Taco Soup

I have neglected my recipe blog for nearly a year, and some have let me know how your families are bored with dinners because I haven’t posted anything recently. Well, time has come to rescue your families. However, don’t get too excited as Hero is deployed and there really isn’t any cooking going on in the Wheeler household.

This recipe is coming to you because I joined some wonderful ladies at church tonight for a soup tasting and this was my offering. After scouring my favorite recipe site, www.allrecipes.com, I took a look at what I had in my food storage and combined three different recipes to come up with this one. I LOVED it! There are a few suggestions, if you don’t like warmth choose a mild Ro*Tel or trade plain stewed tomatoes for the Ro*Tel. Since Hero doesn’t like chunky tomatoes, I will be using petite diced tomatoes when I make this recipe for hime.

Recipe for: Taco Soup

To prepare: Defrost your meat. This recipe can be done on the stove or in a Crockpot. If using a Crockpot, do steps one and two in a pan and then add meat mixture to your Crockpot with remaining ingredients.)

Ingredients

Directions

·       1 lb. pork sausage ·       1 lb. ground beef ·       1 onion, chopped ·       2 cloves of garlic, minced ·       1 pkg taco seasoning ·       1 ½ tsp of cumin (add more to your taste) ·       2  - 10 oz. cans Ro*Tel ·       1 – 15 ¼ oz. can of corn, drained ·       2 – 16 oz. cans of Chili Beans ·       2 – 15 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed ·       2 – 14 ½ oz. cans beef broth ·       1 – 28 oz. can diced tomatoes ·       Sour cream and shredded cheese to garnish with

1.     Brown the meats together until cooked then drain any fat. 2.     Add the onion, garlic, taco seasoning, and cumin to the meat and sauté for a few minutes to toast your seasonings. 3.     Add remaining ingredients. If doing on stovetop, bring to a simmer, then turn to low, and allow it to cook for at least an hour. The longer you let it cook the more your flavors will meld, and the yummier your house smells.  If using a Crockpot, cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 6 hours. I like to use my enameled covered cast iron pot and put it in the oven at 300° F for a couple of hours. 4.     Garnish with sour cream and shredded cheese. 5.     ENJOY!

Chicken and Cheese Crescent Chimichangas

This one is just for you Faith...sorry it took me so long....

Chicken and Cheese Crescent Chimichangas
from the "Pillsbury Bake-Off," May 2005, page 52

And as usual any changes or notes will be in red


Serves:  8  Prep:  20 minutes  Start to Finish: 45 Minutes (took me a little over an hour, but I am slow and meticulous) 

• 3 TBsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used one heaping serving spoon of the chopped garlic that comes in a jar, I know that is a LOT, but we love us some garlic in this house.)
• 2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken (Now be inspired don't just boil your chicken in plain water!  Bring some flavor to the party, I added garlic, onion, celery, rosemary.....)
• 2 cans (8oz. ea) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls.  (I used the new big and fat ones so I ended up using three cans, but it's all good we are carb feigns as well as garlic lovers)
• 1/2 cup Old El Paso Thick'nChunky salsa (I needed more than that, way more, closer to a cup.  I also used the Pace Picante I had in the fridge, use the salsa that floats your boat.)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used more than recipe called for...what can I say, we also love cheese)
• Sour Cream and more salsa as garnish

1. Heat oven to 350.  Grease large cookie sheet with shortening.  In 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until onion is tender.  Reduce heat to low.  Add chicken; cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
2. Separate dough into 8 rectangles; firmly press perforations to seal.  Spread about 2 tsp. of salsa on each rectangle to within 1/2 inch of edges.  Stir one cup of the cheese into the chicken mixture. (I didn't do that, I just topped the chicken mixture with a big pinch of cheese before rolling up into the dough.)  Spoon heaping 1/3 cup chicken mixture onto half of each rectangle.  Starting with short side topped with chicken, roll up; pinch ends to seal.  Place seam side down on cookie sheet.
3. Bake 16 to 21 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven.  Top each with about 2 TBsp of the remaining cheese.  (I only topped the three we would be eating that night as I was putting the rest in the freezer.  I ended up with 9 chimichangas.)
4. Return to oven; bake 1 to 2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.  Serve with sour cream and additional salsa.

Even our two-year-old daughter enjoyed this meal.  I hope your family enjoys it as well.

