Chopped Challenge: Valentine’s Edition

Tonight, is proof you can have a heart-warming, yet CHEAP and simple, Valentine’s Day.  Let’s face it, February can get expensive in this household. We have several birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl and our wedding anniversary.  My husband and I agreed not to spend any money on today’s Hallmark Holiday. We show our love and affection all the time, so today isn’t a huge deal to us. It is to many, and that is totally cool. Just not us. But I still wanted to do something fun. So Chopped Challenge, you are on deck!

Usually, he gives me 3 or 4 ingredients and I end up going to the grocery store to create something magnificent. Today I asked that he only “shop” in our freezer, fridge or pantry. I agreed to do the same for whatever other ingredients I used. My goal was also to avoid cookbooks and the internet for ideas. The only thing about Valentine’s in this challenge is the day. It really should be called “Chopped Challenge: Clean out Leftovers, Kitchen and Pantry Edition”.

Matt’s treasure hunt resulted in a basket of leftover BBQ chicken from the freezer, cheese from the fridge, cornbread mix from the pantry and black beans from the kitchen cabinet. Honestly, this sounds pretty easy, right? These all go great together. I could easily make BBQ chicken on cornbread with cheese and black beans. But, screw that noise. Too easy. How can I re-imagine those and use up random food we have laying around?

I formulated a plan and put into action what I needed to get into the crockpot. I made a 3-bean taco dump soup using a bunch of leftovers from this weekend and random items we will likely never use otherwise. See below for the complete list. The flavors are so yummy! I basically went through the fridge and kitchen cabinets and created a pile of ingredients to throw into the crockpot. I actually didn’t use them all. I ran out of room. So I skipped a few that are pictured here. Celery, dehydrated taco mix, and bacon were put back away for another day. Finished soup was topped with oyster crackers, sour cream, cheese and cilantro.

Closer to dinner time I started on the remaining basket ingredients. After thawing out the BBQ chicken, and mixing the corn bread batter, I added a little cornbread mix to regular size muffin tins. Layered in BBQ chicken and topped with more batter. In larger, pop over tins I did the same but added cheese and jalapeños. Slid those into the oven as directed on the box. Because it is Valentine’s day, I made a smiley face of jalapeños for the kiddo.

Cheese was used in the muffins and as a topping on the soup

For a rainy February day, this dinner was very comforting. And cost next to nothing since most of the ingredients had been previously purchased for other meals. Really, this is the essence of soup. Throwin’ leftovers in a pot and flavoring it up! I thinking we need an Asian food night, so I can follow with a yummy leftover soup night.

This soup was super savory and warming; exactly what I was going for today! 

Happy Valentine’s Day to all—however you spend it!

3 Bean Taco Soup:

2 cans black beans

1 can cannellini beans

1 can great northern beans

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can cream of chicken soup

Just under a pound of leftover taco meat

Chopped large onion

Ranch packet

1/2box small ring noodles

I container of beef broth

Garlic powder

4 cups of water

5-6 shakes of green tabasco sauce

A packet of pizza sauce that came with pizza crust (I used my own homemade sauce when we made the pizzas)

Toppings—shredded cheese, sour cream and cilantro (leftover from our Super Bowl Nacho Bar. And oyster crackers.

If you have made it this far, I imagine you have some of your own dump soups or recipes. Feel free to comment below