In the cold winter months this is one of my family’s favorite go-to quick and easy comfort foods.  It reminds me more of taco style chili beans than a soup.  My boys love it with tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream. I like it by itself or on a salad.  It’s super easy to throw together and loaded with stuff that’s good for you!

Looking at the picture below makes me realize that I need to add “make homemade ranch dressing mix” and “make homemade taco seasoning” to my to do list.  And….I just added to this year’s canning list:  Homemade Rotel!  Next season this picture will include all homemade ingredients!

• 1 lb of ground meat (beef, turkey or venison)
• 1 pk of taco seasoning
• 2 cups of water
• Onion, chopped
• 1 pk of dry ranch dressing
• Rotel,  mild
• 15 oz corn, drained
• 15 oz black beans, rinsed
• 2 – 15 oz pintos (or kidney beans),  rinsed
• 2 – 15 oz tomatoes (for more heat you can use Pace Picante Sauce)

Dice the onion and slowly cook it in a stock pot.  Fry the ground meat in a frying pan.  I do this separately because I rinse the meat while I drain the grease.

Once the meat is done, drain, rinse and add back to the frying pan.  Stir in the taco seasoning and 2 cups of water.  Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Rinse the beans and drain the corn.  In the stock pot mix together the onion, tomatoes, Rotel, black beans, pintos, corn and dry ranch dressing mix.

Add the ground meat and taco seasoning mixture to the stock pot soup base.  Let it simmer 20-30 minutes to let all the flavors combine, stir frequently.

Serve with tortilla chips, freshly shredded cheese and sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and enjoy!

When I calculated the calories, this pot yields 8 servings at 325 calories per serving.