1. People's stupid excuses for not making food.
2. A new recipe
3. Cooking with fresh food
I go to the grocery store and buy masses of random foods. This includes things like ginger, heads of garlic, lots of flour, bla bla bla. I always get random looks by the checkers. Being the friendly person I am, I tend to explain why I'm buying this stuff. It's usually something like, "oh, I'm making taco soup," or, "I'm baking cookies," or, "I'm cooking a turkey."
If the checker is paying attention, they'll usually respond with something with the likes of:
"You don't normally see people cooking anymore, especially your age."
That makes me sad. People are too busy to cook, don't know how, don't have the energy, etc. I call BS. If you don't know how, go learn. Don't have the energy? You'd probably have some energy if you ate good, whole-based foods compared to that crap you can get to-go through that drive-thru. Take a day and make masses amount of something, then tupperware it. It's called a microwave. Put that business in the microwave. When I was younger, my mom would make plates upon plates of ready to eat, homemade meals for my great-grandparents. She had three kids and a job. She did it. You can, too.
Everybody can cook.
So, here, is possibly the easiest thing in the world to make.
Taco Soup
There are three components to this soup. The base, the meat, and vegetables.
1. Cook a pound of ground turkey (or beef) over medium heat. Once browned, add taco seasoning. (I love taco seasoning. I'm pretty sure I will put that on anything. That and cilantro. I'll get to that later).
2. To make the base, puree two large tomatoes, a jalepeno, a head of garlic, and a packet of Hidden Valley's ranch dressing mix. (The reason I don't use tomato paste is because it freaks me out. It's like a tomato version of peanut butter. And that's not natural.)
3. Dice two large tomatoes, an onion, and a green pepper. Put half the diced veggies, meat, two cans of rinsed kidney beans, and tomato puree in a crock pot over low heat.
4. Let contents sit for hours. After everything has seeped in the flavor, (and you'll be serving shortly thereafter), add the other half of diced veggies.
5. Take 2-3 ears of corn, and cut corn off.
6. Let the fresher veggies soften but not become consistency of the first added veggies. This will add texture to the soup, giving it a chili-like quality. Add corn 5 minutes before serve-time.
7. Taste test to judge if needs more taco seasoning, salt, pepper, etc.
8. Serve with crushed tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, lime juice, and/or sliced avocado.
This makes a massive amount of soup. Like 8-10 people's worth. And it's delicious.
When it comes to making and eating food, being able to use fresh products is the best. For example, you can make the soup above with canned products, but it will not taste near as delicious or fresh. Farmer's markets, gardens, grocery stores, little markets, even neighbors can supply this.
I was referred to a tiny market by a coworker. This place is tiny, and looks like it's not even open from the outside. But, the produce is the most fresh in the city, and it's the cheapest. How does that work? But anyways, whole foods are the best. Use those. I will probably write a blog about picking produce, later on.
Canned tomato sauce < Sauce made from fresh tomatoes
Bagged hashbrowns < Freshly grated potatoes
Canned corn < Corn on the cob
Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Leave 'em here.
Thanks for visiting. :)
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