No meat? No problem! Meatless Taco Soup is Delicious!

*This "recipe" is adjustable to ingredients you have available using leftovers or simple substitutions.  Lots of options here!  

MEATLESS TACO SOUP

• 1 Tablespoon minced onion 
• (or 1/2 chopped fresh onion or 1 Tablespoon onion powder)  (whatever you have available)
• 28 oz whole tomatoes (undrained)
• (OR diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes or sauce) 
• (I used 28 oz of my favorite Cento San Marzano tomatoes.)
•  1 can corn (undrained)
• (OR 2 cups frozen corn, or leftover corn)
• 1 can rotel (undrained)
• (OR salsa works fine also!)
• 2 can black, kidney, or pinto beans (undrained)
• 1 packet of taco or chili seasoning 
• (OR 1-2 Tablespoon of chili powder which is what I used)
• Salt & Pepper according to preference

Instructions:

If using fresh onion, cook onion in a little oil in a large pot for about 10 minutes. If using minced onion or onion powder, just add with the rest of the ingredients.  

Add the tomatoes (including all juice - do not drain).  Mine were whole so I mashed them in the pot with a potato masher.

Combine all remaining ingredients (don't drain anything, include all juice), including a little salt and pepper.  Simmer about 30 minutes.  Taste!  If it needs more heat, add more chili powder.

Ta-da!  It's done.  Get some bowls and a drink and get to eating!

Hello everyone!

Here's a quick/easy recipe for Taco Soup.  

I needed a yummy, saucy supper the other night (needed LOL) on a cool, rainy spring day here in mid Missouri.  I didn't have any meat but realized I had everything I needed for meatless Taco Soup.  With this dang virus hanging on, you never know when you are going to need to make a meal but don't have any meat.  No meat?  No problem! This, easy "soup" (tastes like chili to me!) is a great thing to make!

I ate mine with crackers.  You could stretch this meal even further with cooked macaroni or pasta.  Serving options would also include fritos, tortilla chips, or cornbread.  

Did I miss the meat?  Nope!  It was great!  I'll be doing this again and again.  Having meatless recipes is a great thing to have on hand these days because we just don't know where we are going anymore. Ya know?

These tomatoes are the absolute BEST!  

No - I am not being paid to say this.  

Huge tomatoes in a thick juice, almost more like sauce.  

Mmmmm!

Mashing the tomatoes in the pot.  A potato masher works great!

Get some crackers and a drink.  Let's eat!

Enjoy!

Gina

Easy and Simple French Dressing - Saves a Trip to the Store!

Recipes at the Top; chit-chat at the bottom!

EASY FRENCH DRESSING

Uses Pantry Ingredients 

&

Saves a Trip to the Store!

• 1 cup oil (I used olive oil.)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup sugar 
• 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Instructions:  Mix well until smooth and then place in a jar/bottle for keeping in the fridge.  Should keep for a while!

Hello everyone!

Staying home is hard, isn't it?  Sometimes we all get tired of going here and there and rushing all of the time but this pandemic thing is keeping even the trips I WANT to go on - down to a minimum.  As a society, we have all been super lax about expecting instant gratification.

It used to go like this:

"What sounds good for supper?"-me

"I don't know.  Maybe throw something on the grill?"-Doug

"I'll run to the store and grab some meat and stuff for sides!"-me

Well, those days are hopefully coming back in the future, but for now, I'm trying to stay the course, stay home, avoid trips to the store, and use what I have on hand.

This weekend we decided to pan fry a few fish for Sunday supper.  Doug always wants potatoes as a side with everything- but I wanted something GREEN!  I had stuff for salad but really wasn't in the mood for the normal bottle of ranch dressing I keep in the fridge for dipping carrots or serving with pizza. (Does anyone else dip pizza in ranch dressing or is that just a mid Missouri thing?  LOL).  

French dressing sounded so good.! With bright red tomatoes, green lettuce, green onions and a few homemade croutons?  Mmmmm...  

UGH!  I don't have any french dressing!  

Back IN THE DAY, I used to make everything from scratch.  Back before the fire when I had a big kitchen and lots of hobbies that I enjoyed.  Well, I've been working on finding that "old me" and I decided to pull out my trusty "pinterest" app to find an easy recipe for french dressing.

I scrolled through lots of recipes that called for celery seed, worcestershire sauce (which I didn't have) and making onion JUICE (ugh - too much work), so I decided to just give it a go and make a few trades using a basic recipe I found. 

My simple, basic recipe for homestyle french dressing turned out fantastic!  I mixed it up with a fork in a bowl and since I live in a tiny house, had to combine two jars of spaghetti sauce in my fridge to free up something to store this liquid gold in.  It's not a beautiful, pinterest-perfect bottle, but it works and better yet, I had french dressing for my salad after all!  

My recipe worked like a charm! My salad was both bright, fresh, and had all of the yumminess I was used to having with store bought french dressing.

Try it out!  It's great and tastes every bit as good as the french dressing you buy at the store!

Chalking this one up as a keeper!

Enjoy!

Gina