Green Chicken Enchilada Soup

 

One of my co-workers makes this soup when we have soup days.  It's delicious.  I made it myself finally when we decided we wanted a chicken tortilla soup this week.  I made it in my crockpot.

Place chicken (abt 2 1/2 lbs), a 28 oz can of green enchilada sauce (I did mild this time.  Next time I would do medium), and 24 oz of chicken broth in a crockpot.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Shred chicken.  Note to self:  I took it out and shredded it using my kitchen aid.  I did it a little too much so the chicken was a little mushy as it sat.  So next time I will cut it or not shred it as much.  Add the chicken back into the juices in the crockpot along with 1 cup milk, 1 can of corn (drained), 2 cups monterey jack cheese, 4 oz. cream cheese (cubed and softened), and 6 oz. green salsa.  Turn to warm and stir.  To our bowls, we added avocado, cilantro, and crushed tortilla chips.  Delicious!  Next time I will definitely add a can of green chilies at the end.  We needed a bit more kick!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This was one of the freezer crock pot meals.  Dave & I really liked it!!

1 1/2 - 2 lbs. chicken breasts (can be frozen)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can fiesta nacho soup

2 cans Rotel Tomatoes with cilantro & lime juice (or any rotel tomatoes will work)

2 cups chicken broth

1 TBL cilantro

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp chili powder

shredded cheddar cheese and corn tortilla chips for topping

Combine all ingredients except the chicken, shredded cheddar, and chips in crockpot.  Add chicken.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours.  Once chicken is done, remove and shred it with a fork.  Return to the crock pot and stir.  Dish soup into bowls and top with shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, and fresh tomoatoes.

Bread Bowls

Last week I tried a different bread bowls recipe when we had guests over for dinner. They turned out perfectly! I will definitely make these again. I couldn't keep my kids out of the "stuffing" I had pulled out to create the bread bowls. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com but I changed it up a bit so...here's my version of the original recipe:

3 packages of active dry yeast (if you buy yeast like I do, you don't get them in individual packages...so you'll need about 3 TBL of yeast.)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 cups warm milk
3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp salt
9 cups flour

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt, and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. (Of course, I use my kitchen aid for all the mixing.) Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into eight pieces; shape each into a ball. Grease two baking sheets. Place four balls on each pan. Cover and let rise until doubled (I waited another hour). Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove onto wire racks.

Slice off tops and pull out insides. Bake bowls again for 10 minutes to harden the edges to hold up to your soup, chowder, or stew.

Chili

I also took chili to our church party. I didn't really follow a "chili recipe"...just kind of added what I felt like :) Again, I forgot to take a picture before we walked out the door...but it must have been taste because it was gone :)

I started by browning two pounds of hamburger. Put it into the crockpot. I then added 2 cans of black beans (rinsed and drained), 2 cans of kidney beans (rinsed and drained), 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 cup of salsa, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, white pepper, garlic salt, and onion powder. Mix it all together and heat through. We would just check it and add a few more shakes of spices as we thought it needed more. It turned out very yummy. I love chili with melted cheese so of course I added to cheese to my bowl :)

Taco Soup

This is another version of taco soup we like. This one is from my SIL, Hilary. It's yummy! The kids love to eat it (and all other mexican dishes) with tortilla chips.
1 lb lean ground beef (could use chicken or go meatless)
1 onion, diced (or 2 Tbsp dried minced onion)
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 can corn
1 cup salsa
1 – 15 oz can stewed, chopped tomatoes
Taco seasoning mix to taste

Preheat pan to sear ground beef as you cook and chop it with the diced onions. Drain and rinse beans. Add ingredients in the order given. Garnish with shredded cheese and crushed tortilla chips.

Bread Bowls for Soup

I made these for our parent preschool meeting last night. They turned out very yummy and were just enough since we had other food besides soup!

1/2 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
2 TBL butter, softened
2 TBL sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour OR 2 cups all-purpose flour and 2 cups wheat flour
4 1/2 TBL yeast
1 egg white, beaten

In a mixing bowl add water, milk, sugar, and yeast. When yeast is dissolved, add salt and flour. Mix well. I used my kitchen aid w/ the dough hook. It mixed for approximately 5 minutes. It seemed a bit dry so I added a few drops of water to moisten the dough just a bit. Turn dough ontol a lightly floured surface. Divide into six portions; shape into balls. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Brush with egg white. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes (the all white flour bread only took 20 minutes...the mix of white & wheat flour took 25 minutes.) Cool on wire racks. To make bowl, cut the top fourth off of bread; carefully hollow out bottom of each, leaving about 1/4" shell. I made Cheese Veggie Chowder while another mom made chili. It was very yummy! JR loved just eating the bread...so this recipe could also work for rolls...just make them smaller then you're dividing the dough.

Hamhock Soup

This was my first time making this soup. I had this soup a few years back at a church event but haven't been brave enough to try it out. After add the 3rd hamhock to our freezer at Christmas, I knew I had to put it on the menu. I had forgotten that I had bought "White Navy Beans" to put with this until I cleaned out my cupboard the next day so I used pinto beans from our storage. I had planned to have this for dinner on Sunday. Saturday night I put two cups of beans in 6 cups of water to soak overnight.

The next morning I followed this recipe:

Add ham to a crockpot (according to the recipe it can be any kind of ham...cut ham, ham bone, etc) but for the heartist of taste use the hamhock, lotsa fat!

