Cilantro-Lime Chicken Soup

My friends at Southern Living tweeted this morning that February 4 is National Homemade Soup Day... which is very fitting since it seems to also be turning into a national snow day! Evan and I are both home QUITE early from work due to the snow... and although this isn't on our menu for the day (because I don't have the ingredients at home), I thought I would share one of my favorite homemade soup recipes with you. I got this recipe from my Aunt Sally and my cousin, Chris, a few years ago when they made it for our family Thanksgiving dinner (my dad's side of the family always has mexican food for Thanksgiving... which I think is a very fun tradition :)).

Cilantro-Lime Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 T. chili powder

2 chicken breast halves, cut into pieces

5 cups chicken broth

1 cup frozen corn

1 C. petite diced tomatoes

1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro sprigs, tied with kitchen string

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Directions:

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan on medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; saute until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add chili powder; stir 1 minute. Add chicken; cook, stirring 2 minutes. Add broth, corn, tomatoes and 1/2 bunch cilantro sprigs to saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Discard cilantro sprigs. Add chopped cilantro and lime juice to soup. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with sour cream. Serve with tortilla strips.

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Happy snow day from the big brother and thank you for your sweet comments and prayers that "little brother" will come home soon! :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Today's post comes from some quality time that I've been spending with my mom lately. And today's recipe comes from a cookbook that I gave my mom for Christmas a long, long time ago... and it's a delicious recipe if I do say so myself.

A few days ago, my mom called me because she was in a time crunch and she needed some help. She needed to make two recipes of tortilla soup for a women's dinner that she was going to and also one recipe of tortilla soup to leave at home for my dad and brother to eat... and she only had about an hour to cook! haha She told me that if I would come help her get all of the soup cooked in time that she would give me the leftover ingredients to take home and cook for our dinner. Obviously, I would have helped her without the incentive but tortilla soup did sound delicious and free ingredients are always nice! :)

*****Rabbit trail... but speaking of my mom, she was my running (and by running, I mean walking) buddy in the Race For The Cure this past weekend and we had the best time! :) Evan, my dad and our little Westies stood on the sidelines to cheer us on! Here is one of the very few pictures that we took and unfortunately, we forgot to take one with the boys in it!*****

And here's the recipe... without a picture... but with a promise that you'll love it! :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chiles

1 (14 oz) can stewed tomatoes

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken (or turkey)

4 cups chicken stock

1 (10 oz) can tomato soup

1 t. ground cumin

1/2 t. lemon pepper

2 t. chili powder

2 t. worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

5 corn tortillas

vegetable oil

1 or 2 avocados chopped

shredded cheddar cheese

sour cream

Directions:

Combine green chiles, tomatoes, onion and garlic in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the chicken, chicken stock, tomato soup, cumin, lemon pepper, chili powder, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Simmer, covered for 1 hour. Cut the tortillas into strips and saute them in a small amount of oil in a skillet. Drop tortillas into soup. Heat for 10 to 20 minutes but do not boil. Place the avocados and shredded cheese in soup bowls and ladle the soup into the bowls. Garnish with sour cream.

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And finally, if you want to make this soup in style, then you'll head on over to my friend, Lindsey's, blog and enter her giveaway for a fabulous soup pot. I am actually drooling over the pot myself, but since I won her last giveaway, she told me that I wasn't allowed to win this time! haha :) The giveaway ends today, so hurry over and check it out!

The Super Secret Taco House

So... I probably shouldn't blog about this... because it's probably illegal... but oh well!! haha

Here it goes... there is a house, in a neighborhood in my city, that has a secret restaurant on their back porch. The people that run the restaurant (and most of their customers) don't speak English but they serve the best tacos that I have EVER eaten!!! I know, this sounds crazy... and probably dangerous... but believe me, if you tasted their tacos, you would understand that it's worth the risk! We call this place the "Super Secret Taco House" and we go there almost every weekend... because they are only open on the weekends. The people that run the place have real weekday jobs and they just do this for extra money on the weekends. SO MUCH FUN.

