Chicken Tortilla Soup

There are a million variations of chicken tortilla soup on the Internet. I perused through many of them and finally decided to make the following...and also just added or edited the recipe to my liking. Here is what I did.... (and apologies in advance for the lack of photos, we were having friends over for dinner and in the rush of making everything, I forgot to take more photos..which is pretty standard of me ;)

Ingredients
2 TBSP veg oil
1 small onion diced
2 TBSP minced garlic
2 jalapenos diced (I took out the seeds)
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5 oz) fire roasted diced tomatoes
3 chicken breasts
2 limes juiced
salt and pepper
1 small can green chilies (I only used half)
1 can of corn
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
3-4 corn tortillas


In a medium to large size pot, heat oil and add onions - cook 2 minutes.
Add garlic, jalapenos and cook for 1 minute.Pour in chicken broth and tomatoes (I added in the juice in the can for extra flavor) and bring to a boil. Simmer and then add chicken breast.(I dusted the chicken breasts with a bit of the cumin). Cook 20-25 minutes. Once chicken is cooked, remove from pot and shred (using two forks to shred works the best for me, and I shred it in sections)
Then add the chicken back into the soup, add the cumin and chili powder. Add lime, can of corn, and salt and pepper to taste.


After this, I let the soup simmer. While the soup is simmering, I cut up the corn tortillas into long strips. Heat up a shallow frying pan with vegetable oil and place the tortilla strips in the pan. Flip the tortilla strip after about 45 seconds to a minute (depending on hot your pan is the time may vary) and let cook on the other side. When both sides are golden brown, place on a paper towel on a plate. I then cut up the avocado into slices and grate some cheddar cheese as an accompaniment to the soup.

Guacamole in our Molcajete!!

You know how when you go to a fancy restaurant, you can order guacamole and they make it right there by your table...well..welcome to the Wong and Jobke household where we can make you homemade guac tableside as well! (We are very excited about our Molcajete :) )

Ingredients:
2 jalapenos finely chopped (de-seeded)
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 plum tomato (chopped)
2 TBSP cilantro (chopped)
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and cut into large chunks (save one pit - I forgot this so I totally want to remind you to save the pit!)
2-3 TBSP lime juice
salt to taste

Place jalapenos and garlic in molcajete and pound with tejolote until a paste forms.Add the onion, tomato, cilantro, and avocado.With the tejolote, lightly mash and blend the mixture, which should remain slightly chunky. Season to taste with the lime juice and salt.

To prevent discoloring, place the avocado pit back in the guac and adhere plastic wrap the surface of the guac. Let sit for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Molacjete

My BF's sister gave us a Molacjete for a house warming present. (Thanks Bri, we love our Molajete!)

What is a Molajete?

A molcajete (Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl mulcazitl) is a stone tool, the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle tool, similar to the South American batan (stone) used for grinding various food products.
I had seen this type of bowl in Mexican restaurants but I never knew the name of it.
Our Molajete came with a salsa and guac recipe so we decided to make the salsa first.

Here is what you need:

6 plus tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 Anaheim chili pepper
2 jalapeno chili peppers (I would advise taking out the seeds)
3 green onoins, finely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1 4oz can diced green chiles
1 TBSP olive oil
1-3 tsp lime juice
salt to taste

Roast the tomatoes, garlic, and chile peppers on a foil lined baking under an over broiler until the skins are blackened and the pulp is soft. (this took at least 40 mins for us) (I forgot to take a picture when I took the veggies out of the oven!) I put the veggies in a large zip lock bag to seal in the heat so that it would make it easier to peel the skin off the peppers)Cool and peel the peppers. Combine the garlic and chili peppers in the molcajete and pound with the tejolote until a paste forms.
Add the tomatoes and crush coarsely.Blend remaining ingredients into the tomato and season to taste with the lime juice and salt.Our cutting board with cilantro, green onions, and lime! Putting in the canned chiles, cilantro and onions.
Mix it all in and you have your own homemade salsa! It was yummy!!!

