Slow Cooker Enchilada Chicken Soup

You guys, it’s soup season again! And in Billings, the temperatures are dropping so quickly, I just want to drop everything and make soup! Soup, soup, soup, soup, soup.

I kicked off soup season (can I say “Soup-tember” without sounding overly cheesy?) with this one that’s been on my Pinterest board for a while: Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup. Everyone in the family liked it, especially the kids when we added even more cheese and sour cream to the top of their bowls. I had leftovers for lunch a few times; I just love making a big pot of soup and eating off of it for the rest of the week. My kids don’t know any better yet, either.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup (original recipe here)

In your slow cooker, combine:

1 large yellow onion, diced 1 bell pepper, diced (green, yellow or red – I used a handful of baby bells) 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup shredded carrots (not in the original recipe, but a great way to get some extra veggies into your diet) 1 can Ro-tel or other canned tomatoes with chiles 4 c chicken broth/stock 1 1/4 lbs raw chicken breasts OR leftover cooked chicken already in chunks (if you cook your soup long enough, you can just plop the breasts in frozen) 2 c frozen corn 1 can black beans (optional) 1 Tablespoon chili powder 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon oregano

Cook on high 3-4 hours or on low 5-6 hours. When the chicken is cooked, take it out and shred it with forks and add back to the soup.

Add:

1 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese 1 c sour cream 1 Tablespoon cornstarch (this is optional, but I added it so the soup would taste thicker and creamier. Use a small ladle to pull out some of the broth, whisk the cornstarch in and then stir it all into the soup.

Cook for another hour (leave the lid off if you want it to thicken up even more!). Serve with more shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado slices and tortilla chips.

One Pot, Healthy Cauliflower Mac n Cheese

You know who’s been a lazy blogger recently? THIS GIRL! And, who’s been a lazy cook lately, too? THIS GIRL!

This isn’t a soup recipe, although I do have a few soup recipes that I need to blog before I totally forget about them. Have you made my Asian Chicken Chili soup recipe? I’ve made it a few times in the last few weeks, using bok choy, carrots, bell peppers, and cooking a big pot of rice that people can add as they want. If you want a fast and healthy meal, give it a go!

In the meantime, here is a recipe that the kids and I have been enjoying about once a week. They like it because it’s mac n cheese; I like it because it’s whole foods (I consider cheese a “whole food,” don’t rain on my parade if it’s not, please?) and full of veggies.

No specific recipe, but here’s the idea. In a medium-sized pot (I use one with a heavy bottom because otherwise milk tends to burn on the bottom), add as much chopped cauliflower and pasta as you want, keeping the ratio at at least half-n-half, if not more pasta than cauliflower. This is important because as the pasta cooks, it puts off starch that is the basis of the cheese sauce. Pour milk over it to cover and bring to a boil over medium heat. I also add a sprinkle of onion powder, pepper, powdered mustard or a squirt of the yellow stuff, and sometimes some paprika or garlic powder. Cook over medium-low until the pasta and cauliflower are cooked, stirring regularly so milk and pasta don’t burn or stick on the bottom (I use whole grain pasta, so that’s usually about the same time – if you use white pasta, you might want to pre-cook the cauliflower a bit. By the way, this also works with all the gluten-free pastas that I’ve tried; I mostly use the gf penne that Costco sells).

When the pasta and cauliflower are cooked, dump in a big pile of shredded cheese. You might need to fiddle around to get the flavor you want, but I use about 1 1/2-2 cups shredded cheddar in a pot that will feed the kids twice and me once (so, 4 “regular” servings?).

Stir over low heat until the cheese has melted into a sauce.

If I’m not using cauliflower, I often dump in some frozen peas at the same time as the cheese. The kids and I love frozen peas.

If you need precise measurements on the milk, pasta and cheese amounts, google “one pot mac n cheese.” This basic recipe idea is everywhere on Pinterest and I’m here to tell you, it works!

PS – You can totally fancy this up if you want to. I’ve made it before with bacon, Jarlsberg (on coupon at Costco right now!), goat cheese and shredded spinach. Get as fancy or as plain as you want once you’ve tried out the basic recipe.

#Easy #cheese #cauliflower #kidfriendly #pasta

Corn & Andouille Chowder

Does anybody else love, love, love the delectable combination that is creamy and spicy? Exhibit 1: Pioneer Woman’s jalapeno poppers, which disappear whenever we make them, no matter how many we make (if you happen to have a few leftover, they’re actually quite good for breakfast the next morning). Exhibit 2: Johnny Carino’s has a spicy-creamy pasta that I’ve had like three times and tried to replicate about half a dozen. Exhibit 3: this soup.

I had some andouille sausage in the fridge that I needed to use, and I was also kind of hankering for the sweet-creamy-spicy flavors of a corn chowder, so I made a mash-up of Pioneer Woman’s corn chowder and this andouille sausage corn chowder recipe from All Recipes. I have to say, I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.

As an aside, I used the rest of a rotisserie chicken for the chicken stock and the chicken in this soup. As I was making the stock (basic recipe: combine in a crockpot a chicken carcass, one onion roughly chopped, three stalks celery roughly chopped, two carrots, 2 t fresh garlic, 2 bay leaves, 1/2 t black peppercorns, 1/2 t thyme, 1/2 t sage, 1/2 t oregano, 1 T apple cider vinegar, and simmer on low for 8-24 hours – the longer the better), Tito asked what I was doing. I responded that I was making soup out of the chicken bones, and it was not only delicious, but it also had all sorts of super healthy things in it for our stomachs and our bones. To which he responded, “Wow, that’s amazing!” He has no idea how amazing it is, that we can take something that’s essentially garbage in most households and turn it into something delicious, frugal and wildly healthy.

Anyway, here’s your corn chowder recipe. Adapt as needed according to what you have on hand, and enjoy.

Corn and Andouille Chowder (serves 6ish)

2 andouille sausages, cut into small bite-sized pieces 1 large yellow onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 6 cups chicken stock 2 cups cooked chicken 1 can green chiles 3 cups corn 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce 3 T corn meal or masa 1 c half-n-half or cream

Brown the andouille in a large, heavy pot (use some olive oil if the sausage doesn’t have enough grease). You want the pot and the sausage to both develop some brown, but not burn. Remove the sausage from the pot and add more olive oil and the onion. Saute the onion until translucent, add the garlic and cook another two minutes. Add all of the other ingredients except the half-n-half/cream and let simmer at least one hour. Add the cream just before serving.

This would be delicious with crusty bread. We had it with roasted pumpkin slices because I felt like we’d had enough bread that day.

#andouille #chicken #corn #greenchile