Taco Soup

As I'm sitting here trying to think of what to write as a prelude to this delicious recipe, my mind is blank. And I'm realizing that some of you might not even read the stuff I write in each blog post. You might just be here for the recipe. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I know I've said it before, but this blog started out as a way for me to keep track of my favorite recipes, and for my mom and I to share recipes that we like with each other. And I still write on that blog for that purpose. I love having my favorite recipes saved on here. And when I don't know what to make for dinner I love being able to look at my own food blog, and knowing that I have loved all of the recipes I've posted on here, and therefor any recipe I choose will be delicious.

As Ron Swanson would say "You may have thought you heard me say I wanted a lot of bacon and eggs, but what I said was: Give me all the bacon and eggs you have.". (Any other Parks and Rec lovers out there? ) What I'm afraid you heard me say is that I only blog to keep track of my recipes, but what I actually said was I love having my recipes saved on here. And that doesn't mean I don't love having readers too.

We are growing, people. Slowly, but surely the blog is growing. And I want to know what you think. So spill the beans. Please?!!!! Do you like the recipes we post? Do you want more crock pot recipes, more dessert recipes, more chicken recipes, etc. Have you tried our recipes? How did they turn out? What did you change? What did you like? Dislike? Do you like reading about our lives too? Do you like our silly stories about making a recipe? Or inspirations? Or what? Speak to me. We've got a lot of followers, and I want to know YOU. So tell me about yourself, share 7 random things about you, like we did here. And post them in a comment, or a link to it.

The recipe I am going to share today, is actually one of the first recipes I ever posted on this blog. Back in the day when the recipe was only read by mother and I. But back then I didn't take pictures, and this is such a simple and delicious recipe that I have to share it again.

Taco Soup
1 lb ground beef
one can of corn
one can of beans (black or pinto)

1 cup salsa
1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes(or tomato sauce)


tortilla chips
toppings (sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro, guacamole, etc.)


1. Combine ground beef, corn, beans, taco seasoning, salsa and tomatoes in a crock pot.
2. Stir together.
3. Cook on low for about 6 hours, or on high for 3.
4. Top with desired toppings and tortilla chips.

Enjoy.


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Lentil Soup

My dear friend Mahana shared this recipe with me.  I was at her home for a bread making lesson and she realized that I came straight from work and had not had time to eat lunch. She warmed up her lentil soup and I immediately asked for the recipe.  Mahana is a wonderful cook and she changes the flavor of dishes by the spices she add.  She has also made this using paprika, cumin, chili, marjoram or curry; and not necessary in any particular combination.  I used an Italian based seasoning because it was what I had and trusted.  If you like to experiment you can try different combinations of the other spices and see what you like. 

1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 cup barley or 1 cup balsamic rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 small onion chopped
1/2 cup dried celery (you can use fresh celery,  if you do reduce the amount of water used)
approximately 8 cups of water
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 to 2 cups diced ham (not deli but good spiral ham, I used some I had frozen left over from Easter dinner) or mini sausage links or horseshoe sausage (sliced)
2 Tbs crushed parsley
1 1/2 Tbs crushed oregano
1 Tbs. crushed basil
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper

Heat oil in a deep saucepan or pot.  Chop onions and slice meat (if you use the mini links you can leave them whole).  Place onions in the hot oil, (if using fresh celery add now) add meat and saute until onions are translucent.  Add chicken broth, make sure you scrape any particles of meat and onions off the bottom of the pan to incorporate the flavor in the soup.  Add lentils, barley or rice and spices (if using dried celery add at this time), stir in 2 cups of water or enough to cover the lentils and barley by 1 inch.  Simmer for about 1 hour until lentils and barley are soft.  Stirring regularly and adding more water as needed; 1 to 2 cups at a time. I probably cooked this for about 1 1/2 hours and added water every 20 to 30 minutes.  Our soup was thick, but still felt like soup.

Once lentils and barley or rice is soft.  Serve.  We had fresh fruit and warm bread, I think a salad would be delicious with this too.

This makes a lot of soup.  We had enough for dinner, leftovers for another whole meal and froze enough for 2 more dinners for us.