Anyway, I struggle with craving those tacos on weekdays when I can't have them. So, I wanted to find a recipe for REAL Mexican tacos that could get me through when I have a weekday craving. I found this recipe for "Chorizo-Potato Tacos" and although they are no match for the "Super Secret Taco House" tacos, they were pretty darn good! :)

Chorizo-Potato Tacos

Ingredients:

2 medium red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes

Kosher salt

2 T. vegetable oil

1 medium yellow squash, diced

freshly ground pepper

8 oz. fresh chorizo, casings removed

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 scallion, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

8 corn tortillas (we used flour)

1/4 cup crumbled Cotija or Feta cheese

sour cream and/or guacamole for serving

Directions:

Put the potatoes in a microwave safe bowl, add 1/2 cup water and season with salt. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over high heat, then add the squash and cook until browned but still crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Add the sausage to the skillet and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until it begins to brown, about five minutes. Add the potatoes and cooking water and cook, tossing, until the potatoes are browned and the sausage is cooked through, 5 to 6 more minutes. Season with salt.

Combine the tomatoes, scallion, cilantro and jalapeno in a bowl and season with salt. Warm the tortillas and fill with the squash and chorizo mixtures and top with the cheese and salsa. Top with sour cream and/or guacamole, if desired.

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We didn't have any side dishes with our tacos, because that's how they do it at the "Super Secret Taco House" but we did have special drinks! At the taco house, you have the choice of either the biggest bottled Coke that you have ever seen (Evan's choice) or several different flavors of Jarritos, which is a Mexican soda. In order to make our meal complete, I stopped by a Mexican grocery store and found a giant bottled Coke and a pineapple Jarritos (my favorite!).

Don't you wonder if there's a "Super Secret Taco House" in your city??

Fresh Tomato Salsa

I have SO much to catch you guys up on this week... last week was CRAZY... but also very fun. Last Sunday, Evan and I woke up to a broken air conditioner (for the second time in a week and the third time this year). We ended up having to purchase a new unit and the company that installed it was SO busy in this hot Arkansas weather that they couldn't get to us until Wednesday. So, once again, we had to live with my parents... for four days!! The crazy (and fun) part was that we weren't their only guests for the week. They were also keeping these precious kiddos while their friends (the kids' parents) were on an anniversary trip.

Lucy

Brandon

I have several kid friendly recipes that I will be sharing this week that we made for Lucy and Brandon last week... so get excited about those! :)

Then, last Thursday, I packed up again and headed to Hot Springs, AR, for the wedding weekend of one of my best friends. On Thursday night we had a lingerie shower/bachelorette party for her so I will also be sharing those pictures this week and maybe a few recipes too!! :)

And because I am too tired to actually blog about any of the things that I just told you about, here's a delicious salsa recipe that I made during our first extended stay at my parents' house (when we cooked through the July issue of Southern Living magazine, remember?)... haha bless their hearts! I am sure they are glad to have their house back! :)

Fresh Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

3 cups seeded and diced tomatoes

1 large avocado, diced

1 small jalapeno pepper, diced

1 (2.25 oz) can sliced black olives, drained

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 1/2 t. balsamic vinegar

1/2 t. seasoned salt

table salt to taste

Directions:

Stir together diced tomatoes and next 7 ingredients. Season with table salt to taste.

(I also added fresh garlic)

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Happy Monday!!!

Pray For Us Friday

Pray For Us Friday is back!!! And I am SO excited about it!!

Today we are praying for...

Anna Kintigh and her family

In October of last year, Anna's husband stepped down from his pastoral position because the church that he was serving in was having financial problems and they could no longer pay his salary without cutting the funding for missions.

Since that time, he has been working for Anna's parents as he tries to find a new pastoral position. In addition to the job search, they have been trying to sell their house since last September.

About a week ago, the Kintigh's had their second interview with a church and they finally feel like this is where God wants them to be... but they still haven't sold their house.

Anna told me that she believes strongly in the power of having many pray on her family's behalf and I couldn't agree more! Please join me in praying that the Kintigh's house will sell VERY soon so that their whole family (they also have 2 small children) can be together and settled in a new home when Anna's husband begins his new position!!

