Chicken Tortilla Soup Crockpot Recipe

A friend recently gave me her recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup. I have since adapted it to be my husband's favorite recipe. This event was the final excuse I needed to purchase a larger 7 quart crockpot. Bliss!

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts (can be frozen)
6 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 can of low sodium black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of white beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can of corn
1 cup of salsa
1/2 cup of low fat sour cream
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 large olive oil wrap (from Trader Joe's) or flour or corn tortilla, torn into bite sized pieces
2 handfulls of tortilla chips
1/2 cup of shredded cheese

Combine all ingredients in a large crockpot, except for last three ingredients. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. About half way through cooking, remove whole chicken breasts and cut into bite sized pieces. Place chicken back in crock pot. About 1/2 hour before serving, add wrap/tortilla pieces.

Serve with crunchy tortilla chips and shredded cheese sprinkled on top. Serves 6-8.

Delicious Celery Soup Recipe

Ok, so I'm momentarily out of my slump and ready to post an amazing find... celery soup. I know, I know, it doesn't really sound that exciting, but this is truly delicious.

I'm not a celery girl, but my husband is a celery guy. So, after visiting the local farmer's market this weekend - and coming home with mounds of produce - I needed to utilitze a head of celery. (Can I just tell you first that I'm still giddy about buying 15 pounds of butternut squash for .50 cents a pound?!)

This recipe jumped out at me and I dove in. It was so good that I had seconds... then half of thirds. Here's what you'll need: celery, onions, apples, garlic, parsley, chicken or veggie stock, milk and olive oil. I followed the recipe exactly and can't recommend it enough.

My husband likes chunky soups and I prefer pureed soups, so I made both, at the same time. I just dished up his bowl, then fired up my new hand blender and pureed mine (thus the pic of two different bowls of the same soup.)

Here's my cost breakdown: We purchased two heads of celery for $1, a bag of onions for $2, five pounds of fuji apples for $2... So, for a family of three, this will feed us for two meals. Our per meal cost is roughly $1.75 - for two adults and a toddler!

Mega bonus: it's healthy. I'm positive that we'll be revisiting this recipe even after my strict diet comes to an end.

Sonoma Chicken Salad

We interrupt my recent thrifted-clothing obsession to bring you this delicious recipe...

The Sonoma Chicken Salad recipe was found at Whole Foods. Of course, I made some changes, so I will post the recipe as I made it. (My picture really doesn't do the salad justice!)

Ingredients:

Dressing:

3/4 cup mayonnaise

4 tsp apple cider vinegar

5 tsp honey

s+p to taste

Salad:

4 cups of baby spinach

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - shredded

1/2 cup almonds, some chopped

2 cups red seedless grapes, sliced

I premade my chicken in the crockpot at the beginning of the week, so just prepare the chicken breasts as you normally would... i.e., bake them flat with some water in a pan at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Toss main salad ingredients together, set aside.

In a bowl, combine dressing ingredients. Drizzle over salad or stir to coat completely.

It filled all three of us up - with my husband commenting that he wouldn't mind eating this MANY more times :)

Chili Con Crockpot

Crockpots rule. Throw your ingredients together in the early part of the day... then eat dinner when you can no longer resist the aroma!

We don't eat a lot of meat - especially beef, so this one's a vegetarian recipe. Of coure, meat may always be substituted. I would quote the source of this recipe if I could remember it. We've been eating it for several years now and I have made my own variations. Here's our winter staple meal for hearty, healthy and easy. Please remain calm while reading the ingredients...

Crockpot Tofu Chili

1 lb. package Trader Joe's firm tofu - drained and mashed well with a fork

1 can Trader Joe's sweet corn - drained

2 - 15 oz cans of Muir Glen organic diced tomatoes - drained

2 - 15 oz cans of S & W low sodium kidney beans - rinsed and drained

1 can Trader Joe's organic pumpkin

1 small can of organic tomato paste

1/2 cup of low sodium vegetable broth

1/2 of an onion - diced

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

Mix ingredients in crockpot. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low, all day.

At first, I was not excited about the tofu part - very skeptical actually. But even my dear H says that you cannot taste the tofu. Not at all. You can see it, but no taste. Same with the pumpkin. They add protein , nutrition and thickening power. You'll feel full, but not bloated after your meal. Perfect! Again, I prefer non-spicy food, so I don't add any peppers, but you may want to spice it up a bit. My dear H likes spicy, but seems satisfied with just the chili powder and cumin.

We serve it with whole grain bread covered in olive oil (a la Dr. Oz) and rosemary seasoning. Yum!

