Chicken Tortilla Soup

Down here in South it finally feels like Fall. I've been waiting for it and the weather here after a blistering summer has become cooler. This makes it the perfect time of year for making soup. This recipe is one of my favorites because of its ease and tastiness. It's also reasonably healthy which makes it even more of a plus. 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced sweet onion

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

 3-16  oz chicken broth boxes 

1 (10-ounce) can Mexicorn (corn and bell peppers), drained and rinsed

1 (14-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (-ounce) can green chiles, drained (the smallest can possible I can't recall how big but the can is tiny)

1 tablespoon minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or sliced ( If you have a carnivorous husband use 3)

2 teaspoons fajita seasoning blend or to taste

2 tablespoons ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes, see below

In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add celery, carrot, and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until veggies begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the vegetables, and stir. Flour will form a paste; allow paste to cook for at least 2 minutes. Gradually add chicken broth, whisking. Heat the mixture until it begins to simmer and thicken, approximately 7-8 minutes.

Note: At this point, you have the base for pretty much any chicken soup you want to make! Add mexicorn, beans, green chiles, and garlic. Mix and return to a simmer. Add cooked chicken and spices, seasoning the soup to taste. Simmer over low heat, covered, for 20-30 minutes.

After flavors have had time to meld, the soup is ready to eat.

Garnish Ideas:
Shredded cheese
Jalapenos
Chopped fresh cilantro
Fat free sour cream
Salsa
Sliced avacado
Corn tortilla chips
Your favorite cornbread

Serve with your favorite garnishes and enjoy!

** disclaimer I don't really use recipes so if something seems a miss and you want to add more go for it. I never really make anything the same way twice.**

~So I've been stewing on my portion sizes all day so I came home and made it. I changed a few things around since this morning. I was to gung ho about posting I guess. Maybe I should also look into writing recipes down. ~

Rude-looking, but delicious cookies

Yay for a dessert week!

This was a pretty easy recipe. I didn't have instant espresso so I used a shot of coffee liqueur instead. I also had to skip the hazelnuts... I had some, but they smelled funky. So no hazelnuts.

I was confused at the instruction to beat the flour into the butter. In my experience, you can't just turn the beater on when you pour that much dry stuff over that little butter, or it goes flying. I found it much more effective to mix the dry ingredients in with a fork.

I also saw no need to knead the dough on waxed paper. I just kneaded it in the bowl.

Here's a picture of the cookies before baking. It looks a little, um, rude.

I also took a picture of the dough in the bowl. But it looks even ruder.

Since Nutella (or my store-brand version) is rather goopy stuff, I devised an easier way to scoop it onto the cookies.

1. Take a measuring spoon and dig out a heaping spoonful.

2. Use a knife to scrape the top off onto a cookie.

3. Then dig out the rest onto another cookie.

Amazing. I loved them. Great nighttime snack. But I shouldn't have eaten three at once. That was a little too rich.

The chocolate portion of these reminded me of these Vegan Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles, minus the spice. I wonder if these could be made with oil instead of butter.

A twofer

I did in fact make the Pizza Pot Pie from two weeks ago, I just haven't had the time to sit down and write about it!

I made the decision to halve the recipe while I was at the grocery store buying the sausages, because 4 lbs of sausages is a LOT of sausage, and while Derek does eat a lot, he doesn't eat quite that much.

Also, I've never really had an easy time with cutting uncooked sausages, so I opted to just squeeze the meat out of the casing and just brown it up.

I was super disappointed that I didn't have enough ricotta (I barely had half!) but, it was what I had on hand, so I used that.

Here's out pot pie, fresh out of the oven.  I sprinkled the top with some sea salt, oregano and pepper flakes, 'cause that's how I roll.

And plated,

(it's sideways, but refuses to upload the way I've got it rotated on my computer.  I have anger)

All in all, we found this to be good, but way too salty.  While it was good at the time (and wonderful as hangover food) I don't think we'll make this again.

Next up, Aunt B's fantastic cookies.

These things are seriously amazing.

I was rather confused while at the grocery store, because they didn't have "hazelnuts" but they did have "filberts", which looked suspiciously like hazelnuts.

ETA: Don't worry, I did bust out my iPhone to double check that filberts = hazelnuts.  They do.

(this picture also refuses to load in the orientation I would like.  Grrrrrrrr)


I was not in the mood for finely chopping nuts today (hehe, I said nuts) so I pulled out my food processor and made quick work of them (after toasting them on the stove until fragrant of course).

The end result is fantastically yummy cookies.  I'm pretty sure Derek and I ate at least 10 between us tonight.  The addition of a bit of Nutella on top just takes them to awesometown.  It should also be noted that I included the option espresso powder.  I'm a big fan of espresso in chocolate things.  I feel that it adds a really great depth of flavour.

