute he is you will understand why I don't want any of those creepsters trying to track him down and steal him.