Very Veggie Chicken/Brown Rice Soup

10 cups Chicken Stock (I prefer Pacific NAturals)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 c. diced Carrot
1 c. diced celery
1 1/2 c. chopped onion
4 cloves garlic (minced/chopped fine)
2 cups brown rice (uncooked)
2 c. frozen corn
2 c. frozen green beans
2 c. Frozen peas and carrots
3 c. shredded chicken
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs fresh thyme (makes about 1tsp per sprig)

note--I throw in whole sprigs of thyme and whole bay leaves. Thyme falls off into soup as it cooks. Remove sprigs and bay leaves carefully

Heat Olive oil over med heat in a large stock pot. Sautee raw carrots, celery, and onion until soft and onions are transparent. Add garlic and sautee about 1-2 min. Add rice and brown for a few minutes. Add chicken stock, scraping up bottom of pan. Add thyme and bay leaves. Reduce heat, simmer for ~1hr while mostly covered. No need to stir during this time. Add shredded chicken and frozen veggies. Stir, and simmer for 20-30 minutes more, or until rice is cooked through and veggies are to your liking. Add salt/pepper to taste. This recipe freezes well. You may need to add more stock/broth when reheating after freezing.

Serving Size: makes 16 1-cup servings

Number of Servings: 16

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user TXMOMX4.