Yes, it has been a while. I got caught up in some legal issues and getting my mom settled into her new life. Now Mr. Mike and I are fine and scroungin’. Even rode in the Gulfport Mardi Gras parade two weeks ago. The Food Scrounge News has been updated; click the News tab for what’s been missing.

Gulfport Mardi Gras pre-parade

Check the Food Scrounge News tab for a little of this and a little of that (plus exercise). Below is a nutrition Sudoku. Answer key is on bottom of the Sudoku. No peeking!

NutritionSudoku_Easy

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Scrounge cat still life

Taco soup ingredients

It’s 4:45 PM and I have no idea what I’ll prepare for dinner. This is scrounging: starting point was  ground beef taken from freezer to thaw overnight in the refrigerator.  Checked the pantry and fridge for potential ingredients.  Here it is: half can of diced tomatoes, canned beans, frozen corn.  What did it become?  Next I scrolled through my collection of scanned recipes and there it was – Taco Soup from a Penzeys catalog.  I’m not proud, I’ll take recipes anywhere I find them.

Penzeys Taco Soup

What did I do to the recipe? Because I had 8 oz ground beef, the recipe ingredients were halved.  Diced onion (1/2 cup) and two minced garlic cloves were added to the beef while browning.  Ground cumin (1/2 teaspoon) was mixed in towards the end of cooking the meat.  No fat draining was necessary.  Pinto beans were used because I didn’t have black beans (and so what).  Frozen corn was used in place of canned (I’m not a big fan of canned veggies like corn).  Other than juggling the ingredients, the recipe was followed as written. We used sour cream and hot sauce as accompaniments.  It made three servings; dinner for us and enough for Mr. Mike’s lunch the next day.

It’s OK to change things around according to what you have – often the result is better than the original.

Penzey’s Taco Seasoning is mixed from paprika, salt, onions, lactose, dextrose, corn flour, tomato powder, cumin, garlic, oregano, black pepper, cocoa powder, allspice.  FYI lactose is milk sugar and is the least sweet of the simple sugars.  Dextrose (a natural sweetener) often is made from rice.  I think any packaged taco seasoning would work.  Seasoning mix available at: www.penzeys.com

Taco seasoning mix package

Soup with sour cream "garnish"

My apologies for sporadic postings.  I’m having to adjust my schedule to early morning work hours, so there’s less time for evening posts.  It’ll work out – less than one month to the end of school!