Thursday, 2/24/2011

We enjoyed more Smoky Chicken Tortilla Soup, minus the tortillas, for dinner tonight.  I spooned some of the soup broth over the top of rice for Katie's dinner.  She also ate some cheddar cheese.  

Katie loves to eat fruit, but it wreaks havoc on her poor little bottom.  Since she's had too much fruit in the last couple of days, she had to stick to a plain, boring meal of rice and cheese for dinner.  In other news, here's a photo of her outside in our front yard this morning next to the snowman we made.  What fun!  

Wednesday, 2/23/2011

All day long we have been expecting snow.  And, all day long, each time I checked the weather forecast, the snow was expected to arrive two hours later than the last time I checked.  Even without snow, it is cold.  So, we enjoyed hearty bowls of Smoky Chicken Tortilla Soup, minus the tortillas for dinner.  Don't get me wrong, I love the tortillas in this soup.  The problem is that you can't buy a small bag of tortilla chips.  You are required to buy a bag big enough to feed a family for a week, and I end up eating all the extras.  In an effort to curb my unnecessary chip crunching, we did without the chips in our soup.  The soup was fine without them. 

Monday, 11/1/2010

I stopped by the seafood counter at Fred Meyer this morning, just to see what was available.  I was pleased to see talapia fillets crusted with crushed tortilla chips, chili, and lime.  They looked good enough that I purchased three fillets for tonight's dinner. 

I heated olive oil in the bottom of a "stick" frying pan.  Once the oil was hot, I put the fillets in the pan.  Only one side of each fillet was coated in the tortilla crust.  I put the non-crusted side down in the oil first.  I cooked them for 3-4 minutes on the first side, flipped them, and then waited until the crust started to turn golden brown before I removed them from the pan.  It was an excellent preparation for talapia, which is a pretty bland fish in my opinion. 

We had sauted bell peppers as a side dish.  Ben got me a mandolin for my birthday, and I used it to slice the peppers.  It wasn't the best application for the mandolin, but it was fun to try it out.  I can't wait to make potatoes au gratin with it!  Anyway, I used a non-stick pan for the peppers.  I heated olive oil with a touch of sesame oil in the pan until it was hot.  I then added the sliced peppers and a teaspoon of minced garlic.  They cooked in the oil until the peppers started to char a bit.  

Katie wouldn't eat the fish, but she did eat several slices of pepper.

Friday, 9/24/2010

My mother-in-law drove up from Portland this afternoon in order to take care of Katie for us this weekend.  Ben is participating in a leadership workshop with his company today and tomorrow at Semiahmoo Resort, in Blaine, WA.  Lucky for me, spouses were invited to join in the Saturday night dinner.  I will be driving up tomorrow morning after breakfast with Katie.  Needless to say, it was a busy day of cleaning:)  It's a good thing we have company every once in a while.  Without it, our house would never get cleaned.  I managed to get the house clean, just as she arrived! 

I heated up the remainder of the Smokey Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner. Again, I must say that this recipe makes plenty for four decent sized bowls of soup, despite what Rachael Ray says:)  Jennifer even saved some of her's for tomorrow.  After getting Katie down for the night, Jennifer and I watched the season premiere of The Office and enjoyed catching up on family and friends. 

Thursday, 9/23/2010

We made tonight's dish for the first time in January this year. Now that it is Fall, we can have it again. 
WHOO HOO!!!

Smoky Chicken Tortilla Soup  

Recipe from Rachael Ray

Ingredients:
3 cups chicken stock
1 pound chicken tenders
1 bay leaf, fresh if available
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 slices thick, smoky bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons sauce
1 28-ounce can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
Salt to taste
4 cups corn tortilla chips, lightly crushed
3/4 pound (2 cups) shredded fresh smoked mozzarella or smoked sharp white cheddar cheese
1 lime, cut into wedges
1/2 red onion, chopped
Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish

Preparation:
Bring broth to a simmer and add the chicken tenders. Poach them for 6-7 minutes with a bay leaf.

While the chicken poaches, heat EVOO in a medium soup pot or deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook it until crisp then remove it with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate. Drain off the excess fat, leaving 2-3 tablespoons in the pan. Add the onions and garlic to the skillet and cook them for 5 minutes. Stir in chipotles and tomatoes.

Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid, dice it then add it to the tomatoes and chipotles. Pass the poaching liquid through a strainer then add it to the soup pot as well.

Place a pile of crushed tortilla chips in the bottom of each soup bowl. Cover it liberally with cheese then ladle the hot soup down over the top. Serve it with lime, raw onions and cilantro at the table.

Notes on preparation:

1.  I didn't have chicken tenders on hand.  Instead, I used chicken breasts, which I sliced into chicken tender sizes.  

2.  We don't like crunchy onions in our house.  So, I cooked the onions and garlic for much longer than 5 minutes before I stirred in the chipotles and tomatoes.  I pretty much waited until the garlic was ready to burn;)

3.  I found smoked yellow cheddar on sale at Fred Meyer (8 ounces for $3.99).  I decided to use that rather than purchase smoked mozzarella for twice the price.  It was just fine:)

4.  I didn't add any extra salt to the soup.  The chicken broth, bacon, and tortilla chips have enough salt on them.  

5.  Rachael's website said that this recipe serves 2 with some left over seconds.  I think it makes enough for 4 decent bowls of soup.  I was plenty full after having a 1/4 of the soup for dinner. 

