Mexico City Soup!!

If your life is anything like mine, you are always looking for good home-cooked meals that you can make in 30 minutes!! Well, I have one for you but I can't take all the claim to how DELICIOUS it is since the recipe came from a friend of mine - Zelda Wilmoth!! But thanks to her, this soup never fails to get eaten down to its LAST drop!!

Here's the recipe since everyone is always wanting it - enjoy!!! :)

1 Whole Chicken OR 4 Lg. Chicken Breast, cooked and shredded
2 Boxes of Chicken Stock (see no. 2)
1/2-3/4 Cups of Rice
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/3 of an onion, small slices
3 tsp. Cumin
2 tsp. Chili Powder
4 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 cup. of frozen corn

Toppings:

Tomatoes, diced
Onions, diced
Avocado, slices
Cheese, shredded
Tortilla Chips

1 Whole Cooked Chicken - You have 2 options here: Either buy a rotisserie chicken at the store and just de-bone it OR you can boil a chicken for a few hours (fill a large pot with water and add 3 tsp. of cumin, 2 tsp. of chili powder, 4 whole peeled garlic cloves, salt and pepper to taste and 1 tsp. of cayenne pepper) - bring to a boil and cook for 2 hours. Once it's done - take the chicken out to cool and use your broth to make your soup - DON'T FORGET, mash the garlic cloves into the broth or you'll get a super burst to your taste buds of garlic! lol!

2. If you bought a rotisserie chicken from the store - you will need to buy 2 boxes of chicken stock. I use Kitchen Basics....thinking.....well, I can't remember but just look for the one that is a yellow box and has the word Kitchen on it. ha! Don't forget to add all the spices mentioned in no. 1, put on med-high heat and then bring down to medium when you put the rice in.

*I usually add 1 box of stock to my chicken broth from the chicken I cooked because we have a big family PLUS, we love leftovers! So, that would make it equivalent to approx. 3 boxes of stock if I were doing the broth all from store bought boxes.

3. Add 1/2 cup of rice to your broth (if you are using equipvalent to 3 boxes like I do, put in 3/4 cup of rice), the onions, the corn and the cilantro - cook on medium heat until the rice is done, take about 20 minutes. While this is cooking, de-bone your chicken and add to the broth.

4. Cut up your toppings while your soup is finishing up.

5. Ta-da!! Your done!! Your family will 'ooh' and 'aahhh!' over this meal and so will your company!! So, happy cooking!! You'll have this meal done within 25-30 minutes max, especially if you get your chicken already cooked!

From my crazy kitchen to yours,

Tracee

Turqouise Shoes

Everything I do in my life, everything I say, everywhere I go, I want it to be surrounded in hot pursuit of the one I love - Jesus. It's amazing how when you add Jesus to everything you do in your everyday life how it changes your perspective, your meaning, your purpose, even down to what you buy at the store to how you go about living out your day. I have learned that when I keep my mind so aware of God's presence in my daily life how much more I am directed with meaning in what I do and say.

One of the dynamic things I have learned in my 29 years...Okay, add a few here and there, is how much EVERYTHING matters to God. And I really mean EVERYTHING. The more we pursue Him in our daily lives, the more we will discover how much He LOVES being right smack in the middle of all that we do.

I'll never forget this day about 4 years ago. Finances were tight but my kids, who never seem to EVER stop getting taller, needed some summer clothing even though the current jeans they were wearing were almost short enough to be called shorts! lol! Mark was heading to a meeting in another city and wanted me to go with him, drop him off and then was like, "You could go shopping while I'm at this meeting and then come back and get me when I'm done." Of course, I LOVED THAT IDEA! I had $100.00 I had been saving and felt this was the oppurtunity I was waiting for - and yes - Point 1: Pursue God in EVERYTHING!! I asked the Lord if I could use this money towards my kids clothing and had total release that I could.

So, I happily drove Mark to his meeting and took off toward the store in which I asked the Lord where to go - before I knew it, I found my car heading to Kohl's. The moment I walked in, it was me and God. Shopping with God is a BLAST!! I asked Him where to go, so off to the boy's department we went. I found ridiculous deals for them, and then felt led to go to the Men's department where I found even more ridiculous deals - I'm talking, 4 dress shirts for a total of $8.00!! Between these 2 departments my $100.00 was almost gone. I had a few dollars to spare and I asked the Lord, "Now where?" I felt to go to the shoe department. I was baffled but went there anyways - I didn't have a clue what I was looking for but felt that I would find this treasure when I got there. I looked at all the clearance but there wasn't anything for my kids but there happen to be LOADS of size 10 women's shoes on clearance. I started opening up the boxes of shoes and trying them on...that's what we do, right? lol!! All the sudden, I came to a box, (is your heart racing...lol!), I opened it up and there they were, a beautiful pair of shimmery turquoise wedge heels. I put them on and they were a perfect fit....I was scared to look at the price but when I did, I couldn't believe what I saw - $3.00. The moment I picked up that box, I knew that God saved them for me. I had been looking for a pair of shoes EXACTLY like that for 3 years. What blew me away about that day is God showed me how much He cares about the little things - like my desire for a turqouise pair of shoes.

Point 2: Pursue Him in everything you do EVERY SINGLE DAY YOU LIVE because everything matters to Him...everything you do. His love is deeper than any love we will ever experience, He shows it in beautiful ways like my turqouise pair of shoes...

Pursuing the One I love,

Tracee Davidson