Skinny Tortilla Soup

Today's recipe is the perfect pre-thanksgiving meal. It's not heavy and won't leave you feeling gross before you eat a 3,000 calorie dinner tomorrow evening (not including the booze). I wasn't kidding about the 3,000 calories. I won't lie, if you're one of those people that isn't against dinner foods for breakfast (i.e. leftover pizza, mashed potatoes, sushi?), then this tortilla soup is excellent for breakfast with an over-easy egg.

This version of tortilla soup utilizes Reduced Guilt tortilla chips from TJ's, though you could easily pick up another version of reduced calorie tortilla chips in baked form.

Truly, what makes restaurant tortilla soup dangerous is not the soup itself - it's the toppings! If you douse anything in large amounts of avocado, full fat sour cream, full fat cheese, and deep fried chips, it's going to be less than healthy. Case in point: taco salad. Argument over.

So, with recipe inspiration cred to Ms. Rachael Ray, I bring to you a skinnied up version of tort soup.

Skinny Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp EVOO
• 2 chicken breasts, diced
• S&P
• 3 cloves fresh garlic
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 2 celery ribs, finely diced
• 1/2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 2 c. reduced guilt/baked tortilla chips
• 1 quart chicken stock/broth
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
• Toppings of your liking:
• Fat free greek yogurt
• Hot sauce like Cholula or Tapatio
• Avocado, sliced
• Lime wedges
• Reduced fat shredded mexican blend cheese
• Reduced guilt/baked tortilla chips

Instructions

• In a soup pot, heat EVOO over med-high heat
• Season chicken with S&P, lightly brown in pot
• While chicken is browning, get together garlic, bell pep, onion, jalapeno, and celery
• Add all veg to pot along with cumin and coriander and a pinch more of salt
• Cook for a few minutes until veg starts to soften up, stirring frequently
• In the meantime, food process, or crush, the 2 cups of tortilla chips. This part is a little weird, but it's what thickens the soup and it makes it super good. So trust me.
• Add tortilla chip crumbs to pot, and stir to incorporate into the chicken/veg mixture
• Add broth, zest and juice of 1 lime (I throw in the limes after I squeeze out the juice. I like it limey)
• Let her simmer on low for 15 minutes for all the flavors to have a little party
• When ready to serve, throw in the cilantro and stir it up
• Ladle up and garnish to your liking

strangely delicious!

I served the soup with black bean quesadillas. This not only prevented me from gorging on chips, it also provided more protein in the meal. TJ's has blue corn tortillas that look cool, taste great, and are only 60 calories.

it's not a white balance problem.

This recipe is not super brothy like traditional tortilla soup because of the crushed chips. It's almost chowder-y because of the thickness. Highly recommended! You could always reduce the amount of crushed chips or increase the amount of broth to reach your desired soup thickness balance. It would also be a great way to utilize left over turkey after T-day! Just omit the chicken browning step and toss in the cooked turkey after the veg is browned. 

Happy Thanksgiving readers!

Shin's Tribute

Recently I've been feeling very nostalgic for San Luis Obispo. Let me be a bit more specific: I've been feeling nostalgic for SLO restaurants. Fat kid status? Probably.


Boys and girls, I want to tell you about a magical place. It's a place where the food is cheap, the beer comes to the table quick, the service is sub-par (read: minimal tip), and you can even have a happy birsday.

Like this:

Ok, that was annoying. Let's get back to my point. Shin's sushi, a SLO staple, has a special place in my heart. Ps. shittttyyy website.


My favorite shin's meal:
Sunomono <---the best!
Miso Soup
Grover Beach Roll
1/2 price Spicy Tuna cut roll

Not only would this cost me like $10 max, it would put me in a sushi-induced food coma for a good five hours.

The Grover Beach Roll is like a california roll, a lettuce wrap, and tempura combined. Could you complain? The best part is that it's easy to recreate at home! And thus ....

Shin's Grover Beach Roll Knock Off
Makes 10 rolls

Ingredients

• One large head of iceberg, cored and leafed (not sure that's a culinary term for "deconstruct the iceberg"
• 2 cups cooked short grain/japanese white rice
• 1tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
• 1 c. imitation (if that's all you can find) or real crab (claw or lump, depending on your budget)
• 1/4 c. light mayo
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 c. shredded carrots
• 10 pieces Shrimp Tempura - thank you Trader Joe's!!

pretty sure i'd perish without TJ's

Instructions

• Food process crab and mayo together until combined
• Cook tempura according to instructions
• Sprinkle rice vinegar over hot rice and let cool - will make it like a poor white girl's sticky rice
• Lay out an iceberg leaf or two for your roll
• In each roll, put in 1-2 tbsp rice, 1 tbsp crab meat, 1 tempura, 2 slices avo, a bit of carrot
• Wrap er up!
• Serve with sriracha, soy sauce,wasabi, whatevs for dipping

assembly line, assemble!

aw, come on.

piled high for the eatin

One note for this recipe: wrapping in the iceberg leaves is a bitch. Doubling up the leaves helps, but you may need more than one head of iceberg for this recipe then. In the end, it tastes effing delicious, regardless of your wrapping skills.

While this has temporarily stymied my SLO cravings, nothing truly matches the SLO experience. I'd like to be 65 and retired living in Morro Bay right. about. now.

Rat-tat-tat-touille

This recipe combines two of my favorite things: vegetables and eggs. Scratch that: three.... there is cheese.
I will be honest, I ate this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Not all on the same day).

I once heard on the Food Network, via Melissa D'Arabian, via the Next Food Network Star, aka crappy television, that an easy way to remember the ingredients and order of operations for ratatouille is "EZ Pot"... sounds like "Easy Pot". It stands for Eggplant, Zucchini, Peppers, Onions, Tomato. EZPOT. Got it? Now you won't forget it. Anywho, I tossed in mushrooms to make it EZPMOT, which is not as easy to remember, but it IS more delicious. SO just bookmark this recipe and move on.

Ratatouille and Egg Casserole


Ingredients

• 1 small eggplant, chopped
• 2 zucchini, chopped
• 2 bell peppers, any color(s), chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cups chopped white mushrooms
• 4 roma tomatoes, quartered
• 2 tbsp EVOO
• S&P to taste
• 1 sprig each thyme and rosemary, de-sprigged and chopped
• 4 eggs plus 2 egg whites
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1.5 c. shredded parm

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350
• In a large deep pan, heat EVOO over medium high heat
• Don't add the eggplant until the oil is screaming hot or your eggplant will just be a healthy sponge and drink up all the oil
• Add vegetables in order, waiting 1-2 minutes between addition
• Season with herbs, S&P
• Meanwhile, beat milk and eggs and whites in a large bowl. The more air the better for light and fluffy eggs.
• Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray
• Layer 1/2 ratatouille mixture, 1/2 cheese, 1/2 egg mixture, then repeat
• Bake for 30 minutes, or until eggs are set through and cheese on top is brown and bubbly
• Great with pizza dough breadsticks!

Cheesy and eggy and veggie-y! I think that basically covers all the food groups, right?