myUNcomfort zone: Souper Sunday

I've been cooking like a fiend today. I truly enjoy it and it is a stress reliever for me. I made a pie, you know of course I'm still fascinated with pies. This pie was really something that I threw together out of ingredients I had in my cabinets.....vanilla pudding, cool whip, and graham crackers. I did buy cream cheese to make this pie also. Although I noticed when I was putting the cream cheese in that it was reduced fat. Arrrggg. If you're going to make a pie for gosh sakes putting something reduced fat into it is just crazy. But I used it anyway since that's what I had, I don't think it will affect the taste any, but it might affect how the pie filling sets up. If it doesn't set up right it will just be like eating a parfait-pie.

Now, since I've made this souper Sunday, I made a Tex-Mex Chicken soup. It's really a recipe called Chicken Tortilla soup from Ree Drummond-The Pioneer Woman, but I changed up some of the ingredients and I didn't put cut up corn tortillas in mine, I don't think I'd like the texture of soggy tortillas.

Here are the volunteers for this soup.

First you make a spice mixture of 1-1/2 tsp of ground cumin, 1-1/4 tsp of chili powder, 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Then rub some olive oil on 2 boneless chicken breasts and sprinkle 1 tsp. of spice mixture on them and bake at 375 til done. Let cool, shred and set to the side.

You then heat 1 tbl of olive oil in a pot, add 1 cup diced onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of green bell pepper an d 1/4 cup of red bell pepper. (I had a red and orange pepper so that is what I used.) Add 1tsp or so of the spice mixture to the pot plus a little more chili powder, 3/4 tsp. or so, for extra heat. Stir and cook veggies for about 5 minutes or so then add the shredded chicken, 1 can of Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles, 10 oz. can, 4 cups of chicken broth, 3 tbls of tomato paste and 4 cups of hot water. (Here I only used 2 cups of hot water and it seemed plenty).

Next rinse and drain 2 cans of black beans. Here again is where I stray from the recipe. I only used one can of black beans and then added the kernels off of 2 ears of corn. I also added a diced jalapeno pepper that isn't called for in the original recipe. Remember, when you dice a jalapeno pepper, remove the ribs and seeds which is where the heat comes from, the green part will give you spice. Wash your hands after cutting up the pepper. (Even after washing your hands and then you use a Kleenex to wipe your nose, your nostril can still feel like it's on fire...I'm just sayn'). Then you mix together 3tbls of cornmeal and 1/2 cup of water (I used a cup of hot water here), and add to the pot. This helps thicken up the juice. Then let the soup simmer for 15 minutes or so, taste to adjust any seasoning that it may need.

In the original recipe she cuts up corn tortillas and adds them to the soup when ready to dish up, but I'm not doing that. She also suggest topping to add to your bowl of soup like cheese, sour cream, avacodo, red onion, salsa or anything you might like on there. I think I will had some shredded cheese to my soup when I eat it. I bet some cornbread would be good with it also.

I have to admit the soup turned out pretty good, spicy yet not to hot and a good piece of cool pie afterwards doesn't hurt either.