Cheap Eats and Frugal Recipes: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Okay, another recipe. Because it's cold out and this tastes great. Really, really great. Soup for breakfast great.

Rebecca's Chicken Tortilla Soup

3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 cans Rotel tomatoes with green chiles
2 poblano peppers, chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
5 medium plum tomatoes, quartered
3 T garlic (I like garlic)
2 cans chicken broth
1 can tomato paste
1 T comino
1 T chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
water
2 bunches fresh cilantro, chopped
shredded Mexican 4-cheese blend (Kraft)
corn tortilla chips

In a Dutch oven (mine is a 5.5 qt Le Creuset, woo), combine all the ingredients except 1 bunch of the cilantro, the cheese, and the chips. (I know many say never add fresh herbs till the end, but I like to put fresh cilantro in this soup while it's cooking.) Add water as needed to cover the ingredients, you want a good amount of liquid. It'll boil down.

Simmer for 1-2 hours, till done. Remove the chicken breasts, take fork and shred them. Return the shreds into the soup. Add the remaining chopped cilantro.

Serve in bowls with crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese on top. Some folk add sliced avocado and/or globs of sour cream. You choose - I didn't miss them.

Cheap Eats and Frugal Recipes: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

We've all have them, we all love them, and there's lots of memories we all share about the All American Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

Here's what I recommend as your jumping-off board for a Great Grilled Cheese:

1. It's GRILLED. None of this throwing the bread into a toaster and then slapping the cheese between the toasted slices and nuking it in the microwave. That's just sad. Don't try the toaster oven, either. Suck it up and get your frying pan out. You've got to use the stove top for this one.

2. Get your butter. Not fake butter - no Country Crock here. The real stuff. Throw a tablespoon into your frying pan, or onto your griddle, and let it melt.

3. Take two thick slices of bread and throw them onto the hot, buttery panface. Here, you can play with flavors and textures as time goes by: a pumpernickel grilled cheese can be decadent, a rye can be nice, and a traditional white bread can be scrumpious. Around here, it's usually a 12-grain baked by the local grocer.

4. Slap some mustard and some mayo onto those slices as they are toasting up. I suppose you could do this before they hit the heat, but it can be messier that way. And, yes -- one of the big secrets here is a little bit of both: mustard and mayo.

5. Now, carefully place your cheese slices on the bread. A little on each toasting slice. Once again, play with the flavors. Swiss with the rye and some German mustard versus american on whole wheat with dijon - you get the idea.

6. Using a spatula, take one of your slices and carefully place it atop the other. Voila! A magnificent, tasty, and cheap meal for you!

For more information:

Alton Brown's Big Cheese Squeeze (he grates his cheese, and opts for olive oil instead of butter)

Emeril's Baby Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (he uses cream cheese combined with mascapone, and adds chives to the mix)

Sandra Lee's Grilled Cheese and Crab Sandwiches (yep, she adds canned crab to shredded Gruyere)

Julia Child's Grilled Cheese and Onion Sandwich () she uses English Muffins, thinly sliced raw onions, and Parmesan cheese).

Still More Free Movies: Fancast

Fancast is creating quite a nice menu of movies and TV show episodes that you can watch for free. As an example of what you can see, right now, for free, check out some of their listings under M and N:

The Madness of King George
The Magic Sword
The Magnificent Seven
The Man Who Never Was
Man Without a Gun
The Man from Planet X
Man of La Mancha
Master and Commander

The Milagro Beanfield War
Moby Dick
Moonstruck
More Dead Than Alive
Mrs. Pollifax - Spy
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Muscle Beach Party
My Name Is Joe


Naked Lunch
Ned Kelly
Niagara, Niagara
Nicholas Nickleby
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
Nine Lives
Nobody's Fool
North Shore