Sunday Suppers Edition One

Wonderful, relaxing Sunday today. We went to church, then out to lunch with friends. After working hard yesterday, the house is undecorated and back in order. We moved some furniture around after we took down the Christmas tree, so the great room has a fresh new look to it. Isn't it funny how shifting just a few things around can give a room a new look?

Since I work such long hours during the week, I have a hard time cooking dinner on a regular basis during the week. So I usually cook one or two main dish meals on Sunday, then we heat them up throughout the week. I love to cook, so spending Sunday afternoon in the kitchen trying out new recipes or cooking tried and true favorites is very relaxing for me.

I love reading Preppy Sue's Menu Monday, so I thought I would start posting my menu and/or recipes for Sunday and the week ahead. So here is Sunday Suppers Edition One…we are only going to be home for dinner two nights this week, so I only made one dish today.

I’ve cooked all of my longstanding soup and chili recipes throughout the fall and early winter, so I thought I'd try something new this week. I've never made taco soup, and Paula Deen's recipe seemed like a good one to experiment with. It turned out great! I tweaked it a little bit, like I do with any recipe I try out. The soup seemed really thick, so I added an extra can of diced tomatoes. I also used extra lean ground beef and put 2 cans of kidney beans and one can of pinto beans.

Paula Deen's Taco Soup

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
2 cups diced onions
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans pinto beans
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can pink kidney beans
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can tomatoes with chiles
2 (4 1/2-ounce) cans diced green chiles
1 (4.6-ounce) can black olives, drained and sliced, optional
1/2 cup green olives, sliced, optional
1 (1 1/4-ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 (1-ounce) package ranch salad dressing mix
Corn chips, for serving

Sour cream, for garnish
Grated cheese, for garnish
Chopped green onions, for garnish
Pickled jalapenos, for garnish

Directions

Brown the ground beef and onions in a large skillet; drain the excess fat, then transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chiles, black olives, green olives, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix, and cook in a slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with sour cream, cheese, green onions and jalapenos.

Enjoy!

Wow, I've posted four days in a row. I can't promise that I can keep it up every day now that I'm going back to school but I'm going to try to post one or two days during the week and at least once on the weekend.

Have a great week!

TPP

ETA: Putting the corn chips in the bottom of the bowl makes them very soggy. I tried it again by just putting few in the soup at a time and I liked it much better. You get a good crunch with the soup. I also had the soup without corn chips, sour cream, or cheese (trying to save a few calories) and it was just as delicious.