Pray for my Dad...

So my amazing, sweet father has had a rough go this past month or so....

He fell and hit his head about 5 weeks ago, and subsequently has a hemorrhage on the surface of his brain. The hemorrhage is putting pressure on is brain, and causing some loss of function on his right side. It is most likely temporary, and as soon as it is removed, all will be well.

He is in surgery right now, and seems like everything is going as well as can be expected, but please keep him in your prayers! He is such a wonderful loving father, grandfather, and husband to my mom!
We hate to see him go through such a rough time, and just want him healthy and safe again!

Tortilla Soup

Here is the recipe for the tortilla soup...like I said...I can't claim it, I got it from my sister Sheryl, who also got it from someone else. It's and El Torito's copy-cat recipe. It does kind of take a lot of prep work (chopping and such) so I usually do all the chopping and boil/shred the chicken the night before, then you can just add all the ingredients and have your meal ready within 45 min to an hour. It's great to invite people over to share it or take it to someone. You can also double it and share some more or freeze it and bring it out later...I guess it freezes real well....Anyway...here it is :)

El Torito’s Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

7 cups chicken broth

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks celery, diced

½ bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 potato, peeled and diced

¼ cup tomato paste (or sauce)

1 bay leaf

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano

Salt to taste

White ground pepper to taste

1 zucchini, diced

2 medium tomatoes, diced

2 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached and shredded

3 corn tortillas

Vegetable oil

1 ½ cups jack cheese, shredded (at least this much....we always use more)

8-10 slices avocado

Cilantro sprigs

In large pot, combine chicken broth, onion, carrots, celery, bell pepper, potato, tomato paste, bay leaf, garlic and oregano. Season to taste and bring to boil. Simmer 25 minutes.

Add zucchini, tomatoes and shredded chicken breast pieces,, bring to boil, then simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Cut tortillas into matchstick size strips. Sauté in hot oil until crisp. Drain on paper towels and set aside. (Do this while the soup is simmering for 25 min)

To serve, place tortilla strips in individual bowls. Cover with shredded cheese and ladle in soup. Top with slice of avocado and cilantro sprigs.

****Jason and I also add sour cream before the avocado and cilantro and then mix it all together, it makes it really creamy. AND we use WAY more than 3 corn tortillas. More like 10-15. We just buy the small white corn tortillas in a pack, cut them in small strips and fry them...but for sure I would say more Jack cheese than it says, more tortillas and add sour cream! Hope you like it! We sure do :)

Our Recent Activities

So here are a few random pictures of what we've been up to lately!

We built a snowman...(see previous post)....but someone murdered our snowman....seriously...there were car tracks in the snow all the way up to the snow man....

....this is taken after the snow had melted, so we can't show the evidence... but the body was still there!

Ice Skating! We've been Ice Skating lately...well just twice...but it's been a fun/cheap date night for us.

Here's Jason...

Jason Skating




Me Skating

And both of us after...we were tired and sweaty. We skated for about 2.5 hours. It was a ton of fun!

I made tortilla soup...Jason has been asking for it for a while...Sheryl gave me this recipe a while ago and it the best!