Crock Pot Taco Dip

Someone Toby works with brought this to a work pitch-in one time & he asked for the recipe. It's good & it  makes a fairly large batch. It's a great New Year's Eve party idea if you are still planning your menu :)

Crock Pot Taco Dip

3 lbs hamburger, cooked & drained
2 pkgs taco seasoning
8 oz cream cheese, cubed
2 lbs. Velveeta cheese, cubed
2 large or 4 small jars of Pace Chunky Salsa (or your favorite salsa)

Add taco seasoning to hamburger & mix well.
In a 6 qt crock pot, add salsa, hamburger & both cheeses.
Heat til melted & serve with tortilla chips.

Easy Enchiladas

Even though I haven't been on here in a very long time, I have been trying new recipes. I just haven't found anything that really "wow-ed" me...until this recipe. It's so easy that I nearly skipped it thinking that anything this easy would most certainly be bland & a waste of my time. I'm so glad I didn't! My family has proclaimed this their new favorite enchilada recipe. 


Easy Enchiladas
(taken from Cooks.com)

Flour or wheat tortillas (I used wheat)
1 lb. ground beef or chicken
1 can green or red enchilada sauce (I used red)
1 pkg cream cheese
1 pkg shredded cheese (I used Kroger brand Mexican blend shredded cheese)


Melt cream cheese in microwave until very soft. Add half of can of enchilada sauce to cream cheese. Reserve remainder of enchilada sauce. 


Cook beef or chicken & add to mixture.


(The recipe calls for heating tortillas in microwave before filling. I skipped this step since the ones I had were easily rolled & going into the oven to heat up anyway. You may need to do this if your tortillas are too stiff to roll up without tearing)


Place mixture in tortillas & wrap.  Place enchiladas in baking dish. 


Pour shredded cheese & remaining sauce over top.


Bake 20 min. or until hot at 325 degrees.

Slow Cooker Enchiladas

Slow Cooker Enchiladas

Picture from www.allrecipes.com

1# lean ground beef 
10 (6 inch) corn tortillas, quartered (we prefer flour tortillas & they work fine too)
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1-1/4 cups water
1 (12 oz) jar chunky salsa
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75 oz) can of condensed cream of chicken soup
4 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend


sliced black olives, optional


Crumble the ground beef into a skillet over med-high heat.  Cook & stir until evenly browned. Drain.  (Or skip this step & use ground beef that you've prepared & frozen :) 


Add taco seasoning & water to ground beef; simmer for 15 minutes over low heat.


In a medium bowl, stir together salsa & soups.  Mix in most of the cheese, reserving approx. 3/4 cup for later.


Place a layer of tortillas covering the bottom of the slow cooker.  Put a layer of the ground beef mixture over the tortillas, spoon a layer of the cheese & soup mixture over the meat.  


Repeat the layers until you run out of stuff, ending with a layer of tortillas on top.  Top with remaining cheese.  (I put the sliced black olives on top of the cheese.)


Cover & cook on high for 45 min-1 hr. or you can put it on low for 3-5 hrs.
**I haven't tried it, but I would think this could also be assembled in a casserole dish & baked in the oven too. 


**I've also seen versions of this that add green peppers, kidney beans, tomatoes & green chilies, & onion (cooked with the beef).  So the recipe can easily be tailored to suit your family's tastes. 

Soups for a Cold Winter's Day

Since it's freezing cold out there, I thought I'd add a couple great soups from Mom's Kitchen.  I actually got this recipe from my Grandma Patton. I think she found it in a magazine or newspaper insert or something. It's about as simple as soup can get &, if you're New Year's Resolution was to lose weight, you're going to love that it's also easy on the diet.  (It only has 3 WW pts. per serving - if you're a WW person)

Quick & Tasty Potato Soup

3 cans (10 oz. ea.) FF chicken broth

1 pkg. McCormick's Low Fat Country Gravy Mix

1 pkg Ore-Ida Potatoes O'Brien 

Mix together & heat through. 

Another family favorite is:

Enchilada Chicken Soup

Picture from www.tasteofhome.com

1 can (11 0z) condensed fiesta nacho cheese soup, undiluted
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2-2/3 cups milk
1 can (10 oz) chunk white chicken, drained
1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce (I use the red sauce)
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies


sour cream, optional


In a large saucepan, combine the soups, milk, chicken, enchilada sauce, & chilies; mix well.  Cook until heated through.  Garnish with sour cream, if desired.  


Serve with tortilla chips & salsa.

Nacho Soup

I came across this recipe in an old magazine I had.  Nacho Soup is soup-er easy to make & tastes soup-er great! :)  (You can thank Toby for all those bad puns :)

Nacho Soup

1 package (5-1/4 oz) au gratin potatoes

1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained

1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes & green chilies, undrained

2 cups of water

2 cups of milk

2 cups cubed processed American cheese

dash hot pepper sauce, optional

minced fresh parsley, optional

In a 3-qt saucepan, combine the potatoes and sauce mix, corn, tomatoes and water; mix well.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover & simmer for 15-18 min. or until potatoes are tender. Add milk, cheese and hot pepper sauce if desired; cook & stir until the cheese is melted.  Garnish with parsley if desired.

