I love the cooler weather that fall brings. I also love to pull out recipes for the delish food that I avoided cooking during the hot summer months. I made some of my favorite fall favorites this weekend. Taco soup is the perfect meal to eat while watching the Hawks dominate and mandarin orange cake is the perfect sweet finish for the meal. These are two of my favorites – and even better, both recipes are from Weight Watchers, so they’re in the neighborhood of healthy.

Taco soup

1 pound ground turkey

1 chopped onion

3 cans (16 oz) chopped tomatoes (I prefer Ro-tel brand)

3 cans (16 oz) beans, undrained (I like two cans black beans, one can pinto beans)

1 can (16 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained

1 can (4 1/2 oz) chopped/diced green chilies

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups water

1 package low sodium taco seasoning

1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix

Directions: Cook turkey and onion together until browned. Mix with other ingredients in a pot. (Add a teaspoon of baking soda to reduce acidity.) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or longer.

Top with sour cream, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, or serve the soup on top of a baked potato. Soup freezes well.

Mandarin Orange Cake

1 package pudding-type yellow cake mix

11 oz canned mandarin oranges in juice

1 oz ff/sf vanilla pudding mix

8 oz canned crushed pineapple in juice

4 large eggs

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

12 oz ff cool whip

Directions: Blend cake mix, eggs, mandarin oranges  with juice and applesauce. Pour into pan and bake at 375 degrees according to timing on cake mix package. Cool on rack.

For topping, mix pineapple with juice, pudding mix and whipped topping together. Frost cake and refrigerate.