Friday Feasting: Easy Taco Soup

SOUP’S ON!!!

"This Easy Taco Soup is one of our all-time favorites.  Don’t let the “secret” ingredient scare you off.  The zucchini adds a nice heartiness and makes this soup even more healthy.  Yum!!!"

Easy Taco Soup

Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 lbs. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2­-3 zucchini, chopped in 1 inch cubes
1-7­oz can chopped chilies
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1-32­oz can diced tomatoes
4 C beef or chicken stock
1⁄4 C Tasty Taco Seasoning Mix (see recipe below)
Juice of 2 limes
2 squares frozen cilantro, or fresh to taste

Optional Toppings

sour cream
shredded cheddar cheese
chopped cilantro
1 block cream cheese (optional)
tortilla chips

Directions

1. Brown meat in large pan.
2. Drain off excess grease and set aside.
3. In same pot, sauté onions, bell pepper and zucchini for about 5-­10 minutes or until soft.
4. Add meat back to pan along with rest of ingredients.
5. Cook on medium ­low heat for 20 minutes.
6. Taste for seasoning.

Variations

Creamy Taco Soup: Add 8 oz. cream cheese to soup and stir until melted.
Crock Pot Method: Add cooked meat to crock pot along with rest of ingredients. Cook on low for 6
hours or high heat for 3 hours.


Tasty Taco Seasoning Mix

Mix ingredients and store in air-tight container.
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp black pepper

Prayer of the Unholy

I have a confession to make:  I’m awful at prayer.  I stink at prayer time with my husband, my children, and for myself.  I don’t set aside that quiet time with God to talk to Him, get to know Him and His Will for my life.  I turn on a litany of morning podcasts from the Laudate app while I’m grading papers in the early morning hours, and usually call that good.  Fortunately, He has been so good to me, despite our lack of communication, and given me very clear “Holy Spirit Moments” when I just know this is the direction I’m supposed to go.

Oh, and I’m just full of excuses (yes, I’m an excuses girl, boo hoo!):  it’s my parents’ fault because we never grew up praying anywhere but at a meal; my father was Baptist and my mother was Catholic, so I never knew the Hail Mary until I was an adult; my kids make prayer a most “unholy” time; I’m always nursing/changing/getting a baby to sleep; my husband works retail hours, and his schedule is never the same day-to-day or week-to-week; he’s no help either because he’s not Catholic and he didn’t grow up with the habit of daily prayer either.

I’m a sanguine temperament, and we sanguines need our hands held every time we start something new.  I just don’t have that person in my life right now.  Yes…yes…I know I need to rise above the detriments of my temperament, but I’m just not there yet.  I’ve had to confess this so many times and hear my sweet priest say, “You have to make prayer time sacrosanct every day!  Just stop everything and pray at a certain time every day!”  (See above for litany of excuses why this doesn’t happen.)

However, my son was studying about prayer in his catechism this week.  There are two types of prayer, mental and vocal.  The Divine Mercy Chaplet and Rosary are vocal prayers, of course.  I started thinking about the mental prayer, though.  How many times am I doing dishes, folding laundry, or just walking around the house picking up junk and thinking in my head of the friend of a friend whose son is in the hospital, the co-worker of my husband’s who was baptized yesterday or just people in my life who I love.  I don’t know why these people will be in my mind and heart, but I’ve concluded (or maybe deluded) that just THINKING of them – not even saying mentally “Father bless them and keep them.” – is praying for them.  God knows the desires of my heart.  I hope He accepts these scraps that are my prayers; I hope Our Sweet Mother catches them before they get to His Throne and wraps them up a little nicer for me.

My biggest hope and most frequent request is for you all who are MUCH better at it to please, PLEASE pray for me!

Monday Meme: Not Again!

How many times do we moms repeat ourselves to our children?  How frequently do we politely instruct them to do a task, only to repeat it because it remains undone?  We may not actually want to know the answer.  It may be depressing.

