chicken taco soup.

Something I've never been very good at is cooking.

Well, maybe I should rephrase that.

Something that has always intimidated me is cooking.

When I was younger (please forgive me mom for telling this story), my family would eat out a lot. They were always nice places and healthy meals, but my family was busy and not naturally in love with cooking.

One time my mom made her delicious tacos, she does have her list of amazing dishes, and called us to dinner. When we didn't show up to the table, she began looking for us...and found us waiting in the car. It was that moment she realized we probably should eat more at home. She became a great cook, and I crave her meals all the time. But, even with the change of habit, I never picked up on cooking.

Recently, however, that has changed. Thanks to my friend Jenna, who took me under her wing and put a crockpot in my hands, cooking is now something I enjoy. In fact, I would call it a hobby. I even get brave and try to make up my own recipes! And sometimes it actually works out pretty great.

One of the first recipes she gave me was for taco soup. I took it and tweaked it a bit—remember how I said I'm now sometimes brave enough to veer from the recipe card? This is one of those recipes. I have passed it along to several people, and they all think it's divine.