Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe and Spring Cleaning

So, this morning I spent 3 hours cleaning my house. I guess I got the Spring Cleaning bug. :) I did all my regular cleaning, then moved all the furniture out of my kitchen and dining room and cleaned the wood floors. 

Then I took my kitchen trash can outside and scrubbed it down with clorox cleanup. After I dried it and brought it back inside, I noticed it had a few scuff marks by the foot pedal. So I used my trusty magic eraser and cleaned it right up. I'm telling ya...magic erasers can get so many stains off of so many things. Love them!

Funny story...I was grocery shopping one day and was on the cleaning supply aisle. There was a man looking totally lost going up and down the aisle. He kept glancing down at the list in his hand, then looking up at the shelves. He finally said "Excuse me, but do you know if there's really something called a...well...umm...a magic eraser?" He almost whispered the "magic eraser" words. He had kind of a shy smile and was a little embarrassed. 

I told him there WAS in fact something called a "magic eraser" and I told him to follow me and I showed him where they were. He said "Well, what do you know, it's a real thing. I thought my wife was pulling my leg and trying to embarrass me by asking for this magic thing." Lol!

Anyway, after I scrubbed the trash can with my magic eraser, I noticed the laundry room door had a few scuff marks on it too. So, I started scrubbing it down with the magic eraser. Then I went on to scrub little spots on every single door in the house! The door from the garage into the house was the worst one. It had some greasy hand prints on it, but I scrubbed it down and got it sparkling again. :)

Then, after reading my friend Selene's Post about cleaning her laundry room, I decided to do a little extra cleaning in there too. So, you see Selene, this cleaning binge is all your fault. Lol!

I don't know why, but when doing my regular cleaning, I always forget about the laundry room, which is bad because the laundry room gets pretty dusty with all the dryer lint flying around in there. So, I took everything off the shelves and dusted them, removed the rug and scrubbed the floor, and even cleaned up under my washer and dryer. 

Below you can see the white linoleum in the laundry room. This used to be in our kitchen too. When we had the hardwoods installed, we intended to put them in the laundry room, but the installers talked us out of it. So, the white linoleum remains. :)

I still need to clean the windowsills and dust the blinds and ceiling fans, but I'm saving all that for next week. 

Okay, so now on to the chicken tortilla soup recipe. Here's a pic of the finished product:

And here's the recipe:

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

One can corn, drained

Two cans chicken broth

Three boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

One can black beans, drained and rinsed

One can rotel

One teaspoon garlic powder

One teaspoon oregano

One teaspoon cumin 

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Tortilla strips for topping

Put everything in stock pot (except tortilla strips) Simmer until heated through. Serve topped with tortilla strips.

Don't you just love recipes where the instructions are only a sentence or two? :) 

This recipe is easily adaptable too. You can add or take away anything you want. Lots of people add different seasonings or top the soup with things like avocado, shredded cheese, cilantro, etc.

Below are the tortilla strips we use. I get them in the produce section at the grocery store. They add a nice, tasty crunch to the soup.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back soon to share a couple more recipes I've tried lately. We actually found a few new things to add to our regular dinner rotation. :)

~Lisa