Taco Soup

Taco soup is a pretty common recipe. I imagine all taco soup recipes are pretty similar. It's a super simple recipe that freezes great and kids love it. This is the one dish that I can almost guarantee Claire will eat, which is saying a lot. She is a very picky two-year-old.

Taco Soup

1 lb hamburger
1 onion, diced
2 cans kidney beans (drained & rinsed)
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1 pkg taco seasoning
1-2 cups frozen corn
2 cans (8 oz ea) tomato sauce

Brown hamburger with onion, drain grease. Add remaining ingredients, cook on medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes. Serve with chips, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and olives.

Freeze in Ziploc bags--either quart or gallon size.

Pam's Beef and Bean Burritos

I have a few teenage boys who are always hungry when they come home from school and late night activities. I discovered that by making my own freezer burritos, they have something quick and filling to make.

Here's the recipe that I adapted mine from. I usually can get a lot more than 40 with this recipe. It's very basic, but when you cook them up you can add any topping to it you want.


Beef and Bean Burritos
(from "Fix, Freeze, Feast" by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik)
Make 40 + burritos

1 warehouse size tray (about 6 lbs.) lean ground beef
1 cup taco seasoning
3 cups water
40+ ten-inch tortillas
4 (28 oz) can refried beans

Brown beef in a large stockpot over medium hear until no longer pink, about 20 minutes. Drain and discard fat. Add the taco seasoning. Stir in water and simmer mixture over medium hear for 20 minutes, or until the liquid is almost entirely evaporated. Cool.

Spread 1/4-cup ground beef and 1/3 cup refried beans on each tortilla. Wrap burrito-style and then wrap each one individually in foil.(I just stick each one in a fold-oven sandwich bag.) Divide burritos into gallon-size freezer bags.

Seal and freeze.

To cook:
Thaw in the refrigerator or reheat them straight from the freezer.

Microwave: frozen about 2 minutes.

Oven: bake in foil at 375 for 30 minute if frozen.
300 for 30 minutes if thawed.

Mom's Lasagna

Tonight we're having lasagna for dinner. Pasta dishes such as lasagna freeze great. Assemble the dish as normal, but don't cook the noodles. Drizzle about 1/4 cup water over your assembled lasagna, cover with foil and the baking dish lid. Freeze. Thaw in the fridge and bake as usual. Here is my mom's recipe. It's the one I have always used.

Lasagna
1 lb hamburger
1-2 cloves garlic
1 chopped onion
1 can tomato sauce
½ c water
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
½ tsp thyme
1 can tomato soup
2 tsp vinegar
9 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 pt cottage cheese
1 pt ricotta cheese
½ lb mozzarella
Parmesan

Brown hamburger garlic and onion, drain grease. Add tomato sauce, spices, water, soup, and vinegar. Simmer 30 minutes. Assemble by layering noodles, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, meat sauce, and mozzarella, repeat three times. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese if desired. Cook at 350 for about an hour until bubbly.


The assembly process for a large batch. This is a quadruple batch that I put into one 9x13 and six 8x8 pans.