chicken tortilla soup! (aka sneaky additional veggies)

This recipe started as something toooootally different, so this is my updated version. I make it often and it's one of the few things that I can eat and eat and eat. I usually get tired of food (like, I can handle it for dinner and then lunch and then I'm good) but this I could eat for lunch for a week straight!

the players:
-2 yellow onions chopped
-3 cloves garlic chopped (or more if you like garlic.)
-1 tbsp olive oil
-2tsp chili powder
-1tsp oregano
-1 can crushed tomatoes (sometimes I use two. or one and then a r0tel. especially if I want to make it stretch
-1 can chicken broth (or veggie broth. or my homemade veggie broth. I esp like bullion cubes instead of cans!)
-1 1/4 cup water
-1 can corn
-1 can hominy
-1 can green chile peppers (I only sometimes add this)
-1 can black beans--sometimes more. or sometimes frozen prepared ones
-1 cooked chicken breast--let cool and pull into small pieces. I usually put some adobo seasoning on mine and stick them in the microwave!
-tortilla chips, avocado and sour cream if you like them, and monterey jack cheese





oooh AND the sneaky additional veggies part. recently I've been taking whatever veggies I have on hand, chopping them up, sauteing or steaming them, letting them cool a smidge and then using my handy dandy magic bullet to blend 'em up (with a little water). No one has complained yet. :) Most recently I added some yellow squash, zucchini and lima beans!

what to do:
-prepare all ingredients (cut everything, get the chicken thawing, etc)
-in a big pot heat oil and saute onion and garlic
-stir in chile powder and oregano
-then stir in tomatoes, broth and water (sometimes I chop up the tomatoes more w/ kitchen scissors)
-while it heats, if you haven't yet, cook the chicken
-bring to a boil
-then stir in hominy, corn, chiles, beans, cilantro and chicken
-let boil for ten minutes

serve w/ chips, avocado and cheese. if you like. sour cream and chives are also options! makes about 10 servings, I would say, especially with the additional veggies and water.

and although it's not amazingly amazing for you, it's also not horrible! you could go a LONG way toward improving it by using baked chips and less/no/reduced fat cheese. but even with those things it's still not crazy at all. I estimated the fixins nutritional value with 1.5 oz of chips, 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (which is an over-estimate!) and 2 oz of avocado. The left is for the soup and the right is for the fixins! these are without the additional veggies, so the caloric value would increase a little, but I'm sure you'd also get more vitamins! :)