I've had a bad day chicken soup

The past 24 hours of my life have been particularly frustrating/maddening/annoying.  Whether this is because I perpetually allow the actions of persons who may or may not give two hoots about my well being upset me, or for some other reason, I really cannot tell.  I'll spare the details since I have no idea who actually reads this blog and just move onto the soup.  There are a few things in life that always make bad days better for me. In no particular order and not an exhaustive list: Brian (usually futilely) attempting to cheer me up, walking the puppy, cupcakes, lizards running on my back patio, and chicken soup. 

For this I've had a bad day chicken soup, you'll need: 2 carrots, 1 parsnip, 1/2 an onion, 3 stalks of celery, 1 turnip, 1 potato (mine is purple. PURPLE!), 3 cloves of garlic, 1 chicken breast, 1/4 cup pesto, 2 cups of spinach, 1/4 cup pastina pasta and chicken broth.

First, get the chicken breast in some water and boil it.  I only used one chicken breast since I didn't want to make more than a few servings of soup.

Next, work on the vegetables.  I peeled the carrots, parsnip and turnip. Then diced them and the onion, celery and potato.  As per usual, the garlic was minced. If your day has been bad enough to necessitate tears and you cry when chopping onions, this veggie prep time is an excellent time to get a good cry in as well.  If you ♥ the color purple as much as I do, you may find yourself cheered up by the potato. 

By the time you finish with the veggies, the chicken should be done. Remove it from the pot, but reserve the water.  Allow the chicken to cool then shred or chop into bite sized pieces. If you're pressed for time, or just like efficiency, shred the chicken while the veggies are cooking during the next step.

Now, for cooking.  Heat a bit of oil over medium heat in whatever pot you'd like.  Once it's hot, add all the veggies at once, cooking for about 8 minutes. Next, add the reserved chicken cooking water, more broth and the cooked chicken. I added about 2 cups of broth.

Stir in the pesto.  My pesto was homemade compliments of an unexpectedly large crop of basil.  Brian made it for last week's Sunday supper entree of pesto crusted pork loin, and (in usual Brian fashion) doctored it up with some gorganzola cheese.  If you don't live with a top notch chef and don't have a fridge full of inventive left-overs, store bought pesto is a-ok.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Lastly, add the spinach and pastina and cook for 5 minutes.  I really like pastina because it's little star pasta and reminds me that I'm a super star even when others try to convince me that I'm not.

To serve, you could top with a little cheese, since cheese makes everything better (provided you aren't lactose intolerant). I didn't add cheese since I had extra special cheesey pesto. Enjoy!