If only our kids knew all we did for them, then they’d do what we asked immediately.  They’d be grateful and want to help us.  Oh, the peace that would come, and life would be perfect.  Right?  One can only dream!  We may roll our eyes and wonder will they ever learn?

Well, that reality is probably shared by our guardian angels.  How many times do they nudge us in the right direction, but we don’t follow?  How many times do they guide us, but we don’t listen?  How many times have they helped us to avoid something bad, and then hoped that we’d “know better” next time?

I’m quite humbled when I think of how many times I have probably let my guardian angel down.  Yet, that guardian angel is still there for me, just like I’m still there for my children.  Our guardian angels are our most trusted, powerful allies, but we often neglect them.

Just like my kids tell me, I tell my guardian angel, next time I’ll do better.  I’m glad that Love never quits.  As long as my guardian angel is with me, I’ll be there for my kids too.

Ma Kim’s Five Favorite Go-to Recipes When Dinner’s in an Hour and You Have No Idea What You’re Going to Make

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So I try my best to meal plan.  God sometimes will grant me the clarity of mind to be able to sit down with my phone and my recipe book (which is mainly on my Menu Planner app) and plan out how next week’s meals will go.  I have created another “calendar” on my iPhone and called it “Menu”, and then I’m able to look at the family’s schedule for the week ahead and plan accordingly.  (It would be SOOOO dreamy if the next week’s weather forecast would also pop up on that calendar, but I digress.)

I also love the fact that I have a “Grocery List” in my Reminders app, and I can just tell Siri to “add pasta to Grocery List”.  I adore hearing, “I’ve added it!” from my phone.

Then Life happens.  There is no clarity of mind.  There is no time before shopping to plan squat.  Sometimes it happens with 7 kids in tow (oh, the humanity!!).  So you just get the staples; your cart is filled with the same old stuff it always is, and you just have to work with it.

My husband is a retail manager, so some nights the pressure of a home cooked meal isn’t there, which is nice.  But the little guys still need to eat, and Mama does, too, so when I’m crunched for time and inspiration, these are my 5 go-to meals.  They can usually be reading in less than an hour.
These are listed in least- to most-abused order.  ;)  (Disclaimer: I like butter.  And allrecipes.com)
#5) Absolutely Ultimate Potato Soup – always better with leftover bacon from breakfast (is there really such a thing??  YES, if you hide it while you’re making it and put it in an opaque container in the back of the fridge.)

These are listed in least- to most-abused order.  ;)  (Disclaimer: I like butter.  And allrecipes.com)


#5) Absolutely Ultimate Potato Soup – always better with leftover bacon from breakfast (is there really such a thing??  YES, if you hide it while you’re making it and put it in an opaque container in the back of the fridge.)

#4) Pasta with Steamed Broccoli and Smoked Sausage –
One or two pounds of pasta on-hand
Bag of steamed broccoli (I love the bags from Sams Club.)
One or two pounds of smoked sausage sliced up (I like the turkey stuff.)
One stick of butter, melted with garlic powder/salt, parmesan cheese, black pepper and parsley.
Mix it all together.
If you have some kind of bread on hand and/or your kids eat salad with it, YOU are officially Wonder Woman.

#3)  Restaurant-Style Asian Fried Rice

Even if I don’t have any shredded chicken on hand (you know about putting chicken breasts in the crock pot and then shredding it with your old hand mixer, right??) to add to it, you still get protein with the eggs.  I also buy the Sams Club mixed vegetable bags and use those.  Kids hate it because of the green beans, but they eat it ‘cause they’re hungry.

#2)  Spinach Lentil Soup

Love this one.  I always have lentils in the pantry and carrots and salsa in the fridge.  I will also buy the big boxes of fresh spinach from Sams Club and put baggies of it in the freezer when it starts to look like it may be starting to go bad.

