Chicken Tortilla Soup with Garden Tomatoes

You know those weeks where you are trying to pinch pennies so you put off a grocery store trip and get creative as you empty the pantry?  Last week, was one of those.  I ended the week with a Tex Mex inspired salad and felt like I just just forded the river with all my horses intact.  You know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, that got me in the mood for Tortilla soup, like the awesome soup I had at Red Rock Canyon Grill a while back. I know it is a sauna outside, but I just like soup all the time.  Besides, we have tomatoes galore from the garden and I knew I could add those in somehow.  Grocery time came and I got a chicken and made broth and shredded chicken.  I also found a recipe for fire-roasted tomatoes and did a lame copycat on the Foreman.  So prep done, I set about actually making the soup today. My ingredients, recipe, and process were pieced by this, this, and this.   That Two Sisters cookbook is a great place for healthy recipes . . . I own one compliments of my friend Heather.

yesterday's broth and tomatoes

The Recipe

Ingredients
4 TB of butter
1 very large white onion
8 cloves of garlic chopped
1 bell pepper (I used one half red and one half green-it's what I had)
1 jar of Shawn's jalapenos rinsed without the juice (about 1 cup)
16 small corn tortillas
8 cups of chicken broth (about, I used mine with the fat on top too)
4 cups worth of roasted tomatoes and juice (they shrink on the grill, I used about 10 medium garden tomatoes)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
1 tsp coarse Mediterranean sea salt
1 bag frozen corn (1 lb)
Shredded chicken, about 1 cup or more
Cilantro- just a few sprigs
A lime
Optional toppings:  cheese, black olives, sour cream, jalepenos, avocados, and salsa

1.  With the pot on high heat, toss in butter, coarsely chopped onion, bell pepper, garlic, tortillas, jalepenos, cumin, cayenne, and salt.  Toss for a few minutes.

My helper- Dom

Sol:  Mom, that's a good smell!
(It is a really good smell.)

2.  Add in chicken broth, roasted tomatoes and juice.  Bring to boil.

3.  Remove soup from heat, process the soup(HOT!) in a blender or food processor. Put soup back into pan.

4.  Put soup over medium heat, add corn and chicken, chopped cilantro, and a few squeezes of lime juice.

Dom: What's that?
Sol:  Just a bunch of killed chickens.
Mom:  . . . . 

Once it is heated through, serve with desired toppings.

Dom and I made this for a late lunch and the boys liked it, but they called it spicy.  It had a little more heat than I intended, but I liked it that way.  Tone it down with less or no jalepenos and less cumin and pepper.  If you like it thicker, add more tortillas.  We are serving it with cornbread for dinner.

(I will insert pretty picture of it all garnished to serve here after dinner.)

Happy Sunday!  

Recently

We went to "Ratatouille" at my Grandma's retirement home.  They have a pretty great movie theatre.
I want to retire there.  Tomorrow.

This little guy has found his voice.
We had to exit the theater and get our puzzle on while we waited.

born to read - per her request

I made onesie graphics/drawings for my supervisor's grand baby.
She's a hippie type with the last name 'Awe' hence the slogan/peace sign.  

My dad took the boys to the train museum.
They saw the train my dad drew 30 years ago and hung in my home growing up.

I went out dancing for a night with these girls.
My hair is FINALLY long enough for a side braid, which lasted until I got sweaty from dancing.

Themed footwear here.

Dom gave birth to a baby monkey after about
3 hours of maternity.

Sol started First Grade and I picked the world's worst place for a back to school photo.  

Dom met his super awesome PreK teacher.  He starts tomorrow.

Not to be out-shined by his brothers with their big changes, Wilson had his first food this week.
Mashed bananas.  He has now had it 3 times and we are actually getting a bit to his tummy now.  

He also has started waving and sitting up. 

Medical Frequent Flyer Miles

You know how after you buy 5 ice cream cones (or whatever), you fill up your card and get one free?  We need one of those for Dominic's getaway of choice.  

Dominic has an affinity for curtain lined sterile environments.  I also think he hates money.

When Dom was 2 months old, he had liquid sounding lungs and my always happy baby spent a night crying off and on.  A morning trip to Immediate Care told us that this was no little cold.  An ambulance chartered one low O2 sat. baby and one high strung and scared momma about one block over to a hospital where we spent a few days watching our baby get suctioned and tested and treated.  Our first visit to the ER with a kid.

He was a happy bugger.

At 2 years, Dominic stayed with Dad while I ventured to Florida with Solomon.  I received a text about a fall from the ladder and 'rock lodged in his head' which was probably a slight exaggeration, because no stitches were needed.  Stamp 2 on the ER Rewards card.  

