By The week after Pioneer Day I crashed a little, which I have learned to expect. The big gatherings of the Cooper family are oxygen and they are also, afterward, absence. The house is quieter than Denise's yard, the table smaller, the grace shorter. I made a very simple dinner Monday: frozen taco soup from the freezer, thawed in the slow cooker, served with sour cream and shredded cheese and a bag of chips for the kids who think chips are a food group. Nobody complained. The simplicity was the point.
Back-to-school is three weeks away and I have started the mental preparation that is equal parts logistics and grief. Not grief exactly, but the particular ache of time: Ethan will start seventh grade, his first year of middle school. He has been in elementary school since 2010. Seven years of the same building, the same hallways, the same flag in the same spot on the same pole. Now he will walk into a different building and I will not be there to see what his face does on the first morning. He will not tell me. I will have to infer it from how he eats his after-school snack.
I spent Sunday afternoon doing the back-to-school freezer prep: three months' worth of school-morning breakfasts and weeknight dinners, planned and organized and listed. Breakfast burritos, three dozen, individually foiled. Baked oatmeal muffins, two batches. Chicken enchiladas, six bags. White chicken chili, four bags. Meatball marinara, four bags. The list on the whiteboard in the kitchen says HOW MANY DAYS UNTIL SCHOOL: 22. I cross off each one. The kids think I am counting down to school. I am counting down to September, which is its own kind of reckoning.
Mason has been very quiet this week, the quiet he gets when he is thinking about something he will not tell you for another three days, when it has become a plan instead of a thought. I know this quiet. I know it because I make it too. I am watching and waiting.
That Monday-night taco soup—the one I pulled from the freezer and let the slow cooker do all the thinking—is the recipe I keep coming back to when the house feels too still and I need dinner to ask nothing of me. It’s the first thing I make during freezer prep because it freezes flat, thaws fast, and the kids will eat it without negotiation. On a week when I was already counting days on the whiteboard and watching Mason’s quiet, I needed a dinner that could just be warm and ready and enough.
Fire-Roasted Tomato and Black Bean Soup
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 packet taco seasoning (or 2 tablespoons homemade)
- 2 cans (14.5 oz each) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (15 oz) corn, drained (or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn)
- 1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
- 4 cups beef or chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Sour cream, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, and cilantro for serving
Instructions
- Brown the meat. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it apart, until browned through, about 6–8 minutes. Drain any excess fat.
- Sauté the aromatics. Add the diced onion and cook until softened, about 3–4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.
- Season. Sprinkle the taco seasoning, cumin, and chili powder over the meat and onion mixture. Stir to coat evenly and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the liquids and beans. Pour in the fire-roasted tomatoes, black beans, pinto beans, corn, green chiles, and broth. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.
- Simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve or freeze. Ladle into bowls and top with sour cream, shredded cheese, and crushed tortilla chips. To freeze, cool completely, then pour into gallon-sized freezer bags, press flat, and freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm in the slow cooker on low for 4–6 hours.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 21g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 8g | Sodium: 890mg