Mexican Rice

I know Hero found this recipe on-line, but I don't know where. In fact, all I have are his notes. It is a good thing both of us kind of know how to make rice or we'd be in trouble. Can not tell you how many scraps of paper, or napkins, with just ingredients written on them I found when organizing our recipes. I would hold it up for Hero to see and ask if it meant anything to him, as they were all in his writing. Ninety-nine percent of the time he said no, and it went into the shredder. Below is the recipe he has written down....see what I mean? At least he gave this one a title. Bless him!
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• canola oil
• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine(you can substitute beef broth for the wine, the wine is used to deglaze the pan and all the alcohol cooks out before you eat it)
  
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can of stewed tomatoes (Hero doesn't like chunky tomatoes, so I blitz them in either the blender or food processor real quick)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp cumin (last time I made this I don't know what I was thinking, but I used 1/2 tsp cumin, and it was still delicious)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 cup beef broth

Directions:

1. Saute the onion and green pepper in a little bit of canola oil in a skillet, cook until soft.
   
2. Add the rice and garlic and saute with the onion and pepper for about 2 minutes. At this point I also add in my seasonings to toast them as well.
3. Deglaze your skillet with the wine, or 1/2 cup of broth if you prefer.
4. Add the canned tomatoes with their liquid and the 1-1/2 cup of beef broth. Bring to boil. Cover with lid and turn down to low. Let simmer about 20 minutes or until all the liquids have been absorbed.

I don't know how many servings this is, but my family of three can eat on it for two meals.

Baked Chicken Chimichangas

I got this recipe from the Taste of Home, Healthy Cooking, Dec/Jan. 2009 issue.

Prep: 20 min. Bake: 20 min. Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast (I used the Tyson Southwestern Chicken strips, and chopped them up a bit)
• 1-1/2 cups picante sauce, divided
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
• 2/3 cup chopped green onions, divided
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 6 flour tortillas (8 inches) (we use whole wheat, we prefer them and can not tell the difference between the white and wheat.)
• 1 TBsp butter, melted
• 1 can your favorite refried beans. The recipe does not call for this, but we find that we like the chimichangas better with the beans. Our preferred refried bean is the Rosarita refried beans with black beans. I only used about 1/3 to 1/2 the can making the chimichangas, so I just heated the rest and served them as a side dish.

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine te chicken, 3/4 cup picante sauce, cheese, 1/4 cup onions, cumin and oregano. If using refried beans, spread a spoonfull down the center of the tortilla. Spoon 1/2 cup mixture down the center of each tortilla. Fold sides and ends over filling and roll up. Place seam side down in a 15in. x 10in. x 1in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Brush with butter.
2. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Top with remaining picante sauce and onions.

I served Mexican Rice as a side dish with this.

Southwestern Skillet Chilli

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 18 minutes Servings: 6(1-cup)

I got this recipe from another one of my famed grocery checkout stand cookbooks, this one by Land O Lakes. This recipe reinforced my family's opinion on garbanzo beans(chick peas), next time I will be substituting white navy beans, we like those.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBsp butter (the recipe specifies a particular brand, but to me butter is butter...it's all good)
• 12 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces (we only use chicken breast in this family, it was still good)
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 (14-1/2 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 1 (8 ounce) tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/8 ts garlic powder

Directions:

1. Melt butter in 10-inch skillet until sizzling; add chicken. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occassionally, until lightly browned (5 to 7 minutes). Stir in all remaining ingredients. (I added my seasonings first and toasted them slightly in the pan before adding the rest of the ingredients.) Continue cooking until mixture comes to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low. Cover; cook until flavors are blended(10 to 15 minutes).
   

Spanish Chicken

I got this from a Taste of Home check-out counter cook book...sensing a pattern here? I must confess, my name is Lynn and I am a check-out counter cookbook addict.

As always any changes, hints, and opinions are in red.

Yields: 4 Servings

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves...this is what the recipe calls for, and it is what we like in this house...but I bet it would work with your favorite chicken part just as well
• 2 TBsp canola oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 can, 14.5oz diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup uncooked long grain rice
• 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules (we didn't have any so I just left this out and used 1 cup of chicken stock instead of the water.)
• 1 to 3 tsp chilli powder...I used 1 1/2 tsp when I made this, I think we would like it with more
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cumin...we would like it better with a tad bit more cumin, next time I think I will use 1/4 tsp
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup picante sauce
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese...i didn't have any of this either, so I just used a cheddar/jack blend
• 1 can (2.25oz) sliced ripe olives, drained....I forgot to add these...oops

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, brown chicken in oil for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Remove and keep warm. In the same skillet, saute onions, green pepper, and garlic until tender. Add garlic when onion is almost cooked, you don't want to burn it, it will taste bitter. Stir in the tomatoes, water, rice, bouillon, and seasonings. Bring to a boil. I added the seasonings to the onions, peppers and garlic first to "toast" them, then added the rest of the ingredients...a trick I learned watching the "naked chef" in the UK. NO, he was not really naked!
2. Pour into a greased 11x7x2in. baking dish, top with chicken. Cover and bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes or until rice is tender. Uncover; spoon picante sauce over chicken and sprinkle with cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Garnish with olives.
   

Mexican Lasagna

I got this recipe from www.sparkpeople.com, you can find the recipe here. This is another of our favorite meals that we enjoy eating and freezing.

As in the past, I will notate the changes we make to the recipe in RED.

