Recipe to recipe: Tacos to soup

One easy way to save money is to take supper from last night and make into supper tonight.  One of my favorites is to use leftover taco meat to make Santa Fe soup.  Our hamburger comes in 1.5 lb packages so we always have leftover meat. 

*Santa Fe soup:
Leftover taco meat
1lb Velveeta (half of the log) cubed
1 can kidney beans
1 cup frozen corn
1 package Knorr taco rice
1 can Rotel
3-4 cups of water depending how thick you want it.
Serve with corn chips

Combine all ingredient and cook on low for 4-6 hours in a slow cooker.  This will thicken the longer you cook it.  My husband likes it really thick like a dip.  It can be cooked on the stove but you must watch it or it will burn on the bottom

*I generally cook on the fly.  I don't use exact measurements so the amount of water is my best guess.  You can adjust the water and cheese to taste.

Noodle use your noodle

When my oldest was little he loved a show called PB&J Otter.  They were brother and sister otters that would figure out problematic situations by doing their noodle dance.  The dance song started with the line noodle use your noodle.  One night I came home with the full intention of making beef and noodles from leftover roast.  I opened my freezer and started digging for my favorite brand of frozen noodles.  None in sight.  Great now what was I going to do.  I got out my cook books and started looking.  I came across an egg noodle recipe that seemed simple enough.  They turned out wonderful!!  I was paying around 3.50 a bag for my favorite frozen noodles.  This recipe makes the same amount and costs 75 cents. 

2 cups flour
2 large eggs
2 tbsp of oil*
2 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of milk
1/2 tsp of salt.

Beat the eggs.  Add in the oil, water, salt, and flour.  Mix well with a fork to form dough.  Roll thin on a well floured surface.  Cut into then strips with a pizza cutter.  Drop into boiling broth.  Cook for 20-25 minutes.

This works well for beef and noodles or chicken and noodles.
*I used olive oil once and it gave the noodles a different taste.  We didn't like it so I stick to canola oil.