Easy Taco Skillet

Today I tried to do two new things. The first one seems to be a fail but the second one seemed to be a success.

I wanted to try out this new recipe called Easy Taco Skillet found here:  http://unmeasuredscoop.com/2013/09/18/in-a-pinch-thursdays-easy-taco-skillet/

This recipe called for two different types of canned beans. Since we had a lot of dried beans, instead of buying the beans, I thought I would try to cook kidney beans.

Experiment One: cook dried beans.

I found a website to help me know how to cook the beans. Following the directions, I got up early in the morning and set the beans to soak. After 8 hours I started cooking the beans. After several hours the beans were still hard. I would have to find alternate beans to complete this recipe. Experiment one: Fail. Lucky for us, my lovely mother-in-law, provided us with homemade canned pinto beans that I could use.

Experiment Two: Easy Taco Skillet

After discovering the beans were not done, I gathered everything that I would need to try out the recipe including the pinto beans. At this time, we discovered the tomato sauce my husband thought we had was actually tomato paste, so he ran to the store to get us some tomato sauce. When he returned I started chopping the vegetables. I diced my own tomatoes, rather than buy the canned.

When I start cooking on the skillet our neighbor showed up needing help from my husband. He went to help out, and of course, my baby decided that he needed complete attention at the same time my husband left. This made it more difficult to concentrate on what I was doing, but luckily nothing burned and I completed dinner.

I did not follow the recipe exactly because I used a can of corn and only pinto beans instead of the two kinds of beans. Everything else on the recipe I tried to follow pretty closely. I wasn't able to eat the food as soon as it was done, because my son needed to be fed. My husband reported that he thought it was delicious. He added a layer of tortilla chips to the bottom of the bowl, then the taco skillet, then cheese and cilantro. According to him the cilantro gave it that extra kick into delicious. He also said my daughter started eating it, slowly, piece by piece, but after a few minutes she finished her bowl, so she may have liked it too. I thought it was pretty delicious, if a little bland. I may have to spice it up a little more next time. Experiment Two: Success. This recipe will go in our family favorites book.