Happy Sunday afternoon, everyone! I don’t know about you – but it is downright freezing around my house today (actually, technically it is below freezing). I have been drinking tea all afternoon and I was so thankful to have a bunch of Chicken Tortilla soup on the stove for lunch today. It wasn’t until I had a steaming hot bowl of chicken tortilla soup that I finally warmed up today.

I had been wanting to make this recipe for weeks and yesterday I motivated myself to get up, make a list and get to the grocery store. I only needed a couple of ingredients to make the soup – but I was completely dreading going to the grocery store the weekend before Thanksgiving. I took a deep breath, drove to the store, parked and went into get my groceries. I was so surprised by how low key the grocery store was! I was even talking to other people as they were getting produce, too and we were all shocked by how pleasant and non-packed to the gills the grocery store was. I felt so lucky!

I got home and quickly chopped onion, minced garlic and a jalapeño pepper. I started the crock pot and put in the chicken breast and chicken stock that I already had on hand.

I really like crock pot recipes when I have a lot of other things to do because there is so much hands off time involved! Yesterday it was quite helpful to have hands off time. I helped clean the house and get things set for dinner as we were having a friend over for the chicken tortilla soup. It also gave me time to make corn muffins and a pumpkin pie for dessert. I also had time to exercise: 46:30 minutes on the treadmill at a nice incline and took turns between walking and jogging. I also got a lot of reading done.

The soup turned out very well. We garnished it with Cabot cheddar cheese, cilantro, guacamole, a dab of sour cream and tortilla chips. The soup was even better the next day for lunch:

(I am totally having more for dinner tonight! It really warms you up on a cold day!)

We made a couple of changes to the recipe. 1. We used 1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast instead of chicken thighs (nothing against dark meat, I just decided to use white meat). 2. We added a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes. 3. We used three cans of black beans because we love beans!

In other news, last weekend I discovered some pretty amazing cookies. Have you ever thought of making cookies with chickpeas?? I must admit that I had never thought about something so inventive – but I found this recipe on Facebook! Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups canned* chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter (can use PB2 from gym to make healthier, check your labels)
1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (agave would be amazing too!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn’t have salt in it
1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips

* My can was a 400 gram can, 240 grams without the water, and I used all but a few tablespoons

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F

Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they’re combined.

Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.

Right now we are loving the dark chocolate mini chunks from Whole Foods. I can’t find anything that compares to these little pieces of goodness:

With wet hands, form into 1 1/2″balls. Place onto a piece of parchment paper.

If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don’t do much rising. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Yields about fourteen 1 1/2″cookie dough balls

Final product:

I can’t tell you how much we loved these cookies! You really should eat them while still warm. If they have cooled just stink a couple in the microwave or toaster oven to warm them back up. They are definitely a new favorite in our house!

I hope you continue to enjoy your weekend. Happy cooking & baking!