1 lb. ground turkey (I use lean ground beef because Phillip doesn't like ground poultry.) 1 tablespoon olive oil 3 garlic cloves, minced (Today I used 5 cloves, but we LOVE garlic in this house) 2 onions, chopped 2 10 oz. cans black beans, drained and slightly mashed (my cans of beans were larger, but that's okay because we like this recipe with more beans, I think the cans I had were 14.5oz) (in the past I have used one can of black beans and one can of Rosarita Black Bean refried beans, and it turned out great) 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon ground cumin 2 cups tomato sauce (my can of tomato sauce was 15oz, I figured that was close enough) 1 10 oz. can stewed tomatoes, coarsely chopped (I never seem to have stewed tomatoes in the house when I need them, so I just used diced.) 6 medium whole wheat tortillas (I cut my tortillas in half to enable me to put them in the pan with the cut edges along the side of the pan, therefore getting better coverage) 1 cup low fat shredded cheddar cheese (along with garlic, we LOVE cheese, so I use way more than this, about double if not more)

Directions

1. Preheat oven 350 F.

2. Saute 1 onion, 1 garlic clove on high heat while breaking up meat. Cook until meat is no longer pink. Stir in black beans. Set saute pan aside.

3. Heat oil in another saute pan over medium heat. Saute remaining onion, until soft. Add remaining garlic, chili powder and cumin, saute for 30 seconds. Add tomato sauce and tomatoes with juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer partially covered for 20 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened. Transfer all but 1/2 c (I usually set aside 3/4 cup) sauce to meat and beans; Mix well.

4. Dip half the tortillas, one at a time, in the hot tomato sauce. Lay tortillas in the bottom of an 8.5 x 11 casserole dish.


Spread half meat and bean mixture over tortillas. Sprinkle half the cheese over meat and beans.

5. Add another layer of tortillas and meat & beans mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 35 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes. (Today I made the lasagna in the morning, stopping at the I would bake. Instead I put the lasagna in the refrigerator and will bake for about 45 minutes before serving.)

Serves 6.

Freezer tip: We like to eat on this for two nights, and then freeze the rest. What I do is cut the lasagna into thirds. After the baked lasagna has been in the fridge overnight and before I reheat it I put 1/3 of the lasagna on a sheet of tin foil that I placed on a cookie sheet. Removing the lasagna from the pan works much better if you use two spatulas. I then wrap the lasagna in the tin foil I set it on and place the cookie sheet with the lasagna in the freezer. Usually I let it freeze overnight. The next morning I take the cookie sheet with the frozen lasagna on it out of the freezer and vacuum seal it using my food saver. When I want to eat it, I take it out of the freezer and set it on the counter for about 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes I carefully remove the lasagna from the vacuum sealer bag and the tin foil. Then I place it in a small pan coated with cooking spray. Top the pan with tin foil and put the pan in the refrigerator to finish dethawing.

Hope you enjoy!

Taco-Filled Pasta Shells

I got this recipe from the Taste of Home, "No-Fuss Freezer Meals", Fall 2008 book. This recipe comes from a Marge Hodel of Roanoke, Illinois.

I will give the recipe as it is on the recipe card. However, I cut the menu in half to test whether or not we liked it before we make a bunch to freeze. We liked it so I will be making a full batch to put in the freezer for Phillip and Miss M for after I have my WLS.


You will need:

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 envelopes taco seasoning (we use the low-sodium kind in this house, and I was glad I did, I think it might have been too salty otherwise)
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese cubed
• 24 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Additional Ingredients (for each casserole)

• 1 cup each salsa and taco sauce
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup (4ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I just used the Cheddar and Jack blend shredded cheese you can buy in the dairy case)
• 1-1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips
• 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
• 3 green onions, chopped

1. In a Dutch oven, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add taco seasoning, prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese, cook and stir for 5-10minutes or until melted. Transfer to a bowl; chill for 1 hour.
2. Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain. Gently toss with butter. Fill each shell with about 3 tablespoons of meat mixture. Place 12 shells in a freezer container. Cover and freeze up to 3 months.
3. To prepare remaining shells, spoon salsa into a greased 9-in. square baking dish. Top with stuffed shells and taco sauce. Cover and bake ay 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheeses and chips. Bake 15 minutes longer or until heated through. Serve with sour cream and onions.

TO USE FROZEN SHELLS: Thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours (shells will be partially frozen). Spoon salsa into a greased 9-in. square baking dish. Top with stuffed shells and taco sauce. Cover and bake ay 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue as above.

I forgot to add the tortilla chips. When we sat down to eat I realized I for got them. Phillip just crushed chips over the top of our dinners. I had a bite before he did this, the chips make a difference for the better. I served this over a bed of shredded lettuce...Yummy!

Guess my secret is out of the bag with this picture...I really don't like my food to touch.

Enjoy!