Koni's Tortilla Soup

We served this delicious soup at our Board Meeting after last Saturday's Power of Moms Retreat. It was a big hit so I thought I'd share.

1 lb. boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts (they can be frozen or thawed - works either way - just cooks a little faster if they're thawed)

2 cans corn (or 1-2 cups frozen corn)

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed or diced (can use bottled minced garlic)

4 cups chicken broth

1 can petite-diced tomatoes

2 cans black beans (drained)

1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilis (or substitute one cup of salsa if you like)

1 t Lawry’s seasoned salt

2 t ground cumin

1 t chili powder

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1/8 t ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients above in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Shred chicken towards the end of the cooking time (use two forks and it should just fall apart). Discard bay leaf.

Serve with cheese, lime wedges, diced avacado, tortilla chips, chopped green onions, and sour cream as topping options.

Serves 8-10
(Adapted from a recipe found in from Nov. 98 Southern Living)

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemon

It takes less than 30 minutes to make this soup and it's just perfect on a cold day when you need some comfort food. You can use left-over or canned chicken or turkey and pretty much whatever veggies you've got on hand. The lemon and garlic give this soup a special zing and set it apart from "boring" chicken noodle soup.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemon

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped, cooked chicken breast (can use leftover chicken or turkey or I often use 2 12.5 oz. cans of premium chunk chicken breast that I buy in 8-packs at Costco)
• 1 cup finely chopped celery (I often don't have celery so I don't use it but it gives it a nice flavor)
• 1-2 cups chopped carrots (can use freeze dried carrots from food storage - 1/4-1/2 cup dried carrot pieces adds up to plenty of carrots in the soup - see photo below)
• 1/2 an onion, minced (can use 2 tsp dried minced onion)
• 12 cups water
• 9 cubes bouillon or 9 tsp "Better Than Bouillon" concentrate (or use 12 cups chicken broth and skip the water and the bouillon)
• 8 oz egg noodles (I like to use homemade-style egg noodles - "Country Pasta" brand - see photos below. I put in more noodles since my kids like lots of noodles in their soup)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 crushed fresh garlic cloves)
• 1/2 tsp marjoram or italian seasoning or basil or oregano (any are good)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups (or one large bunch) chopped fresh broccoli (optional - but it's really good! chopped cabbage is another good option to include)
• 2 cups frozen peas
• juice of one large lemon (2-3 tablespoons)

Directions

1. In a large stock pot, saute celery and onion in a tsp of olive oil (about 3 minutes, until limp and slightly browned).

2. Add chicken, carrots, water, bouillon, marjoram, garlic, black pepper, bay leaf. Simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Add noodles (and broccoli plus any other fresh veggies you want) and keep at a low boil for 10 more minutes or until noodles and veggies are tender.

4. After it's been simmering for 5 of the 10 minutes, add the frozen peas, lemon.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I made up this recipe last week (combined some other similar recipes that weren't quite right) and I have to say it turned out really tasty. I've done this with steamed squash (from a package of pre-cubed butternut squash from Costco) rather than whole squash but it's even better (and still quite easy) with roasted squash.

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized butternut squashes or one big one
1 large sweet yellow or white onion
3-4 cloves crushed garlic (or 1-2 tsp bottled minced garlic)
1 tbsp olive oil
32 oz chicken broth (4 cups)
2-3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbs curry powder (can leave this out and put a 1/2 tsp of nutmeg instead for a different taste)
1 cup milk or cream

Instructions:
Slice squash in half and clean out seeds and stringy stuff. Place shell side down on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, cover with foil and roast for about 1 hour in a 400 degree oven (until somewhat soft). Can roast garlic cloves at the same time if you like rather than using fresh crushed or bottled garlic.

Roughly chop onion (doesn't matter if it's nicely chopped as it will be pureed after cooking) and cook onion and garlic in olive oil in a large stock pot until limp and slightly brown.

Scoop cooked squash out of shells into blender until about 1/2 full then add 2 cups chicken broth and the cooked onion/garlic mixture. Blend together until smooth. Repeat with rest of squash and chicken broth. (Most blenders can't handle all the squash at once.)  Put pureed squash mixtures into stock pot and stir in salt (to taste), black pepper and curry. Then stir in milk or cream until you reach the desired consistency (thick but not stiff).

Enjoy with warm crusty bread. Can do a swirl of cream or dollop of sour cream on top of the soup when serving.

Serves about 12 (and lasts in the fridge for a week or can be frozen if you've got extra).

