Back in January, I posted a recipe for taco soup, which I called Take One. It was alright, but didn’t quite have the taste I was looking for. So the search continued. Today, I bring you Take Two, which also happens to be the Final Take for me. I can’t say definitively that I’ll never try or post another taco soup recipe, but for now, this one was exactly what I was looking for.

Or it was the second time, when I bought the right tomatoes, and not the ones with the Italian seasoning. Italian seasoning and taco seasoning just don’t play well together. In any case, I found this recipe on the Crockpot 365 blog, which is AWESOME if you have never been there.

You’ll need: 1 lb ground beef, 1 packet taco seasoning, 1 packet ranch dressing dry mix, 2 cans kidney beans, 2 cans pinto beans, 2 cans corn, 1 can tomatoes with green chilies, 1 large can of diced tomatoes. Optional: cheese and sour cream.

Brown your ground beef, drain, and add to your crock pot.

Pour in your packet of taco seasoning.

Followed by the packet of ranch dressing mix.

Drain and rinse two cans of kidney beans, and add those to the crock pot.

Same with the pinto beans– drain and rinse, then add to the pot!

Add in 2 cans of whole kernel corn, this time without draining.

Add one can of tomatoes with green chilies, without draining.

Finally, add your large can of diced tomatoes, also without draining.

Give it a good stir, put the lid on and cook on low for 8-10 hours. This smelled absolutely amazing while it was cooking! I could hardly leave it alone in the kitchen!

When it was finally done, I dished it into a bowl.

And topped it with some cheese and sour cream. This was exactly what I was going for. I felt like this recipe hit all the points that left me disappointed in the last taco soup. It’s probably more of a chili that’s taco flavored than the other one was. Either way, I was happy with the results!

Taco Soup
From Crockpot 365

2 cans kidney beans
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans corn
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoes and chiles
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 lb ground beef
cheese and sour cream

Brown meat, add to crockpot. Sprinkle the seasoning packets on top of the meat. Drain and rinse the beans and add. Add the cans of corn and tomatoes without draining.

Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours. Serve with cheese and sour cream, if desired.

This is another recipe out of my long-neglected Betty Crocker cookbook. I have absolutely no complaints about this soup, and I’ve actually made it three separate times now, so I figured it was time I actually write about it! It’s easy to make, and it heats up really well. It takes about 3 hours in my slow cooker.

You’ll need 16 oz. of hashbrown potatoes, 1 can whole kernel corn, 1 can creamed corn, 1 can evaporated milk, 8 slices bacon, onion, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.

Put your potatoes in the slow cooker. The recipe calls for 16 ounces, thawed. I could only find 32 ounce bags, so I eyeballed about half the bag, and I’m too impatient to wait for them to thaw. It turned out fine.

Add in one can of whole kernel corn, undrained.

And one can of creamed corn. This would be why they call it “double-corn” because I’m sure that wasn’t completely obvious already.

Pour in one 12 oz. can of evaporated milk.

Toss in some diced onion. I think the recipe calls for a medium onion, or 1/2 cup. I had some already diced left over from another meal, so I just dumped in a handful. I’m not too big on onions, so I sure wasn’t going to be crying if I didn’t get enough in there.

1/2 teaspoon of salt…

1/4 teaspoon pepper…

And 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.

Give it a quick stir together, and go ahead and get it cooking. My bacon wasn’t done cooking yet (I was baking it in the oven) but I wanted to get the soup started so I put the lid on and turned the slow cooker on high.

When my bacon was cooked and crumbled, I went ahead and added it in. Adding the bacon near the beginning of the cooking process will help distribute the flavor. Adding it in near the end will help retain crispy bacon bits. I add mine at the beginning because I figure by the third time I reheat it, all the bacon’s going to mushy anyways!!

Let it cook for 3-4 hours on high.

It heats up wonderfully, so this has been a great meal to make one night, and take to work for lunch during the week! Since it only takes 3 or so hours for me, it’s one crock pot meal that I’ll tackle on a weeknight. (I’m uncomfortable cooking in the crock pot when I’m going to be gone for more than an hour, even though I realize that’s the big draw to slow cooker recipes for most people!)

Potato and Double Corn Chowder

1 bag (16 oz.) frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed (4 cups)
1 can (15.25 oz.) whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can (14.75 oz.) cream-style corn
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
8 slices bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled (1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper

In 3.5-6 qt slow cooker, mix all ingredients. Cover and cook on low heat setting for 6-8 hours (or high heat setting for 3-4 hours) to develop flavors. Sprinkle each serving with parsley, if desired.

