Taco Soup

On my old hunk of junk desktop that's slower than frozen molasses because my bf's  laptop fried, so I can't get access to my vaca photos. So a recipe!

Taco Soup
This soup is insanely easy to make and really really good because it tastes even better as leftovers. It makes a lot though. Even with just a few cans of stuff. If you're making it for less than 4 people, prepare to be eating it for a while. It is great to have on hand for cold rainy days or when you just don't feel like cooking, because it's pretty healthy. Not much fat in it.

Serves: A lot...
Ingredients:

• 1 package Taco seasoning
• 1 pound ground meat (optional)
• 1 large can of diced or crushed tomatoes (crushed makes a thicker consistency)
• 1 can of yellow corn
• 1 can of white corn
• 2-3+ cans of beans (kidney, black, red, chili, etc. What ever kinds you like.)
• Cornbread, box mix or from scratch, or tortilla chips.

Directions:

Optional: Cook the meat in the bottom of a large pot (don't add oil) and add the taco seasoning to it.

1. Open all the cans and dump everything in to a large pot. If you didn't add meat, add the taco seasoning now.
2. Heat through.
3. Done. I said it was easy.

Also optional, but highly recommended: Bake up some corn bread while the soup/stew is heating.

Serving suggestions: Put a piece of cornbread in the bottom of the bowl and pour soup over top. You can add sour cream or cheese if you'd like. I personally prefer it with out.

P.S. You can easily double (or triple) this for a potluck or large gathering. Just add more cans of everything!

Got a teensy bit sidetracked.

I went a bit off path this past week, but I have 4 pieces to show for it. I make the Le Sac dress and a maxi dress out of the knit from my AM and tore apart an old skirt that I made (serious monster of a skirt) and made a top and a skirt.

The Le Sac dress came together very quickly. It's literally a rectangular sack with a casing at the top. I didn't even have to do any shaping. Well, if I had it would have messed up the whole convertibility thing. Anyways, it came out cute and only took about 1 1/8 yards. Took about 1 hour, maybe a touch more because I was having an allergic reaction to the cat hair on the fabric.

The maxi came out a lot better than planned. I originally wanted to do a deep front and back scooped neckline, but ended up liking the simple neckline I cut just to be able to get my head through the hole. I made the bodice of the dress fitted in the bust and just slightly loose in the waist with an elasticated waist. I added some small embellishments to the shoulder with the left over strip I cut for the neck binding. I even added pockets. Took about 2 1/2 hours.

The skirt I tore apart was white and navy stripe knit. It was a beast. Seriously. It had 2 full yards of 60" wide material. Plus some scraps from the uneven edge because I was the first to get a piece off the bolt. It came out cute, but it was way too impractical for regular wear. So, last night I pulled it down and tore out all the seams and hems (30 feet of hem, mind you. My hand cramped) and started piecing together a simple skirt. The wonderful thing about the knit was that it had 4-way stretch, so I was able to piece together a strip to add to the bottom of the skirt with the stripes going vertically. I did the same with the top. Which was a very simple loose tunic type one.

The top I added one of the pockets from the original skirt (for my phone, nothing worse than not having a pocket) and an anchor out of red button. I was not aware that I was out of red buttons, but I was lucky enough that a pack of pink buttons I bought had ones dark enough to look like red. I just glued them on because I was really and have another allergic reaction to something.

So, all in all, I didn't get any of my listed projects done, but I made up for it by getting 4 other ones I had in mind done instead. I also have tomorrow off from work, so I may end up doing some of the simple skirts.