Roasted Beet Soup and Beet Chips

This week I decided to try some brand new food I've never cooked with or eaten much before - beets and turnips. They just looked intreguing at the grocery store. I did a little research and found some recipes that looked good, did some tweaks to make them my own, and came up with turnip chips that were good but not necessarily a favorite, beet chips that were really good, and some very beautiful and very tasty bright pink soup that delighted the kids with its color and most of them liked its sweet and pleasing taste as well. Plus I made some yummy beet chips (figured that as long as the oven was on, might as well make something else using the oven and the beets).

Here are the turnip fries, ready to roast (just clean the turnips, cut them in strips, toss with a little olive oil and salt, spread on a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees until soft inside and slightly brown and crisp on the edges - about 20 minutes)

Here are the beet chips (just wedges tossed in a little olive oil and salt) and half beets plus turnips ready to roast.


Here's the finished soup which really was delicious.

(It was sort of dark so you can't quite see how pretty the beets really are inside or how vibrant and gorgeous the color of the soup was in these photos. Some day maybe I'll get a real camera and figure out how to use it...)

Roasted Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche

4 large beets, washed and cut in half
4 medium cloves garlic
1 good-sized sweet yellow onion, minced
1 tsp olive oil
4-5 cups chicken broth (less if you want a really thick soup, more if you want a thinner soup)
1/2 cup whipping cream (optional but it sure makes it good!)
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper (to taste)
1-2 bay leaves (optional)

Put take papery outer skins off garlic cloves, place on backing sheet, spray with olive oil spray or canola oil spray. Put beets cut side down on same cooking tray. Cook beets and garlic for about 1 hour at 400 degrees (or until beets are soft and can be cut pretty easily with a fork).

When beets are done, set aside and brown onions in oil in a stock/soup pot.

Cut cooked beets into smaller pieces (to help them blend well) and put them in a blender along with the roasted garlic, cooked onions and 2 cups of chicken broth. Blend until smooth. (If your blender is sort of small, you'll want to blend in batches - I've got a VitaMix and it all fits at once in that container.)

Put blended mixture in stock pot and stir in remaining 2 cups of chicken broth, a little at a time, until smooth. Add bay leaves (optional). Let simmer for about 20 minutes (not necessary but makes it yummier). Just before serving, add the cream and stir it in, setting aside a little cream to drizzle on top when serving. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve drizzled with a little cream on top (or a little sour cream is good also). Great with warm crusty bread and butter.

Hearty Tortilla Soup

Here's another favorite soup. It's our tradition to have soup every Monday night through fall and winter. Soup is so easy and so pleasing.

You can make this in about 15 minutes. It's really healthy and it's always a big pleaser. This is my go-to recipe when we're out of a lot of things in the house (mostly just requires canned stuff you'd have on hand) or when I need to make a quick meal to bring to someone else (it seems people old and young with all different taste buds like this).

Creamy Tortilla Soup

2 cups of your favorite salsa - mild or medium (Best if you use the chunky kind with chunks of onions, green chilis and tomatoes. Instead of the 2 c. salsa, you can use a diced onion, a small can of mild green chilis, a small can of diced tomatoes and an extra 1 tsp of chili powder)

1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
6 cups of chicken broth (about 4 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth or use boullion to make the broth)
1 large can (31 oz) no-fat refried beans (or about 3 ½ cups) - this makes it nice and thick
1 tbsp chili powder 

1 tsp granulated garlic or 1-2 cloves fresh crushed garlic
4 cups frozen whole kernel corn
3-4 cups cooked shredded or cubed cooked chicken (3-4 chicken breasts. You can put chicken in a crock pot with the salsa, chili, powder and salsa and let it cook all day, then shred the chicken and stir in all the other ingredients close to dinner time - or you can skip the chicken - good with or without!)

Topping ideas: shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped green onions, chopped cilantro, crumbled tortilla chips, lime

Directions: 
Over low heat, mix salsa and canned tomatoes, refried beans and chili powder in large soup pot until bean lumps are mostly integrated, then stir in chicken broth slowly. Fold in corn and chicken. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with toppings of your choice.

Serves 12. Keeps in the fridge for a week or two. Freezes well.

SUPER EASY Black Bean Soup

This is one of the easiest, yummiest things we make. We have it for Halloween dinner every year - and lots of other nights as well.

