Leftover Taco Soup

Recently, a friend of mine put forth a challenge. She suggested we see if we could spend only $100 in groceries in a month. What was in the pantry/freezer already was fair game, but anything beyond that counted monetarily. Well, I don't know if we've started yet...I spent $103 last Saturday. Anyway, her challenge has pushed me to strive for greater things. I've created a menu for the month (some days are still blank), and have been more conscious of leftovers. Really, we're pretty good about eating leftovers, but there is still waste happening in my refrigerator. On Monday we had tacos, so tonight I made Taco Soup. This is one of my favorites, but I got creative tonight, and John not only thanked me for cooking, he said it was pretty good! So, to make a long story short, here's what I did:
I sauteed onions, added dried cayenne peppers (they were abundant in the garden last year), and threw in the leftover taco meat. To that I added a can of tomatoes, a can of corn, and part of a can of pinto beans. The pinto beans have been in the cupboard for awhile, and I finally found a logical use; we're not regular bean eaters. I also added a can of diced chiles, and a dash of tabasco. I was really looking for the spicy factor! One can of tomato sauce, and a little water, since it seemed more like a casserole than soup, and finally, velveeta. So what's so unusual, you ask? Well, I don't usually go so spicy for one, and that's what John really liked about it, and I've never added velveeta. Actually, I never even buy velveeta, but was really wanting my mom's homemade mac and cheese a week or two ago. So, all in all, I used leftover taco meat, and the last bit of velveeta that probably would have shriveled up, and depleted 4 more cayenne peppers. Try it if you'd like, we enjoyed it!