Creamy chicken tortilla Soup!!!- Amazing!

I am back with one of the very best recipes EVER!!!! This is the BEST tortilla soup recipe I have ever. I love tortilla soup. And there are many different ways to prepare it. Some people prefer the broth chicken soup texture. Here in the Yucatan we have a wonderful soup called Sopa de Lima or Lime soup. It is VERY similar to chicken soup with a lot more lime. I prefer to eat that for my chicken soup fix. When I eat tortilla soup I want it creamy like tomato soup. The great thing about this soup is that there is no cream in it. But it still has a wonderfully creamy texture. So here it is.... so far the best thing I have ever made and I have made some pretty incredible meals.

This recipe is FULL of veggies. It is so good for you. Really the only thing not that good for you is the fried tortillas- and if were die hard you could use regular tortilla chips instead of frying tortillas yourself. But in my opinion- when it is already this healthy- you can afford a little fried tortilla.

 

Here is what you will need:
Chicken breast (or whole chicken if you prefer.)
Veggies- really any ones you want- the more the better- I usually have and use a combo of
onion
garlic

carrots

celery
broccoli
frozen corn
bell pepper
calabasa or other squash
tomatoes
potatoes
Chili (jalapeno or habanero)

You will also need:
corn tortillas - a little old and dry are even better
oil

chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, Pappy's (my favorite seasoning) and a box of tomato puree.

For toppings: avocado, sour cream, fried tortilla strips, red onion, queso fresco (I have also used shredded pepper jack and it was killer)

Okay so to get started cut your tortillas into strips and fry them until they have a good crispness and set aside to drain on a paper towel.

Prepare your veggies. Go through and cut off the crown of the broccoli, carrots, celery, bell pepper,-- eat veggie and put the part that you would normally throw away or compost into a large pot and put the part that you would normally eat into large bowl and set aside. Your veggies do not need to be bit sized just a rough chop is fine.

Once all of the veggies are prepared and all of their stems are in the sauce pot- season your chicken whether breast or whole and throw it into the pot. Fill the pot with water and add a little bouillon. Let this boil for a good 20 minutes.

remove the chicken from the pot- shred or cut up the chicken and set aside.

remove all of the veggie bits from the pot so all you have left is your broth. add all of the cut veggies to the broth and add the tomato puree. Allow the veggies to cook and soften in the broth for about 15 -20 minutes.

Once all the veggies are good and soft, spoon soup into a blender and blend. This soup is worth making a lot of so you will need a 2nd pot to pour the blended soup into. You will want to add a handful of the tortilla strips that you did earlier while you are blending.

Once all of the soup has been blended allow the soup to simmer a bit while you get you bowls and toppings ready. I like to do this step last because one I throw all of my veggies into the broth to cook I can clean my workspace and start getting my blender ready and while the soup is simmering I can put my blender away and prepare my bowls and toppings.

To serve!!!! put a mound of chicken in the bottom of each bowl, add the soup but pass through a strainer- This is what takes it from a killer soup to a restaurant quality soup is straining it! You will have a beautiful rich deep orange soup!

top with chopped red onion, chopped avocado, queso fresco (or other cheese- pepper jack was amazing too) and some of the tortilla strips. I also add some finely chopped chili- I like my soup spicy.

Obviously serve with a cold Carona! I mean --- Obviously.

you will love this soup and it is SOOOOOO HEALTHY! Perfect for kids. And it is also filling. And that is handy when you have a hubby who likes to eat as much as mine does.

Chicken -Yummy and low fat

okay, this dinner was so simple and low key that I did not even think about taking pictures of it until I was finished making it and then I realized... these are exactly the type of dinners that need to be on this site.

This dinner was literally just some butterfly cut chicken breast with salt, pepper and Pappy's fried in a little bit of oil.

I put down some large lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes and little onion. Once the chicken was on top I added a little herbal salad dressing. It was great.

At the same time I made chicken breast sandwiches for the kids. It was a really good dinner and I HATE salad. But I need to eat it more.

Bomb Oatmeal cookies

As much as I would like to be I am not much of a baker. I do keep trying and some things work and some do not. The other day I decided to make oatmeal cookies. the recipie was really easy. I got it from the Joy of Baking. I love this website. They have so many things that look so yummy and they have lots of info and pictures.

I started by letting my 3/4 cup butter sit and warm to room temperature which did not take long and added my cup of brown sugar. I got to use my "new to me" electric hand mixer. This is actually my late grandma's and I love the idea of baking treats with the same equipment that she did. Any way....
I whipped the butter and sugar and added 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and mixed gain.

In a 2nd bowl I put 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, salt and cinnamon. and mixed them together. I then added that to my wet ingredients. I would have added nuts, raisins or dried fruits but I did not have any and they were still great.


after mixing the dry ingredients with the wet I added 3 cups of oats. I did not have any parchment paper or even spray for the cookie sheet so I just tried my luck. They did not stick to bad.

I used a 1/4 cup scoop and made little balls and then pressed them slightly. They turned out great. They were really tasty. I cannot wait to make them again.