Chicken Tortilla Soup

Pinterest is the only thing that motivates me to cook. Seriously. Well, that and my Crockpot. I found another good recipe on Pinterest that I decided to make for dinner this week. Of course, it involved my Crockpot. I strongly dislike cooking, but if the recipe allows me to use my Crockpot to make the meal then it has a much better chance of actually happening. I especially love Crockpot recipes that feed like 8 people so that I can make it at the beginning of the week and then we can have it for lunch or dinner throughout the week. Do you see how much effort I put into avoiding actual cooking? It's a gift really. Anywho, today's awesome Crockpot recipe is brought to you by Rachel from Baked by Rachel.

You will need:

1lb chicken breast, shredded

15oz can sweet whole corn kernels, drained

15oz can diced tomatoes, drained

5C chicken stock

3/4C onion, chopped

3/4C green pepper, chopped

1 serrano pepper, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Seasoned tortilla strips

*The original recipe calls for you to cook the chicken breasts in the Crockpot for a few hours and then shred them by hand. Well this girl does not have the time or energy for all the nonsense, so I bought ground chicken breast meat and browned it in a pan prior to putting it in my Crockpot. I always go for the quick and easy option thank you very much.

So if you are using my method...season the ground chicken breast meat with salt and pepper and then brown it in a pan. Add the first 9 ingredients on the list to your Crockpot and put it on low heat. Let it simmer for about an hour. The end. Seriously, that is all you have to do. Do we see why I love the Crockpot so much now?

You can serve the soup immediately, but I recommend making it the day before you want to eat it (that way the soup has time to thicken up and not be so liquid-y). Put it in the refrigerator overnight and re-heat it in the Crockpot when you are ready to serve. After re-heating, spoon portions into bowls and then top each portion with a generous helping of shredded cheese and tortilla strips (if you can't find tortilla strips in your grocery store than just get some tortilla chips and crush them up). Enjoy!