Black Bean Soup a.k.a. Ghoul Goulash

(Loosli Traditional Halloween Dinner - and a soup we eat year-round)

5 16 oz cans of black beans (or 8 cups cooked-from-dry black beans - see how to do this here)

2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

2 small onions or one large one, chopped

2 tsps crushed or minced garlic

2 16 oz jars of chunky salsa (mild, medium or hot – will determine how spicy the soup is – can use 2 15-oz can of petite diced tomatoes and 1-2 cans of diced green chilis instead of salsa if desired, may want to use more onion if not using salsa)

8 tsp lime juice or the juice of 4 limes (optional)

4 tsp ground cumin

½ crushed red pepper (optional – adds heat)

Directions:

1. Place 2 cans of beans with liquid from can (or 3 cups of cooked beans and 3/4c of the liquid they cooked in) as well as the broth in a blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Coat large sauce pan or soup pot with cooking spray or a bit of olive oil. Heat over high heat and saute onion until tender.
3. Add blended bean mixture, remaining un-blended beans (with liquid), salsa, lime juice, cumin and crushed red pepper (if desired). Mix together.
4. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve garnished with plain yogurt or sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded cheese, crumbled tortilla chips.

Makes 8-10 servings

Curried Chicken and Apple Soup

This is a huge fall favorite around here - my husband and I and all my kids LOVE this. Maybe it sounds like a weird combination of things - apples, chicken, curry - but I've never had someone NOT love it.

Curried Chicken and Apple Soup

1 tsp. vegetable oil or olive oil
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 3 big breasts)
1 large onion, chopped
5 crushed/chopped garlic cloves (or 1-2 tsp bottled crushed garlic)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or bottled crushed ginger)
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
5 cups chicken broth/stock (can use "Better than Bouillon" concentrate to make this)
2 15 oz. cans or one 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (the whole can with the juice) or one large can crushed tomatoes (if you don’t like tomato chunks)
1 medium green pepper and one yellow bell pepper, chopped (optional)
2 apples, chopped in small chunks (Granny Smith or Fuji work well – the crisper the better!)
1 cup rice
Garnish: sour cream or plain yogurt, cilantro

1. Saute everything on the ingredient list down to the broth/stock together in large soup pot until chicken isn’t pink anymore and onion is tender.
2. Add the chicken stock, rice and diced tomatoes.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes (until rice is tender)
4. Add the apples and peppers and cook about 8 minutes or until apples and peppers are somewhat soft and rice is done.

If desired, serve with a garnish of chopped cilantro and a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream. Great with warm crusty bread

Makes 10 one-cup servings. I often double this and freeze half.

Tomatillo Chicken Chili

OK, after that last post going on and on about healthy food not being so hard and receiving lots of requests for recipes, here's a favorite very easy and very healthy recipe. It's one of our family's very favorite meals and we have it at least every other week. It's especially nice in the winter. Just spend 5 minutes putting everything in the crockpot after getting the kids off to school in the morning and then, just before dinner time, take another 5 minutes to shred the chicken and add the corn.

Tomatillo Chicken Chili

Put everything below into your crock pot, mix together and cook on high for about 6 hours:

• 2-3 cups dry navy or small white beans (about one small bag if you buy them bagged - you don't have to pre-soak or pre-cook them - just put them in hard and uncooked and they'll be fine; use more beans if you like more beans, less if you like less; use a little Bean-o or something like that if you want to reduce the gas that can be involved. You can use called beans - two 14-oz cans if you want instead of dry beans. If you're using canned, pre-cooked beans, add them at the end with the corn or they'll get really mushy)
• 1 16 oz. jar of tomatillo salsa (I usually use La Victoria Thick and Chunky Salsa Verde since that's been easy for me to find - used to use Trader Joe's green salsa - most any kind works well - medium heat doesn't give much of a kick once it's with all the other ingredients; if you want to spend a bit more time you can use fresh tomatillos, onions and jalepeno peppers but it's a lot easier and about the same price to get the salsa)
• 4-5 cups water (depends on how much beans you use - need 2 cups water per 1 cup dry beans - skip the water if you're using canned, pre-cooked beans)
• 4 cups chicken broth or vegetable stock (can use canned or make it with "Better than Bouillon)
• 2 tsp ground cumin (or chili powder if you don't have any cumin on hand)
• 1/2 - 1 tsp garlic powder (based on how much you like garlic)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-3 large frozen chicken breasts (I usually just use 2 breasts - I like a little less chicken and a little more beans)

After 6-8 hours, use two forks to shred the chicken. It should mostly fall apart. Then, shortly before serving, add:
2 cups of frozen corn (warm in microwave first so it doesn't make the soup cold). You can use canned corn but the frozen is a little tastier.

Serve with a little chopped cilantro and a dollop of lite sour cream or plain yogurt as a garnish.

Makes about 10 one-cup servings.

Enjoy!