Help a Girl Out with Some Tortilla Soup!

When I had my first baby, a wonderful "newer" friend from my church set up a "Meal Train" for me and my hubby (Marc).   Basically, what it is is a site where people can go to sign up to bring someone meals when they are going through some life crisis/transition and need a helping hand.  As new parents we found it not only SO HELPFUL to have people bring us food, when we were adjusting to our new life as parents and it was wonderful to quickly visit with the family and friends when they made the food drop off.

Some people just dropped the food at the door, some stayed for dinner themselves. Some made home made or even future frozen dinners and some just picked up carry-out for us.  Regardless, it was a super nice gesture.

That being said, a woman from my church MOPS group (Mothers Of Pre Schoolers) just had a super pre-term baby (like at 24 weeks!) and I just signed up to bring her and her family a meal. Through this experience I have been introduced to a new coordination site for this kind of thing: www.carecalendar.org .  It is free to sign up and set up a "meal train" and coordinates a calendar of who is bringing what meal when. It also has maps and directions to the persons home, meal ideas, etc. And it is super easy to use!

So based off the food preferences listed, I have decided to make Chicken Tortilla Soup! Now my favorite version of this soup is the one from Max and Erma's and I am pretty sure I have the recipe for that somewhere... Yes! Here it is: http://www.food.com/recipe/max-ermas-chicken-tortilla-soup-sues-original-clone-158138 . But largely the best part of Max and Erma's soup is the deep fried crispy chips on top! (Of course they are the best part!)

Max and Erma's Tortilla Soup from foodspotting.com 

However, if I am lazy, another version I have made in the past is tasty as well (and waaaay less fattening) which is always a bonus. It is a dried mix made by Bear Creek that I can pick up at most major grocery stores for between $3-$4... FYI: I shop religiously at Kroger!

Package of dried Tortilla Soup Mix by Bear Creek (Just add water and meat!)

I either grill up chicken and add it to the mix OR pan fry up some ground turkey meat and it does the trick as well, to make this soup more of a meal than an appetizer.  It also freezes well so it is perfect if you make a big pot and freeze the left overs.   I also recommend topping with some lite sour cream and cheddar cheese and dipping tortilla chips. The coldness of the sour cream is so yummy contrasting the hottness of the soup. Are coldness and hottness words? LOL!