Chicken Tortilla Soup

A friend of mine recently recommended The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup as a good choice for something easy and good for dinner. After checking out her recipe, I made this for dinner tonight, with a few modifications, of course. It was really, really yummy. For gluten-free, use corn tortillas.

Original recipe credit: thepioneerwoman.com

yield: 8 servings

Soup:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

4 tsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 medium/large onion, diced

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1/2 cup diced red pepper

2 jalepeños, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup tomato sauce

8 cups water

2 chicken bouillon cubes (enough for 4 cups) OR use 4 cups water instead of 8 and 4 cups chicken broth

3 cups cooked or canned black beans

2 cups frozen corn

Garnishes (to taste)

crushed tortilla chips or sliced soft tortillas

sour cream

shredded cheese

diced tomatoes or pico

diced avocado

diced onions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt in a small bowl. Place chicken breasts on a baking sheet; drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of spice mixture. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove from oven; shred with a fork. Set aside.

3. In a large stockpot, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, green and red peppers, garlic, and jalepeños. Sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in remaining spice mixture and shredded chicken. Add remaining ingredients; stir well. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and cook 30-45 minutes or until flavors are well melded. Top each serving with desired garnishes.

*Crock-pot option: place all ingredients in crock-pot (don't cook the chicken in the oven...just place the breasts and all the spices in with everything else). Cook on LOW for 8 hours. Remove breasts, shred with a fork, and return to pot. Garnish as desired.

Tuna Salad

In an effort to eat tuna once a week while pregnant, I went searching for a good recipe (since my standard "add mayo and pickle relish" won't work here since pickle relish is unheard of). This is adapted from frugalgranola.com. Most things are "to taste," so add as you like!

Original recipe credit: frugalgranola.com

yield: 2 servings

2 cans (the...normal-sized ones. 140 grams?) of tuna in water

4 Tbsp mayonnaise

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp dried basil (fresh would be great but I didn't have any)

salt and pepper to taste (maybe 1/8 tsp each?)

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 large cucumber, diced

1. Drain tuna fish and combine with mayonnaise, lemon juice, basil, salt and pepper. Gently stir in bell pepper and cucumber. Serve on a bed of lettuce, on bread, or alone.

Crock-Pot Salsa Chicken

I originally got the idea for this recipe off of crockpot365. However, since the only things in her original recipe that we can get here are the chicken and frozen corn, I had to improvise. Here's what I came up with. (note: it needs some kind of spice. I put in maybe 2 teaspoons of homemade taco seasoning, but it still needed something more, which is why I'm not listing that in my ingredient list. However, if you make this, PLEASE add some spice...cumin, chili powder, taco seasoning...something. I'll update the recipe when I've found what's perfect.)

1 cup dried black beans

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups chicken broth

4 tomatoes, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

2 small jalepeños, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 cup cream cheese

yield: 6 servings

1. Place black beans in bottom of crock-pot; place chicken breasts on top of beans. Pour chicken broth over chicken and beans. In a small bowl combine corn, jalepeños, garlic, salt, and pepper. Pour over chicken in crock-pot.

2. Cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours. Remove chicken from crock-pot and shred; return to crock-pot. Add cream cheese; stir well, until cream cheese has melted. Replace lid, reduce heat to LOW, and cook an additional 2-4 hours. Serve over rice.

***If you think about it, soak your black beans overnight before cooking them in this recipe. Mine were still a little crunchy, but it was a last-minute decision to make this for dinner. Or if you have canned black beans, those would be good too. If you do either of these options, you can probably just mix the beans with the tomato mixture and pour over the chicken.***

Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts

I've never been much of a fried-food lover, mainly because I know it's really, really bad for you. But nobody can deny that sometimes fried chicken just sounds good. Here's a way to make it taste fried without actually having to fry it. I think even the Colonel would be proud.

yield: 4 servings

1 cup buttermilk
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cracker meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp butter

1. Combine buttermilk and chicken in a bowl; let marinate an hour, rotating chicken occasionally.
2. Preheat oven to 425°.

3. Combine flour and cracker meal in a shallow dish. Transfer chicken to a plate and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Dredge each chicken breast in flour mixture, shaking off excess.
4. Melt butter in a large ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn chicken over; cook an additional 3 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Sweet Cornbread

I've been trying to come up with a good cornbread recipe since moving here, since we can only find corn flour and not corn meal. All cornbread recipes out there use corn meal! This is an adaptation of an allrecipes.com recipe that uses corn flour instead. And it's pretty good if I do say so myself!

Original recipe credit: allrecipes.com

yield: 15 servings

2 cups corn flour

3/4 cup white flour

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
2 1/2 cups milk

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

6 Tbsp white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1. In a large bowl combine flours and milk, stirring with a whisk. Let sit for 10 minutes.

2. While flour mixture sits, preheat oven to 400°.

3. Add remaining ingredients to flour mixture, stirring well with a whisk. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 400° for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Strawberry Bread

Yum. If you have an abundance of over-ripe strawberries, this is a perfect recipe for them. Good warm or cold, as breakfast or as dessert, it's just, simply, yummy.

Original recipe credit: allrecipes.com (heavily adapted from the original)

yield: 2 loaves

4 cups sliced strawberries

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup oil

4 eggs

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Purée 2 cups strawberries in a food processor or blender. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. In a small bowl, beat eggs; add buttermilk, oil, and puréed strawberries, stirring well. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring well to combine. Fold in remaining 2 cups strawberries and pecans. Pour into two loaf pans coated with cooking spray.

4. Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Chocolate Pudding

My mother-in-law brought us a can of evaporated milk on her recent visit, so I made this pudding for the first time. I'll never use instant pudding mix again (as long as I have access to evaporated milk).

Original recipe credit: Cooking Light (I think)

yield: 6 servings

1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups 1% milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan; stir with a whisk. Gradually add evaporated milk and 1% milk, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minute or until thick. Remove from heat; add chocolate, stirring until melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour about 2/3 cup pudding into each of 6 ramekins; cover each serving with plastic wrap. Chill at least 4 hours.