Side Dishes

Wow, I think this will be the last giveaway I host and have to choose a winner. You all made it too hard! All your recipes sounded delicious, and from the amount of white chicken chili recipes that were entered, I am going to have to make that recipe soon.

I finally chose Ellie’s recipe for Taco Soup. This recipe seemed to be a healthy and inexpensive recipe for fall football. I also thought her directions were hilarious. And while I was not judging based on the funniest recipe, when you have been getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night because of a teething baby a little laughter goes a long way!

I have posted the recipe below. Congrats Ellie!

In honor of Autumn, I share my never-fail-to-please Taco Soup. There are loads of good recipes with Frito Lay products but this works especially well for my families who are one or more of the following:

a) on a budget
b) health minded
c) short on time
d) like one-dish meals

All the ingredients can be as fresh or as canned as you like… I’ll write out the cheap/easy recipe and put the healthy substitutes in parentheses.

TACO SOUP– feeds my family of six with leftovers.

1 lb. ground beef (you can use turkey or go nuts with free range/organic beef if you can afford it)

1 packet taco seasoning (feel free to make up your own, if you’re laundry pile is low and you’ve no diapers to change: Allrecipes has a good recipe)

1 can diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning is best (or you can chop up about 3 fresh tomatoes and spice it how you like)

1 15 oz. can tomato sauce (if you’ve time to can your own tomato sauce, you probably don’t need to be inspired with any old recipe like this one)

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained (all right, seriously everyone… if you want to soak dry beans overnight and cook them, it defeats the purpose of this being a quick and easy meal)

1 can corn (or about 1 1/2 cups fresh kernals or defrosted frozen)

cheddar cheese (if you aren’t able to find Tillamook cheese, you have my pity and best wishes to find a substitute)

plain yogurt (optional– and it’s way better than sour cream, so long as you don’t even THINK about getting a low or non fat kind!)

avocado (optional and if you can afford it!)

Any kind of Frito Lay corn chips… we like Tostitos.

Brown meat, drain fat and add taco seasoning as the package directs. In separate large saucepan or pot, add all the other ingredients and dump in cooked meat. You can add water to make this stretch further for more people. Let it simmer for a bit. It’ll look more like a very thick stew than a soup, unless you’ve added water.

Crunch up chips in bowl; dump a ladle full of soup on top. Sprinkle on cheese; dollop on yogurt and garnish with avocado in a way that tickles your fancy. Perfect for curling up on the couch with in front of the fireplace and watching leaves fall outside the window… unless you have three boys and baby girl like me and are better off to don full-on rain gear to avoid any “unintentional” blasts that may hit you across the table while the children devour their favorite meal and forget all my painstaking efforts to teach civility and manners at the mealtime. Enjoy.

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So after reading almost 100 comments, it seems like you want easy, healthy, fast, and cheap meals. No problem! Seriously though, it looks like I have my work cut out for me this fall!

My first two recipes are soups. Soups are so cheap to make, can be made ahead of time and either frozen or stored in the fridge for several days, and warm you up on those cool fall evenings. I almost always serve my homemade soups with a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread. It costs under a dollar to make and really fills everyone up.

This soup uses fall produce to save even more money. Many people have squash growing in their gardens and the store shelves are starting to fill up with many varieties of squash. Apples are also getting cheaper which makes this soup perfect for fall!

Butternut Squash Soup

This tasty soup is made in the blender.

Ingredients

3 cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
1 large apple, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1 Tbs minced garlic
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teas thyme
1/8 teas salt
1 1/4 cup chicken broth

Steam the squash and apple until soft.

While your squash is steaming, saute the onion and garlic in butter until the onion is clear.

Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and blend for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the mixture thickens.

Add the squash, apple and onion to the blender.

Blend until smooth, less than one minute. Serve immediately.

This soup was made in a Vita-mix. It was absolutely delicious and healthy too! Don’t have a Vita-Mix? As long as the squash and apples are really soft any blender should work, you can also use a food processor.

Cost Breakdown: