Taco Soup

Here we are again...wishing that fall would be cool enough for me to dig into my soup recipes.  Well, I make 'em anyway!!  This is one of our favorites in our family.  An easy one to just throw together, or an easy one if you have leftovers of taco fixings too!  We typically have Taco Tuesday every week, and on the rare occasion that I have leftovers, I can make a 2nd meal from it! (Taco leftovers doesn't happen much!  LOL).  Remember, my soups are all "about" in measurements...I love soups because most of mine contain whatever I have in the kitchen!

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey, browned
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 can black bean, drained
• 1 can pinto beans, drained
• 1 jar black olives, drained
• Water with chicken bullion (it depends on how much broth you want)
• (sometimes I throw some rice in here too)
• Taco seasoning (about 1/4 cup, or to taste!)

Combine all the ingredients in a crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.
Top with low-fat cheese, avocado, or greek yogurt (in place of sour cream).

Taco Soup

Ground Turkey and Rice Soup

So I really don't know what to call this soup.  I was in the mood for something really easy after a long morning of cleaning the house...all my chicken was frozen and I had a pack of ground turkey to use.  So, I put my thinking cap on and started cooking and throwing ingredients into the crock pot (my best friend once school starts!).  And the outcome was absolutely delicious and my family LOVED it!

So for those of you who have never used a crock pot or don't have one...RUN, don't walk to go get one today!  This is seriously my favorite appliance in my kitchen (ok...VitaMix is right on up there too).  I need to do an entire series on crock pot meals because I love them so much!  I'm on my 3rd one!!

Ok, back to the soup!  Here's the ingredients below...everything is an "about" measurement.  When I'm making soups, I really don't measure things, I just throw them in!  You can't "mess up" a soup in my opinion (ok, I'm sure you can...but not the ones that I make...it's a free-for-all of whatever I have in the pantry and freezer!!).  So feel free to adapt and change as you see fit!

Ground Turkey and Rice Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground turkey (browned and drained)
• chicken stock (I use "Better than Bouillon" about a tablespoon and then fill up my crockpot with water and taste as I go)  
• 1/2 onion, chopped - browned in skillet
• 2-3 carrots, chopped small and browned with onion
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups frozen corn
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of brown rice (no need to be cooked it will cook in crock pot, as it cooks a long time this gives the soup a little "thicker" consistency to it!)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp Oregano (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp Thyme (or more to taste)

Put everything into the crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours or more.  Top with cheese!  Enjoy!

Fiery Chile Beef

This is one of my friend's favorite meals.  I noticed that she was always getting flank steak and never had a good recipe, so I finally got the recipe and, thanks to Rachel…here you go!  It's a bit spicy, but you can tone it back as much as you want.  We like to serve it over brown rice, but it's also good to serve in corn tortillas!!

Ingredients

• 1 flank steak (1-1.5 lbs)
• 2- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1- 15 oz can of pinto or black beans drained and rinsed
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 canned chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce, diced (this is ONE chile, NOT an entire can of chiles--your mouth would be on fire!  If you are sensitive to spicy foods leave this out or only do a small amount)
• 1 tsp adobo sauce from canned chile pepper

Directions

1. Cut steak into 6 evenly sized pieces, place in Crock Pot
2. Add the rest of ingredients and mix
3. Cook in Crock Pot on LOW for 7-9 hours

Serve over brown rice with steamed veggies on the side OR serve inside corn tortillas.

Slow Cooker Pineapple Chicken Verde

I love quick, easy and healthy meals.  Ones that I can throw into the crockpot in the morning and have it cook all day!  This is yummy, quick and easy…I serve it over rice with a side of broccoli and it's golden!


Ingredients:

4 Chicken Breast
2 cups of crushed pineapple, or I have used frozen pineapple thawed and shredded or crush it myself.
1 jar of salsa verde ( I like the Trader Joe's kind)

Directions:
Place all ingredients into crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours.  
(I usually place them all frozen together and cook it for 6-8 hours.  The chicken will fall apart when poked with a fork.  

Serve over brown rice or quinoa with a side salad or veggies! 

Picture from The Gracious Pantry

Recipe from the The Gracious Pantry.

Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken

I am a HUGE fan of the slow cooker.  It is a life saver for me and my family (if we want to eat dinner at night!).  I've always been a collector of slow cooker recipes and this is on of my family favorites…it's a winner with my hubby and my kids!  I love to serve this over brown rice and with a side of veggies!

Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 TBSP fresh lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp chicken bouillon
• 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions

•  Put everything in the crockpot and place on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours.  

I like to prepare mine and stick it in a freezer bag and freeze it, then pull it out and place it in the crockpot frozen and cook it for about 8 hours. 

Serve over brown rice with a side of veggies!  I like to shred our chicken before serving over the rice!
ENJOY!!