Souper Friday–Vegetarian Taco Soup

Some mornings I am so organized.  I know exactly what has to get done, how much time I have etc.  I was feeling pretty good about my timing, and had to make a couple trips to put my shit in the car – my gym bag, and my big container of soup for Souper Friday at my office.

I came back in to get my coffee and realized, I never made anything for myself for breakfast!  Doh!   I decided to pick up Subway for breakfast since it’s right across the street from my office.

I chose the black forest ham on flat bread – the sticker said “under 200 calories” – nice!  I got back to my office and ate it all – only to find out that the “under 200” breakfast sandwich was on a 3 inch flat bread (which I didn’t even see they offered that – she asked me if I wanted a six inch or foot long).

So my breakfast came in at 380 calories – it was super filling though!

Work was busy.  My one boss is going on vacation, lots of things to get done.  I didn’t end up going to the gym until 1:45!  That’s how filling that breakfast was – I ate it at 9 and I still had enough fuel to work out.

Here’s something I haven’t done in ages:

I wore a two piece bathing suit at the gym!

I told Tony that when I got home and he had a bit of perplexed look on his face.  It’s this kind of two piece:

They are Lands End swim shorts and a separate top.  I had forgotten I even had this suit – I probably bought this 10 years ago?  I ended up swimming for 35 minutes.

I ended up coming up with a vegetarian taco soup.  My only concern is that the broth was going to be really watery because there was not going to be any meat in it.  I decided to cook down the tomatoes with six corn tortillas and that worked great!  This also made A LOT of soup – it barely fit in my 6-quart crock pot.

Vegetarian Taco Soup

• makes 10, 2 cup servings
• 241 calories, 1.5 fat, 42 carbs, 10 fiber, 13 protein
• 1137 sodium

One thing about the sodium, is that I rinse the beans really well from the can so I am positive there is not 1100 mg of sodium per serving.  Just wanted to give you a heads up in case that’s something you need to watch out for.

Ingredients:

• 1 28 ounce can canned diced tomatoes
• 1 15 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 15 ounce can mild Rotel tomatoes
• six corn tortillas
• 8 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons canned adobo sauce (or any hot sauce)
• 1 15 ounce can light kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 15 ounce can black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 15 ounce can of yellow corn, drained
• 1 32 ounce can of hominy, drained (about 3 cups total)
• 3 tablespoon taco seasoning
• 3 tablespoons ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes:

• sliced jalapenos
• cilantro
• cheddar cheese

In a large stock pot, add all the tomatoes and the corn tortillas.  Don’t worry about breaking up the tortillas, they’ll soften pretty quickly.  Let the tomatoes simmer for about 15 minutes, then using a stick blender, puree.  Add the vegetable broth, adobo sauce, taco seasoning and ground cumin.

Since I was taking this to work, I just finished it right there.  Let it cool, and put it in my container.  At work I added the broth to the crock pot and then added all the canned ingredients.  I set my crock pot on high around 8:45 in the morning and by 11:45 it was hot enough to serve.

This was excellent – loved the heat, not over the top.  My jalapenos?  Supa spicy this time!  Best thing?  The cost.  This giant pot of soup cost me $11.41 to make.  I ended up making $24 dollars from my co-workers, and I still have enough leftover for one of my SIL’s lunches, and enough for three servings to freeze for myself for a quick and easy lunch.

While I wouldn’t mind having fish tacos every Friday during lent (much like my beloved Party Pizza Friday!) Tony wanted to switch it up.  What better thing to have than veggie fried rice – the eggs are the protein in this dish – we had carrots, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots.  I ended up eating half of this dish – it’s so good though that I really have to stop myself from eating the whole thing!  Thanks for making dinner Tony!

Have you checked out Ally’s latest blog post?  She was doing an inventory of her pantry, fridge and freezer before coming up with her meal plan – basically utilizing the stuff she had on hand and basing her meal plan off of that.  I thought it was a great idea, so I did that myself this morning.

Here is my meal plan for the week for dinner.  The highlighted items are the only things I need to purchase:

• Round steak with gravy over egg noodles (round steak is on sale for $2.99 this week)
• Reuben pizza with corned beef and swiss cheese (corned beef is on sale for $3.49 a pound and swiss cheese is $2.99 a pound)
• Filet mignon with cauliflower gratin (cauliflower is on sale for .99 cents a head)
• Italian combo – roast beef and Italian sausage sandwiches. (Italian sausage is $3.49 for a package of six – I’ll use two for dinner and freeze the other four – maybe to make more lasagna soup!)
• Cheese ravioli with spinach and tomato sauce (butter and Parmesan cheese for Tony).   A 10 oz. package is on sale for $3

I found three separate packages of chicken pieces, carcasses and parts so those are defrosting and will be chicken noodle soup for lunches.  I found two pork chops, and since we know Tony doesn’t like to pork anymore, I am making pork bbq sandwiches with sauerkraut for me and my SIL. 

My breakfasts this week are all going to be Green Monsters.  Tony and I bought a six pound bag of mixed frozen fruit (strawberries, mango, pineapple and peaches) for $10 dollars at Sam’s club.  And he bought me a giant tub of baby spinach so I am all set.

What’s on your menu this week?

I am counting my 35 minute swim .5 miles towards my 45 mile goal for March – only 44.5 to go!

Have a great weekend – see you on Monday!