There are 28 cookies in this picture, but don't be deceived.  I made a math (or remembering) error when calculating how much weight each cookie should be (I like my cookies to all be the same size, so I weigh the dough, then do the math, then weigh out each portion.  A bit much?  Probably) and made a total of 36 instead of the recommended 28.  But they are small and cute and I love them.  I will most certainly be making these again.  I think they would make a great addition to a holiday baked goods package, since they very much resemble Ferrero Rocher.

Worth the Wait

Pizza Pot Pie is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of meat and a lot of cheese. Even J, who has been known to put away some food, said, “Are you going to use all of that?”

I made very few changes to this recipe. I used 3 lbs of sweet Italian sausage and 1 lb. of hot sausage and I substituted dried herbs instead of fresh. Other than that, I followed it as written.

After a bit of trial and error, I discovered that kitchen shears are the perfect thing for cutting sausage. I browned it in batches, because my skillet is not big enough to hold it all at once.

I always get my pizza dough at Trader Joe’s. They have a plain white, whole wheat and garlic & herb dough and best of all, it’s only 99 cents!

My top shrunk up when it baked, but it didn't overflow. I waited until the very end of the week to make this recipe, but it was worth the wait.

A Plethora of Updates

I haven't been on here in awhile...so I have lots of recipes to update. The last three weeks, in fact.

Last weekend I went to Boston to visit a friend and we decided to make the lettuce wraps for dinner one night. We used ground turkey breast rather than pork and were worried about it being too spicy, so we used a sweet chili sauce instead. The result was rather lime-y and not overly thai-tasting. It was alright for a light dinner, but probably not something I would try again. The wine was excellent though.

Then today was a kitchen day! Ed went off to golf for the day and I got the house to myself, so I did some laundry and then played in the kitchen. The same friend from Boston came up tonight and we got to enjoy all of the goodies.

First I made the chocolate hazelnut thumbprint cookies. Let me just say...OH MY GOODNESS! Anything that gets me to buy Nutella is a good recipe for me, but these were divine. I used dark chocolate powder rather than the unsweetened cocoa powder, and I didn't have parchment paper or wax paper, but everything worked out fine. The batter itself was to die for (and yes, I ate it raw eggs and all...I figure with the recent egg scare the eggs are probably safer than usual right now...), and the finished cookies were awesome!

And then finally, I made the pizza pot pie. I didn't measure anything for this recipe, but I used a lot less of everything than the recipe called for. I used fat free ricotta, two egg whites rather than the egg (saved from the cookies, since they only used yolks), low fat mozzarella, chicken sausage and whole wheat pizza crust. I thought it came out fairly well, though if I were to make it again, I think I would put a bottom crust on too for just a little more chewy factor. However, it was a tasty, easy meal that would be great to bring to a potluck sometime...and was an excellent pre-out-to-the-local-bar dinner for my friend and me!

So there it is...three weeks worth of recipes...finally updated!

Dessert!!

I wanted to switch it up a bit this week with a dessert recipe, and we're trying to eat a *little* bit healthier, so I found this cookie recipe on www.cookinglight.com. I figured it would be worth a shot, and that's what it's all about, right?!

Chocolate-Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients

• 4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon instant espresso (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread (such as Nutella)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Stir egg yolks with a whisk, adding espresso, if desired. Add the yolk mixture and vanilla to butter; beat well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined.

3. Turn dough out onto a sheet of wax paper; knead 6 times or until smooth and shiny. Shape dough into 28 (1-inch) balls. Roll sides of balls in nuts, pressing gently. Arrange balls 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Press thumb into center of each cookie, leaving an indentation. Bake, 1 batch at a time, at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks. Spoon a scant 1/2 teaspoon hazelnut-chocolate spread into center of each cookie.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

104

Fat:

6.5g (sat 2.7g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

1.6g

Carbohydrate:

10.9g

Fiber:

0.8g

Cholesterol:

23mg

Iron:

0.6mg

Sodium:

46mg

Calcium:

11mg

Better late then never... twist on the pita burgers

I’ve been a bad blogger and cook. Work has kept me so busy that by the time I get home I don’t really feel like cooking. I’ve been making big things, like chili, that last a while so I don’t have to cook as often. I’ve been reading the delicious things that have been posted and have been itching to try them. The pita burgers from a few weeks ago really caught my attention. I did a few tweaks because I didn’t have everything that was needed but it all seemed to come out really well.
 The biggest substitutions I  used sliced skirt steak instead of ground beef and greek yogurt for the sauce instead of mayo. I’m not a big fan of mayo.
I prepped the sauce first since I wanted it to marinate the flavors while I prepared everything else.

Since the steak was sliced so thin I baked it in my convection oven so it would still be juicy along with some paprika and spices.

Diced some onions, tomatoes and lettuce I had lying around. Creating what ultimately became more of a gyro then burger. As soon as the steak was finished cooking I swiftly assembled them added some fresh Tabouleh salad. Viola a really quick dinner that was inspired by the pita burger post.

I think I'm going to continuing playing catch up with the Thai lettuce wraps next. I have a lot of cooking to do. :)