And here is the recipe that Anna shared with us!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken, cooked and cut up

2 t. oil

1 cup chopped onions

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 (14.5 oz) can of whole tomatoes with juice

1 (24 oz) can tomato sauce

6 cups chicken broth

1 cup frozen corn

2 t. ground chili powder

1 t. salt

2 t. dried basil

2 t. ground cumin

2 T. diced canned chilies

2 T. lime juice

1 can black beans

Directions:

Add all ingredients into a pot and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes. If you like a bolder taste, you can add ingredients into a pot or crock pot and cook for longer. Garnish with Cilantro, cheese, sour cream, salsa and chips.

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Anna, thank you so much for sharing your prayers and your recipe today. We will definitely intercede on your family's behalf and thank God for answering your first prayer of finding a new church home and a new position for your husband!

Please let us know when your house sells! :)

Three Cheers For Thursday!!

Why is this post titled "Three Cheers For Thursday"?

Three reasons, of course:

1. The words, "Three" and "Thursday" sound good together :)

2. I have Three TV shows that I watch on Thursday nights (Grey's, Private Practice and CSI... FYI)

3. Most importantly, I have three things to share with you tonight!

ONE.

I had leftover tortillas from making Buffalo Chicken Wraps last night, so I made quesadillas for dinner tonight. Here's my favorite way to make chicken quesadillas:

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped, cooked chicken (canned chicken is even faster!)

1 (8 oz.) pkg. shredded cheese

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 chopped and seeded jalapeno

1 T. ground cumin

1 t. salt

1/2 t. black pepper

tortillas

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together. Spread filling on a tortilla and place a second tortilla on top. Cook in a skillet (spray with cooking spray first) until both sides are browned and filling is heated through.

TWO.

We bought new knives today!!! I am SO excited!! When we got married, I saved up gift cards to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought a really expensive knife set with them... TOTAL mistake. Our knives are terrible. TERRIBLE. I usually cut things with steak knives because they work better than those expensive knives that I saved up for. Needless to say, I have been dreaming of new knives almost since the first time I used the ones that we have now. Today, we bought five new CUTCO knives. They are SUPER high quality and they come with a lifetime guarantee so hopefully we won't EVER have to replace them! Don't get me wrong, these knives aren't cheap either and we definitely had to save up for them too... but they are actually worth it!! I am so excited... did I mention that before? I hate always feeling like I'm going to lose a finger in the kitchen because of my flimsy, dull knives. I can't wait for these to come in...

Cutco only sells through private appointment sales representatives. So, if you are in the market for new knives, I would love to give you the name and phone number of the sweet girl that sold ours to us! Just email me and I will give you her info!

Left to right (obviously) we bought the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th knives. Hopefully someday we'll be able to add to our set... they have SO many to choose from!!

THREE.

I still need recipe/prayer requests for tomorrow's Pray For Us Friday post... Don't you want it to be you? If so, email me at racheleabell@gmail.com. And because this post is sponsored by the number 3, here are three reasons that you should participate in Pray For Us Friday:

1. Because when you stop participating, the post stops existing... and that's no fun!

2. Because if you have a blog, I will put a link to it and you may get 1 or 2 new readers! :)

3. But seriously, every person, family and community needs prayer. Let us know how we can pray for you!

Taco Ring

This is a super easy recipe and it's also really fun... kid's think it's really cool... at least I did when I was a kid. It would probably be a fun thing to serve on this coming Wednesday night, since it's Cinco De Mayo!! :) I'm going to post the picture before the recipe tonight because the structure is the only potentially complicated part! And I did it one way, but I will actually do it differently next time I make this. I wasn't happy with the way it looked but it still tasted GREAT! I was working from memory and I should have looked it up! :)

Taco Ring

Here's how you do it:

brown one pound of ground beef, add one pkg. taco seasoning. Set aside. On a round baking stone, arrange uncooked crescent rolls in a circle. It should look like a sunshine- with the base of the triangles facing the inside of the circle and the points facing out:

(Here's where I would do things differently... I would simply use more crescent rolls and overlap them so that when I wrapped the points over the filling, there would be more points and more of the filling would be covered.) Next step is to carefully place the taco meat on the base part of the triangles all the way around the circle. Top with cheese. Then pull the points of the crescent rolls up over the filling and gently tuck them under the base on the other side. Then follow the instructions for baking on your can of crescent rolls.