Potato and Corn Soup

On Sunday we  FINALLY cooked something (instead of eating meals we've frozen, frozen pizza, or fast food). We decided to make steaks, and I knew there had to be a side with it. I was thinking about making a loaded mashed potato casserole, but decided that making a soup would be a little healthier. Because this soup doesn't have any cream in it, except for the amount of sodium, its really healthy (the sour cream we added was even fat free which has like 0 calories, and tastes great too)

I was inspired to make this recipe through reading at least 2 or 3 other recipes and figuring it out myself. I even had this for dinner last night as leftovers and it was just as good.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 fresh jalapeño, seeded and finely diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
5-6 medium potatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 cups frozen corn
1 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS chives

1. In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add chopped onion, diced jalapeno and salt and pepper.
3. Cook about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, peel potatoes.
5. Cut potatoes into 1 inch sized pieces.
6. Add broth, water, and potatoes to onion mixture.
7. Bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
9. Coarsely mash potatoes using a potato masher, or fork.
10. Add corn and cook for 5 more minutes.
11. Stir in lemon juice, chives and addition salt or pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Tomato Basil Soup

Although I made this soup on the stove top, we finished it off by putting it in the crock pot (the soup could easily be made completely in the crock pot as well) for about an hour to keep it warm, and to let the flavors blend together nicely while we ran some errands.  And let me tell you, the flavors of this soup were divine. And for one who grew up hating tomatoes and tomato soup (I still won't eat tomatoes, except in sauces/salsa), it says a lot that I think this soup tasted amazing. And whether you make this on the stove or in your crock pot, I think you'll love this too.

*This only made enough soup for about 3 servings, so if you are feeding more people you will probably want to double the recipe.

1 1/2 TBS minced garlic,
1 TBS olive oil
3 large tomatoes

2 cups chicken broth
1/2 TBS salt

1/2 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 TBS basil

1. Juice 2 of your tomatoes and chop the other into small pieces, set aside. **
2. Saute your garlic in a large sauce pan with the oil, for one minute, stirring occasionally.
3. Add your tomato juice and chopped tomatoes to the pan.
4. Crush your tomatoes in the juice with the bottom of a cup.
5. Add the chicken broth, salt, sugar and pepper.
6. Simmer for 5 minutes, over medium heat
7. Remove some of the large chunks of tomato and blend for about 20 seconds in a blender or magic bullet.
8. Return tomatoes to the soup.
9. Add cream and basil to the soup and stir.
10. Cook for another two minutes. (This is when we put it in the crock pot and left it for an hour on low, but you could put it in the crock pot at step 3)
11. Enjoy with a delicious side of bread-sticks, or grilled cheese.

**If you don't have a handy dandy juicer like we do, I recommend chopping all 3 of your tomatoes into small pieces and pureeing 2 of them completely in a blender, unless you like a lot of chunks.

What's a food that you hated as a child, but have since grown to like?

White Chicken Chili

I first heard of white chili over a year ago, from this lovely lady. But I kind of forgot about it for a while. As I was trying to decide what meals to make for this week (although it be a short week for us, we still need good food, right?) and I thought of this chili. I checked out Macy's recipe, and searched google to see how the recipes on the web were different also. As I was making mine, I tweaked it to make my own, and this is what I came up with.

White Chicken Chili

1 lb of chicken (I used two large chicken breasts, about 1.2 lbs actually)

4 cups chicken broth

1/2 white onion, chopped

2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed

1 7 oz can diced green chiles

1 can corn, drained

2 tsp chopped garlic

2 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup cheese (we used mozzarella)

cilantro

tomatoes, diced

tortilla chips

1. Put all ingredients, except sour cream and cheese into the slow cooker. 

2. Slightly stir ingredients around to mix seasonings.

3. Cook on low for about 6-8 hours (or as long as you need to, I left it for about 9 hours while at work)

4. Remove chicken breasts from slow cooker and shred with 2 forks.

5. Return chicken breasts to slow cooker and add sour cream and cheese.

6. Stir everything together.

7. Cook for another 30 minutes.

8. Pour your chili in individual bowls and top with cilantro, tomatoes, more sour cream, or whatever you might want.

I enjoyed mine topped with cilantro and chips - have I told you how much I LOVE cilantro?

Nate just topped his with chips.

Nate and I both loved this meal. This tasted so great with a few chips to dip into it. I'm also so happy because we had enough leftover to freeze some, and I love having delicious meals in the freezer, ready for a day when I'm even lazier (it must be laziness, if I can't even put things in a crock pot).

I absolutely LOVE coming home to a delicious smelling (and tasting) meal, that required very little effort.

What is your favorite crock pot recipe?

