Burrrrr...Tortilla Soup!

On Friday we had a serious cold front blow in!  It was a much welcomed change in temperature for us!  I knew it was going to be cold at the game but I still managed to come unprepared!  Thank goodness Teresa (another coaches wife) was very prepared with jackets and blankets in her car.  I walked out of the house with no jacket for myself.  I thought for sure the girls wouldn't need their hats this early in the season.  I also had no blankets, at all!  Sheesh!  I'll need an extra hour to prepare to get out of the house now that it's cold outside.  Erin (another coaches wife who has two kids) and I were joking as we walked to our cars after the game that we would need to bring our rolling suitcase with all our gear to the next game!  Hopefully not!!!  I think people might look at us kinda weird if we did!

 Adda tackling her Daddy after the game!  

We did everything we possible could outside this weekend.  Even though it was very cold (I'm sure my friend Erin in Fargo, ND is thinking WHATEVER!) we soaked in all the coolness we could!  We meet up with some other coaches families at the After Dark In The Park, and the kids had a good time!  I'll post pictures from that later.

It's supposed to warm up this week so I decided we should have soup tonight while it's still cold outside.  Lee and Andrea are coming over to enjoy it with us.  Gonzo and I have tweaked our tortilla soup many times.  We have picked up different things from different restaurants and added it to our recipe.  I think we have a pretty good pot of soup cooking on the stove!  You'll have to let me know what you do for your tortilla soup!  Everybody has their OWN way to make it, and honestly tortilla soup can't really be messed up!  Here is ours!  I hope you like it as much as we do!

Tortilla Soup

1-2 lbs. of chicken cooked and diced

(I have used a rotissery chicken, I have used chicken breast - 4 or 5, I have used chicken tenderlions 9 or 10.  Really you can use whatever you have on hand.)

Yellow squash and zucchini diced (2 of each)

3 or 4 Carrots diced (about 1 cup)

2 or 3 ribs of Celery diced (1/2 cup)

1 large onion diced

1 can of Rotel

Green chiles diced (I had about 1 cup, if I didn't have some in the freezer I would use two big cans)

2 boxes of chicken stock

 fresh lime juice (I had almost 1/2 cup)

salt and pepper to taste

Garnish with:

Chips, grated cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and whatever else floats your boat!

If I am using chicken that hasn't been cooked I like to put it in a baking dish, season it liberally, and drizzle it with olive oil.  I bake it at 350 for about 15 minutes.  While it's baking I chop all of my vegetables and get them in a big stock pot.  I add the juice from the pan the chicken was cooked in and a little more olive oil and saute the onions, carrots, and celery until they are fork tender.

Then I add a box of chicken stock and add the squash, and zucchini and saute this for about 5 minutes.  

While this is cooking I chop my green chiles. 

 I add the Rotel, chicken, chiles, and another box of stock to the pot and stir.  I season this with salt and pepper to taste.  While it is coming back up to temperature I juice the limes.

 We like it to have a pretty good lime flavor.  You can add less if you like. 

After I add the lime juice I turn it to medium low and let it simmer for about an hour or so.

 I like to put chips on the bottom.  Gonzo like his chips on top! 

Adda and I also made cookies today.  Toffee Crunch Cookies!  I'll post that recipe tonight!  For now I'm going to eat dinner with my family!  Enjoy your night!