Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-Tastic Tortilla Soup

Yes, that is the actual name of the dinner that I made tonight. Isn't it awful?!?  I can't believe that someone in development at Food Network didn't sit down with Rachael Ray and tell her that the name is ridiculous, but I guess sometimes these things get though.  Maybe the recipe development guy was on vacation that week. You just have to forgive the name and try not to judge.

I, for one, have been excited about dinner tonight since I woke up this morning.  I recognize that this makes me a serious loser, but I'm ok with it.  The backstory on dinner tonight is that after Steve and I emerged from the darkest depths of the stomach flu, we both really wanted tortilla soup. Weird, right? Except for the cheese and tortilla chips, I had just about nothing for this recipe in the house, but Steve gave me permission (I let him think this) to depart from the pantry raid for a brief moment to savor the deliciousness that is tortilla soup. It is worth every.last.cent.

Here's the recipe.  You can read the recipe if you want, but I'm going to give you my changes. What you may lose in flavor is made up in convenience. I am far too busy to be roasting red peppers and scraping corn off the cob, so I changed some stuff.  You'll thank me.

Here's my version:

Ingredients: (Don't be intimidated by the number of ingredients, it is SO WORTH IT!)

Olive oil

1 can of corn

2 red bell peppers, diced

1.5 pounds chicken breast tenders

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, 1/3 palm full

1 teaspoon cumin, 1/3 palm full

Salt and pepper

2 small to medium zucchinis diced

1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 to 2 chipotle in adobo peppers (medium to hot heat level), chopped -- available in small cans in Mexican and Spanish food section of market - I usually add 2 but we like it spicy. It's your call.

1 can stewed tomatoes, 28 ounces (I usually have to buy 2 smaller cans, but it's the same difference), chopped

1 can tomato sauce, 8 ounces

1 box (4 cups) chicken stock, available in re-sealable paper containers on soup aisle

tortilla chips

taco or cheddar cheese

Here's what you do:

Dice chicken. Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot soup pot. Add chicken to pot. Season with poultry seasoning, cumin, salt and pepper. Lightly brown chicken on each side. Add red peppers, zucchini, onions and garlic and chipotle peppers. Cook vegetables with chicken 7 to 10 minutes to soften. Add chopped stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock. Add the canned corn. Bring soup to a bubble, reduce heat to medium low. The longer the soup simmers, the better it will be, but you can eat it right away. I usually let it cook for 10-15 minutes.Ladle the soup into bowls and top it with crushed tortilla chips and some taco cheese.  Enjoy! 

This is what it looks like, but this is Rachael Ray's picture and not mine, and we don't usually put the sour cream and avocado on the soup, but you'll get the idea:

We seriously crave this meal and eat it once every 2 weeks or so.  Plus, since it's really just a kicked up chicken vegetable soup, it's really healthy, especially if you omit the toppings like the cheese and sour cream.  If I remember correctly, it's 5 or 6 points on Weight Watchers and that's if you include the chips & cheese.  It's like 3 points without that stuff.  I know this because I ate it all the time when I was losing the baby weight from both kids. 

So there you go.  I am a loser and get excited about soup.  But you will too once you try it!

"Moe" Money, "Mo" Problems

While we are officially over the stomach flu, I have been totally slacking when it comes to cooking this week.  I'm just not hungry, and seeing as I spent all last weekend barfing (sorry to be so descriptive), I decided not to push it.  For the last couple days we ate leftovers, and then today I just had a 100% crap-tastic day.  I'm trying really hard not to make this blog a forum for complaining, so I'll just say that it was super frustrating, and then after work I had a meeting until 4:30, and I wasn't going to be home until 5 which means that we wouldn't eat until 6ish, and that's too late when your toddler and infant go to bed at 7pm at the latest.  I also woke up STARVING and I ate voraciously all day, so tonight was really a perfect storm.
We cheated.  So sue me.  On the way home from work I guilted Steve into letting me pick up takeout, and while I love Chick-fil-a more than I love life itself (mmm...Southwest Chargrilled Salad), I decided to stop at Moe's, which to be honest is like Chipotle, but not as good.  Still, since the nearest Chipotle is over 30 minutes away, Moe's does the job in a pinch.  Will had a chicken taco (which he actually consumed - shocker!), Steve and I had a burrito, we all had way too many chips and salsa, and I let out all my complaints and Steve listened and offered suggestions.  It was actually a really nice dinner.  Not so much the genetically modified, antibiotic injected chicken burrito, but more the conversation.