#1) Potato Spinach Frittata

This one works for breakfast, dinner, whenever!!  I will throw in broccoli or spinach, make with meat or not.  I also use garlic powder and dried minced onion if I don’t feel like chopping (ok, that’s most of the time).  I’ve thrown all kinds of things in this frittata, and the kids will take it down every time.  Especially with ketchup.

Bon appetit!!

Ma Katie's Favorite Things: Kitchen Gadgets

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Out of all the rooms in our house, the kitchen is definitely one of our favorites - this is where we cook the meals that feed the 10 bellies in our family.  We have a large island where I can work while still socializing with my crew or even helping a kiddo with a math problem, not to mention enough space for many of us to cook together!  I could share so much about what I love about our kitchen, but I thought I'd start with sharing my five favorite kitchen gadgets ... 

#1 - Crockpot

I rely heavily on our crockpot for meals.  I think without it, getting a homemade meal on the table would be difficult.  My first crockpot was a circular one and was great when we only had a few kids. But we were needing to upgrade and this oval one has been perfect for our large family.  I even shared one of my crockpot recipes here for a recent Friday Feasting.  I actually own two of these because I'm known to have both going at the same time! 

#2 - Rice Cooker (new version found here)

We love to eat rice - topped with a yummy jambalaya, dijon pork, teriyaki chicken or just with a little butter and salt and served as a side.  When we first got married, I used the instant rice where you boil the water, dump in the measured amount of rice and then fluff with a fork after five minutes and eat.  It was easy and quick, but as we grew, it didn't make sense to use it any more - we were going through a box so fast and it was expensive.  So we tried cooking rice over the stove top.  Truly, I never could get it right.  Probably all the distractions and not cooking it properly, or maybe I was stirring it too much and peeking when I shouldn't.  Thankfully I found a great microwave rice cooker from Pampered Chef and we used that for  few years, but we outgrew it quickly.  Hubs suggested we get a rice cooker, looked at reviews and found this one for us.  And - wow!!!  Was I thrilled when we did!!  It is a piece of cake to make rice now!!  And, we still have leftovers when I make a batch and I've never even made the max amount yet.  So I think this cooker will suit our family for the long haul!  

#3 - Espresso Machine (new version found here)

I make myself a cup of coffee from this machine only a couple times a week (because I'm not really a crazy coffee drinker, but do love my coffee when I get one).  It's so nice to have it to have fresh coffee from freshly ground coffee beans when I do make myself a cup and it's SO fast and easy to use!  My favorite use of this machine is during my weekly prayer group gathering.  You see, I have this really cute Barista that makes lattes for my friends and I when we go through our Cursillo Reunion Group card and pray and share and discuss how God is working in our lives.  The good company, amazing coffee and gathering in His name make for one of my favorite nights of the week!!  

#4 - Bread Machine 

Oh the questions I get asked being a homeschooling mom of many - "are you done yet?", "do you have a tv?", "are you Catholic?", and I find this one the weirdest but one I still get asked often - "do you make your own bread?".  Mostly I say "no" to the last question, because I'm a cheater bread maker.  I just don't feel right patting myself on the back and answering yes to the kneeding and such when all I do is dump in a list of ingredients and hit the "start" button.  Anyways, this lovely machine gets its workout too.  Our crew can knock out a loaf of bread in one sitting!  We make the basic white loaf and banana bread the most - those are our two favorites!!

#5 - Under Counter CD Player with Radio and Bluetooth 

Okay, so this isn't really a kitchen gadget that helps with food prep or cooking, but it's one of those gadgets that make the time in the kitchen fun and enjoyable because it provides a little music for ya.  Or a podcast to listen to when you are preparing meals and doing dishes.  Or if you want to project the volume of the daily Mass readings/soul food so all the kids can hear, this makes a great option to plug your smartphone right into it and play them.  SO many options!  And it's so handy to have it right there in the kitchen and out of the way.  Ours definitely gets great use!!  

So there ya have it!!  What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?  
I'd love to hear from you!!