Something New Sunday - Mexican Pot Pie

Today's 'Something New Sunday' truly is something new; in fact, I kind of just made it as I went.  It's a rainy, miserable day here in north central Iowa, so I got busy cleaning and one of the place I cleaned was my pantry & fridge.  As I'm cleaning I notice that I've got some Mexican infused ingredients that were tucked all the way to the back.  I instantly got hungry for tacos but while I kept digging/cleaning, I couldn't find any so I had to think of something else to make. So I decided to just go with the flow and add ingredients as I felt necessary. I had given my boyfriend, Aaron, a  heads up while I was cooking that this was just going to be a hodge-podge of foods thrown together.  Luckily, he's not picky and is always willing to try a new recipe.

Mexican Pot Pie
(an original by Kellie Anne)

Ingredients:
  1# - ground beef
  1 - small yellow onion; chopped
  2 - cans of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
  1 - jar of Tostitos Monetery Jack Queso dip
  1 - 10 oz can of enchilada sauce
  1/2 - cup of taco sauce (optional)
  2 - cups shredded cheddar cheese
  1 - tablespoon black pepper
  1 - teaspoon crushed red pepper
  jalapeno chili peppers (optional)

Directions:
  Brown ground beef and chopped onion until meat is no longer pink and onions are tender; drain off fat.  Add the taco sauce, enchilada sauce and peppers to meat & onions and simmer for 10 minutes (depending on how spicy you like your food, the taco sauce can be omitted since the enchilada sauce is pretty hot on it's own). 
  Grease a 9x13 baking dish and spread one can of the rolls to cover the bottom of the dish.  Cover the dough with the shredded cheese and then the meat sauce mixture.  Take the queso cheese dip and lightly cover the meat sauce mix.  I'm not a fan of jalapeno chili peppers, but Aaron is; so on half of the pan I coated the queso with the sliced peppers to give it a little more kick.  Carefully roll out the second can of crescent rolls and place over everything.  If you still have some queso cheese dip, spread a light layer on the top of the crescents.
  Cover pan with tin foil and place into preheated oven at 350.  Cook for 15 minutes covered and then another 15 minutes uncovered (or until crescents are lightly browned).  Slice and serve!

Review:
   I need to make-up new recipes more often! This recipe has a variety of flavors and textures with ever bite and as you see from the photo above, screams yumminess.  The crescents on both the top and the bottom of the dish, add a nice crunch and almost 'sandwich' in everything. The queso not only adds creamy-ness but lots of spicy kick.  We like our food spicy, but even for me I thought that meat sauce could have been tamed down so I think I'll opt out the taco sauce next time. I had used both the taco sauce and enchilada sauce, cause I didn't think the can of enchilada would be enough.  I didn't eat the half with the chili peppers, but Aaron loved the added goodness; he said they added a hint of sweet before the spice kicked in (you can see I added some more on top so I knew which side was his).  
 
  I hope you enjoy this dish that I came up with all on the fly. I can see this being made with shredded chicken and when red & green peppers get in season, I'll slice some up and add that too it. If you're not a fan of the queso dip, you could probably substitute more shredded cheese.

  We did have a fun time trying to name this dish; we came up with everything from Taco Mix-up to Spicy Mexican Sandwich.  When Aaron said that the corner piece was the best cause you got the buttery-flakiness of the crescents, Mexican Pot Pie just had to be the name of this new dish.  He loved it so much that he even broke his New Years Resolution of not taking any seconds with this dish.  That's when I know I have made a good dish! :)

Well, I'm super full from eating and blogging all about my creation, so I'm off to bed!

Enjoy!
~ Kellie Anne