The "Mo" part of this post comes from the fact that finally, after 27 months of life, Will has learned to say the word "no."  Only it comes out as "mo." For the first week, his use of the word "no" was really cute.  Not so much anymore, but he also learned the word "gross" which I find pretty funny, so they balance themselves out.

On the Emma front, she recently celebrated her 9 month birthday:

I took pictures of Will on his monthly "birthday" for the first year, and then we bought a 12 opening frame and put them all in, in order. I would encourage every new mom to do this.  It is so neat to look at their whole year in a glance, especially because when you're "in" the first year, you're so tired and overwhelmed alot of the time you forget to reflect. I also think its cool to see how when they are a year old, they still kind of look like they did when they were a newborn. Will's is hanging in the playroom and we already bought the same frame for Emma and we'll put hers up around her first birthday.

I promise I'll be back cooking tomorrow. I'm making one of our favorites, tortilla soup, and I promise to share the recipe!

A Plague on Your House!

First of all, let me start by acknowledging that I know that I have misquoted Shakespeare in the title of this post.  But "A plague on both your houses!" doesn't make sense because, in this case, it was only our house that had the plague.  So there.  Color me Mercutio.

Second, let me explain.  This weekend we were forced to depart from the pantry raid.  It was not by choice, but by germs, when at 4am on Saturday morning I was hit by a Mack truck called the stomach flu.  I sucked it up until about 10AM when I called no joy, and prayed to the porcelain god for forgiveness from all my food related sins.  As I was "in prayer" Steve also came down with the virus.  Off the kids went to their grandparents' houses, and Steve and I wallowed in self pity for the rest of the night.  We woke up the next morning feeling weak, but much better.  Our stomachs, while having forgiven us, will never, it seems, forget.

The next night we were starving, and for whatever reason I was craving meatloaf, so I turned to my dad's recipe, which is the best ever!  Here's the recipe:

My Dad's Meatloaf:
Ingredients:
1-1.5 lbs ground beef
1 beaten egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 onion chopped
3 tbsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. mustard
2 tbsp. worcheshire sauce
1/2 cup water.

Mix the ground beef, the egg, the breadcrumbs, the onion and half the tomato sauce together.  Add 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper.  In a small bowl, wisk together the rest of the tomato sauce, the vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, worcheshire sauce and water. Knead half the tomato sauce-vinegar mixture into the meatloaf.  Put meat mixture in a loaf pan, cover with remaining sauce mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours.

It is to die for!  This is no dry meatloaf! It's tangy, ketchupy, sweet, vinegary deliciousness!  I don't even really like meatloaf, and I love this version.  I served it with sauteed asparagus, and this recipe for Paula Deen's garlic mashed potatoes. Believe it or not, we actually had everything for the dinner in the house, so it cost us nothing! 

Over the course of our stomach plague, I lost 4 pounds from "praying."  Typically this is what happens when you don't eat anything but a string cheese and half a Gatorade for 2 days, but I'm sure that our Sunday dinner put back on a little weight, but it was well worth it!

Tomorrow I'll post the meal plans for the week (it's starting to get ugly when all that's in your pantry is a can of mexicorn, some ramen, tomato soup and Enfamil).  In the meantime, we'll be praying (to Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Mother Earth, Shiva, Tom Cruise & the Scientologists) that the kids stay healthy this week!

See you tomorrow!

Mother of the Year!

In the last 2+ years, I have had a number of what Steve and I call "Mother of the Year!" moments.  For example, when I dropped Emma on her head at the pediatricians office (don't go calling DYFS, it was only like 6 inches off the ground), or anytime Will acts like a lunatic in Target and I buy him off with goldfish crackers.  A "Mother of the Year" moment basically rewards parental behavior that you know isn't good, but you do it anyway. Luckily, ours have been relatively few and far between.  Well, just when I had forgotten about those moments, today we had another one, and it was, of course, food related.

