Catherine's Spicy Chicken Soup

This is another one of my favorite soups--once again from allrecipes.com. I don't know about the rest of you, but I hardly ever--in fact, never--follow a recipe exactly. Instead, I use recipes for ideas and proportions. For this recipe, I don't cook the chicken like she says because I usually have shredded chicken in the freezer. I also didn't add condensed tomato soup, and I didn't use the WHOLE canned tomatoes. Oh, and a hint to making every recipe better--I do this for everything I make--at least double the spices. For example, when I make pumpkin bars and the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, I add at least 4, plus nutmeg, plus cloves. :) Another hint is to use real onion and garlic whenever possible. So for this recipe, for example, I would sautee onion and garlic to start with, and then add onion powder and garlic powder. Anyway, just my style of cooking--I think I get it from my mom! Oh, but when you are following MY recipes, don't double or triple the spices!! I've already done that for you!!