Chicken Tortilla Soup, Chicken and Vegetable Skewers, Some Really Freaking Good Recipes

This week I made a couple of very good, fairly healthy and surprisingly inexpensive dinners. Additionally, I planted broccoli, lettuce, onions, potatoes and strawberries in my garden.  I can’t wait to plant the other stuff later in the spring.  It has been a pretty productive week.  It is amazing the stuff that will keep you busy when you are jobless.

So back to the dinners, both were made for under $25.00 and both yielded enough leftovers for a few meals later in the week.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cans (15 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (4 ounces) chopped mild green chilies, drained

½ cup 99% fat-free chicken broth

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1 (15.5 ounce) can of great northern beans

If you want you can also add 2 tablespoons for fresh chopped cilantro.  I don’t use it because it tastes like soap to me so instead I get one of the cans of diced tomatoes with jalapeños .  I prefer spicy to soapy.

Bag of blue corn tortilla chips

Sour cream

Monterey Jack cheese

1 avocado, peeled, diced and tossed with lime juice

Place chicken in crock pot.  Combine tomatoes with juice, chilies, broth, onion, garlic and cumin and pour over chicken.  Cover; cook on low for six hours or until chicken is tender.  Add great northern beans and shred chicken with two forks about an hour before soup is done.  Top your soup with desired amount of chips, cheese, sour cream and avocado and eat the hell out of it.

Chicken and Vegetable Skewers

Soak four boneless, skinless chicken breasts in Mojito marinade (I just buy this from the grocery instead of making it myself) for a few hours before grilling.

Slice up zucchini, squash, tomato, red onion and mushrooms.  I make a marinade for the vegetables out of olive oil, chopped up oregano, basil, white pepper and Emeril’s Original Essense and let it soak for an hour or so before putting on skewers and grilling.

Uncle Ben’s 90 second rice pilaf is really good and easy with this, too.