Taco Soup

Hubby and Aiden love soup. I mean love it. I am not as much of a fan as they are. When Hubby is home I try to make sure and make some soups to please his palate. Taco soup is one of them.

I received a taco soup recipe years ago from a coworker. I lost it somehow, but I remembered the gist of it. Now I've got it down. Besides gumbo (which I haven't perfected yet), taco soup is his favorite.

Ok, for some reason I had a brain fart and forgot to take pictures before this moment.

1.Turn the stove on medium to medium-high. 

2. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a dutch oven. 

3. Dice a whole onion and two cloves of garlic. Toss them into the pot and let them cook for a minute or two. Throw a pinch of salt and let the onions sweat. 

4. Season one pound of ground chuck with some salt and pepper. Put it in the pot as well. Get it all good and mixed. Let the garlic, onion, and ground beef get to know each other. 

5. Once you brown the beef, you will need to get most of the yucky fat out of that pot. I just used a ladle, but however you do it is fine. 

6. Drain and rinse the beans, and pour them in. Open up a 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes and pour them in as well. 

7. Pour two cups of beef broth and three cups of water into the pot. You can adjust the amount of liquid, but I wanted it to be well... soupy. 

8. Now it's time to make it all taco-y! Add one teaspoon of cumin, chili powder, and black pepper. Add two teaspoons of salt. I season as I cook. Taste as you go so that you can get exactly what flavor you want. 

9. Get the soup up to a boil and then put it on low and let it simmer for about forty-five minutes. While the soup is simmering, grate up yo fave cheese. In this instance I used Monterrey Jack cheese. Cheddar would be super fabulous as well!  

10. After the forty-five minute mark add the drained corn. Let it sit about fifteen minutes or so.  Corn chips make this soup over-the-top!

You can customize this in so many ways. Adding a can of Rotel, or dicing up some jalapeno would be great. Just throw in what you like, or what you have on hand. I love versatile recipes!!

I hope y'all enjoy this as much as we do!

Here are the ingredients at a glance:

1 tblspn butter

1 whole onion diced

2 garlic cloves diced

1 lb ground chuck

Pinch or two of salt

28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

2 cans of black beans drained

1 can of corn drained

2 cups of beef broth

3 cups of  water

2 tspns of salt

1 tspn black pepper

1 tspn cumin

1 tspn chili powder

CHEESE!!

Halloween 2013

Halloween 2013 was a success! Aiden had a great time, and this was the first time he went out and trick-or-treated with some friends. We didn't walk around the entire neighborhood, partly because Ava was a little fussy, and Hubby had a class to get to today.

I didn't get as many pictures as I had planned to take. I did, however, get more than usual. Aren't you proud of me?

Hubby wore a ghost mask with some torn clothes, and I, a cat hat and cat makeup. We both had not really planned to wear anything Halloweenie. It was a last-minute decision.

Boy oh boy did Aiden get a lot of candy. Not to mention the all candy we have been eating for the past two weeks. See, I bought two bags of Halloween candy in advance, mistake number 1. They stayed in the pantry for a couple of days. Then I thought, "Oh what's the harm in having a piece of candy or two," mistake number 2. By the time Halloween came around, the remainder of the candy left was embarrassing. I mean, where did it all go? Oh that's right, in my stomach. In my defense, Aiden ate some too. He's my candy eating sidekick.

I go through this thought process of enjoying a couple pieces of candy, because life is short, I don't want to be bothered with petty things like calories. Then, I start thinking that I need to stop eating them, because it's not healthy and all that junk. Finally, I realize I NEED to get them out of the house, but I won't throw them away because, well that would just be wasting money. I'm not into wasting money. In the end, I eat the rest of the candy in a short amount of time to get rid of it. After that, I loathe myself for about an hour.

We got home after dark. There were still kids running the streets trying to get the last bit of candy. We made sure we had our outside lights off because, well frankly, we didn't have any candy for them. Why? Aiden and I, well let's just say I ate just about all the candy.

I was expecting my neighbor to drop by. I heard a knock at the door, and opened it. It was not my neighbor! "Trick-or-treat," three tweens said excitedly. My mind went blank. Quickly I said, "Hold on just a minute." I shut the door and ran frantically into the kitchen looking for that darn candy that I had just about devoured these past two weeks. There was just a little left. Just enough for the three trick-or-treaters outside my door. "Thank you Jesus," I said. Yes, I thank Jesus all the time, even for the smallest things. I return to the door, open it and promptly handed out the candy telling them I was sorry they had to wait.

I woke up this morning, thankful for another day, grateful that Halloween is over, and four pounds heavier...

Moral of the story: Do not buy candy for Halloween until Halloween...

Here are some pictures of last night.

                                       

 

Two Weird Halloween Costumes

I'm sure most if not all of you have some weird Halloween kid costume stories, whether it is of you as a youngin' or your youngins'. My story is of myself mainly because my kids are too young.

The first incident, (yes there are more than one) happened in second grade. I had just moved to south Florida with my mom. Back then, we were allowed to dress in costume at school on Halloween. This was the only year I remember wearing a costume at school. I think my selective memory is kicking in…

Before there was Pinterest and Google our imaginations served as the sole purpose of our Halloween creations. My imagination told me that I should go dressed as a homeless person. Yes! My costume was complete with nappy hair, a tattered shirt that had top drinking excuses on it, and my own cardboard sign that said, “Will work for food.” God help me.

The second occasion of my weird Halloween costume was when I was about ten years old. This time I didn’t wear this costume to school, but to trick-or-treat with my family around the neighborhood. Ok wait, here it is, drum roll please… I was a boy. Yep that’s right I decided to dress up as a boy, and no I didn’t have gender identity issues. I basically just put my hair up in a baseball cap, wore a flannel shirt with jeans, and took brown eyeliner made a fake beard. Haha. I even had the neighbors thinking I was a boy! I have always been a trickster. It was certainly fun that’s for sure.

I have always done my own thing. I was not a girly girl. I consider myself as more of the road less traveled kind of gal. That in itself is good insight as to why I would come up with such ideas.

I wish, oh how I wish that I had pictures of those days!

Here are a few pictures of Aiden during Halloween. I am dismayed at this point knowing that my ability to take and organize pictures on my computer is seriously lacking. I plan on scouring the pictures folder for the other two Halloween costumes. Until they are recovered, here are these of my cutie pie. Obviously he has an affinity for super heroes. Hey, I'm ok with that!

What is the craziest costume you or your kids wore?

Have a safe Halloween peeps!

Update:

Thanks to my lovely step-mother I have the other two!