Recipe: Taco Soup

I made this up in desperation for tonight's dinner. Most ingredients were from my Thrive supply of foods I use constantly. You could make the same recipe from fresh and frozen foods, taking the time to chop everything. But Thrive is what I keep on hand more than frozen, and more than fresh in the winter. Really good, good enough to share!

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

one can of stewed tomatoes
one pint of home canned tomatoes from last summer
2 t. (THRIVE) tomato powder
1 pint of water
half a package of Food City chili seasoning
a handful of (THRIVE) freeze-dried celery
a handful of (THRIVE) dehydrated green onions
a handful of (THRIVE) dehydrated red and green bell peppers
about 3/4 cup of (THRIVE) freeze-dried corn
about 1/2 cup of (THRIVE) Quinoa
about 1.5 cups of (THRIVE) Taco TVP.
Mixed it all in the crock pot on high for 2 hours. SO completely yummy!

Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies

Because I'm a "what if" kind of person, I wondered what would happen if I combined my sourdough cookie recipe with my oatmeal cookie recipe. This is a quick recipe, if your starter is multiplying too fast in the fridge. Plenty to eat and give away.

Here are the ingredients I used:

1/2 pound of butter (2 sticks), softened (or butter powder, reconstituted)
3 large eggs (or 6 T. egg powder and 6 T. water)
1-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 t. vanilla
2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt.
2 c. flour
1-1/2 c. sourdough starter
3 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. light raisins
3/4 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. chopped dates
1 c. chocolate chips, favorite variety

This makes a sticky dough.

1. Cream the sugar, butter, eggs, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and vanilla.

2. Add the sourdough starter. Blend well.

3. Add the flour and blend well.

4. Add the chocolate chips and dried fruits and blend well.

5. Add the oats, one cup at a time, mixing as you go.

6. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.

7. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Cookie spreads a little, so I put 5 rows of 3 on my big Oneida cookie sheet, and only 3 rows of 3 on the smaller flat one with no sides and one end bends up a little. In case you have that kind.

They are still baking, so I'm not sure, but guessing 6 dozen cookies about 2.5-3". My cookies are generally oval because I don't round them nicely when I drop them. =) My first sample was delicious! I might cut the sugar down next time to 1 cup, because there is sugar in the sourdough starter, and they are sweeter than I usually make my cookies.

Sourdough Cookies

I better post this recipe so I can sort of replicate it again! =) These cookies are so delicious, I have almost made myself sick with eating them warm from the oven. I don't even want to think about how many calories that is, but the good part is there isn't as much sugar as many cookies have. I used the Herman sourdough starter that lives in my fridge all the time. I'm going to put that recipe on the recipe page, because there are SO many things you can bake with this sourdough starter!

Ingredients:

1 c. starter
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. butter (1 stick, 1/4 lb.)
1-1/3 c. sugar
4 T. egg powder
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. dried cranberries
3/4 c. chopped dates

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix everything together, except flour. When it's well blended, add the flour. It will be a sticky dough, sort of halfway between bread and cookie dough.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 11-12 minutes.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies about 2.5" across.