The Other Half of Life Across the Pond.....Mundane Daily Tasks.....Cooking

Taco Soup is one of our favorite fall/winter meals.  It's easy to make, tastes amazing and there's always leftovers.  And it was definitely included in the recipe box I brought with us.

After my very first shopping trip in Edinburgh, I knew that my recipe was going to have to be adjusted because not quite everything I needed graced the shelves at the grocery store.  So we started hunting and improvising.

For this soup, you need a couple different types of beans, canned tomatoes, green chilies, Rotel, taco seasoning and Ranch dressing seasoning.  Sounds easy enough to find, right?  WRONG!

In order to gather all of the types of beans the recipe actually calls for, I have to go to 2-3 different stores.  Kidney beans I can find pretty much anywhere but black beans and pinto beans are a different story.  So far here's where I've been able to find them.

• Black beans: Sainsbury or Real Foods
• Pinto beans: ASDA

Luckily the Sainsbury and Real Foods are within walking distance, but ASDA is nowhere close.  So, in order to use pinto beans in the soup I have to make sure that they're added to my delivery order whenever I have one - which usually coincides with when Luther needs food (because no one wants to carry that much dog food home when someone will bring it to your front door).

Tomatoes are easy - Rotel not so much.  I did find Rotel at the hispanic grocer, but it costs about £1.50 per can which is a bit out of my price range.  Luckily I was able to find whole green chilies in a jar at Sainsbury so I throw in an extra can of tomatoes and cut up enough green chilies to make one of them Rotel and then more to equal a can of diced green chilies.

Taco seasoning - done.  Ranch dressing mix - no good.  Again, I found this at the hispanic grocer but it was more expensive than the Rotel so I asked my mom to include some in her first care package to me. So we double up on the taco seasoning for now.

The recipe for this amazing meal is below and I would definitely recommend trying it.  You can substitute and make changes to meet your needs.  If you recycle, which I hope you do, you're bin will be full after making it.  Just remember to rinse your cans.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.  And thanks Mom for passing it along to me.

Taco Soup

1½ pounds ground beef, browned and drained

1 can rotel tomatoes

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can chili beans, drained

1 can black beans, drained

1 cans corn, drained

1 can chopped green chiles

1 onion chopped

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing mix

2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot or crockpot, mix all ingredients together and simmer at least 2 hours. Serve with corn chips and grated cheese.

Love you & miss you!

Aubs, Luke and Luther