Green Chili Soup

It seems like all I blog about lately is food. But that's okay. It's something that everyone can relate to right? Everyone eats!

Why do men hate soup so much? I think soup is delicious...although, I am a creamy soup kinda girl, not the brothy kind (unless it's Ramen. I LOVE Ramen). Whenever I make soup, Jordan always complains that it is just a side dish and that it isn't filling. Typically, if I am not full off of what I am eating, I JUST EAT MORE OF IT. So I still really don't get it. I rarely make soup and I figure that I make what Jordan wants about 99% of the time. So you know what? I will make my soup and he will eat it and like it (which he usually does anyway).

I was browsing some blogs and was in the mood for a nice Southwesterny soup. I am not a huge chili/taco soup fan, so when I came across this soup, I was sold. This is from my sister Natalie's cooking journal (as she puts it). She will probably be mortified that I am posting it since her cooking has improved far beyond this... but mine hasn't, so it works for me.

I highly suggest this soup. It was really easy, and I had most of the stuff on hand. As I mentioned, I made a few changes, so here is the recipe with those changes:

1 chicken breast

2 c. salsa verde/green salsa--I used medium and it was SPICY (the kind that makes your nose run). If you can't handle the heat, go with a mild salsa

1 4 oz. can fire roasted chili

5 c. chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c. milk

1/4 whipping cream

2 c. frozen corn

1 can black beans

1 avocado, diced

sour cream

grated cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breast in a baking dish, cover with a splash of olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper. Roast chicken for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.

In the meantime, combine salsa verde, chilis, chicken broth, corn, black beans and cream of chicken soup in a large stockpot. Bring to a soft boil (maybe not a boil... just heated through and beginning to bubble a little bit--I just let it heat up while I was waiting for the chicken to roast). Once chicken is roasted, dice up and add to the soup mixture. Add cream and milk (only if you want it to be more creamy). Serve hot with diced avocado, sour cream and your choice of cheese. I also served this with some roasted chips and cheese (aka, chips and cheese that I put under the broiler).

This made a LOT of soup. It was enough for us to have two full dinners. I also ate it for lunch for like three days. But it was very yummy as leftovers. In fact, Jordan liked it more a few days later... "Hey, this soup is actually pretty good". I'm still not sure if he realized that it was just leftovers.

When men get involved...

Jordan was really against me posting this, but I laughed for a good ten minutes... so it was really too good NOT to post.

Rather than doing freezer meals, I am going to try to just do a little bit of prep work on the weekend. I decided to start off by boiling some chicken breasts, shredding them, and putting them in the freezer. I put Jordan in charge of helping me bag up the chicken. He was also in charge of labeling...

In case you can't read that... it says, "One large chicken boob"

Christmas Vacation

We had a great Christmas. Although, I didn't take a single picture to document a second of it. We had a lot of fun with our families in California and it was nice to just have a week of absolutely no responsibilities. The weather was also great, but it was quite the adjustment to go from 50 degrees to 15... literally.

I was really spoiled this year. I got nearly everything I wanted. My mother in law Amy got me a sewing machine, my mom got me the chi (you can all rest assured that I won't sizzle my hair off!) and Jordan was a stinker and got me the ipod touch. It was great for the roadtrip home because I spent some time getting some good games. My favs are rat on a scooter and line up. And although I am sure I should be embarrassed to admit it, I am addicted to this game called Yumsters, which I am pretty sure is a kid's game (since I learned of the game watching my nephew play it). The basic concept of the game is to get colored worms to eat certain colors of fruits. Like I said, embarrassing. But what can I say? I'm a gamer at heart!

Speaking of games, Jordan also got me the new Wii Mario Brothers game... you know, the one where you can have four players playing at a time. Since we are free from school this week, we have some spare time to play lots and lots of it. Last night, it got PRETTY intense. We were stuck on this castle level for an hour and we both kept getting quite frustrated with each other. For example, Jordan kept dying trying to get these bonus stars and I would get so mad, grab his face and say "STOP GOING FOR THOSE STUPID STARS!" and then of course, he would just go for them anyway (which would usually result in him dying). We made it to the end a few times and almost had it beat. Finally, we were one hit away from beating the "bowser" and Jordan died. We were both so mad, I jumped up and down and hit my hand on top of the ceiling. In the mean time, Jordan had to go outside to "cool off". When he came back, I noticed that my hand was bleeding. I had cut it on my ceiling! I also chipped my nail completely off.

This one is a little blurry and BRIGHT... but it shows the chipped nail a little better.

At this point, we probably should have turned it off, but Jordan is also a gamer, so I bandaged up my wound and we pulled through finally beating the level. Phew!

Anyway, back to Christmas. We tried to have a budget of $100 on each other, but like I have said before, Jordan is really into surprises. However, I DID stick to the budget, and got him some new shoes, some money towards skiing or golfing and the Tiger Woods Golf wii game... so my gifts looked pretty lame compared to his. Although, in my defense, both of the gifts that I got are "family gifts" that Jordan is using as well. And I am pretty sure I can't use any of his gifts. So it all works out to be fair, right? Hmmm...