Snow days and Taco Soup

 

Today is a snow day! I love snow days! (At least until June when we have to make them up)

I always have such high hopes for snow days…

going through drawers and closets

catching up on household chores

Getting all the laundry put away

after all I have “helpers today”

Helper’s who do not share my high hopes!

They plan on sleeping in, laying around, sledding, maybe a competitive game of monopoly, hot chocolate, and watching a movie together.

They usually win but I usually get them to help me at least catch up!

I love snow days because we are all together and no one can leave. (at least for awhile)

We are also hoping that the flu is done with us!

4 out of the 7 people who live here have had a nasty flu bug in the last 48 hours!

(One of the 3 is at Purdue, Lucky you Tadd )

This has proven to be a great weight loss method for those who had the flu! But I would not recommend it!

Anyways I am also one of the 3 who hasn’t had it so I hope we are done with it!

I think that on a cold snowy day soup is always a winner!

Taco soup is my favorite! It only has 2 pts a cup.

Although I think for today we will stick with a more neutral broth and noodle soup!

TACO SOUP

1 lb ground turkey – (I now use a really lean ground beef like 93% because I am not a huge fan of ground turkey)

cook meat with chopped onions ( 1 huge or 2 medium to large)

and green peppers ( 1-2 I use 2) drain well

Then add: 5 cans beans (I use 3 cans of black beans and 2 cans of chili beans)

1–2 cans whole kernel corn (drained) ( I use my frozen)

5 cans diced tomatoes ( sometime I use 3 cans of diced and 2 cans of tomato sauce the original recipe called for stewed tomatoes but I am not a huge fan of giant tomato chunks)

add: 1 pkg taco seasoning

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Combine well, cook ½ hour

This recipe usually makes 17-20 cups sometimes I dump in more tomatoes (they’re free).

I freeze this in 1 cup containers.

1 cup = 2 points

 

Please note that I revamped this recipe by adding 2 extra cans of beans, 2 extra cans of tomatoes, and 1 can of corn. Also the original recipe just said green pepper and onions with no specification of how much.

So if you don’t want such a huge pot you could go with the original recipe and the pt value would stay the same.

This is delicious and filling. I eat it with scoops crunched up on top   7 baked scoops = 1pt

Or I eat it with my homemade chips from wraps!

This is also good to put over lettuce for a delicious taco salad!

This is yummier than it looks. It is really more tomatoey looking. It did not photograph well, too much flash?