I had big plans of “finishing” the laundry tonight but my brain forgot to connect with my body to actually turn on both the washer and dryer earlier today. So here I am! This is more fun anyway :p I had updated the LMM Facebook page with a soup I was creating a few days ago. I used what was left in my pantry and freezer…hence the name. Turns out, it was pretty darn good. Share-worthy. So share-worthy, I’ve made two batches for the freezer. We have a house-full of company heading for Sedan this weekend and what better way to welcome family than with a hot bowl of hearty soup to cozy up with (because it’s going to get chilly, too!). It’s on the tex-mex side of the flavor wheel so I made my favorite baked tortilla strips to go with it. I’ll post that recipe here too. Enjoy!
Soup:
Ingredients:
- 3 chicken breasts, thawed;
- 2 cans cream of chicken soup (I saved some calories here and did 1 can regular cream of chicken and 1 can 98% fat free c.o.c. soup);
- 1 packet chicken taco seasoning;
- 1/2 tsp salt;
- 1/2 tsp. pepper;
- Water (amount in directions);
- 1 small white onion, chopped;
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped;
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped;
- 2 cans pinto beans or white beans (or a combo);
- 8 oz. cream cheese (use 1/3 less fat cream cheese to save calories);
- 6 or more slices of cooked bacon (whatever suits your fancy!).
Directions:
- Line your crock pot with a liner. You’re welcome.
- Place thawed chicken breasts in the bottom of the crock pot.
- Put cream of chicken soup (save the cans!), chx taco seasoning, salt, pepper, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes and beans over the chicken.
- Fill each soup can up with water, stir to get the rest of the soup out of the can and pour the water in the pot.
- Mix it all together.
- Cook on low for 5 hours.
- Pull chicken out and shred.
- Place cream cheese, bacon, and shredded chicken back into the crock pot and cook on high for another 1-1.5 hours. The more it cooks, the more the flavor combines.
- Garnish with sliced green onions to make yourself feel like the pro you are.
Baked tortilla strips:
Ingredients:
- 8 whole grain or flour tortillas
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut tortillas so that you have strips instead of triangles. You could do triangles too, I just like to use the strips.
- Line a jelly roll pan with foil.
- Brush the foiled pan with olive oil.
- Place strips on the pan and brush with olive oil so that both sides have oil on them.
- Sprinkle the tortilla pieces with salt and pepper or what-have-you. Get creative!
- Bake until golden brown. Voila! You’re own chips that taste divine!
- Store extra in an airtight container. But most likely you won’t have extra. 😉