This recipe is really fun to serve family style or at a party because you can put a bowl (or even three small bowls) of cheese dip/salsa/guacamole in the center of the ring! OR you can fill the center with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, etc. just like a real taco!

I hope you all had a great weekend... and survived the crazy weather if you're from my part of the world!!

Mexican Chicken and Guacamole

This past weekend, on our retreat, I took entirely too many bags of tortilla chips so I needed to make a dinner that would use a lot of chips! This is what I came up with...

Mexican Chicken and Guacamole

Almost everyone I know seems to have a recipe for Mexican Chicken and every recipe seems to be a little different! So, here's my version!

Mexican Chicken

Ingredients:

1 bag tortilla chips

2 lbs. cooked, diced chicken

1 can Rotel

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Crush the tortilla chips and place them in a greased 13x9 inch dish. Layer the diced chicken on top of the crushed chips. Mix together the Rotel, chicken soup, mushroom soup and the cheese (I usually save a little bit of cheese out to sprinkle on the top). Pour the mixture over the chips and chicken. Sprinkle with remaining cheese- if desired. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Here's what mine looked like:

And we made guacamole to go with our Mexican Chicken... because we needed something to eat with our excessive amount of chips! :) We used Rachael Ray's recipe for "Garlicky Holy Guacamole." We discovered this recipe a few months after we got married and it quickly became a family favorite!! We love it so much that we usually double the recipe so we can eat it again the next day!

Garlicky Holy Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 ripe small Haas avocados

1 lemon, juiced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

1 small plum tomato, seeded and finely chopped

1/2 small yellow skinned onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon course salt

Directions:

Mash and mix all ingredients (minus tomatoes) in a bowl, with a fork. Stir in tomatoes. Enjoy!

Here's what ours looked like:

And the good news? We now only have 1 bag of chips left!! :)

Taco Soup and Bobby Flay's Blue and Yellow Corn Muffins

On our honeymoon, Evan and I ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill at the Atlantis Resort in Paradise Island, Bahamas. While we were there we ate the most AMAZING blue and yellow corn muffins! Today we found the recipe and we had them for dinner! Definitely one of our new favorite foods...

Here they are! And here's the recipe:

Mesa Grill Blue & Yellow Corn Muffins:

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup finely diced red onion

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 1/3 cups whole milk

4 large eggs

1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely diced

2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels, thawed

2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro leaves

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup blue cornmeal (couldn't find this at Kroger- had to go to Whole Foods)

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 teaspoons salt

1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Grease a 12 slot muffin pan with non-stick vegetable spray.

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, add the onions and garlic and cook until soft. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Divide the mixture evenly among two large bowls.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, honey, bell pepper, jalapeno, corn, cilantro. Pour the mixture into a measuring cup and add half of the mixture to each of the large bowls containing the onion mixture.

4. Put the blue cornmeal and yellow cornmeal in two separate bowls. To each bowl, add 2/3 cup flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 2 teaspoons salt. Mix each cornmeal mixture into a bowl with the liquid mixture.

5. Pour an equal amount of each batter side by side into each muffin cup and bake for 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center or a muffin comes out with a few moist crumbs on it. Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. The batters can be made up to 1 day in advance and refrigerated.

This is the Taco Soup we had with our corn muffins. My mom has been using this recipe for years and Evan and I love it. We decided to make it tonight because we needed something to go with our corn muffins. Haha Obviously, it was all about the muffins tonight!!

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground beef

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 cans stewed tomatoes

1 can pinto beans

1 can rotel

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix

1 onion chopped

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 can hominey

Brown meat and onions. Drain off Fat. Add chili powder and all other ingredients. Simmer for one hour. Serve with grated cheddar cheese.