How Goes it?!

Soooo anyone else hungry?! Cause I sure am! I do great all day, and then under the cover of darkness, my inner food monster comes out and eats everything in sight! Like yesterday, a nice healthy Mexican salad for lunch at Hot Rositas and then a healthy dinner of Rosemary chicken and salad. Side note: have you had the rosemary marinade from Wegmans?! O.M.G. it may be the best chicken marinade I have had in a long time. Shameless plug: Go buy it, RUN to buy it; it was sooo delish on my salad. Drizzle a bit of EVOO and a few squirts of lemon juice as dressing and no joke, that’s all you need. But after eating that I was still kind of hungry, cause an hour later I had cheese and crackers. grrrr. But I shared some with Alfie...kind of. You see, I KNOW Alfie likes cheese and crackers, and we only had 2 sandwich slices of colby jack left, so the fatty/selfish in me decided to wait until I had happily devoured 1 slice by myself, to offer up a piece to him. Shortly after he says,"20 in 10, hand them over". Luckily I had scarfed down half already, so his attempt to score a better portion help my diet failed.

But to be fair, he kind of did it to me too....Last Saturday we had a day of errands that started bright and early, and just as we were packing up to head out Alfie commented on how he when we stopped at Wegmans, he was going to get a Cheese Bialli, because "I ALWAYS get one when I go" BUSTED. You see, he doesn’t come home with any. Which means he buys one and EATS IT IN THE CAR!!? So of course I jumped on it and said "wait, you get one every time?" at this point HE knows that I have connected the dots and he is about to get checked. So of course in disbelief I say" YOU EAT IT IN THE CAR". Now, we literally live like 3 mins from Wegmans, so he would have to devour it in order to finish before he got home. Who does that?? Ok, well I would technically do that to, but that’s beside the point. At least he had the decency to look shameful :) And I GUESS it’s better than bringing that temptation into the house. Right??

But now that I have you hungry, I will share my MOST FAVORITE recipe these days. It is way flavorful and way easy and healthy too!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup :( makes about 6 servings) about 240 calories per serving
1 can of Black beans (with its juice)
1 can of corn (drained) (or 1/2 a frozen bag)
2 chicken breasts
2 cans of rotel diced tomatoes
2 cans of chicken broth (ready to serve)
1 can of water
2 heaping spoonfuls of sofrito (Spanish gold) (since most don't have this dice 1/2 an onion and mince/press 2 or 3 garlic cloves)
1 salsa flavoring packet (I like mild, but you can pick medium if you want a kick)

Ok now for the hard part.... put it in the crock pot...all of it, together. **tip, wait until last to put the chicken in, that way you can taste the broth to see how it flavors for you and give it a good mix.
Cook on low for 8 hours (or I’m sure high for 4) and when it’s done shred the chicken (it will fallllll apart...mmm) It tastes great alone, or even better with a dollop of sour cream (light or fat free.... 20 in 10!!) and some cheese (fat free cheddar) and of course some broken up tortilla chips. If you think about it is wayyy healthy since its chicken, broth, tomatoes, beans and corn.

Alfie gave it a thumbs up, so we know it must be tasty :)

The best part, besides it being so easy is that you can tailor it to what you want. More soupy? Add in more broth. Thick and chunky? Add less water. You can add kidney beans or cilantro, a squirt of lime, more chicken, less chicken, canned salsa... It can really be whatever Tex Mex soup or stew you like! Enjoy!

**FYI Update: my wonderfully longtime (we go back to highschool..yo) friend Emily tried this using frozen chicken and said it worked perfectly!! Just be sure to add an extra half hour or so. Oh yeah and she said it was delish, sooooo easy and made a ton (which it does!!)!**