  

(please share, I love to find new fabulous and easy recipes to try)

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 medium sized onion

3 celery sticks

5 carrots

6 cups chicken broth (More if you like it really liquidy)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp salt (I added a couple sprinkles but its probably not necessary)

2 bay leaves

1/8 tsp basil (was just a couple of sprinkles of basil, oregano, and parsley too)

1/8 tsp oregano

1/8 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp thyme

2 large chicken breasts

8 oz noodles (we didn't have enough of one kind, so we used half egg noodles half rigatoni)

1. Cut vegetables into 1/2inch to 1 inch sized pieces.

2. Put vegetables, broth, pepper, salt, bay leaves, basil, oregano, parsley and chicken breasts in a large pot.

3. Bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 25 minutes.

5. Remove chicken and shred using fingers or two forks.

6. Remove bay leaves and discard.

7. Add noodles and thyme.

8. Add (now) shredded chicken.

9. Cook for 10-12 minutes.

 

We enjoyed ours in a bread bowl. Although this meant that all the liquid sunk into the bread and there was none really to eat as soup. But it still tasted wonderfully delicious. 

This is definitely a recipe I'll be making again. Especially with how healthy it is for you. I added a few things to a recipe I found on woman's day, but according to their recipe this makes 6 servings, each about 190 calories. Not bad at all I say. Yum Yum.

Chili

 This was my first time making chili on my own and it turned out pretty good. I only cooked it in the crock pot for a couple hours and it was alright (Though maybe you would only need 1 can of tomato sauce if you left it in all day, because it gets liquidy from the steam.). Also, if you're going to cook it for a short time in the crock pot, make sure to cook your onions with your ground beef because they tasted a little raw to me. 

We had this with a delicious side of corn bread. Because for me, corn bread and chili are a perfect combo.

1 lb ground beef

2 garlic cloves 

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 can kidney beans (drained)

1 can pinto beans (drained)

2 small cans tomato sauce

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 cup onion, diced (I used 1 small onion)

1/2 cup green pepper, diced (I used a whole green pepper)

2 TBS chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1 dash worshestershire sauce

1.Brown ground beef in garlic.

2. Put everything in crockpot

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 4-5)*

4. Top with some cheese, sour cream and fritos.


** You could also cook this in a stock pot for 1.5 hours to avoid the raw onion taste, and everything would come together nicely.

Crockpot Stew

Mom (Grandma B) made this for our dinner yesterday and the spices and flavoring were perfect. I did not feel (for the first time) that I needed to add any salt.

1 round steak cut into 1/2 inch pieces (but we used Costco stew meat - browned)



1 can diced tomatoes - we had the Italian flavored kind (undrained)
2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
1 small onion diced
3 celery ribs diced
2 carrots diced



3 cups water
1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables



3 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano

I added some Italian seasoning the next time I made it.  Just made it better.

1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Place everything in the crockpot, cover and cook on high for 6 hours.

Do you like the old style crockpot?  It still works great after 30 years.

The meat was so tender and the flavor was perfect.

I would definitely cook this again.

Cheddar Corn Chowder

I got this recipe from The Barefoot Contessa, which I got from Jana for Christmas. The recipe makes enough soup for 10-12 people so I cut it in half. I did however accidentally not halve a couple of the ingredients (but I'll post how much to put if I had). It turned out great, regardless of this little miscalculation of mine.

Cheddar Corn Chowder
4 oz bacon
1/8 cup olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped
2 TB butter
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
6 cups chicken stock (I used chicken broth)

1 pound boiling potatoes, medium diced and peeled
1.5 pound of corn (I used frozen, but you could use corn off a cob)
1 cup half-and-half1/4 lb cheddar cheese, grated (It calls for sharp white cheddar, I used mild yellow cheddar)

1. In a large stockpot on medium high heat, cook the bacon and olive oil until the bacon is crisp, about 5 minutes.
2. Remove the bacon and reserve.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the onions and butter in the bacon fat, for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. (I had a lot of bacon fat, so I drained about half of it out)
4. Stir in the flour, salt, pepper and turmeric and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Add the chicken stock and potatoes.
6. Bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
7. Add the corn to the soup, then add half-and-half and cheddar. (If using fresh corn, cut the kernels off the cob and blanch them in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Drain)
8. Cook for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is thoroughly melted.
9. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (It was flavored  great already, so I didn't add any more salt or pepper)
10. Serve hot with crunched up bacon on top.

Taco Soup

Taco Soup:

.5-1 pound of ground beef

one can of corn

one can of pinto beans

salsa

3 small cans of tomato sauce

sour cream

cheese

Frito scoops

1. Brown the ground beef.

2. Mix ground beef, corn, beans, tomato sauce and salsa in the crock pot.

3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 

4. Serve. Add sour cream and cheese on top, to your discretion. 

5. Eat with Fritos.

This was such an easy and yummy meal for Nate and I. I just left it in the crock pot on low and so when we were both finished with work and school for the day we were able to come home to a delicious, warm, home cooked meal.