Lazy Sunday Chicken Tortilla Soup

We were having a few people over to watch the Oscars and I wanted to make something easy, but yummy at the same time. I thought something in the crockpot would do the trick and luckily I stumbled across a recipe online for a simple chicken tortilla soup where you literally throw everything in and 4-6 hours later you have a delicious meal ready to eat. Sounded perfect to me! The recipe ended up working out great and even with four people eating that night it still left a ton for meals over the next few days. I love when that happens! This is a recipe I will definitely make again! And it might have been my favorite chicken tortilla soup that I've ever had! See below for recipe and pictures.

Ingredients:
1 pound frozen chicken breasts (shred near end of cooking time) (omit if vegetarian and possibly add more beans)
1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
3(14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth or use vegetarian broth
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
1 can black beans, rinsed

Directions:
Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in chicken broth, and season with cumin, salt, and pepper. Stir in corn and black beans. Cover and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours. Garnish with crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded cheese, or avocados (I think the avocados made the dish!) Omit tortilla chips, sour cream, and cheese if you want to make this healthier. I tried this and it was still very tasty!

Original recipe can be found at:
www.sparkrecipes.com

Yummy Mummy Cookies

Hi there. As most of you know, I have two little ones at home. A two year old daughter who I nursed until she was about 13 months old, and a 7 month old son who I'm currently nursing. I try everything I can to keep my milk supply up for my chunky monkey. He's an eater! I'm not sure how many ounces he eats in an entire day, but I would guess it's over 30. I have to leave at least 15 ounces for him at daycare during an 8 hour period, and he's eating solids on top of that. I'll have to do a post later about some of my favorite pureed foods to make for him. I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, but it's been really hectic at work and at home. I feel like I'm finally starting to get into the groove of balancing my home and work lives.


Any way, on to the cookies. One of my friend's told me about some cookies she made while nursing her daughter that were supposed to help with your milk supply, and she dubbed them "lactation cookies." As soon as I heard eating these cookies would be good for my supply - I was in! The cookies are basically your normal chocolate chip cookie recipe with brewer's yeast and flax seed meal incorporated into them (I found both ingredients at Whole Foods). Brewer's yeast is well known for helping milk supply hence why some people say drink a beer when your nursing. The flax seed meal is a galactagogue which means it improves lactation. And the oats in there help with lactation as well. 


Here's the recipe for "lactation cookies"
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1 C butter
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
4 T water
2 T flaxseed meal (no subs)
2 Lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour (I used whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

2-4 T Brewers Yeast (no substitutions and I used 4 tablespoons to get the max effect)
3 C Thick cut oats
1 C Chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chunks) 

Mix 2 T of flaxseed meal and water, set aside 3-5 minutes.
Cream butter and sugar and brown sugar.
Add eggs.
Stir flaxseed mix into butter mix and add vanilla.
Beat until well blended.
Sift: dry ingredients, except oats and choc chips.
Add butter mix to dry
Stir in the oats and then the choc chips.

Drop on parchmant paper or baking sheet.
Bake 8-12 minutes.

Ok so 1 cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar scared me so I made some tweaks.  

Here are my substitutions:

1/2 C Sugar

1/2 C Brown Sugar

1/2 C Applesauce

1/2 C Canola Oil (omitted butter entirely) 

Also, something that I noticed about the cookie dough is that the longer it sat without being used, the more beer-ish taste it got. So as soon as I mixed it I popped them into the oven. The cookies turned out well with my substitutions, but I definitely think they would have tasted better with butter. Mine were almost a cakey constituency, and I think the butter would have made them a little more crisp. I thought they were pretty good overall though. 

It makes a ton of cookies so I froze them and would defrost one each night as my dessert.

I'm not sure if it helped my milk supply, but I can say I've been able to keep up with my chunkster's milk demands. 

Let me know if you try them! There are endless flavor combinations you can make. I think I might try white chocolate and dried cranberries next! 

Some of my favorite Thanksgiving Recipes!

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow! There will be lots of cooking in my house tonight and tomorrow. Here are a few recipes that I love around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I hope you will too! I'm trying out a few new recipes this year, and will report back if they are worth sharing! Happy Thanksgiving!

Broccoli Casserole 

Ingredients:
1 pound velvetta cheese
1/2 cup of milk
1 stick butter
2 packages frozen chopped broccoli
1 package ritz crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Thaw broccoli and drain
Melt cheese with the milk (microwave works great for this!)
In a separate pan melt the butter and mix it with the crushed ritz crackers
In casserole dish put the broccoli, pour the cheese sauce over it, and mix
then sprinkle the cracker crumbs on top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup butter (salted is best)!
1 cup sugar
1 cup cooked, pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (last week I substituted maple extract and it was phenomenal!)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup raisins (I usually leave these out as I'm not a huge fan of raisins)

Icing Ingredients:
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used maple extract in this too and it was yummy!)
3 tablespoons whipping cream, fresh orange juice or rum (go for the rum!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla and mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into butter mixture until well blended. Add nuts and raisins. Drop by teaspoonful onto parchment covered baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake about 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool.

Icing: Cream confectioners' sugar and butter. Add remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. (If icing is too thin, add more confectioners' sugar; if too thick, add more cream, orange juice or rum.) Drizzle over cookies.

Enjoy!