Lisa T's Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

I cannot take credit for this deliciousness. It is entirely the brainchild of one of my Auggie moms--the women who became part of my family when I became pregnant with Em and went looking for support online, nearly 15 years ago now. (Let's pretend I didn't say that, OK? Because it makes me feel very, very old. Almost as old as I actually am.) Thanks, Lisa T!

This is perfect for a cold, rainy, hailish day, which is what yesterday was.

(Happy now, @wondermama and @ejwillingham? If you're not, you will be once you try this out! And Kristen...it'd work just as well in a dutch oven cooked long, low, and slow either on the stovetop or in the oven.)

Lisa T's Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

1 onion, chopped
15 ounces chili beans
15 ounces black beans
15 ounces whole kernel corn
8 ounces tomato sauce
12 ounces beer
20 ounces diced tomatoes w/chilis
1 package taco seasoning mix (or, if you're me, just mix up a batch of Goodfountain's Taco Seasoning; the recipe is in the middle of that link)
3 whole chicken breasts, boned and skinned (I often double this; and thighs would work, too)
shredded Cheddar cheese, optional
tortilla chips, optional
sour cream, optional
cilantro, optional
whatever you might like to top this with, optional

1. Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend.

2. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients.

3.  Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.  (I tend strongly toward the impatient and am all about last-minute-ness. Hence, I generally set the slow cooker for high heat, cover, and cook for 3 to 3.5 hours, kvetching all the time about how long it's taking.)

4. Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Shred the chicken, then stir the shredded chicken back into the soup. Continue cooking on low for 2 hours. (Or, in the TC Has No Patience version of the recipe, continue cooking on high for half an hour or until you're ready to serve dinner.)

5. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, crushed tortilla chips, cilantro, some chopped-up onion, maybe some olives. Whatever you want!

6. Come back here and tell me how wonderful it was, so I can pass your compliments along to Lisa T.

Cheese enchiladas

I've made this twice in the last two weeks, both times to rave reviews. Believe it or not, my nine year old even asked to try it and declared that it was delicious. "Maybe I can order this in a Mexican restaurant," he said. And while it's great to find something new that everyone in the family can enjoy, it's even better when it's a make-ahead sort of meal that requires less than 30 minutes to put together.

Here's what you need:

 

24 Corn tortillas
2-3 packages of shredded cheese (I used the Mexican mix, but any combination of Monterey Jack, cheddar, and/or Colby will work)
2 cans of enchilada sauce (I used mild green chili, but there are many varieties)
Diced green onions and diced black olives

In a large bowl, mix the cheese, olives and green onions together and set aside. Then coat the bottom of a baking dish with some enchilada sauce (I used two 9 x 13—give or take an inch or two—pans for two dozen enchiladas). Make sure to spread the sauce around, generously covering the bottom.

Next, heat about a tablespoon of corn oil in a nonstick skillet, and quickly fry the tortillas. I did this in batches of three, a fast in-and-out of the hot oil, then drain on a paper towel. I wasn't convinced this step was necessary, but trust me, if you don't fry the tortillas, they split and break apart when you try to roll them. This is the way my grandmother and mother made enchiladas, but not all recipes include this step. I tried to make a couple without it, but it was a mess.

Place a small handful of the cheese mixture in the center of each tortilla, roll, then place seam side down in the baking dish. You want to make sure the enchiladas are packed tight, sides touching, in the pan.

 

When the pan is filled, drizzle more sauce on top, and...

then cover with more cheese—a lot, a little, it's up to you. At this point, you can cover the pan with foil and refrigerate for up to 24 hours, or freeze. Or you can put it right into a hot oven.

Bake covered with foil at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbling. I removed the foil during the last five minutes of baking. Garnish with chopped green onions and sliced olives.

This same basic recipe can be adapted to make meat or chicken enchiladas. I would simple add shredded beef or chicken to the filling, and cut back on the amount of cheese. I served this with a side salad and yellow rice. And seriously? Yum.

Meatless (TVP) mexican

I have had a bag of TVP (textured vegetable protein) in my pantry for probably a year now. I don't even remember why I bought it. I think I was going to try a meatless meatloaf recipe, and then the thing was so convoluted that I abandoned the idea. So, now... what to do with my bag of TVP?

The good thing about TVP is that it just doesn't go bad. It's like rice. You could take it out of a time capsule and eat the stuff. The bad thing about TVP is that it has absolutely no flavor, and you better be making something with some "oomph" to it, if you're using it.

Hmm. Oomph. To me, a food that always has a flavorful kick is anything mexican. So, I plugged some search words into Google and found this recipe. Of course, as usual, I modified it.

Ingredients:

1 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)

1 can of diced tomatoes with chiles

1 can of black beans

1 can of vegetarian refried beans

1 cup water plus 1 TBSP Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base (or 1 cup beef broth if you eat meat)

1/2 packet of taco seasoning

Directions:

Take your stick blender and blend up those tomatoes and chiles. Then, throw everything into your crockpot together and stir it until the TVP is wet and distributed throughout the mixture.

Let it cook for 3-4 hours. If you have a crockpot like mine (metal), you can speed up the cooking time and the TVP cooks just fine.

The best part of this recipe is its versatility. I decided that I wanted to eat it on a salad. My husband, a meat-loving carnivore, put his into a tortilla and made a burrito. After he inhaled it, he said that he couldn't even tell that there wasn't a meat in it.

Make it a taco filling. Use it in a burrito. Throw it with some rice. Or, make a mexican salad and crunch some tortilla chips on it for good measure.

Ole´!