I can’t recall exactly why now, but a couple months ago, I was googling Chop Suey. What I discovered was that Chop Suey is in fact, not Chinese food at all (kind of a no brainer since they don’t eat most of the things we call Chinese food in China) but is a wholly American dish of questionable origins. But that’s okay because this questionable AmericanChinese dish is one of my absolute favorites from when I was growing up. I just finally made it myself for the first time.

This makes a HUGE amount of food. Growing up, there were four of us, including my dad and my brother who can put away astonishing amounts of chop suey, and there was always plenty left over to eat on for the next several days. I should have taken this into account when cooking for myself because I ate chop suey until I was sick to death of it, and probably barely made it halfway through this batch. So if you make it exactly as written, be prepared for a lot of food. If I make it again for just me, I’ll probably use one can of vegetables and go from there.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Chop Suey meat, 3 cans of chop suey vegetables, 1 can of sliced water chestnuts, can of mushrooms, bead molasses, soy sauce, flour, milk, rice and a little bit of oil. Also optional, chow mein noodles.

To begin with, put a little bit of whatever oil you’re using in the bottom of a large stock pot. You can use whatever you’d like. I used olive oil, the original “recipe” called for shortening.

Roll your chop suey meat in flour. I have two notes about the meat:
1) We have a supermarket locally that actually sells a package labeled Chop Suey Meat. If yours doesn’t, go for pork for stir fry. My dad has also made this with a combination of beef and pork and that’s turned out well.
2) When I bought the meat, I thought one package looked too small, and bought two packages. When I went to actually make this, I second guessed myself and only used one of them. I should have stuck with my first instincts– I would have been much happier if there had been more pork in my chop suey.

Okay, moving on.

Imagine a picture of me putting the flour coated pork into the pan with the oil, and cooking until the meat is browned. I forgot to take a picture of that step. When that’s done…

Open your chop suey vegetables and pour one can into the pan.

Followed by a second can…

… and a third.

There’s already water chestnuts in the chop suey vegetables, but we really like them so we add an additional can of them. Feel free to leave them out if water chestnuts aren’t exactly your cup of tea. Otherwise, go ahead and dump those on top.

Then add in a can of mushrooms.

And shake in some soy sauce. I don’t have an amount here. My mother is the queen of refusing to give me measurements. I know, I hate it too. She did caution me against adding too much soy sauce at this point, so just shake a little in, you’ll supplement your plate with more soy sauce later so no harm if you don’t get a lot in now.

Next, you’re going to add your bead molasses. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons. My mom said that she usually just pours enough in to fill her wooden spoon, and then stirs it in. So that’s what I did… obviously that’s much easier than trying to measure out something with molasses in the name into a measuring spoon and then trying to get it back out and into your dish. No thanks.

Give it all a good stir, and then let the whole thing simmer on the stove for several hours, stirring occasionally. That part’s not in the original recipe, but I can’t leave anything alone, so I do a lot of stirring.

This is what mine looked like after it cooked for a few hours. It’s looking good already, but before you serve the chop suey it still needs to be thickened. I don’t have one of those highfalutin’ fancy shakers, so I improvise with an empty peanut butter jar.

Put some flour in the jar… I think I used 1/2 cup of a gluten free flour.

Add in milk, but leave enough room in the jar for things to mix around once you put the lid on!

Then shake for all you’re worth! And kindly ignore how badly I am in need of a manicure. Unless you’d like to buy me one because I hate to admit it, but my poor cuticles look much worse than that now! This weather is killing me!

Anyways, when you’re done shaking up your flour and milk mixture and you have it as combined as you can get it, and you’re done admiring your manicure, go ahead and pour it into your pot.

Give it a good stir, and this part of the meal is done!! You’ll still need to make some rice. I used minute rice, cooked it in the microwave according to the package directions.

So put some rice on your plate.

Spoon some of the chop suey mixture on top. This is the last picture that I took, but I also put more soy sauce on top of my plate. Normally I’d also serve this with a handful of chow mein noodles, but I was trying to make this dish gluten free, and chow mein noodles are certainly NOT gluten free! I didn’t miss them as much as I thought I would though!

Chop Suey

Chop Suey Meat
3 cans of chop suey vegetables
1 can mushrooms
1 can sliced water chesnuts
2 T. bead molasses
Soy Sauce

Roll chop suey meat in flour and brown in shortening. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for several hours. Before serving, add milk and flour mixture (1/2 – 3/4 cup flour w/ milk in shaker). Serve with rice and chow mein noodles.