This week’s guest is K.A. Raines with a great recipe for fall, that is fast and easy to fix and to talk about her new book The Infiltrator.
My life is ridiculously hectic. I work PRN as a medical assistant (when I began my debut novel, I was working fulltime), go to school, and am a single mom of three: ages 13, 12, and 5. My house is regularly a disaster, and my yard doesn’t get mowed as frequently as it should. I subscribe to HelloFresh, but I usually end up skipping a lot of weeks because quite frankly the prep work can be a pain after a long day.
Therefore, I need a repertoire of fast meals that can be thrown together in a pinch. With fall upon us—my absolute favorite season—that means soup season, and who doesn’t love a steaming, comforting bowl of homemade soup? In our house, taco soup is a staple. Not only is it fast, easy, and flavorful, but it’s my 5-year-old’s favorite meal. (Easy + kid-friendly = win-win in my book.)
Hint: This meal is so versatile, you can add or delete pretty much anything. Substitute the beans with whatever kind you have on hand, or if three cans is too much for your liking simply delete them! Original recipe is from Taste of Home.
Ingredients for Taco Soup
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can chili beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes and green chilis (aka Rotel)
1-2 pounds lean ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 cup water
Directions:
1. Brown hamburger meat in large pot on medium-high heat.
2. Add seasoning, Ranch Dressing mix, stewed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes. Mix ingredients, breaking up stewed tomatoes.
3. Add beans, corn, and water. (Hint: I like thicker soups so I don’t use much water. Add more or less according to desired thickness.). Turn up heat to high and heat to boiling.
4. Once boiling, cover and simmer on medium-low for 20 minutes.
5. Optional: Top with Fritos, a dollop of sour cream, and cheddar cheese. Or serve with warm cornbread or corn muffins for a comforting meal! Enjoy!
After dinner is done, you’re free to rest and relax – and perhaps curl up with a guilty-pleasure book? If you like flawed heroes, take-charge heroines, and romance/adventure set during a zombie apocalypse (you probably didn’t even know your life was missing this!), then check out my debut novel! It’s what The Walking Dead would look like with more sexy times.

Title: The Infiltrator
Author: K. A. Raines
Publisher: Self
Cover artist: Emily’s World of Design
Pages: 345
Genre/heat rating: Dystopian romance/4
Blurb: A virus has rendered humanity mostly extinct. Keira Starr is alone, staying alive by staying on the run, sleeping in empty gas stations and the trunks of cars long abandoned on the highway. The world is overrun by “Ghosts,” the mindless, bloodthirsty dead, but they are the least of her problems. She is being hunted by ragtag groups of ruthless men, independent contractors working for a mysterious human trafficking ring. When she is finally captured, she discovers that Derrick Caine, despite his gruff demeanor and appearance, may just have a different agenda altogether.
Excerpt:
“What happened to you?” she breathed. “Who did you lose?” She knew she was pushing him, that she should stop before she went too far, but it felt like observing a train wreck, watching from a distance as the engine rushed ahead at full steam, and, even foreseeing the impending disaster on the tracks, being powerless to stop it. “You risk your life tryin’ to save women and children. Who was she? Your wife?” She didn’t even know why she cared. She didn’t want to care. Derrick Caine was a virtual stranger to her, yet she knew she was already in way too deep.
He growled suddenly, a low, guttural sound that jarred her out of her trance when she rather unexpectedly found her space invaded by him for the third time in the past several minutes. Yet the charge in the air had shifted subtly; he no longer seemed angry, exactly, but there was something decidedly predatory in his eyes.
“What d’you want from me?” His voice in her ear was a dangerous rumble that elicited chills up her spine and ignited a fire that bloomed hotly in her womb, a delicious contrast. Quite suddenly, all she wanted was to relieve the dull throb between her legs that his voice and presence evoked; she wanted him so badly that she physically couldn’t endure not to have him soon.
You. Just you. “I could ask the same of you,” she settled for, and she couldn’t stop the tremor in her voice. She was overwhelmed by him—by his nearness, by the heat emanating from his body, drawing her in. She tentatively raised a trembling hand, reaching up to touch a raised scar on his chest, just above his left pectoral. His chest continued to visibly rise and fall, and he was breathing hard through his nose in an obvious effort to calm himself, fists clenched in tight balls at his sides. His breathing hitched when she barely touched him, a feather-light caress, her fingertips just skimming the jagged edge of his scar. She had known all along that he was in pain. So much unbearable pain—yet he would never admit it to anyone, least of all her.
Buy Links: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CFRXZCS
Meet K.A. Raines

K.A. Raines is a U.S. Navy veteran who lives in Longview, TX with her children and who has a passion for reading, writing, red wine, and good food. Her love for science fiction, the paranormal, and romance bleed into her writing.
You can Find (K.A. Raines)
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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100052614996318
Website:
karaines.com