Easy & Delicious: day 1

Taco Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
• 1 pkg. Ranch salad dressing & seasoning mix
• 1 can of whole kernel corn
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can of light red kidney beans
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of Rotel tomatoes

Instructions

1. Place corn, pinto beans, kidney beans, diced tomatoes and Rotel tomatoes in a large pot or dutch oven and begin cooking on medium heat.
2. Place ground beef in a skillet, sprinkle with garlic salt, and cook until no longer pink.
3. Drain meat using a colander, then return it to your skillet.
4. Add taco seasoning mix and Ranch seasoning mix to the ground beef, and mix well.
5. Add ground beef mixture to the vegetable pot and simmer (with the lid on, stirring occasionally) for 30 minutes.
6. Serve with tortilla chips or corn chips. Optional toppings: shredded cheese, onions, or sour cream
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8. *This winter I was craving something new. I tried out a lot of different recipes, some we liked, some not so much. However, this recipe made the trial and error worth it. We LOVED it. I doubled the recipe and we had it for company. My original plan was to freeze the leftovers, but we liked it so much we ate it all before that could happen. We love Mexican food, and this was so easy, seriously just browning ground beef and opening a bunch of cans and pouring everything together. We like a little spice too, so adding a few drops of hot sauce took this recipe to another level :) Definitely add the sour cream, cheese and crunched chips, that kind of makes it. A tortilla chip with some flavor would be yummy too, like tostitoes pepper jack chips. Would be great with corn bread as a side, I served it with homemade guacamole and chips. Oh and also, I added some water to it to make it go farther and because the original recipe was a little thicker than what I would consider soup, and I used half the amount of kidney beans it called for. 
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10. Source: The Lettered Cottage blog. 
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12. If you are a soup lover and want a link to another soup I have tried go here: 
13. turkey white bean and spinach soup
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15. and some day I'll have to share my vegetable soup recipe on here too... It's from Shaun's mom and we love it. Speaking of vegetable soup, my dad is a true vegetable soup connoisseur, and has about as many amazing versions of vegetable soup as there are colors in the rainbow. However, he does not cook from a cookbook and therefore his recipes are his alone. :) But if you've ever had the treat of having a bowl of his soup you are a blessed person, indeed. :)