Easy Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup

This weekend was kinda busy, and not very relaxing. Except, however, my chicken tortilla soup I made. I think, the longer you cook it, the better tasting it is. The spices just have that much time to blend together, and for the soup to thicken. So! When you have some crafting to do, and dinner to get on the table, than this is a great recipe for you. It'll take you either 35 minutes, to a few hours, all depending on how you want to cook it. This would be the same way you'd make it in a crock pot. But I don't have one,...

What You'll Need:

1lbs Shredded Chicken (I used about 3 small boneless chicken breasts.)

1 can whole peeled tomatoes. (Mashed)

1/2 Medium Onion

1 Bell peper

2 cups water

1 Chicken bullion cube (Or chicken broth, but I'm trying to do this as affordable as possible)

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder (Or more if you want it spicy)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon peper

1 bay leaf

1/2 can of corn

7 corn tortilla 

Oil

You can also add black beans!

For seasoning the chicken:

This all depends on your own tastes.

I seasoned my chicken with salt, pepper, and chili pepper.

Now Lets Begin:

Start with preheating your oven to 375 degrees. 

Take your thawed out chicken, and place it on a cookie sheet that you had lined up with foil. 

Drizzle your chicken with olive oil, than on both sides sprinkle salt, pepper, and chili pepper.

Stick that into the oven for 20-25 minutes, or untill you know your chicken is done.

Now cut all your veggies, and put them aside. Get your pot, drizzle a little bit of olive oil in there, turn it to medium high, and stir in your veggies (except the tomatoes) and cook them for a few minutes.

Once they are cooked, go ahead and pour in your tomatoes, and mash them, if they arn't already. Make sure you add the juice that came in the can.

I than poured in the water, and the chicken broth cube. Stir that around till the cube dissolves. I brought this to a boil, than turned the heat back down to a shimmer. Toss in all of the seasonings.

At this time, or whenever the chicken was done and cooled down, I shredded up the chicken with my fingers. Found it easier than a fork, but you can do whatever. 

Toss this into the pot, and let it simmer on low, covered, for an hour or so. OR Just boil for a few minutes, and you're done after you add in the tortilla strips.

Cut up your tortillas into strips, and place those into the pot about 5 minutes before serving. 

And it's done! :) Super simple and cheap. 

-Krystalle

Healthier Homemade McDonalds Part 1 - Burgers

We ALL love McDonalds, right? And some of us go there EVERY SINGLE DAY!
No joke, I'm serious, and Dan is a victim; He is one that goes there everyday. But since we're low on money, he has cut down the past week, going only once every 1-4 days. He may not go there everyday to get a McMuffin, but he will at least go there everyday to get a soda.
But when we are stocked on money, he will go everyday. And though he looses more weight than he gains, it is still VERY UNHEALTHY!
So I decided to change that for him, and myself. Saving money, time, and days on his life.

Now making burgers everyday at home DOES NOT mean you are eating healthy, however, it does beat eating whatever unknown items they are putting in the McDouble.

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Lets say a McDouble is $1, and trust me, its small. Nothing like the pictures. So to feed 2 boys, and a girl, you'd have say 5 burgers. Thats $5 + Tax.
Each of those burgers with everything that comes on it:
Calories: 390  Calories from Fat 170 Total Fat 19g (29%) Saturated Fat 8g (42%) Trans Fat 1g Sugars 7g

Now a homemade burger can get a bit pricy... But thats if you decide to buy everything for a one time use only. When making burgers you'll want maybe a large or small tomato, 1/2 onion, 2-3 leaves of a lettuce head, maybe pickles, buns, and meat. Sounds like a lot, right? Well you can use ALL of that minus the meat and buns to make a salad, or tacos for another day, some of that you can add to spaghetti, or some of that can go towards a turkey sandwich. So in reality, you're still saving money. Because $5 and McDonalds can only feed you for one night. And only for 2-5 hours at that, till you get hungry again!!

Homemade Burger: 1lbs Ground Beef: $3.99 - $5 depending on where you buy it.
Tomatoes, Onion, Lettuce, Buns: Cost us $7.45
American Cheese which we had already: $3
Garlic: $0.58
I'm going to assume you already have ketchup and mustard.
$15.02 and that's if you don't already have garlic, and cheese, which most people already have in the house. Soo, in reality, your burgers CAN just cost $6 if you are always stocked on veggies, which you should be. ;)

Lets Get Started!

Ingredients:

1lbs premium lean beef Or if you want, regular ground beef.    

2 clove garlic, crushed    

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced (Or however much you want.)  

1/2 tsp (s) olive oil   

1/8 tsp (s) dried oregano   

Sliced singles reduced fat american cheese (Or whatever you like.)  

Wheat burger buns   

1 small/medium tomato, thinly sliced 

1/2 tsp rosemary

Other seasonings (as well as mustard, salt, and pepper for taste.)

 

Method:

You can use a skillet if its winter time, or even your oven. I used my stove top, on medium with a drizzle of olive oil.

OR Preheat a grill pan or barbeque over medium-high heat.

Combine beef, cut up rosemary, 1/4 onion and garlic in a bowl and season to taste with a little bit of mustard, other seasonings of your choice, oregano, salt and pepper. 

Form mixture into 4 x 1cm thick patties. Place patties in pan and cook for 4-6 minutes each side (or to whatever your meat cook preference is), then cheese ontop and cook until cheese has melted.

(I'm using gloves because I have long nails.)

Meanwhile, put a tiny bit of butter for taste, and a drizzle of olive oil into another pan. Melt, than add slices of onion, and sauté. For approximately 2-5 minutes, or until they become translucent. 

Lightly toast bread in toaster. Place patties on buns then top with onion lettuce, and tomato. Mustard and ketchup. 

Notes:

• The secret to a juicy, lean patty is to avoid pressing down on it while it cooks so it retains all its juices.
• This recipe was written by Weight Watchers as part of Kidspot's Positively Life Changing initiative, with my own little ad ins here and there.
  
  

The dogs like to stick their nose in EVERYTHING, even if its not meat.