DORITOS® Taco Bake

Well lately Aaron and I have been super busy lately and after long work days, neither one of us want to make anything new or real challenging.  But today is Wednesday (my day off) and I felt like making something new for myself and Aaron.  We haven't had anything spicy lately, so I thought I'd "spice" it up a little for supper! ;)  So, I give you DORITOS® Taco Bake:

Ingredients:
 1# - ground beef
 1 - small yellow onion; chopped
 1 - can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
 1 - jar of Tostitos Monetery Jack Queso dip
 1 - 10 oz can of enchilada sauce
 1 1/2 cups - shredded cheddar cheese
 3/4 bag - DORITOS® chips

**You can also add any other toppings of your liking; black olives, peppers, tomatoes, etc.**
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, brown ground beef and cook onions; drain off fat.

Stir in enchilada sauce, simmer 5 minutes.

Press crescent rolls on the bottom of a 9x13 lightly sprayed pan; press seams to seal.

Top crescent rolls with meat mixtures.

Top with cheeses and crushed DORITOS®.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Covered for 20 minutes and uncovered for the last 10.

Enjoy! :)

After crushing all the DORITOS®.
*You know how after you have a few chips, you can't resist licking your fingers... imagine your whole hand covered in the orange dust :) YUMMMMMM

Have a great night! I'm off to play with my nieces who are visiting from Colorado :)
~Kellie Anne


(Recipe adapted from Plain Chicken's Blog:  http://www.plainchicken.com/2012/02/doritos-taco-bake.html)

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

Something New Sunday - Biscuits & Gravy

So, I am already failing at this whole daily blogging thing since it's been four days since my last post. Sorry peeps, thou I'm not sure if there is anybody really out there reading this (haha). #epicfailing if you ask me

Anywho, I wanted to start something new in 2013 (besides this blog). I have tons of cooking books in my house and have found tons of recipes on Pinterest that I want to recreate. And what better way then to start off the new week then with a new recipe; hence the title 'Something New Sunday'. My goal is to post a new recipe that I've never made with pictures from my non-professional looking kitchen and reviews from whomever eats the meal.

'Somewhat Homemade' Biscuits & Gravy

 

 

It was Christmas Day and I was over at my boyfriend's parents place and I randomly got the craving for biscuits and gravy. When I let everyone else know about my craving, I was told about this great little 'cheater' method of getting that great biscuits and gravy taste but without all the work. Sounds like my kind of recipe. :)

 

Two simple items to make the gravy.  Like I said, it's kind of a 'homemade' ;)



Both items can be found at your local grocery store
 

Start with a package of Bear Creek Creamy Potato soup mix.  Yes, I know its a soup mix but when you add less water then the soup recipe calls for, you get a thicker, gravy like mixture.  Instead of 8 cups of water like the soup would need, I only did 7 cups.  Bring water to a bowl, add soup mix and let simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.  Remember to stir occasionally, so the soup don't stick to the bottom of the pot.

 


The soup does have little pieces of potato in it (which I thought it was a nice added touch)

You also need to brown 1# of pork sausage in a skillet.  I used Farmland Pork Sausage without any added MSG (so it's kind of healthy).  If you wouldn't want all the calories of pork, you could definitely use turkey sausage or a substitute of your choice.

 

Obviously you can't have biscuits & gravy without the biscuits.  Well, I thought I had canned biscuits in my fridge but I didn't so I improvised with Pillsbury crescent rolls.  Bake as direceted.



Once the soup/gravy is cooked and at desired thickness and the sausage is no longer pink in the center and fat has been drained, add the two together.

Cook for about 5-7 minutes to make sure that the sausage gravy is throughly mixed and hot. 

Take a couple of hot biscuits and smother (and I mean smother cause this stuff is GOOOOD) the biscuits in the sausage gravy that you have made. 

Overall review is that this stuff makes a pretty hearty breakfast.  I didn't add a whole lot of seasoning to the sausage and just a little pepper to the soup/gravy while it was cooking.  Please feel free to add comments/questions and I will try my best to answer as soon as possible.  Also, since this is my first recipe post, I'd like to have some tips on how I can make it easier for others to follow my steps.

Enjoy!!
~ Kellie Anne