Put the crockpot on high to start the water boiling and add the ham. Once it starts getting really hot, but not hot enough to boil in the pot, add a dash of salt and a couple dashes of black pepper to get the stock going.

Add to that: minced garlic, crushed ginger, oregano, parsley. Let it come to a boil then reduct to simmer. This is the essence of the soup stock.

On simmer add a couple pads of butter to help break up the ham. Then add: diced peeled potatoes, cut carrots, diced onions, cut celery, and beans (rinsed and soaked overnight then drained).

I simmered mine on high all day. By Sunday night, my beans were still crunchy! So we let it cook until 10 p.m. with the intent of just eating it on Monday night instead. Then we remembered we had guests coming Monday so we put it in the fridge and decided to cook it again on Tuesday. So it cooked all day on high on Tuesday. The taste was WONDERFUL!!! Very flavorful and very filling...the only problem...we still had some crunchy beans! Is there something I did wrong w/ the beans? We'll definitely make this soup again but I'll probably try different beans in it.

Hearty Winter Soup

This recipe originally came from my friend, Melissa. She served this to us at her house one night with homemade rolls and it was so delicious!!!!! Today was a colder day so it was the perfect soup day so I pulled out this recipe. Even the kids gobbled it up tonight...and they're not usually too thrilled w/ the veggies.

Here's the original recipe:

1 ½ cups water
1 cup cubed potatoes
½ cup chopped carrots
1 lb Velveeta cheese
1 cup cubed ham
dash pepper

Bring water, potatoes, and carrots to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes. Put in remainder of ingredients. Stir until cheese is melted.

Tonight I added chopped celery and frozen broccoli. It tasted just as good as usual and warmed us right up!

Beef Taco Skillet/Soup

Here's how I usually make this recipe:

1 lb ground beef
1 can tomato soup
1 cup salsa
½ cup water
8 flour tortillas, cut into 1” strips
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Cook beef in skillet until browned. Pour off fat. Add soup, salsa, water, tortillas, and half the cheese. Heat to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat 5 minutes or until hot. Top with remaining cheese.

This time I added 1 can of kidney beans drained and about 1 cup frozen corn. We ate this more like a taco soup. We ate it with tortilla chips. It was very yummy and hit the spot on a cool day!

Sorry for the somewhat disgusting picture...I took the picture as one of the kids dished up their second-helping and the last of the pan so I needed a picture before it was gone!!

Cheese Chowder

This recipe came from the restaurant owner I worked for one summer. It's very yummy!!!

4 cups cubed potatoes
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups diced carrots
1/2 cup mince onion

Add all above ingredients to 2 tsp salt and 4 cups water. Cook for 20 minutes. Add 1 10 oz. pkg frozen broccoli (and/or other veggies you prefer), 3 TBL chicken base, and 3 1/2 cups milk. Simmer for 5 minutes.

In a separate pan, melt 1/2 cup margarine, 1/2 cup flour, and 1 TBL dry mustard. Add to soup. Stir until thick. Add chopped ham (cooked), if desired.  Add 1 lb. cubed Velvetta (slowly). Heat slowly, never boil.

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 3-4 lb chicken, cut up (You could also just use chicken breasts)
8 cups water
½ bay leaf (if desired)
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Place cut up chicken in a large cooking pan. Add water, onion, and seasonings, cover and bring to boil. Cook until chicken is tender and will come off from bones easily, about 2 hours. Remove chicken from broth—remove skin and meat from bones. Discard bones and skin. Strain broth.

Add to broth:
1 cup celery, cut into pieces
½ tsp seasoning salt
2 -3 carrots, peeled & sliced or cut into chunks
½ tsp poultry seasoning (optional)
Meat of the chicken
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, chopped

Add prepared vegetables to chicken broth, adding more water if needed. Bring to boil and cook about 15 minutes. Add 2 cups of uncooked pasta noodles. Bring to a boil and cook 20 minutes. I love this soup because the broth is as good as the noodles, chicken, and veggies. I usually always serve it with some type of bread so you can "soak" up the juice...although, honestly, I could just drink it :) This particular night it was served with garlic bread.

Baked Potato Soup

Baked Potato Soup
From: My CIL, Annie

Bake 3-5 potatoes in the oven for however long and whatever temperature you usually do. When they're done, slice them in half and scoop out the meat into a bowl. Discard peels. Add 2 tsp chicken boullion and 1 c water and beat with beaters until kind of smooth, but slightly lumpy. Melt 1 -2 TB butter in a large saucepan and add 1 TBS flour. Stir until pasty. Add 1 c milk, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Stir until bubbly and then add the potato mixture to saucepan. Add the dill weed, and whatever other herbs and spices you'd like. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. Wait till it starts to bubble and then take it off the heat. Add 1 c sour cream. Serve topped with bacon, broccoli or cheese.

Taco Soup

Taco Soup
From: My aunt, Kathleen

1 ½ lbs hamburger
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen corn (optional)
1 (28 oz) can tomatoes
¼ cup onion, chopped
1 TBL chili powder
2 large cans kidney beans with juice
½ TBL garlic powder OR salt
½ cup taco sauce or salsa

Brown hamburger and onions. Add meat mixture in a large saucepan; tomatoes, chili powder, garlic powder, taco sauce or salsa, corn, and kidney beans. Bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with grated cheese and teaspoon sour cream. Eat with tortilla chips.