Last man standing

Everyone in my house, except me, is sick.  I feel fine.  *knock wood*  Thankfully, my boys are old enough that I can leave them home with Beer Geek, even in his “I feel like crap” state.  Otherwise, I think my head would explode if I couldn’t leave the house.

How am I staying healthy?  Well, first, I ran 6 lovely miles today.  I hit my planned pace exactly, despite a few wicked hills.  I love being back to the point that 6 miles is relatively easy.

Also, winter has returned, so I’m making my famous vegetarian tortilla soup.  Since I’m such a wonderful, generous person, I’m going to share that with you.  Now, I’m off to the grocery store to help Jones earn a part of his Bear badge.  Please think positive thoughts for me.  Also?  I am out of nuun and that constitues an emergency around here.

VEGETARIAN TORTILLA SOUP

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3/4 c. chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. chili powder
5 c. vegetable broth
4 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
2 cans diced tomatoes with chilis
2/3 c. canned black beans, rinsed, drained
2/3 c. chopped zucchini
frozen corn
Tortilla chips
grated cheese (optional)
avocado (optional)
hot sauce (optional)

Spray large nonstick saucepan with vegetable oil spray. Add onion and garlic; cook over medium-low heat until almost tender, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, cumin and chili powder.

Add broth, diced tomatoes and 2 tbsp. cilantro.  Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer until flavors blend, about 15 minutes.

(I put it in a 4 quart crock pot instead of the above step. After about an hour, I added the below ingredients.)

Add beans and whatever amount of frozen corn looks good.  Cover and cook on high in crock pot for two hours or 4-8 hours on low.  If not using a crock pot, add zucchini at this point as well. Cover and simmer until zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. If using a crock pot, add zucchini about an hour before serving or precook the zucchini.

Ladle soup into bowls. I put out bowls of cheddar cheese, cilantro, avocado, and tortilla chips so that people can add in whatever they want.  This is a very forgiving recipe and ingredients can be tweaked to make it fit your needs (for example, sometimes I add chicken or use chicken broth, sometimes I add hominy, sometimes I add more or less spices. I never make it the same way twice and it’s always been awesome.) Ingredients can easily be increased to fill a 6 quart crock pot.