Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Thanks to Lauren Ann for sharing the post below!

Having a big pot of soup on hand during the cold fall days is just the best. This soup is spicy, hearty and makes you feel good and appreciate the cold weather. It is spicy but not overwhelmingly so. I like having a lot of extra chopped items like cilantro, avocado, cheese and red onion so that you can doctor up your soup how you like.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Sara found this recipe recently and we made it for lunch (yes, lunch, because it really doesn’t take much time). I sometimes shy away from soups because I don’t think they’ll be hearty enough or very flavorful, but this soup turned out awesome. It’s a brightened version of chicken noodle soup and the lemon is amazing in it. Grab a good baguette to eat with it and you’re set.

Buy a Microplane for zesting if you don’t have one yet!

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
(based on recipe from damndelicious.net)

• 2 T olive oil, divided
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 t dried thyme
• 4 C (1 quart) chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 3/4 C uncooked orzo pasta
• 1 sprig rosemary
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Chicken Pot Pie: Comfort Food at its Finest

Each Sunday, Joanna and I map out a menu of meals for the week. It’s habit we formed a few years back, and it helps us keep our grocery budget in check.

I find that in the fall, our menus are often flooded with comfort food dishes – staples like macaroni and cheese (with bacon or jalapeños!), meatloaf and lasagna. My favorite, and a dish I look forward to all summer long, is chicken pot pie.

Greek Lemon Chicken

This dish has beat out its competitors as the go-to choice when my family all comes together for dinner. Whenever Sara and I and our girls visit my parents, my mom makes this dish for dinner…because I request it pretty much every time. Therefore, it had to appear during our tribute-to-mom recipe week. It’s not fancy or a culinary masterpiece, but it is modern comfort food that goes perfect with glass(es) of wine. Anytime chicken, lemon, and feta are combined, good things are bound to happen.

A disclaimer about the name of this dish–this is not an authentic Greek dish per se, but more of a Greek-ish dish. I don’t see a perfectly bronzed Greek couple, lying on a mediterranean coast in flowing earthen-colored garb, nibbling Kalamata olives and swigging olive oil going for this dish. However, I could see a large, boisterous Greek family digging this meal and chasing it with shots of Ouzo, followed by vigorous dancing in a circle.