Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Best Taco Soup


It is fall! I can finally start thinking about cooking cold weather foods. Jeremy will only eat soup if it is below freezing outside and even then only about twice a year. I like a good bowl of soup now and then though. So today I cooked some taco soup for lunch while Jeremy was working the sale at Keeneland. I don't usually cook lunch, but I was craving this stuff so I did. I love it! I got the recipe from a lady named Pat Bradbury when I taught school in Texas. She was the cafeteria manager. We used to have a really good salad bar there and sometimes the ladies would fix soup for the bar as well. It is delicious with a nice kick. It is also very quick. The recipe says let it simmer for an hour- I can never wait that long. I think it can be eaten as soon as all the ingredients have time to warm through. Yum!

Taco Soup
1 lb. of browned ground beef, drained
1 medium onion, chopped and sauteed
1 can of Rotel- do not drain
1 can of *ranch style beans*
*In some areas, like ours, you have to shop around to find these
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of yellow hominy
1 pkg. of taco seasoning
1 pkg. of dry, ranch-style dressing mix
2 c. of water

Do not drain the canned ingredients. (I do drain and rinse the kidney beans, I just don't like that slimy liquid they are in.)
Mix everything together and simmer for one hour.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

What do you do all day?

Days like yesterday are the norm for a stay at home mom. These are days where you don't know where you would find the time to GO to work! I got up yesterday at 6:30 am and put a load of clothes in the washer and one in the dryer. I finished loading the dishwasher and started it. Then I got the coffee pot ready and waited on its caffeinated goodness to finish percolating. I didn't cook breakfast yesterday morning, so that was a little quicker. We just did frozen waffles. I folded a load of clothes and sipped my coffee.
By this time it was a little after 7 am so time to get Mady and usually Jack up. Mady got up fine, big Jack decided to sleep in. Enjoy it while you can man! So Madalynn and I go downstairs and I talk to her while she eats her 2 1/2 waffles with honey. (Personally, Yuck! honey, I am not a fan. The kids get that from their daddy.) We then go back upstairs and she gets dressed while I make our bed and her bed and I finish getting ready. We do hair and wake Jack up in time to catch the big black bus to take Mady to school. (The big black bus is what I called our suburban when Madalynn asked if she could ride the school bus to school. She was disappointed to find out it was just our car.) Anyway, we head off to school to drop her off. I just want to say the car drop off line is WONDERFUL! I love it. I have always had to get up extra early to do hair and makeup so I could walk her into preschool without shame...no more.
Jack and I return home and I fix him a waffle and straighten up the house. I get him dressed and make his bed. I plan out our menu for the week and get my grocery lists together. I sort through a bunch of recycling and get hangers together to take back to the cleaners. I start another load of clothes.
About 11 we head out to do our running around. We drop shopping bags off at Kroger because I had a huge amount of them and didn't have room to wait until we went to shop. We went to the dry cleaners and the recycling center. Then we headed to Lowe's to return the gas grill burners I had bought because they were the wrong kind. We head to Kroger to do the grocery shopping. I am forced to get one of the "racecar" grocery carts. I hate those things. I always feel like I am driving the grocery store equivalent of an 18 wheeler down a six foot aisle. Jack loves them though. I usually put him off by telling him we only had a few things to get. On this day I was not so lucky. We finally get done shopping.
I run through the drivethru at Sonic because when we walk in the door I want to have something to slap on the table. So about 1 pm we finally get home to eat a quick bite and get Jack a nap in. I get about a 20 min nap after putting all the groceries away. We get up from nap and head to get in the car line to pick Madalynn up. I come home go over what is in her folder, question her about her day, the kids have a snack, and then I make them go outside to play. The weather here the last couple of days has been spectacular!! I fold a few loads of laundry. I am the room mother in Mady's class and have needed to write my parent letter for about 4 days so I go upstairs and finally get that done. I clean up the playroom...again. Mainly because my children think it is an Olympic qualifying sport to see how fast a toy room can be trashed. By this time I need to start supper. Lasagna, rolls, and salad. I had laid out the rolls earlier in the day, so they were ready to bake. By the time dinner is done, it is 6:45pm. We eat, I clean up our dishes and then head out to start mowing the yard.
I mow while Jeremy takes Jack on a walk. He returns and asks if I want to go to Walmart. I want to go to the tanning bed and it is next door to Walmart,so we load up. Well, as we turn into the Walmart parking lot, Jacks says he needs to pee pee. About 1 minute later, as the vehicle comes to a stop we find out he has already peed in his clothes and car seat. So Jeremy and the crew wait while I tan since Jack now has wet clothes. I return and Jeremy goes into Walmart to get his hunting license and other assorted hunting paraphernalia. By this time it is after 9! My kids are usually bathed and ready or in bed by this time. We can't very well skip the bath since Jack wet his pants so we do a quick bath and get PJs on. I just read a page from the Bible ABCs book and we say our prayers and the kids go to bed. I put away laundry, get myself a shower, and clean up supper.
I fall into bed about 11:45 pm.

So when someone asks with curiosity or wonder "What do you do all day?" sometimes I would like to punch them.