Vegetable Orzo Pasta Salad

Orzo makes a perfect cold pasta salad for a hot summer's night dinner. Although orzo looks like rice, it is actually a pasta. It was my first time making orzo and since I knew it was a pasta and not rice I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Orzo has quite a nice texture as it is pretty fluffy and it makes for a nice light and refreshing dinner.

I browsed several orzo recipes and decided to do the following.

In a medium size pot, I put 1 and 1/2 cup orzo and let it cook for about 8-9 minutes. (you can follow the cooking instructions for time the package - the orzo should be al dente) Pour orzo into a strainer and let it cool.


While the orzo cools, in a large bowl, I put in two TBSP olive oil, one TBSP basalmic vinegar, a tsp of oregano, a tsp of basil, salt and pepper. I then cut up grape tomatoes, (about half a pint), cucumbers (two small ones), broccoli, and some red and orange peppers. After the orzo has cooled, mix the orzo in with the vegetables.





I squeezed about half a lemon into the orzo.

Then I add feta cheese (about half a container) and mix it all up. If you can, let it chill in the fridge for at least a hour.




It's nice to have as leftovers and tastes even better the next day!

Roasted Banana Pudding

My go to source for recipes had this Roasted Banana Pudding in the August CL issue. I love bananas and I love banana pudding so this recipe sounded delicious. This pudding does take some time but it is worth it.

Ingredients
5 ripe unpeeled medium bananas (about 2 pounds)
2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
2/3 cup sugar, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (12-ounce) container frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed and divided
45 vanilla wafers, divided

Preheat oven to 350°.
Place bananas on a jelly-roll pan covered with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.Remove 3 bananas; cool completely.
Peel and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Bake the remaining 2 bananas at 350° for an additional 20 minutes. Carefully peel and place the 2 bananas in a small bowl, and mash with a fork until smooth.(yes it does look a little gross...but don't worry, roasting these bananas make all of the difference!)
Combine milk and 1/3 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer (do not boil).Combine remaining 1/3 cup sugar, cornstarch, salt, and eggs in a medium bowl; stir well with a whisk. Gradually add hot milk mixture to sugar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return milk mixture to pan. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 3 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add mashed bananas, butter, and vanilla, stirring until butter melts.
Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl for 15 minutes or until mixture comes to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Fold half of whipped topping into pudding.
Spread 1 cup custard evenly over the bottom of an 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Top with 20 vanilla wafers and half of the banana slices. Spoon half of remaining custard over banana. Repeat procedure with 20 wafers, banana slices, and custard. Spread remaining half of whipped topping evenly over top. Crush remaining 5 wafers; sprinkle over top. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled.

Curry Chicken Salad

It has been so hot lately that when it comes to making dinner, the thought of sitting down to a hot dinner, well makes my temperature start to rise. So I tried making some curry chicken salad. I read several different recipes and just decided to do the following.

I took two chicken breasts and seasoned them with cumin, chili pepper and garlic salt. I cooked these in a pan until they were done. I then cut the chicken into chunks.


I chopped up half an appple and a couple stalks of celery. (Next time I would use a full apple and a little more celery) Then in a large bowl, I added the following:

1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/4 cup of light mayo
2 TBSP curry powder
1 tsp black pepper
chopped apple
chopped celery
1 box of raisins (the travel pack kind, I would also double this amount next time)
chicken

Surgical Boots and Pulled Pork

I have been lazy in posting lately, don't worry that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking, I have just been lazy. And with summer life is always pretty crazy!

Unfortunately the same can't be said for running as I have been in surgical boots for most of the spring and have just been cleared for running. Now I just have to be patient and slowly build up my mileage. Here is a picture of my sweet surgical boots. I was quite the fashionista in these boots as you can imagine. I looked like I was wearing snowboots..which would have been great if I lived in Jackson Hole or Colorado but I live in Chicago where the biggest uphill climbs are our speedbumps.




