Chicken Tortilla Soup

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This recipe has become a regular (and favorite) in our household. I love that he loves it because it is super easy! Who doesn't love crock pot recipes where you can just dump ingredients in and walk away??!!

Ingredients:
2-3 Chicken Breasts (2 big ones is plenty!)
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can Kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can corn (drained and rinsed)
1 can diced tomatoes (drained and rinsed)
1-2 jalapenos, diced
1 large red onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
2 (14 oz) cans chicken broth (add one if you like more broth for your soup!)
Seasoning:
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne powder (optional)
1 tsp ground pepper
2 1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
Toppings: (all are optional, get what you want!)
Cilantro
Green onions
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese
Lime
Tortilla chips

Now comes the easy part. Mix together (in crock pot) the beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, garlic, corn, and chicken broth. Stir in the seasoning next. Then just toss the chicken breasts in on top. 

Put the lid on, set crock pot to low and walk away for 8 hours. If you need it quicker, it will cook in about 6 hours on high. 

A few minutes before you're going to eat, chop up your cilantro and green onions for the toppings. Also, slice your lime! 

The chicken breasts should be falling apart, go ahead and shred them up completely

  Now, the good part! :) Fill your bowl with soup and top with cheddar cheese, onions, cilantro, and sour cream. Then take a slice of lime and squeeze it over the top. If you want, you may also serve with tortilla chips. A lot of people do, we personally don't in an effort to keep it slightly healthier. Enjoy!

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Falafels!

I love Falafels! They're fairly simple to make, super cheap, and delightfully tasty! They're a Middle East dish that's made with deep fried chickpeas and spices. I make them into balls, but you can also make them in patties...like a vegetarian burger.

To get started you'll need the following (this will make about 3 dozen of them):

3 cups dried chickpeas

2 Tbl cumin seeds

2 Tbl coriander seeds

1 large onion, chopped

9 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (I sometimes substitute oregano)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 tsp red pepper flakes (you can adjust this to make it spicier or milder)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Sea salt & fresh ground pepper

Vegetable Oil (used to fry the falafels)

Pita Bread

Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, & feta cheese

Tahini or Tzatziki sauce (recipes to follow!)

First you need to rinse the chickpeas and discard any bad ones. The night before you want to make the falafels, you'll need to begin soaking the chickpeas. Put them in a bowl and cover them with water by at least 2 or 3 inches. Put them in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.

Now it's the night to make falafels! Get a small skillet and your cumin & coriander seeds. Put the skillet on medium heat and put the seeds in it to toast them. 

Just leave them over medium heat until they'll toasted and fragrant. Pull the seeds off and grind them up. You can use a mortar & pestle if you have one. Otherwise use your imagination. :) You can substitute already ground coriander & cumin, but the taste will be different. And in my opinion, no where near as great!

Next, drain the water off of the chickpeas and rinse them completely. They will have "grown" to 2-3 times their original size.

Put the uncooked chickpeas into your food processor and grind them. You just want to insure that there aren't any whole chickpeas left, it will not be smooth. Next add the onion, garlic, ground seeds, herbs, red pepper flakes, and baking powder. 

Process these until well mixed and all of the items are well ground. Do not add any water or other liquids! Add salt & pepper to your taste. Transfer the mixture back into your bowl and put it into the refrigerator while you finish preparing the meal. 

Next you'll want to heat the oil. If you have a deep fryer, put it around 350 degrees. If not, use a heavy pot and heat it to med-high heat. While the oil is heating I slice my tomatoes and cucumbers.

Once the oil is heated, get your falafel mixture back out. You now need to roll it into balls, about the size of ping pong balls. 

Test your oil temperature and the consistency of your balls by dropping just one into the hot oil. If it falls apart, you can add a little flour or plain bread crumbs to the mixture to help them stick together. You want the oil hot enough that they'll crisp up on the outside, but not too hot that they'll burn. Once it's all correct, you're ready to go!

I also toss my pita bread into the oven to warm it at this point. :)

Put around six into the oil at once. Be careful to move them so that they don't burn to the bottom of your pan. It takes about 4-5 minutes to cook them. You want them to be a nice, dark brown color on the outside. They'll also be very crispy. When they're ready pull them out with tongs or a slotted spoon and put them on a plate covered with paper towels.

You're now ready for a fabulous dinner!!! Cut open your pita bread and stuff it with a few falafels, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and feta. You can also use drop in some tahini or tzatziki sauce. Eat now and enjoy! Don't forget to make a few extra for lunch tomorrow. :)

My other love

We try our hardest to eat healthy. Although some days the healthy meal does get thrown to the side and pizza gets delivered. We aren't perfect. Actually we're far from it. We don't keep ice cream in the house because we'll sit down and eat the entire carton. Seriously. It doesn't matter how big it is. Just talking about ice cream makes me want to go buy some. If I ride my bike to the store will that cancel out the calories? I've actually investigated this numerous times and if I go to the second closest grocery then it does.

For the days where you do want to eat healthy, it's often hard to find a recipe that offers taste. And I don't mean the taste of cardboard. When cruising the world wide web one day I accidentally came across this website from Food Network and this particular collection of recipes. It was love at first site. I printed off seven recipes and had that week's meals planned. The first one I conquered was the Chicken Divan--healthy style. It was love at first bite. These recipes are fantastic! They offer healthy alternatives to meals we love. And they don't leave out the wonderful flavor.

So if you're looking for inspiration, look no further. Browse this collection and then look further at the site. I personally can recommend most every single one of these recipes. (There were a few we didn't make simply because we don't like that meal). Everyone we cooked, we loved. Now go forth and print off Food Network recipes. And use the time you saved searching for an idea for dinner taking a nap.