**I didn't use the hot pepper sauce & I didn't have any fresh parsley on hand so that got left out as well.  It still was spicy & really tasty. This is an easy to make and inexpensive supper.  I made some grilled cheese sandwiches to go with ours.

As close as it gets to El Compadre's salsa

Our family LOVES the salsa served at El Compadre's in Mitchell.  A year or so ago, Toby asked for the recipe.  Miguel, our waiter, told Toby they'd kill him if told - haha!  Apparently, as I suspected, the recipe is a closely guarded secret.  At this point Toby decided "we" should figure out how to make it simple by taste. 

(Photo is not of actual salsa made with this recipe, but it looks similar :) 

I need to stop here & provide you with 2 important facts about Toby and I.  First of all, Toby DOES NOT cook.  He never has, he most likely never will & it's best for everyone (and all my kitchen appliances, cookware, & utensils) if does not attempt any form of cooking.  One of Liv's favorite "tattletale" stories about Toby is the time he asked her (she was maybe 5 or 6 yrs. old) how long he should put his Pop-Tart in the microwave.  Their conversation went something like this:


Papa:  Liv, how long should I put this Pop-Tart in the microwave for?  Like 2 minutes?
Liv:  Uh, NOOOOO!!!  Not if you want anything left of it.  Maybe 15 sec, Papa.


Yeah, see what I mean, it's best if he stays out of the kitchen.  Which means the "we" in his suggestion actually just means I should figure it out.  This brings me to important fact #2.


I am not a from scratch, create-my-own-recipe kind of gal.  I like working from a recipe & I'm happy to tweek a recipe according to our tastes, but I unfortunately was not blessed with a palate that can differentiate what ingredients are in a dish I'm eating.  So for the salsa, about all I knew was it had tomatoes & cilantro in it.  


Anyway, back to my recipe for today, Toby badgered me until I finally starting trying to figure out their secret.  My first salsa came out looking brownish green.  It's OK if you feel the need to wrinkle your nose & gag a little  - we all did.  Tossed that one.  My next one came out the right color, but the taste was completely off. 


4 or 5 nasty batches later, I came across a website for authentic Mexican restaurant style salsa.  I had been telling Toby all along that I thought he was making it too complicated (he kept suggesting it needed this ingredient or that ingredient).  I knew it had to be something simple that they could make large amounts of quickly & cheaply.  This recipe sounded like just the thing.


Three things about this recipe stood out to me:  

1.  It uses canned tomatoes - not fresh ones.

2.  It uses canned, pickled jalapenos - not fresh. 

3.  When using cilantro - you apparently don't use the stalk part - just the leaves.  I didn't know that. 






This recipe is the closest we've ever had to El Compadres'.  It's still not a perfect match, but it's close enough Toby quit hollering for me to figure it out. I usually make a double batch in my food processor as it keeps well in the fridge. 

As Close As It Gets To El Compadres' Salsa

Ingredients:


1 28 oz. can of crushed or diced tomatoes (I use Kroger Brand canned, diced tomatoes.  You can use your favorite brand, but beware not all brands are created equally & some generic brands can change the flavor A LOT). 
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
10+ pickled jalapeno rings (you can add more or less to get the heat your family likes - I use approx. 2 TBSP of the diced, pickled jalapenos instead of the rings)
10+ leafs of cilantro


Directions:


Food process everything
Check hotness & saltiness - add more of what ever you need to make it to your family's taste




Your done! ENJOY!!! 

Santa Fe Enchiladas

Contrary to how it may appear, I actually DO cook on a stove most of the time & not just in the microwave.  However, tonight when I ask Miss Liv what recipe I should post next, she said "Santa Fe Enchiladas" which just happens to be another microwave meal.  These microwave meals are great for the summer months when we all dread heating up our kitchen to cook supper or we're short on time because we've been playing outside :) 

Photo from tasteofhome.com

Santa Fe Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (I use 1 c. chopped frozen onions)
• 1 can (12 ounces) tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 8-10 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed
• 1 jar (8 ounces) process cheese sauce
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies

Directions

• Crumble beef into a large microwave-safe bowl; stir in onion. Cover and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes or until meat is no longer pink, stirring every 1 minute; drain. Stir in the tomato paste, water and taco seasoning. Cover and cook on high for 1-2 minutes or until heated through, stirring once.
• Spoon about 1/3 cup meat mixture down the center of each tortilla; roll up tightly. Place seam side down in a greased shallow 2-1/2-qt. microwave-safe dish. Set remaining meat mixture aside. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine cheese sauce and chilies. Cover and microwave on high for 40 seconds; stir. Pour over tortillas.
• Spoon remaining meat mixture down the center of tortillas. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 3-1/2 minutes or until heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 5 servings.

Nutritional Analysis: 2 enchiladas equals 609 calories, 25 g fat (11 g saturated fat), 94 mg cholesterol, 2,081 mg sodium, 54 g carbohydrate, 5 g fiber, 40 g protein.