October challenge #1- Taco Soup once a week for 3 months

October 2011 ward Provident Living Challenges:

Do one of these by the November Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

Challenge #1:   Buy ingredients for TACO SOUP (OR YOUR FAVORITE MEAL. ) Plan to eat it once a week for 3 months (this equals 13 meals).  You need to figure out all the ingredients multiplied by 13. 

First:  Choose a recipe where all the ingredients are shelf-stable (this means they do not have to be refrigerated or frozen.)

Second:  Make the entire meal, and keep all the ingredients on the counter.  Write down how many cans of each item you used, and any other ingredients you needed to add.

Third:  Multiply the ingredients by 13, and buy them.   

Fourth:  Rotate and use the ingredients.  Even if you only eat this dish once a month, you will still use up the ingredients in a little over a year (13 months.).  As long as you always use the oldest and keep replacing with new, your ingredients will get rotated and won’t go bad.

Now I will give you the recipe for one of our family’s favorite meals:  Taco Soup.

TACO SOUP

Brown:

 1 pound extra lean ground beef

1 onion, diced

1/2 package Taco Seasoning  (or 3 Tablespoons)

Add:

15 ounces canned corn

1 large or 2 medium can kidney beans

15 ounces crushed canned tomatoes

1 small can tomato sauce

Combine all ingredients and simmer, or leave them 

in a crockpot for a few hours.  Serve them with the 

following toppings and additions: 

Fritos

grated cheese

sour cream

green onions, chopped

black olives

shredded lettuce

Here is a picture of the ingredients that I used when filling my standard size crock pot (note: its different than the recipe.)

(1/4 cup dehydrated onions, 3 Tablespoons taco seasoning, 1 can olives added as a topping, 15 oz. can tomato sauce, 2 cans corn, 3 cans kidney beans, 2 pints bottled ground beef, add some corn chips as a topping.  Not shown:  sour cream powder.)

I learned to pressure can meat, so I have bottled ground beef.  (If you don’t want to pressure can ground beef, choose a different recipe that uses canned chicken or canned tuna.)

I own powdered sour cream, and dehydrated onions.

I own containers of Taco Seasoning.

I own bags of Fritos.  But I also found a recipe for homemade fritos, and tested it.  Although it isn’t as tasty as store-bought, I could make it work if I had to, and I have the ingredients.

Things I don’t have in my food storage:   We like this dish with shredded lettuce and shredded cheddar cheese.  However, if we don’t have those refrigerated items, we can still eat Taco Soup.  For your recipe, consider if you still like it without any of the refrigerated items that you usually eat with it.

(PLEASE SUBSTITUTE YOUR FAVORITE MEAL)