Tonight was Taco Soup with mini cornbread muffins. Yum!
Taco Soup is a family favorite ever since it was introduced by Sister-In-Law-#1 at Christmastime in 2008. It's soooo easy and hearty and delicious. Chili is a bit too temperamental for me - or maybe DH is just too damn picky about his chili. Either way - I know taco soup will be a hit. Surprisingly the kids love it! Little Miss even requested it for her birthday dinner. Strange. Having something to dip into like chips or bread helps too.
I usually pair it with mangos or oranges or some sort of fruit. In my mind, that balances out the huge dose of corn, beans, and tomatoes in the soup. Fresh veggies or a crisp salad work, too.
Two great things about this dish is 1) you can make a huge batch then freeze it and 2) it can all be done in the crockpot in the morning. I doubled the batch for Little Miss's birthday, and it gave us that meal plus two gallon-size servings, which will feed all four of us twice plus leave some for lunch leftovers. All I do is thaw it enough to break the square chunk in the bag in half, put it in our oval crockpot, stick it on 10-hours, then leave for the day. I come home, take 20 minutes to bake the muffins and dinner is done.
When we first started discussing the amount of work this remodel was going to be, I knew I needed to be prepared with meals otherwise the local pizza place would once again know me by my order! (Last time that happened was the year DH was deployed.) So I planned out 30 meals I could freeze. Taco Soup was, of course, one of the main ones.
So here is the recipe for taco soup. There are a lot of variations out there but this is the one passed to me:
TACO SOUP - Crockpot meal, 4 hours - 10 hours, the longer the better, makes a full oval crockpot
Brown in a skillet:
2 lbs hamburger
Diced onion (personal preference)
3 cloves garlic (less or more, personal preference)
Pour that and the following into a LARGE crockpot:
28 oz crushed tomatoes (I usually substituted petite diced or regular diced here)
16 oz diced tomatoes
16 oz pinto bean
16 oz kidney bean
16 oz corn (there's a southwestern mix that is really good)
16 oz black bean
16 oz white hominy (or white corn)
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
1-2 cans diced green chiles (personal preference)
You can dump the cans in juice and all or you can drain and rinse the beans then add another can of tomatoes (diced or sauce or juice, whatever).
Mix it well then let 'er rip.
Garnish with sour cream, green onion, cheese, black olives, jalapeno, sriracha, etc.
MINI CORN BREAD MUFFINS (Direct Link to Recipe)
(I like this recipe because it doesn't call for buttermilk. I mean, who has buttermilk on hand at all times??)
Cook time: About 17 minutes
Prep time: About 2 minutes
Yield: 20-24 mini muffins, depending on tin size
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar (more or less)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg
4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
Cumin, paprika, mix of spices (optional)
Grease muffin tin. Heat oven to 450.
Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt and seasoning (optional).
In mixing bowl, whisk together egg, milk, butter.
Pour dry into the wet and stir until moistened. Fill the cups 2/3 full.
Bake at 450 for about 5 minutes then reduce heat to 400 and bake for another 8-10 minutes. Muffins should just start to brown at the top.
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Below are some pictures of the process but because my memory sucks, I didn't get pics of the taco soup or of the full plate of muffins! We apparently liked the muffins since only half were left at the end of dinner.
Cheers,
Megs
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