So I am back and I want to share with you my experience with making pulled pork. I loved pulled pork and I was shocked and happy to find out how easy it is to make! If you have a slow cooker you can just let this cook all day and it is so moist and tender when you are ready to eat.

I found this recipe on CL but I only used the recipe for the rub on the pork. I found the recipe for the BBQ that was included well..not that great, so we just used store bought BBQ sauce.

Ingredients for the rub:
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper

You will need a boneless pork shoulder that is about 5 lbs.

To prepare pork, combine first 8 ingredients in a small bowl.

Rub sugar mixture evenly over pork. Let pork stand at room temperature 1 hour.
We then seared the pork in the pan, just enough that all sides of the pork are brown. We then placed the pork in the crock pot with about 2 cups water and 1 cup vinegar and cooked it on low for 8 hours. Depending how much time you have, if you want to cook it in less time, you can cook it on high for the first hour or two, and then turn it back down to low. It should be ready in about 4-6 hours then.


After the pork has been cooked for at least six hours, take the pork out and shred pork. Serve with your favorite BBQ sauce.

Banana Foster Bread

I love banana bread and I love Banana Foster so I thought I would try out this Banana Foster bread recipe in CL. I did some variations, tried to make it a bit lighter than the recipe called for.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
1 cup packed brown sugar, divided*
6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided *
1/4 cup cognac or dark rum, divided*
1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
2 large eggs
6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)*
1/4 cup ground flaxseed*
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice*
Cooking spray
1/3 cup powdered sugar*


MY CHANGES:

SUGAR: I only used one half cup of sugar in this recipe, it was actually by mistake since I forgot to add it with the egg and yogurt mixture but I found that the bread did not need any extra sugar, plus it saves calories!
BUTTER: I only used 2 TBSP of butter and substituted natural applesauce
ICING: I did not use icing since I thought it would just make it super sugary
ALLSPICE: I did not have so I used pumpkin pie spice
FLAXSEED/FLOUR: I did not have any flaxseed, and I wanted to use wheat flour, so I used 1 cup white flour, and almost 3/4 cup wheat flour.
RUM: I used bourbon because that is what I had on hand.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mash bananasCombine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 tablespoons butter, and 3 tablespoons cognac in a nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat; cool.
Place banana mixture in a large bowl. Add yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl.
Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; place on wire rack.
**I baked mine at 50 minutes and I could have taken it out at around 45 minutes.The taste of banana foster is subtle, not as strong as I was expecting. This makes for a good banana bread if you feel like switching things up a little bit. Definitely tastes great reheated for about 15 seconds in the microwave!

Potato Leek Soup and Garlic Cheese Toasts

My BF ordered a box of organic vegetables, and gave me some leeks to put to use..so I found a recipe for potato and leek soup from CL. I didn't follow the recipe exactly so I will list below what I did and include the recipe link if you want the real thing ;)

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/golden-potato-leek-soup-with-cheddar-toasts-10000001108277/

This was my first time preparing leeks, so don't laugh but I actually watched this video on how to clean leeks. Hey leeks can be intimidating! They look like gigantor green onions! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8glwRaS8OM

Soup:
1 tablespoon butter
2 leeks - thinly sliced
6 cups cubed peeled red potato (about 2 1/4 pounds)
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 (14-ounce) cans chicken broth
3 thyme sprigs
couple rosemary leaves

Preheat oven to 375°.

Wash leeksTo prepare soup, melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat.Add leek; cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally (do not brown).Add potatoes, water, salt, broth, and 2 thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until potatoes are very tender.Remove pan from heat; discard thyme sprigs. Partially mash potatoes with a potato masher. Sprinkle with black pepper.
To prepare garlic bread - place baguette slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 7 minutes or until toasted. Turn slices over;
In a separate bowl, melt 3 TBSP of butter, stir in about 1 tsp garlic powder, Brush butter mixture on top of the baguette slices. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Bake 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

This recipe was simple but tasted great and was super easy to make!