Day 24

As the kids grow a little, they're sleeping later, so it's allowing us to sleep in on weekends! So much fun! :)

So we weren't up and at 'em until about 8:30.  Had my IonixSupreme and coffee, then shortly later my shake.

Lunch was leftover WhyTheChickenCrossedTheRoadSantaFeTasticSoup (recipe following)... Oh my, this soup is a staple and it is SO SO good! One advantage of only having to prepare one meal per day is that it lasts us several days! (Sometimes I just reheat what I make for lunch for the boys to have for dinner.)  I added a few organic blue tortilla chips and greek yogurt to top it.

Afternoon activities included shoveling horse manure from a local ranch to bring to my garden.  I'm so excited about the possibility of growing my own organic food, and I've researched what I think is the very best way.  We have an area to the back of our yard that isn't used for anything, so I've laid newspaper, what compost I had... not much (but I did have a TON of leaves!), aged horse manure, and I will lay mulch or wood chips (which the city gives out for FREE) on top of that.  Keep it moist, let it sit, and when time comes to plant, it should be perfect! Yay! I'm brand new at this, so I'm learning practically everything as I go.

Dinner was a chocolate almond shake, and we went to bed (after IsaFlush).

Here's the awesome recipe: Thank you, Rachael Ray.

Ingredients

• Vegetable or corn oil, for drizzling, plus 2 tablespoons -- 2 turns of the pot in a slow stream
• 3 ears corn on the cob or 2 ears fresh-frozen cobs, defrosted
• 1 red bell pepper, split and seeded
• 1 pound chicken breast tenders
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, 1/3 palm full
• 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/3 palm full
• Salt and pepper
• 1 small to medium zucchini, small dice
• 1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 to 2 chipotle in adobo peppers (medium to hot heat level), chopped -- available in small cans in Mexican and Spanish food section of market
• 1 can stewed tomatoes, 28 ounces
• 1 can tomato sauce, 8 ounces
• 3 cups chicken stock, available in re-sealable paper containers on soup aisle
• 4 cups blue corn tortilla chips, broken up into large pieces
• 1 cup shredded cheddar or pepper Jack cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Optional garnishes:

• 1/4 red raw onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley leaves
• 1 ripe avocado, diced and dressed with the juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions

Heat a grill pan to high and a soup pot to medium high. Drizzle oil on corn and place on grill. Add red pepper to grill with corn. Char vegetables 10 minutes, total, turning occasionally. Remove to cool, 5 minutes. Remove charred skin from the pepper.

While vegetables cook, dice chicken. Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot soup pot. Add chicken to pot. Season with poultry seasoning, cumin, salt and pepper. Lightly brown chicken on each side. Add zucchini, onions and garlic and chipotle peppers. Cook vegetables with chicken 5 to 7 minutes to soften. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock. Bring soup to a bubble, reduce heat to medium low.

Scrape corn off cob and add to soup. Chop grilled red pepper and stir into soup. Add chips to soup in handfuls and fold in. Serve soup immediately with scatter of shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Top with any or all of the suggested garnishes.