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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A Rainy Day Calls for Soup

Today was a rainy and gloomy day here in Minnesota, and on those types of days the only thing I really want to do is curl up in a blanket and be lazy.  And you know what that is exactly what Mark and I did.  Minus running to the gym, and to have my bridesmaids dress fixed I spent all day in the house!  It was glorious!  Mark rented a few movies for us and we curled up on the couch with bowls of mac and cheese.  Yes I said Mac and Cheese, I decided I wanted to try the Annie's Organic Version of  Shells and Cheese.
I have to say I was not that impressed, it was a little bland!  However I enjoyed it old like I did when I was little with peas, carrots and well I had to add some garlic to liven it up! Not sure if I will buy it again!
Have any of you ever seen the movie Limitless?  With Bradley Cooper?  Thats what Mark and I watched today it was a bit odd!  Non the less it killed some time!  Along with searching for the perfect rainy day soup to make!  Tortilla Soup seemed to be the soup of the day in the blog world, and as soon as I saw all the wonderful recipes my mouth started watering.  I knew tortilla soup was what I wanted for dinner, and it wasn't hard to convince Mark or my mom into the soup for dinner either!  However on looking in the pantry I saw the house lacked a few key ingredients... let the recipe search begin!  I found this recipe for Salsa Chicken Soup on Taste of Homes website, added bonus we had all the ingredients!  Another added bonus the soup is a one pot dinner, and super easy to make.  I added some extra veggies for bulk and some beans because to me a tortilla salsa soup needs beans!!

Here is what you need:
Adapted from this Taste Of Home Recipe

1 Can Low Sodium Chicken Broth 
1-3/4 Cup Water
1 Cup Salsa of your choice 
1/2 Pound Chicken Cubed
1 Cup Corn 
Chili Powder, Garlic and Cilantro 
1 Can Black Beans 
Cheese and Limes for Garnish 
1 Medium Red Pepper
1/2 Medium Onion 

For Crispy Tortilla Strips 
5-6 Tortillas
Olive Oil Cooking Spray 
Salt, Pepper and Garlic

What you do:
In a soup pot combine Water, Chicken Broth spices and Chicken.  I also added my Onions and Peppers in this step (they were not originally in the recipe).  Bring to a boil and cover for 5 minutes.
Next add your Corn
and your Salsa.
Return the lid to the pot and simmer until chicken is cooked through!
While I was waiting for the chicken to cook Mark and I focused on the Tortilla Strips.  He cut the tortillas into thin strips, sprayed them with cooking spray and seasoned them. Place them in a 300 degree oven and broil them until crispy!  I don't have an exact time I simply just watched them till the reached the crispness I wanted!
Time to serve!
The perfect dinner for a rainy day!  Tonights soup was a bit on the hot side, I used hot salsa.  Milk was definitely the perfect compliment to a spicy  dinner!
I am off or a friendly game of Sorry!  
Enjoy and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Plummer House and Festivities Recap

Yesterday before going out to celebrate my parents 31st wedding anniversary Mark and I did a little tour of Rochester.  Rochester has three huge mansions, two were home of the Mayo Brothers (I talked about Will Mayo's house in this post) and one was Dr. Plummer's.  The Plummer house is one of my favorite houses. Not only is the house beautiful, but the gardens are sprawling and studded with beautiful flowers and fountains! I held my Graduation (from high school) open house there and even took some of my senior pictures there.  Dr Plummer was not only a wonderful doctor but helped the clinic in many ways, he came up with a correspondence system that was used throughout the Clinic, and was the first doctor to understand and operate the X-Ray machine.  Here are a few pictures from our adventure!
 The tower in the side garden
 Front door to the house!
 I love these fountains!
 King of the Rock!
We spent the rest of our day relaxing and gearing up for the celebration!  Lets transition into talking about the fabulous dinner we had last night!