Pinterest inspired Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Normally my goal is to recreate a Pinterest recipe to the exact specifications of the recipe. Sometimes however necessity (i.e. not having all of the ingredients) dictates small changes and sometimes personal tastes and desires means changing the recipe a lot. When I decided to try this specific recipe and I actually pursued all the ingredients I decided that this would become a "Pinterest Inspired" recipe, not quite a recreation and not quite an original  I was taking a chance since I would be changing so much of the amounts and some of the ingredients but I figured when it comes to this blog a little failure never hurt anyone (and I always have oven ready pizza on reserve in the freezer.)

The original recipe comes from http://themomthehousewife.blogspot.com/2012/09/chicken-fiesta-soup.html and I am sure it is delicious in its own right. This recipe to helped me to clean some items out of my fridge to make room for the new groceries I bought this morning. So here are my recipe amounts, but keep in mind I was winging it so this could easily be adjusted to fit the tastes of the chef.

2 shredded chicken breasts (I had these in the fridge already, I cooked about 5 chicken breasts a few days before in the crock-pot so I would have shredded chicken to eat all weekend. I had about 2 breasts worth by this morning.)
Half a bottle of V8 Low Sodium- about 32 oz
2/3 a 24 oz jar of mild salsa
Half a box of chicken broth (about 16oz)
1 can of mild Enchilada sauce
1 can of corn (slightly strained but you can leave some water in it)
1/2 a small sweet onion chopped
Spice wise I sprinkled in some salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and smoked chipotle Tabasco. I tend not to like things too spicy and I was hoping I could get an almost 4 year old to eat it so I didn't go to heavy on any of the spicy stuff.

Throw all of these ingredients in the crock-pot, stir to mix everything together, and put the heat on low. I set the timer for 5 hours since the original recipe called for 4-6 hours on low. I happen to be tracking calories on MyFitnessPal (a great website and app by the way) and put the recipe in to see how many calories was in it. Now don't quote me on exact amounts but if you split this recipe in 6 servings (which would be pretty large servings) it would only have about 198 calories per serving, so obviously it is pretty low calorie (without the garnishes which we'll get to in a second).

After the timer goes off just put it in bowl with as much cheese as you would desire (we used the Great Value Mexican Cheese Blend). I also added a spoonful of light sour cream to mine as well.

With cheese

After sour cream and cheese mixed together

We ate this with tortilla chips as well (which obviously throws the 198 calories a serving thing out the window). The hubs and I thought it was delicious and even the kid ate a good bit (by her eating standards). The flavors came together very well and had just enough spice to add flavor without it being too hot. The thing I love about this recipe is how easily it can be adjusted for personal taste. You could add more spice, more heat, different salsa, different types of beans, different chilies and it would still turned out good. We have 2 small servings for lunch tomorrow and one large serving that will be going in the freezer to save for later. You could also add more of each ingredient in a larger crock-pot and easily serve a crowd. I highly suggest trying this recipe and then letting me know what changes you made and how it turned out. There is nothing better than an easy and highly versatile recipe to have ready in your cooking arsenal.