Taco Soup

This has become my go-to meal for taking to families with new babies. Easy, relatively cheap, and it feeds a ton of people. Remember the old school recipe with taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix? This was inspired by that, but I'm way too cheap to buy ranch dressing just for soup, so inspired is used loosely. Because of the ranch ingredient, I used dried parsley and garlic in this, which I think work well.

Taco Soup
loosely inspired by the retro ranch-dressing-including taco soup

1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
4 cups pinto beans
16 oz frozen corn
4 oz canned green chiles
3-14 oz cans diced tomatoes (for this batch, I did fire roasted, whole, and diced plain)
4 cups water
1 t salt
2 t cumin
2 t coriander
1 T chili powder
1 t pepper
1 T dried parsley flakes (there's my nod to the ranch)
2 t garlic powder

toppings: chopped cilantro, lime wedges, diced jalapeno, sliced radishes, chips, sour cream, cheese

Cook the ground beef and onion together until beef is browned and onion is translucent. Drain if needed. Add all other ingredients, and allow to simmer for 1 hour for flavors to blend. Serve with assorted toppings (the fun part!).

Meal Plan 1/23

Another week, another meal plan.

Tuesday: red chili

Wednesday: potluck (we're taking salad)

Thursday: black bean burgers, chips, salad

Friday: potato stuffed peppers in a guajillo chile sauce (recipe coming tomorrow!), rice, beans

Saturday: bean and rice burritos with green chiles (lunch), ribeye, chard, salad, baked potatoes (supper)

Sunday: pasta with broccoli (lunch), sweet potato black bean chili (supper)

Monday: Moe's Monday (I promised my kids that if they'd eat cheap stuff all week, I'd save out enough money for this, which they adore. Lots of beans this week, only to eat more beans at a restaurant. Go figure. )

The Perfect Meal for Monday

We love red beans and rice here. So good it makes your heart sing. My whole life I've heard that you eat red beans and rice on Mondays, so that's what we do. (It's a good, slow cooking, not much attention, meal for washday.) And, don't let it fool you. This sounds (and might look) like a winter dish, but it's completely appropriate in the summer, too. Just use your crockpot for the beans (or buy canned).

First, you cook the beans. These were cooked with a ham bone, so that's why you can see some of the fat in the broth. If you aren't a fan, you can chill the beans, then take the chilled fat off the top. Or be lazy like me. It's all good.

Beans take 2-3 hours to cook stovetop. Or like I said, use your crockpot. I do all day on low, half a day on high (how's that for exact?). Once the beans are cooked, use a wooden spoon to mash about 1/4 of them into the broth. It'll make the whole bean dish thicker.

I prefer the contrasting texture of smooth beans and vegetables that still have some body, so I add everything else at the end. This is 1/2 lb andouille, onions, a bell pepper, and celery (the trinity). Cook all that up, then dump it into the pot of beans.

Serve over white rice (and don't be like me--at least take the time to wipe off the rim of the bowl). The perfect slow cooked Monday dish while you do laundry (you do your laundry on Monday, right??).

I'm linked to Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam today!