Cheater Tortilla Soup by Steph

I don't know if I should really be posting this on this blog, since is was so far from Martha's version it probably doesn't count. The last week and a half have been the worst of my life. We are counting the days until Andrew comes home from deployment, but it seems to drag the worst at the end (like a pregnancy). On top of that, my kids are both sick, leaving us all stuck inside with bad moods and no energy. So my lame attempt at tortilla soup was only to check it off my list.
I say cheater tortilla soup because as I was making it, I realized that if I were getting a grade for this, I should get an F. After all, it is Martha Stewart University, and although there are no professors, I still look at this as a school of sorts. So somebody give me an F. I felt like I was using Cliff Notes the whole time instead of doing the real thing.

First, I cooked the chicken WHOLE in the crock pot. I didn't cut it up and boil it, and I didn't make homemade stock. It was way easier, and I didn't have to deal with my salmonella phobia.

Instead of frying my own tortilla strips (even though I bought corn tortillas for that purpose), I used my favorite pre-fried kind.








I couldn't find a dried pasilla chile, so I used what I had at home - green taco sauce. Mmmm. Cheater's delight.
















Like I said, making my own chicken stock was out of the question, so I used my favorite kind from Costco. The soup was pretty good. Definitely not something I will make again, as I already had a good tortilla soup recipe that gives me much more pleasure and far less guilt about skipping steps.
















And while I'm taking pictures of food, let me include one of my favorite snack. Delicious, and only 35 calories. I always eat 2 wedges because of that. It's practically as low fat as eating air, but yummy and more filling. I dip the afore-mentioned Santitas in the cheese, and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. After my unsatisfying tortilla soup experience, all I needed was a Laughing Cow wedge to cheer me up.