Dinner from your pantry! 8 Can Taco Soup!

Описание: Getting Back into the Cooking Groove
The holidays are over and it’s a New Year. Do you need a cooking reboot? Here are some ideas.

Making planning a habit. This can be as easy as looking at the calendar for the week ahead. Are there meetings or sporting events happening? Do you like to go out for pizza every Saturday? Plan on something quick and easy on those nights and come up with options for the other nights.

Use what you have. Do you have canned beans, tomatoes or broths in the pantry? Pasta, rice or quinoa? What about frozen vegetables, chicken breasts or meatballs? Do you keep onions, potatoes and carrots? Do you have bottled sauces that you’re not sure what to do with?

Keep it simple. Lots of recipes have 3 to 4 ingredients. Make a main dish and fill in the rest of the meal with store bought options.

Use your appliances. Do you have a slow cooker, instant pot or pressure cooker, a stick blender? Do you have a sheet tray, also a cookie sheet with sides? Do you have a heavy Dutch oven?

Buy a new cookbook, or go through the ones you bought for the yummy cover photo. Peruse the internet, and hope you don’t fall down the rabbit hole.

Get creative with leftovers. Make a quick soup, stir fry or sandwich with meats and vegetables.

Get the family involved. Turn up the music and give it a try.

Free Form Cooking

This is a great term to describe putting ingredients together in different ways.

Soups, bowls, salads and casseroles can all be created this way.

What’s in your pantry? Canned beans, vegetables, broths, dried pastas, rice, canned meat or fish.

What’s in the fridge? Eggs, milk, butter, leftover rotisserie chicken, vegetables, flour or corn tortillas, bacon.

What’s in the freezer? Chicken, sausage, fish, ground meat, meat balls, varieties of vegetables.

So how to add all these things together for dinner? Here’s some ideas:

Seven or Eight Can Taco Soup

1 can each of:

Pinto beans, rinsed and drained
Black beans, rinsed and drained
Corn, rinsed and drained
Diced tomatoes
Chicken breast
Green Chile enchilada sauce
Diced green chile
Chicken broth

I packed taco seasoning
1 packed ranch dressing mix
½ tsp each of cumin, Chile powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

Heat all the ingredients in a Dutch oven on the stove or in a slow cooker. When hot, serve, topped with grated cheese or chopped cilantro if desired.


Build a Bowl

Use a starch, such as rice, quinoa or pasta

Add fillers like canned vegetables, cooked meats, then top with a sauce and cheese if desired.

Pasta

The most basic is using prepared pasta sauce over cooked pasta. Add chopped up cooked vegetables, cooked ground meat, or prepared meatballs.

Ramen noodles can also be a base for veggies and meat. Top with an egg and add an Asian inspired sauce.