Quick Change

It is the fourth down, 90 yards to go, 1 minute left of the clock.  Let the hail mary go.

This Taco Casserole was last night dinner.  Not a touch down, but enough for the first down.

So, this family lives on football.

Now, I am not the best at cooking with out a recipe, more the type of person that needs exact precise directives.  However, I stand behind what I made.  I still have no oven, so had to improvise and adapt.  I am also sure that I did not really make up this recipe all on my own, just not really that creative in the kitchen, but here is what I did.

Taco Casserole (for lack of more creative name)

1 lb. ground beef

1 package of taco seasoning (Walmart brand)

1 can of chopped tomatoes with green chile (store brand - same as Rotel)

1 can of whole kernel corn (fresh & easy brand organic)

1 can black beans (store brand)

1 can black olive wedges (love these, but hard to find)

flour tortillas (I used about 6)

grated cheddar cheese (store brand)

sour cream (store brand)

1.  Brown the ground beef, stir in the taco seasoning to just coat the meat. 

2.  Add the canned vegetables and let simmer.  

3.  Cut the tortillas in to wide strips then square them.  Mine were probably about 2 inch square. Add to simmering mixture and stir.  

4.  Pour in to microwave safe baking dish, sprinkle with cheese. Cook for 30 minutes on power level 5.

All the vegetables are in it, so don't really need to serve anything else with it.  The tortilla squares get soft and chewy, much like a noodle. 

The total cost of this meal was $7.76 and it made enough for two meals.  That actually comes out to $3.88 for the meal or $1.29 per serving.  Ground beef is incredibly high around here and I consider my self lucky to get it on sale for under $4 a pound.  Especially since I only use the more expensive 93% lean, which this meat happened to be 97% that I bought at Costco.   It may have been a little cheaper, I don't have that receipt recorded, but not by much.

This was not exactly what I had planned for the first night of my new menu plan experience, but hey, two major goals were met.  I used the same ingredients (for the most part) as I had planned and everyone ate the evening meal together at the same table and on time. I had planned on making beef empanadas, with a rice dish.  However, both need to bake and while I could have cooked the empanadas in the toaster oven, the rice dish just is not all the same cooked in the microwave.  For some reason, my experience has been that the rice in the microwave gets mushy and starchy.  Now, baked in the oven, that green chile rice dish is out of this world.

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon.  Grand baby just woke up so time to play memaw a while.