Chicken Tortilla Soup

Thanks Mom C for introducing this recipe to me! It's one of my favorites.

Ingredients

4 Chicken Breasts
4T butter
¼ cup olive oil
2 t minced garlic
1 large onion
2 large carrots chopped
4 sticks celery
1 t ground cumin
1 t chili powder
1 t salt
1 t pepper
½ cup spelt flour
6 cups chicken broth
1 can rotel
Avocado
raw cheese
tortilla chips (crushed)

Instructions:
Dice veggies and saute them in oil, butter and garlic (minced) until tender. Boil chicken in the broth until done. Remove chicken and dice into desired size pieces. Combine spices and flour in a separate bowl. Add the flour and spice mixture to the veggies and mix well. Add rotel, cooked chicken, and veggies to broth. Simmer until well combined and to desired thickness. Serve with shredded cheese, avocado, and tortilla chips.

Tips: I tend to put more vegetables than it calls for and I also use white and dark meat. This is a great recipe to double as it freezes well. Just pull it out on a day when you don't have time to cook and it tastes like you just cooked it. My children love this soup so I make sure that the vegetables are cut up big enough (or small enough...depending on the age of your child). Sometimes I will cut up the veggies in the morning and keep them in the refrigerator until later in the day when I have more time to cook the soup.

Tip of the Week: READ THE LABELS ON YOUR FOOD. We give my brother in law a hard time about this because his wife says that they will spend 2 hours in the store reading all the labels of the items they are purchasing. There is so much extra junk in our foods now days and we don't even take the time to see what we are feeding ourselves and our families. Next time you are in the store just pick up a few snack items and read everything that is in the label! You might even do this to your own pantry! You will see all kinds of additives, preservatives, not to mention the large amounts of sugar! Avoid high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners (aspartame and sucralose), and MSG. These seem to be very common in processed foods. So, that is your mission for the week. Start reading all labels on the foods that you purchase and stop purchasing foods that have unhealthy ingredients.