Mummified Frog and Tortilla Soup

With some bonus fruit salad.

First off, the frog. In my effort to organize my life, I sort of have a schedule of what gets done when, like vacuuming on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, laundry whenever I run out of underwear or don't have the money to go buy more, and mowing the lawn on Friday. Mowing the lawn was always Keith's job, but I started doing it since he is the one who actually leaves the house to go to work, and it doesn't seem quite fair for him to have to spend his day off mowing the lawn. Not to mention the fact that he usually didn't feel like mowing the lawn so there was never any set day to mow it and it definitely looked like it. So, Fridays it is and the yard stays looking nice.

Anyway, I'm putting the lawn mower back in the shed and I feel resistance under one of the wheels and see what looks like a piece of rusty weird shaped metal hanging up the wheel, and as I go in for a closer look realize that it is a completely dried up frog. GROSS! ACK! YUCK!

Do I just leave it there and tell Keith that there is a petrified frog in the shed when he gets home from work or do I swallow the gorge rising in my throat and somehow pick that frog up and put it in the trash? I'm deciding how to pick it up. Do I go in the house and get a paper towel and some tongs or a broom and a dustpan or find a shovel in the shed, which means I would have to step over the frog to find a shovel? But, there hanging on the inside of the shed door is a big metal dustpan and maybe I can just kind of scoop the frog up. Which I did. Which totally grossed me out, but at least the frog wasn't flopping around because it was so completely dried up.

Ick.

And, now, if your appetite isn't totally ruined, we had some good chicken tortilla soup last night from a recipe I found on the internet.

I TBSP olive oil
3 TSP minced garlic (I left the garlic out because my stomach just doesn't like any garlic in it anymore)
1 TBSP dried onion
1 4oz can chopped green chiles
1 15oz can beef broth
2 15oz cans chicken broth ( I totally forgot to buy the chicken broth so I just used the chicken bouillon stuff that comes in a little jar and mixed it with the right amount of water)
2 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1 TSP each of ground cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper
1 TBSP steak sauce
1 cup water
1 1/2-2 cups shredded cooked chicken

Toppings:
grated cheddar cheese
tortilla chips or strips
sour cream (if you are so inclined, Keith put some on his soup, I'm not fond of sour cream on my soup)

In a large dutch oven, saute onion and garlic in oil (I skipped this step and just put the onion in, no sauteeing). Add the rest of the ingredients (except for toppings, duh) and let simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. To serve, top with your desired toppings.

This came out really good and this recipe is definitely a keeper.

I think next time I make it I might try adding some zucchini or something for a little extra vegetables.

And, Yogurt Fruit Salad. We had this with some barbecued chicken breasts that were cooked on our new Patio Bistro barbecue the other night. I don't do a lot of fruit because of the carbs and sugars in fruit, but every once in a while is okay if I don't eat too much of it.

2 large apples, chopped
1 cup green grapes, halved ( I used red grapes and didn't cut them in half because they were small and that's a lot of extra work cutting grapes up but I'm guessing it's so nobody chokes on a grape)
1 cup sliced peeled peaches or pears ( we didn't have any peaches or pears so these were not included but pears would probably be pretty good in this)
1 cup dried cherries ( I didn't have dried cherries either but did have some pomegranate flavored dried cranberries that added a nice tang to the salad)
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt ( I used my carb smart yogurt, they have a new vanilla chai flavor )
6 lettuce leaves ( totally omitted this, too )

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Add the yogurt, toss to coat. Serve on lettuce if you want to be all fancy.