One of my least proud parental moments involves Dunkin Donuts.  We have one in our ShopRite and Will always goes grocery shopping with me on Sunday mornings, and in order to get through the trip, I buy him a donut.  This became a whole thing when I realized that every time Will saw a Dunkin Donuts store, coffee cup, bag, etc. etc. he would point at it and shout "that! That! THAAAT!" at the top of his lungs, letting everyone in a 10 mile radius know that he knew the Dunkin logo.  I've never been prouder of myself as a parent (can you read the sarcasm?!?).  Well, I've actually been proud of the fact that he knew DD and not McDonald's, but it seems that time has come to an end.

Today after work I had meetings for prom locations with my class council and then on the way home I stopped for McDonalds.  Steve and Will were eating lasagna I made while I was home today (our babysitter was sick - feel better Joni!) for dinner, so I knew they were taken care of.  Well, I got home and Will pointed right at the McDonald's bag and said "I want THAT." How he knows that McDonald's is delicious, I do not know. He's had it maybe twice in his entire life and both times he rejected it (an obvious rookie mistake good decision).  Well, I guess he learned somehow because according to Steve 20 minutes previously he declined the lasagna (by "declined" I mean refused to eat even a single bite), and when I got home he proceeded to eat half an order of fries and 2 chicken selects. It was like we had been starving him for the past 2 years.  He couldn't stuff the food in fast enough. Here's the evidence:

Dipping the chicken in sweet & sour sauce (clearly the best nugget dip)

Shoveling the food in:

Not my proudest moment.  So, just when you think you're feeding your family as many fresh, organic, whole grain, whole foods, McDonald's jumps up and steals your thunder. Sigh. Tomorrow he's going to eat a vegetable if it kills me, and that vegetable will NOT be genetically modified potatoes.  Mother of the Year!

Nicole Kidman's Pasta

Tonight was crazy! I had to pick up the kids after school, then make dinner, eat, clean up, then bring Will with me to run a couple errands in Hopewell before coming back, helping with baths, reading books finally throwing both children into their cribs.  I'm totally pooped!

Anyone with kids knows that it is a logistical nightmare to feed and bathe two of them, especially on a weeknight when you have to run errands.  The only way to make tonight work was for us to eat dinner at 4:30pm.  That's right, our house might as well have been the Sizzler early-bird special. 

On the menu: Nicole Kidman's Crispy Orecchette with Broccoli.  As I mentioned before, I got this out of People magazine and it has now become one of our favorite meals. It's so good, that it's in the every other week rotation. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• One pound of pasta (I used rotini, but you can use whatever you have)
• 2 heads organic broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• olive oil, salt & pepper

First, toast the pine nuts in a small pan (you can totally skip this step if you want).  Then, cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions. While it's cooking, heat the olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan) in a large skillet, then add the garlic.  When the garlic is fragrant, add the broccoli and season with salt & pepper.  Saute the broccoli until it's cooked to however you like it - I prefer it a little undercooked, so it's still got some crunch, but it's up to you.  When the pasta is done, drain it & put it back in the pot.  Add the following to the pasta, mixing after each: the butter, the broccoli, the balsamic vinegar, the pine nuts, and the parmesan cheese. You're done! 

In Nicole's version she has us adding white wine and lemon juice, toasting the pasta in the skillet after it's cooked, blah, blah, blah.  I've found you don't need to do that.  It does taste a little better, but it's not worth more dirty dishes and added time.  It's lost on the palate of a 2 year old.

Enjoy! Tomorrow night is sloppy joes! I'm already dreading the clean up.  Is it inhumane to just hose Will off after dinner?  Darn 40 degree evenings...

Fish isn't Meat, right?

So today was supposed to be Meatless Monday, but that was a no go.  I defrosted chicken this past weekend to make Bisquick Sesame Chicken Strips, which I had planned on making on Saturday.  But I felt like crap all day and Steve ended up going out for a man date with my Dad, so it didn't get cooked.  Then in a coup that was staged at Jo-Jo's during sed man date, Steve and my Dad conspired to make corned beef and cabbage dinner plans at my parents' house for Sunday night.  Bottom line: the chicken had to get cooked today.

