As my previous post suggests, I’m currently going through finals week. My last finals week before I begin my last year of college. But to me, that also means that its a prime time for me to start random projects. Or test recipes that I’ve always wanted to. In this case, it was both! Since its graduation season here on campus, senior portraits are happening and requests for photographs have begun. I decided to shoot two birds with one stone, and splurge a bit as a method of retail therapy to purchase some new shooting gear. More excitingly, I also discovered about 18 pounds of chicken laying in my freezer.. so here we go with that…

I have the world’s best mentor. Her name is Heather Belk. She is the Director of AS Administration at our school, loved by basically everyone who meets her, and is teaching me the ins and outs of student affairs to get me ready. But aside from dealing with a couple hundred of crazy college students, she’s also a wife and amazing chef. Seriously people, I don’t know how she does it. Literally, the best. Not only did she introduced me to slow cooker chicken and help me figure out what to do with this ridiculous amount of chicken, she also inspired me to use my slow cooker more.

This recipe is a result of that. Heather introduced me to a slow cooker recipe (which I can’t wait to share with all of you as soon as I get pictures taken) which lead me to finally getting around to make chicken tortilla soup, one of my staples at any mexican restaurant. Although I do enjoy refusing to engage in any finals-related festivities, I do recognize that I must occasionally indulge myself in my studies. That being said, a slow cooker version of the soup was in place!

This is one of those recipes where you just throw everything in a pot, cross you fingers, walk away and hope it turns out ok. Quite honestly, I’m glad I did walk away since I started this at 4 in the morning, but  with over 4000 ratings at 4.5 half stars on allrecipies.com, I doubted anything could go wrong. When I woke up the next day for a brunch, my nose and soon my stomach told me that I was indeed correct.

What I love about this recipe, is how hard it is for someone to mess up. Honestly, throw everything in a pot, and walk away for 8 hours. Feel free to include a bag of frozen corn, a can of drained black beans, or make any modifications you’d like. I’ve made this soup twice already, and both times it was quite delightful. I do caution against cooking the rice with the soup since it turned into chicken tortilla porridge the last time I tried that.

Try it out and let me know what modifications you decide to make!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 pound shredded, cooked chicken
• 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
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 7 corn tortillas
• vegetable oil

Directions

1. In a slow cooker, combine all of the ingredients. Leave on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
2. If desired, prepare brown rice an hour before serving.  Preheat oven to 400 C. Thinly brush tortillas with vegetable oil and slice thinly. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crisp.
3. Garnish with tortilla chips, avocado, rice, and lime wedges and serve.

This summer, I’ve decided to take the challenge and attempt to enroll myself in NaBloPoMo where bloggers are challenged to post daily on our blogs. This month, the theme for NaBlPoMo is Kids, where the recommended themes to get us going are regarding our own childhood.

As I’m sitting here, at 3 AM in the morning, I’ve decided that this summer I have decided to better myself as a blogger, as a chef, and as a photographer. This summer, I want to make the dedication to my followers that I will post on a daily basis.

Ideally, I’ll be able to keep this related to my blog, and answer the prompt in a way thats related to my cooking. If I can’t address the prompt creatively, don’t worry, I’ll be here to share a recipe with you always.

So that said, I encourage you fellow bloggers to sign up for this challenge, they are accepting submissions until July 5th. I ask everyone to check out the other bloggers on the blog roll. And finally, I plead for your support in the coming month.

By the way, here’s a preview of whats coming later today…

Hello Readers! Since today is Christmas Eve, I wanted to send out my holiday greetings to all of you.

When I first started BoOmIe’s Kitchen, I thought it would be a hobby I could maintain easily. After a few month’s maintaing this blog has proven to be more difficult than ever imagined. I, however, love that. Day after day, I see an increase in my daily blog views and day after day I’m more inspired to share my recipes.

I can only dream that you all, my readers, will be able to learn and make use of this blog. At the same time, I hope that through this blog, I can grow as a cook, photographer, and writer.

Thank for taking time out of your day to read about my culinary adventures and I hope that you all have found this blog useful. I thank my friends and family for viewing and sharing this blog get around. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!