Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup is a classic soup we enjoy every fall/winter. 

Pre-cooked soup

It's hearty, easy to prepare, and delicious! 

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup (recipe adapted from All Recipes)
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded
1 15 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 can drained black beans
1 medium onion, chopped
1 4oz can shopped green chile peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cajun pepper
2 cups water
1 14.5 oz can chicken broth
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 10oz package frozen corn
1 bay leaf
*We've added 1 can of garbanzo beans to some batches, they're a great addition

Directions:
Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, cajun pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn. Cover, and cook on low setting for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. When ready to eat, sprinkle broken tortilla chips on top of the soup if desired.

These photos are from my most recent batch - they're on my phone in bad lighting so look a bit weird. But trust me, this soup is delicious. 

I've also been having fun with Instagram and trying out the camera on my new iPhone! 

Fall Sunday drive

 Pearls. Some of my faves. 

 We've seen a few of these dreary cloudy days lately..

I'm still loving the Bon Iver Pandora station - I listen to it when I get home from work.

I've been having fun adding some fall inspiration around our home - I'll share them soon. I'm also excited that a very good friend is coming to visit this weekend! She called me just last week and came up with this plan to visit and I was thrilled. I don't get to see nearly enough of my friends these days! Just a note too that if you're looking for a house in Des Moines, I know of a great place for sale! Check it out, here is the website with details:

 

Happy Mid-week! We're on the downhill slide. Here's today's Pinspiration:

(source)

Chili & Whole Wheat Beer Bread

It was a wintry mess outside today (so weird to say from Dallas)! Good day to stay in, make comfort food and watch the snow fall from the warmth of our home.

This yummy candle helped create the atmosphere I was going for...

Back to that comfort food...

Chili
For this chili, I combined two recipes; one that came in our crock pot recipe booklet and this five star chili recipe on allrecipes.com. I added what I had and you certainly don't need to add everything I did; give and take based on what you have and what you like. We lived on the edge and tried adding some new ingredients - it was a success!


Ingredients:
1/4 lb pinto beans: I used a 25 oz (I think...) can
1 can chili beans
2 14 1/2 oz can tomatoes
2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/3 can beer
1 can tomato soup
1 1 oz envelope instant hot chocolate mix
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 3 tbs chili powder
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt

Soften beans by cooking in boiling water on stove (I did mine about 15 mins). Drain water. Put all ingredients in crock pot and stir. Cover and cook on low for 10 - 12 hours or on high 5 - 6 hours.

Whole Wheat Beer Bread
Apparently I was on a cooking-with-beer kick... and I don't even drink beer! But it sure is good for cooking :) I made it while the chili was cooking. The recipe I used is found here.


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 (12 oz.) can or bottle beer (flavor of bread will change depending on type of beer) We used Shiner
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Pour in beer, stir until stiff batter is formed. Scrape dough into loaf pan. Add 1/8 to
1/4 cup melted butter over the batter before baking (I added this after reading the helpful reviews of this recipe on allrecipes.com!).

Bake in preheated oven for 50 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mine was done right at 50 minutes.

The crust is my fav part - crunchy, salty and sweet! Seriously good.

This was a very tasty and wholesome combo - I'll be stuffed all night!

Comfort Food & Christmas

Broccoli and Cheese soup, anyone?

I made this soup in the crockpot this weekend and we loved it. It's pretty easy to make, tastes fresh and has WAY less sodium/preservatives than the stuff in cans ;) This recipe is from A Year of Slow Cooking blog. She used her crock pot every day in 2008 and has some seriously good recipes for the crock pot! She's written a few books since then too...

Ingredients:

--1 qt chicken broth (or vegetable)

--2 cups milk (I used 2%)

--2 10 oz bags of frozen broccoli florets

--1/2 diced white onion

--1/2 t black pepper

--1/2 t kosher salt

--1/2 t ground nutmeg

--3 cups shredded cheese; I used a 4-cheese mix and cheddar

I didn't want HUGE chunks of broccoli so I chopped mine

Directions:

Mince the onion into really small pieces. I used my Pampered Chef chopper for this. The onions are going to soften in the milk and the broth, and need to be small so you don't crunch on onion pieces in your soup.

Add the onion to your crockpot, and top with the milk, broth, and spices. Stir in the two frozen bags of broccoli.

Cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 4-6. The broth is done when the onion is cooked nicely.

20 minutes or so before serving, shred all the cheese you are going to use, and stir it in.

Photo adding the cheese before I stirred it. Then let it cook for 20 mins. We loved this soup! The texture wasn't a blended texture like many super creamy broccoli/cheese soups, but the flavor was amazing and I'll definitely make this soup again.

Next up... dessert... Fudge Revel Bars!!!

These bars are a happy marriage of an oatmeal cookie bar and fudge. Can't stop eating them. Seriously. The recipe from a guest post at Or So She Says (you've got to check out her mouth watering pictures of a batch she made - they sold me to give the recipe a try!).

Cookie Bar
1 c. Butter
2 Eggs
2 c. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 1/2 c. Flour
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 c. Quick Oats

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and eggs. Add the vanilla. Add the salt, baking soda, and flour. Mix. Add oats and mix well.

Press 2/3 of the dough into a greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper like I did - SO easy to clean up!).


Fudgey Goodness
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 pkg (1 1/2 c.) Milk Chocolate Chips
1 Tbsp. Butter
1/2 tsp Salt

Put all into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute and stir. Keep cooking at 30 second increments and stirring until melted. Pour over the dough and spread out. Sprinkle the rest of the dough over the fudge. Bake at 350 for 20 min.

Before baking:

And after:

These are SO good. I'm taking them to a Christmas cookie/treat exchange at work next week and had to try out the recipe this weekend to see how it went. It's a definite keeper!

CHRISTMAS! My fav :) I wanted to share some of the ornaments on our tree, some Nick made when he was a little guy. I'm not one to only put up the store-bought ornaments, bring on the weird home made ones! haha Our tree has character and I love it :)

Old sugar cookies, anyone?! Just kidding.. :)

I found this one this year and LOVE it! It must be from Diane's tree...

The award I won last year ;)

I've started collecting ornaments of places we visit - this one is from our honeymoon and will always be a special ornament to hang!

My view from the kitchen :) I love the huge mirror there to reflect all of the lights on the tree too.

View from the living room... loveliness!

P.S. Today's high in DFW.. was... 75 degrees!! It was amazing to feel that fresh warmth on my skin. Our "cold front" (I say that because it's nothing compared to what we had in MN or the midwest) comes back tomorrow I hear, so we've got to be thankful for today! :)