The problems were: a) Chicken isn't vegetarian, and b) when I smelled the chicken it just wasn't right and I wasn't about to chance an entire family with food poisoning so I just axed the entire dinner.  Instead we had battered fish filets and potatoes o'brien.  Actually, we only had enough potatoes for one person, so I made Steve eat the leftover fried rice from last week.  So I guess it wasn't technically "Meatless Monday," but it wasn't exactly "Meat-ful Monday" either.

Here's the menu for this week:
Monday: Rancid chicken. Battered Fish Filets & O'Brien Potatoes.

Tuesday: I have the stuff to make both sloppy joes and this awesome pasta with pine nuts, broccoli, butter and balsamic vinegar. It is randomly from People magazines "Cooking with the Stars" column, and Nicole Kidman is credited with making it.  I'm reasonably sure that her chef probably makes it and not her, but it's delicious anyhow. I'll try to remember to post the recipe because it is that good.

Wednesday: Either the pasta or the sloppy joes- whichever I don't make on Tuesday.

Thursday: We'll probably have leftovers. I have appointments after school for prom locations and I won't be home until at least 5:30 and you know Steve isn't cooking.

Friday: Who knows? It's Lent so either Fish & Chips or Pizza.  Boo for no burgers and beer on Friday nights, but if that's what it takes to go to heaven, then I'm in.

Here's a cabinet update- here is how our pantry looked before Week 1:

Here it is now:

Here's the freezer before Week 1:

Here it is now:

Yes, that's vodka.

I'm not showing you the fridge because it's packed with stuff but that's because almost everything we've bought in the last three weeks is perishable and goes in there.

Also, in the last three weeks we've spent a total of about $160 on groceries(!) and almost all of it was either fresh produce or stuff for the kids like milk and yogurt.  Here's to saving money!

Because there is popular demand for more Emma, here she is wearing Will's beads.

See you tomorrow!

The Food Standoff Ends!

As many of you know, we have been in a food standoff with our 2 year old.  We continue to make the same meals that we always have, and he continues to refuse eating them.  It doesn't really bother us too much, because we know that we can't back down on this or he'll be one of those kids that eats nothing but hot dogs and chicken fingers.  We've been waiting for the meal that he'll actually eat.  Tonight, we found it:

We had french toast with bacon and sliced strawberries.  Not the healthiest meal, but it totally hit the spot, and Will shoveled in the food.  Like any good Bruschi/Jablonski, he went for the bacon first (that's my boy!). Then he ate 2 big slices of french toast and he even stole my strawberries.  SUCCESS!  He even licked his fingers:

The best part was, I only had to buy the strawberries for $2.99 and the texas toast for $1.49.  So for about $4.50 we will have at least 2 breakfasts (or dinners in this case) for our entire family.

In other news: I ordered the cutest Easter baskets for the kids from Pottery Barn Kids.  I've wanted to order them every year since I was pregnant with Will and every year I think "I'll wait and get them on sale after Easter." But Pottery Barn never has any left.  So this year, when I saw the Peter Rabbit liners I knew I had to buck up and buy them at full price.  Here they are:

Aren't they so stinking cute?!? I can't wait to fill them up for Easter!

Finally, I've heard from several people that Emma isn't featured enough in the blog.  Let me be clear: She is not the forgotten child. She can be so giggly and smiley, but she can also be a pill - hmm...I wonder where she got that from?!? It's just that this is a food blog, and she eats baby food, Mum-Mums and yogurt melts.  It's really not exciting reading.  But if ye shall ask, ye shall recieve...the update on Emma is that she starting pulling all the way up to standing last week and now she's working on cruising and letting go while standing up.  Some evidence:

My prediction is that she will be walking in a month - she's our wild child!  She's also cutting her first tooth and like her mamma, she doesn't mess around with telling us & showing us how she feels about it.  We are awaiting a corporate sponsorship from Baby Motrin.

I'll be back tomorrow with this weeks pantry raid menus!  Emma says "Bye!"