At 3 years, Dominic most likely dumped a 50 count bottle of why-aren't-they-childproofed Pepcid into the toilet, after tasting 1 or 2 and deciding they were yucky.  Most likely.  So we had him professionally monitored for a few hours before going home with our third 'stamp'.

On July 3rd a mrsa incident meant more ER fun for Dominic.  At least it was a legitimate reason to get another stamp.

Last week, I was cutting the boys' hair in the backyard, when Dominic spotted some mushrooms in the grass and asked, "Can I eat them?"  I responded with a clearly too challenging, "NO!  Don't eat mushrooms, they are poison."  Moments later, as I finished Sol's cut, a triumphant Dominic proclaimed, "I ate them!"  Should have seen that coming from Mr. Test-The-Limits-for-Attention.  The rest is as you'd expect:  Google, Poison Control, mushrooms in a bag, hooligans to the car, and we're off to Dominic's favorite home away from home.

These guys, right here.

He had to drink flavored charcoal ('yucky' Dom noted) and sit on the luxury white bedding under surveillance for a few hours.

After charcoal.  Not Oreos.

And we made clay things to pass the time.  

We made a claymation movie too- (I clearly missed my calling.)    

When Shawn arrived at the ER to meet us, he asked, "Do you guys have a Rewards Program?"

Stamp #5.  Next one should be free.  
Almost makes me want to tell Dom not to jump off the top bunk.

Dom's Letter Game

So, even though Dominic is over 4 1/2, he STILL doesn't know all his letters.  Even ignoring that fact that I teach reading to young strugglers this is a serious 'Parenting FAIL'.


He went through an interested in letters phase, but lost interest before he knew them all.  I bought a workbook to do with him, but he isn't really wanting to do much with it, so it gets ignored often.

He'd rather fly planes and helicopters all day.  This is not an exaggeration. 

A few weeks ago, Dom started a game where he pretended to be working for an air patient emergency service company, like my husband dispatches for.  He wanted me to dispatch him and then pretended to fly helicopters to various pretend hospitals and airports.

Before I threw away a bunch of old boxes, I thought of him having airports for his planes and helicopters.  I let him play with the boxes on his own, then decided to turn this game educational.  After a quick gummy bear motivated pre-assessment, I found out which letters Dom didn't know.  I picked 5 of the ones that are most commonly used and wrote them in permanent marker on the tops.  If I was the kind who liked to make things cutesy instead of a functional minimalist, this would look a lot neater.  But it is a good game without any frills.

Yes, we gave our kid a wine box to play with - just keeping it classy.

Then I pretend to call Dom and tell him to take the helicopter/plane/bi-plane to "Airport/Hospital G-or whichever."  He has to drop off patients, pick up patients(I hide them under different boxes), and take them to other hospitals/airports.  He is starting to get the letters right.  Now the next step would be to have him hide the patient and tell me which letter to fly to.

Finding the patient hiding in Airport N

I see that we can extend this play with more imagination like ambulances and plot twists as well as move to letter sounds and other letters.  

Someday, if he's a pilot doing medical flights, I hope he does a few less barrel rolls.

What I Wore Sunday

Linking up with Plane Pretty and Fine Linen and Purple

Frizzy hair edition.
Dress:  Francesca's, Shoes: Target, Bracelet:  Gift  Jean Jacket: Old Navy
Cheesy pose:  You can't buy that kind of special

My extended family came to church today spontaneously coordinating, Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister and her family and mine.  I tried to get some photos but lame camera means mostly fuzzy ones.

They took some too, so maybe I will get them up later.  Here's what I did get

My niece and my little man.

Dom and Sol

Wilson and my mom

They brought Rock Band for pre-lunch entertainment.

Happy Sunday!  

My Backyard Farm

When it comes to things I love about my house, ranking in at numero uno is my backyard.  I'm not typically an outdoorsy person, but my kids are, and having a large fenced in space with treehouse, grass, and garden for them to roam is ideal.

The best is the garden in the summer.  It is really Shawn's garden, I just do the occasional weed and I love to pick the tomatoes when they ripen.

Shawn with his delicious hobby.

So today, after Shawn brought in the squash and zucchini, the kids and I grabbed a basket (I thought that was more whimsical than the usual bowl) and went hunting.

Solly loved time in 'the maze'.  Dommy did the majority of the spotting and picking.  A great lesson in self sufficiency and the gift in nature.  It seems like they might understand the Gospels better with just a little understanding of growing food.

Shawn already got a ton of cucumbers and made pickles. 

Using our garden potatoes, squash, basil, and some goat cheese I got on sale, I have plans to make this amazing looking dish.  I'll let you know if it is as great as I think it will be.

Days like today, I feel like the farm girl I unrealistically think I would want to be, if I didn't have an affinity for laziness and high heels.