Welcome to the Gnome Forest: A 2nd Birthday Party

My Charlotte turned 2 years old today. She celebrated with all of her family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. at a Gnome Forest birthday party. I made cupcakes for the very first time...
with a recipe from my birthday cookbook for angel food cupcakes. After two attempts at the frosting, I deviated from the recipe and made my own cream cheese frosting with 8 oz. of cream cheese, 4 tblsp. of butter, 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar, lemon zest and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Martha helped with the red polka dot and brown cupcake wrappers.

The little gnome cupcake toppers were made from photos from this handy book. I found my copy at the local library. And while the pictures were helpful, most of the crafts are a blast back to the 80's. (I really don't feel the need to go back to that era unless I'm listening to music.) I resized the photos and printed out enough for the fronts and backs of our little gnome friend, then glued them onto toothpicks. There were more than 2 cupcakes to start the day, but this is all that remained at the end of it.

Also new, my woodsy cake stand placed upon the red-with-white-polka-dots-simulated-giant-mushroom tablecloth. Stay tuned for more crafty details...

As mothers always say, "I can't belive my baby is (insert unbelievable age here)!" In my case, it's 2. I'm afraid to blink because she'll then be 35. Happy Birthday, Charlotte. You'll always be my baby girl.

Butternut Squash Bisque

This looks like a fried egg, doesn't it? I assure you that it tastes nothing like an egg. A recipe for my butternut squash was found here at allrecipes.com yesterday. It was delicious. Unfortunately, my daughter decided not to eat the bisque (even though it strongly resembles the butternut squash baby food she used to frequently eat) and opted, instead, for eggs.

Here's the recipe as I made it:

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
4 cups peeled butternut squash
3 cups vegetable stock
salt and ground black pepper to taste
ground nutmeg to taste (go easy)

Directions:
First, quarter the squash.

Bake quarters at 375 for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil until tender.
When the squash is fully cooked, cut away from peel. Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.
In a blender, puree the soup mixture until smooth.

Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

For me, this was a full meal. For many others, it may require a salad first and possibly some bread. It's light, but filling. Best news: leftovers!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

This picture probably doesn't do our dinner justice, but there's little time to take pictures when a hungry family sits waiting at the table.

Thanks to the budget section on the Whole Foods website, the enchiladas were filling and delicious. Their original recipe is found here. The recipe I am posting varies slightly from the original as I avoid spicy food at all costs and the sauce portion should have been doubled.

Ingredients:

Topping sauce:

2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons corn starch, dissolved in cold water

1 cup yellow peppers

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons cumin or chili powder, hot or mild, to taste

Enchilada Filling:
1 (15-ounce) can organic black beans, rinsed, drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh lime juice from 1 big juicy lime
2 heaping cups cooked diced sweet potatoes
1/2 cup chopped yellow peppers
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder mild or spicy
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Assembly:
8 white or yellow corn tortillas (or Trader Joe's Olive Oil Wraps)
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or mozzarella and cheddar mixed)

Preparation:

Peel and cube 2 sweet potatoes. Boil for 15-20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Choose a baking dish that would hold 8 rolled enchiladas. Make your Sauce by combining the broth, dissolved corn starch, yellow peppers, garlic and spices in a sauce pan and heating over medium-high heat. Bring to a high simmer. Simmer until thickened. Set aside.

In the meantime, for the Enchilada Filling, using a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the drained black beans with minced garlic and lime juice. Toss to coat the beans and set aside. In a separate large bowl, combine the cooked sweet potatoes with the chopped yellow peppers; add the spices. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Pour about 1/3 of the Sauce into the bottom of the baking dish. Spoon 1/8 of the sweet potato mixture down the center. Top with 1/8 of the black beans. Wrap, roll and repeat. Top with the rest of the sauce. Top with a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the enchiladas are piping hot and the sauce is bubbling around the edges.

With perfectly round eyes and eyebrows in exclamation, H gave this dinner a big thumbs up. Enjoy!

Sweet & Sour Watermelon Salad

This refreshing summer salad recipe appeared in our local paper (The Sacramento Bee) last week. Thanks to my mom for recycling her newspapers to me. The salad was quick and easy, we had all the ingredients and served chilled, it really hit the spot. My only suggestion is to save it for after dinner as a type of dessert salad. Yum.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar (or stevia to taste)

1 tablespoon poppy seeds (we omitted these)

salt and pepper to taste

1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and chopped

3 cups seedless watermelon, cut into chunks

1-2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced

Combine all ingredients, except cucmbers and watermelons. Place cucumbers and watermelon in a serving bowl, pour marinade over the top. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for an hour before serving. Toss gently before serving.

