Healthy Wednesdays: Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Hello, everyone! You're probably wondering about the title "Healthy Wednesdays" If not, bear with me, I still need to explain what it's about...

Since I started this blog, my thought was it will motivate me to cook at home more often. My husband and I were getting tired of spending so much money dining out. We got married while we were in college. We were taking about 18-21 credits each semester so we could graduate faster and so that we could welcome our little baby boy after we had a descent job. You get the picture. As college students, we were so busy, we always ate out. We both gained so much weight! Oh and the debt on our credit card... 

So after we graduated from college, we decided that it was time for us to be frugal and start cooking at home. Really, it's been one of the best decisions we've ever made together! :) To motivate myself to cooking every night, I started this blog. Although this blog has done lots of great things for me, there is a major side-effect, too. I started baking lots of sweets and bread to blog about them. I have a small family. A lot of times, I take them to my in-law's but not every time, if you know what I mean. So it was time for me to come up with something that will keep me on track of my "healthy eating" resolution.

So this is it. "Healthy Wednesdays" I will commit to post only healthy(ier) recipes on Wednesday. Okay, that doesn't mean I will eat healthy food only on Wednesdays.... But I know there is a lot of people out there looking for healthy and nutritious recipes. If you have a healthy AND delicious recipe, feel free to send it on my way!

Okay, that being said, I would like to introduce you to our new family favorite "Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup" We cooked this on Sunday. Sundays always seem appropriate to cook things in a slow-cooker. Just dump all the ingredients in and relax! I go to a three-hour church meeting every Sunday so it's always great to come home and eat a great meal right away without having to cook. This tortilla soup is very good. It doesn't have whole lot of canned ingredients, either, only some enchilada sauce and green chilies, and chicken broth. I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned ones. It actually tasted very fresh. Instead of using a store-bought tortilla chips, I made it on my own. It seems a lot healthier that way - without all the salt and fat. When we tasted the soup, we both said it has to go on our family cookbook. (We have our own family cookbook)

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Printable Recipe

This soup makes 8 servings.

Ingredients:

1 pound shredded, cooked chicken

2 whole fresh tomatoes, diced

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

1 medium onion, chopped (optional)

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups water

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth (low-sodium if desired)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 bay leaf

1 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

7 corn tortillas

olive oil

Directions:

To cook the chicken, season it with seasoning salt or if you have any, with Santa Maria seasoning and Pappy, grill the chicken on a hot grill (indoor or outdoor) until the chicken is cooked through.

Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.

To make corn tortilla chips -  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.