Chicken Enchilada Soup

Okay time to be real for a second.

Yeah cookie month hurt us.  It hurt us bad.  I didn't gain back all the weight I lost for the wedding, but some of it.  And now it's time for it to go again.

I'm kicking off 2012 with some serious changes.

Back on the wedding (now honeymoon) diet.

No more pop.  (I call it pop, do you call it soda?  You're so much more refined than me.)

I hesitate to even put this one on here because I really really really want to break it, even as we speak.  But I'm trying to take a hiatus from sweets until the honeymoon.  Yeah it's rough.

I think what sort of maybe contributes to these ambitious New Year's resolutions is the fact that whenever I make a solid attempt to get one area of my life in order, I inevitably think of all the other things that I could and should be doing differently.  And then I want to fix them all at once.  That's the origin of some of my nuttier, all-encompassing resolutions that I've come up with in the past.

You know, the diet-exercise-be-a-nicer-person-keep-a-cleaner-house-read-a-book-a-month-plant-a-garden type of resolution.  Does that sound familiar?  Anyone out there as crazy as I am?



What's maybe the most difficult part of all this is trying to stay inspired to write the blog when I can't bake up cute desserts to tell you about.  Desserts are what inspire me.  I think I can make them taste better, look better, and think of better things to say about them than I can about say...the delicious yet diet-friendly soup I made the other day.

Truth is, I'm having an especially hard time this year letting go of Christmas.  I just don't want to do it.  I don't want to take down my tree and put my little decoration away and pack up the movies that I only allow myself to watch at Christmas time.

I thought that trying to think of Christmas as a "season" rather than a one-day bonanza would help me enjoy it more...and it has...but it's making it even harder to let go.  I'm allowing myself 12 "days of Christmas".   That's what they did in the olden days, right?  I'll take it down tomorrow.

Here's the soup.  It's good, it's relatively low calorie, and you can throw a little cheese and a crumbled tortilla chip on top if you want.

Chicken Enchilada Soup
(adapted from skinny taste)


2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups low sodium fat-free chicken broth
8 oz can tomato sauce
3 tsp chipotle chili in adobo sauce
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 mid-sized chicken breasts 
Shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese to top (optional)
1/4 tsp chipotle chile powder


Saute onion and garlic and until soft, 3-4 minutes in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly add the chicken broth, tomato sauce and chipotle adobo sauce and bring to a boil. Add cilantro and remove from heat. Pour into crock pot.

To the crockpot, add drained beans, diced tomatoes, corn, cumin, peppers, oregano and stir.Add the chicken breasts; cover and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours


To serve, sprinkle cheese on top of hot soup and allow to melt.