Week 1 Recipe - Tortilla Soup

The recipe I chose for this week is...Option #1 Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup from Miller Musings jonandjenmiller.blogspot.com!

After a false start on Thursday (I forgot the onion at the store), I tried my first recipe yesterday! It's a GREAT recipe! It took me 10 minutes to throw everything in the crockpot. 6 hours later I pulled the chicken out to shred it. I could NOT believe how tender the chicken was! An hour later my husband walked in the door from work and TA DA! Dinner was served. :)

Two personal cooking issues I had to deal with for this recipe:

1. Chopping onions - I feel like if I even look at an onion my eyes start watering instantly. To try to avoid this, I pulled out our new food processor that we received for our wedding to chop the onions. It worked like a charm! So excited to never have to chop onions again!!
2. Using the crockpot - I am terrified to leave the crockpot on while I leave the house. Anyone else feel the same way? I did not overcome this fear while making this recipe. I worked from home yesterday to take care of my recently nuetered puppy. I threw everything in at lunch and by dinner it was ready. Maybe I will try to leave the house for the next crockpot recipe I try.

The Recipe from jonandjenmiller.blogspot.com
2 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans Ro-Tel [I used the cilantro & lime flavor just like Jen]
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn
1 onion, chopped
2 cans low-sodium chicken broth
1-2 cups of water [I used 1 cup of water. I would probably use 2 next time. The soup had a bit of a kick and it would have been just fine had it had more liquid.]
1 Tbsp garlic powder*
1 Tbsp chile powder*
1 Tbsp ground cumin*
1 Tbsp dried cilantro*

tortilla chips [We used Fritos instead.]
sour cream [No sour cream for us. I forgot it at the store...twice! Ugh]
shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese [2% Kraft 4 cheese mexican blend worked great!]

*Instead of these spices, you could include a packet of Taco seasoning if you prefer.* [The soup was delicious, but I might try taco seasoning packet next time just to see which one we like better.]

Put chopped onion, cans of beans, rotel, corn, chicken broth, water, and spices in CrockPot and stir to mix. Put chicken breasts on top of mixture and make sure they're at least partly submerged in liquid. Cook on high 6-7 hours or low 8-9 hours. Before serving remove the chicken breasts from soup and shred, if needed, (sometimes they'll just fall apart on their own, but sometimes they need some help). Return chicken to CrockPot, stir to combine.

To serve put a few tortilla chips in the bottom of a bowl, ladle soup over tortilla chips, top with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream, serve with more chips if you like. Enjoy!

Final Thoughts

• Two thumbs up for this soup! I would absolutely make it again!
• I fell more in love with the crockpot. It was SO easy! My husband was flying in last night. I realized had his flight been late/early it was good we had crockpot dinner because it was ready about an hour before he was home but still warm and delicious when we were ready to eat.
• This was a healthy meal! I plugged it into a calorie calculator and it is about 266 calories for a 1 cup serving. (Soup only -- chips, sour cream & cheese = extra calories)

Week 1 Recipe = huge success! Now on to find a new recipe for week #2!