Baked Mediterranean Eggs

That's right, two recipes in a row. And I don't even really like to cook! But, it's another breakfast-for-dinner recipe. This one is from Better Homes and Gardens April 2006 issue (thanks to my mother-in-law for the hand-me-down magazine. (I-think-that-I-like-to-use-dashes.)) Of course, it's modified. Here's their recipe (and in parenthesis are what we actually used for our recipe):

8 eggs (6 eggs)

1/4 cup sliced black olives (we were out of olives)

4 pita bread rounds (3 olive oil wraps)

4 roma tomatoes, chopped (8 cherry tomatoes, chopped)

1/2 cucumber, chopped

2 tablespoon parsley

1/8 teaspoon salt (salt substitute)

1/8 teaspoon pepper

8 slices canadian bacon or bacon (2 slices prosciutto, chopped)

4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt (1/4 cup sour cream)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat inside of ramekins or custard cups with spray or olive oil. Break two eggs into each ramekin. Divide olives evenly among ramekins.
2. Place ramekins in a three quart rectangular dish, add boiling water to dish to depth of one inch. Place baking dish with eggs in oven. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until eggs are set when lightly shaken.
3. Warm pita bread or wraps.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, salt and pepper, set aside. Cook canadian bacon over medium heat until browned, or bacon is crisp. Serve prosciutto at room temperature.
5. Sprinkle rounds with feta cheese. To serve, carefully remove ramekins from water bath; invert onto rounds. Top each serving with some of the tomato mixture and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream. Serve immediately. Serves 4.

Our tomato mixture looks skimpy in the picture, but the bulk of it was secretly hidden behind the ramekin-shaped egg. My husband couldn't stop telling me how delicious dinner was, therefore I had to post the recipe asap. Enjoy.

Afghan Salsa

Here's another delicious dish that's perfect for summer. (After all, who wants to cook over a hot stove in 96 degree temperatures?) This recipe was adapted from one that I found on allrecipes some time ago. We didn't really know what to call it. It's become "the avocado stuff we put in wraps." The recipe calls for red wine vinegar, black beans and green onions... and these colors create the flag of Afghanistan... so, Afghan Salsa was born. It's filling and delicious. As far as I know, the recipe has nothing to do with the Afghani culture. Here's the breakdown:

2 avocadoes, peeled and diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 can of black beans, rinsed (lowers sodium content)

1 can of Trader Joe's sweet corn

4 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup of garlic infused red wine vinegar

Toss ingredients together. Enjoy in Trader Joe's olive oil wraps, tortilla chips, pita pockets or on toasted bread. Enjoy in Afghanistan or at home.

Breakfast For Dinner

It's time for another recipe that we've been enjoying for longer than I realized. Breakfast Bruschetta. It's from the March 2005 issue of Cottage Living magazine. We frequently enjoy a good breakfast for dinner. This recipe gets modified occasionally, but never fails to satisfy. And it involved me poaching an egg for the first time. Not difficult, just sounded intimidating. And I've never met an egg that I didn't like.

2 slices sourdough bread, cut in half

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of rosemary

s & p to taste

2 teaspoons of white distilled vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

4 large eggs

4 thin slices prosciutto

warm mustard vinaigrette

- Lightly brush each piece of bread with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, s & p, then toast lightly - about 2 minutes in the toaster oven. Keep warm.

- Fill a large skillet with water to within 2 inches; bring to a boil. Add vinegar and salt, and reduce heat to low.

- Break 1 egg into a small bowl taking care not to break the yolk. Turn egg out of the bowl into skillet quickly so the egg retains its shape in the water. Repeat with remaining eggs. Cook 5 minutes. Use slotted spoon to gently lift eggs from water. Set on paper towel to absorb excess water.

-Place bread on a plate, top with a slice of prosciutto and a poached egg. Drizzle with mustard vinaigrette. (2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard, 5 tablespoons of olive oil. Garlic, thyme and parsley can also be added.)

H will skip proscuitto and vinegarette for salsa sometimes. While I swap things out for an avocado. Can't go wrong with breakfast for dinner. It's the most important meal of the day - twice!

When The Moon Hits Your Eye...

...like a big pizza pie, that's amore. And I do, as much as one can, love this pizza. We took our basic salad recipe and put it on a crust. Here's the recipe:

Basic pizza crust (whole wheat if we can find it)

spread out a pesto base (your basic basil, garlic, olive oil, etc.)

layer on feta cheese

next, fresh baby spinach

sprinkle on mozzarella (not too much, this pizza doesn't need it)

top with pine nuts

Cook as crust directions instruct (we do 350 degrees for 8 minutes)

Enjoy!