When I embarked on my Taco Soup journey, I found that it seems everyone has their own recipe for this. Every recipe has a special twist, but I haven’t seen or heard two that are quite alike. Example- in discussing this at Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law has a tried and true recipe, and so does my sister-in-law, and ingredients vary.

Given that ingredients vary, and one of my life goals is to one day get it together enough to write some unique recipes of my own, when I decided to jump in on this one, I decided to make up my own recipe. I fully understood this meant it might turn out terribly, but that’s why the phone number to Domino’s is saved in my phone. 😉

One of the most fantastic things about this recipe (and most that I’ve heard) is that it’s a crock pot gem. It was so amazingly wonderful to know that dinner was ready and waiting for us when I got home, it was like my whole day was stress-free. This makes me want to look into more crock pot recipes (eventually), just so I can have the great accomplished feeling that dinner is done.

To begin, open the following cans and dump them (liquid and all) into the crock pot:

• 1 can regular corn (15 oz.) (I used HEB brand)
• 1 can black beans (15 oz.) (I used Bush’s)
• 1 can pinto beans (15 oz.) (I used Bush’s here, also)
• 2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes with diced peppers (Mine were mild) (10 oz.)
  • The sizes of the cans aren’t necessarily vital- This made at least 4-6 servings of soup, so if you need more, use larger or more cans. I can’t really tell you how to use less…

I turned the crock pot to low (10 hours)- mine is automatic so you set it for 4, 6, 8, or 10 hours, and at the end of that time, it automatically switches itself to warm.

While it was warming up, I browned one pound of ground beef. I use ground sirloin (90/10 fat content), and drain the fat off the meat once it is browned.

I added the ground beef into the crock pot, and then added one packet of taco seasoning (any brand will work), and stirred everything until it looked well mixed.

Optional: water. If you like your soup more liquidy, add one to two cups of water. The liquid from the cans makes it fairly soupy on it’s own, but if you want it more liquidy, add the water. I liked it without extra liquid (it was more similar to a chili consistency), but hubby said he was scooping out every last bit he could find, so I will add extra next time. (You could probably also use broth, but I NEVER have that on hand).

Some recipes I’ve read say to cook all the canned ingredients together all day and then add the meat in at the end right before eating. This is definitely an option, but I thought the meat had a good flavor from cooking with the rest of the ingredients all day.

And that’s it– come home to COOKED DINNER! I made cornbread to go with it, but hubs requested Saltines to go with it next time. We’ve got a busy day today with an out of town appointment, so I’ve got this in the crock pot ready to go for whenever we get home!

Happy #whatsonthetablewednesday!