Monday, 8/23/2010

It's nacho week at the Ackers home.  Well, really, it will only be nacho Monday and nacho Thursday.  Anyway, I covered two plated in tortilla chips, added a layer of shredded cheese, a layer of taco seasoned lean, ground beef, a little hot sauce, and then another scant layer of cheese.  Popped in the microwave and dipped into salsa, these were pretty good nachos:)  

I tried to give Katie some left over pork, grapes, and cheese for dinner.  She wanted nothing to do with them.  She was only interested in dipping things into the salsa.  The catch was that she really didn't want to eat any of the things she dipped into the salsa.  So, she would whine and grunt and point and make awful sounds to get something like a chip and then continue that noise until she was given the salsa to dip into.  She would dip in, lick it, then give it back to me.  I will admit it--it got quite annoying after a while.  Sorry Ben, I wasn't very patient with that tonight. 

Tuesday, 8/10/2010

Katie and I were gone most of the day today.  I took her to Waterbabies swimming lessons this morning.  She is doing great!  She doesn't mind going under water at all anymore:)  She jumps off a platform in the water, goes all the way under, and comes up blinking and asking for "more".  Swim suit, or shee shee as she puts it, has become a frequent word in the house.

After swimming we went to Red Robin for lunch, Bellevue Square for an hour of shopping, the chiropractor, and then Redmond Town Center for more shopping. She did pretty well during the day, considering she only napped 5 minutes in the car, just before we got to the chiropractor's office. After all of our shopping, we drove back to Seattle to pick Ben up from work. Thankfully, she fell asleep on the way and had a good nap before we got home.

I planned for us to have a Southwest salad for dinner tonight. But, at the last minute, we decided to have chicken nachos instead. We took a plate of tortilla chips, topped it with shredded rotisserie chicken I bought at the grocery store, hot sauce, and cheddar cheese. After being heated in the microwave to melt the cheese, we dipped the loaded chips into salsa. It was a very satisfying dinner.

Katie ate deconstructed nachos for dinner--shredded chicken, cheese cubes, and chips. She is soo funny. She really likes to dip her food into condiments. So, it makes sense that she would want to dip chips and chicken into the salsa. But, she wasn't so fond of the salsa itself. She kept sticking out her tongue to taste it, but would shake her head "no" just before actually tasting it. Then, she would so kindly offer her food to us. I didn't mind so much when she decided not to eat the loaded chip I gave her and gave it back to me. It was like finding an extra fry in the bottom of the fast food bag. Thanks for sharing Katie:)

Friday, 7/16/2010

I was supposed to go to a two-hour Parent Orientation for Katie's swim lessons tonight. This morning, I very strongly told Ben how it was important for me to go. And then, tonight, when Katie and I arrived at his office to pick him up, I changed my mind. I figured that I've already gone through one class with her and we did just fine. What else would I really learn in two-hours? I guess I'll never know, because we went out to dinner instead:)

We went to the Guaymas Cantina at Harbor Steps in downtown Seattle. It wasn't very busy, so we were able to take our pick of the tables available. I had Chile Verde--chunks of tender pork in a spicy tomatillo sauce. I ate mine with rice and corn tortillas. Well, the pork wasn't very tender. Perhaps it had been sitting in the warming pan too long. And, the sauce, although very good, was not spicy at all. Not a bad meal, but a little disappointing.

Ben had the "Wet" Chile Colorado Burrito--a flour tortilla filled with chunks of tender sirloin, rice, and beans, covered with spicy Chile Colorado sauce and cheese. Ben said his dish was "good" and that he "would order it again". Katie ate some of the rice and beans and munched on tortillas dipped in the sauces on our plates.

Tuesday, 4/20/2010

Tonight I made chicken burritos using the rotisserie chicken left over from last night. I shredded the chicken before I refrigerated it last night. Then I simply put it into a skillet, added a couple packets of Lawry's chicken taco seasoning and 3/4 cups of water. I brought it to a boil and mixed it all together. Once the water evaporated a bit, the chicken was done.

I grated cheddar cheese onto a large whole wheat tortilla, added the chicken and some hot sauce. Rolled it up, microwaved for 45 seconds to melt the cheese all the way, and ate. Spicy and delicious. I had an apple on the side.

Katie ate some of the chicken, cheese, and little of my apple.

Thursday, 4/15/2010

Well, it was supposed to be left over flank steak tonight, but neither of us was in the mood for it. I rummaged through the fridge and found a container of already cooked up breakfast sausage from earlier in the week. A couple tortillas, some shredded cheddar, 4 scrambled eggs seasoned with salt and pepper, the crumbled sausage, hot sauce for me, and tobasco for Ben and...Ta-Da...breakfast burritos for dinner. We washed them down with glasses of milk...exactly what we were in the mood for!

We'll be out of town for a couple days, so I'll post about our weekend food early next week.