Cooking From the Pantry--Taco Tamale Pie

Ever have those days where you suddenly wake up and realize that it's getting close to 5;00 p.m. and you have no idea what you're going to make for dinner?  I hate to admit it, but sometimes I have those days two or three days a week. Luckily, I have a family that's easily pleased, but you still want to have something that's not only edible but tastes good, too!

So on one of those days last week, I was standing in the middle of my kitchen mumbling to myself thinking out loud--"let's see, I have a pound of ground meat that's about half thawed, what do I have that I add to it to make something nutritious that my family will eat?" And I came up with this, a cross between taco casserole and tamale pie, I call it "Taco Tamale Pie".  Clever, right?

It was super easy and big hit, and is now enthroned on my list of last-minute go-to meals. 

 Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground meat
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 1 or 2 pkg taco seasoning (I started with 1 and added an additional 1/2 pkg)
• 1 pkg cornbread mix
• 1 egg
• 1/3 c milk (enough to make the cornbread)
• cheese

Step 1: Brown the ground meat, and drain if necessary.  We have farm-raised beef, so all of the water usually cooks out by the time the meat browns, and there's very little fat to drain.  If you're using commercial ground meat, you will almost definitely need to drain it.

 Step 2:  Add the corn and taco seasoning (I ended up adding and additional 1/2 envelope to off-set some of the sweetness from the corn) and just enough water to mix it all thoroughly.  (If you don't use commercial taco seasoning, use the equivalent of your homemade seasoning blend) Bring to a bubble, cover and simmer for a few minutes. 

Step 3: Mix the cornbread according to package directions.  Mine called for one egg and 1/3 cup of milk.  If you want to whip up cornbread from scratch, I'd recommend about a half recipe.   

Step 4: Take the lid off of the skillet and allow the liquid to evaporate until the meat mixture is almost dry.  Pour into a greased 9 x 9 inch casserole dish.

Step 5: Add cheese.  I realized I didn't have enough grated cheese, so I grabbed some sliced cheese and threw it on top.  We like lots of cheese.

Step 6: Pour the cornbread batter on top of the meat and cheese, and spread to the edges. 

Step 7:  Bake at 375-400 degrees for20-25 minutes, or until the cornbread is beginning to brown and seems "set" in the middle.  

I served this with fresh sliced cucumber and carrot sticks, I think it would also go nicely with a green salad. 
We all liked this, a lot.  Even the leftovers disappeared by the time everyone made it to bed. 

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

This post is linked to:

See Ya in the Gumbo at Ms enPlace
Church Supper at Everyday Mom's Meals
Melt in Your Mouth Monday at Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms
Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill
Recipe Sharing Monday at Jam Hands
Make, Bake, and Create at Hope in Every Season
Wonderful Food Wednesday Mom's Test Kitchen
Foodie Friday At Rattlebridge Farm

Cooking From the Pantry--Roasted Root Vegetables

As a Southern girl, born and bred, and a bit of a country girl, to boot, I grew up with home grown vegetables.  Purple hull peas, sweet corn, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, just to name a few.  But a parsnip was not among them.  Up until recently I had never even seen a parsnip to my knowledge, and if I ever did, I probably thought it was some kind weird albino carrot.

But I've been trying really hard lately to broaden our vegetable horizons--so much so, that my son has even taken to trying a vegetarian diet for a while.  We've been eating kale, brussels sprouts, and baby carrots and sweet potatoes, too.

So as I was browsing the produce section, I came upon a bag of parsnips, and since we've had so much luck trying other new-to-us veggies, I decided to try these as well.  And yes, they do look like albino carrots!

I decided to try them a part of a pan of roasted root vegetables.  I had four small yukon gold potatoes, and this ginormous carrot that the husband of a friend brought back from his rounds of truck farms in West Texas and New Mexico.  I ended up with two of them, one of which I used in a pot roast a while back, and then this last lone one. 

It's that time of year, when the winter root vegetables are playing out, and the early spring greens haven't started producing yet.  So what do you do when you have a little bit of this and little bit of that in your fridge and/or pantry?  You but them all together with the simplest of seasonings, and you make the most amazing vegetable medley ever!

Ingredients:

• potatoes
• carrots
• parsnips
• olive oil
• kosher salt or sea salt

Peel or scrape the carrots and parsnips, and cut into chunks, splitting the larger sections into half or quarters lengthwise. Cut the potatoes into halves and then quarter the halves.  Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with coarse salt.

 

Bake 30-40 minutes at 350-375, until fork tender and they start to brown. (I baked these 20 minutes at 350, then bumped the oven temperature up to 375 and cooked them another 15 minutes)

I love the mixture of these three together--the parsnips get really sweet, the carrots not quite as sweet, and then the potatoes balance it all out. 

Now that I've made the acquaintance of parsnips, I hope to maintain the relationship--I'm looking forward to fall planting time so I can see if I can grow my own in our garden next winter.  Maybe this time next year it'll be my own home-grown version that I'm using up from the pantry!

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

This post is linked to:

Frugal Food Thursday at Frugal Follies

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home

Foodtastic Fridays at Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory

See Ya in the Gumbo from Ms enPlace

Cooking From the Pantry--Quick and Easy Taco Soup

Yesterday I worked on cleaning out my fridge and pantry as part of the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge at Money Saving Mom. The fridge wasn't so bad, but the pantry, oh my! I found things I had forgotten I had, as well as realized some deficiencies I need to correct. Since I was working on the pantry anyway, I decided to see if I could come up with all of the ingredients I needed to make a good a dinner, and I decided on one of my favorite go-to meals, taco soup.

I love taco soup, because everything in it is something that I buy regularly anyway, I don't have to make a point to buy any exotic ingredients, it's usually all on hand in the pantry and freezer.  There are a variety of different ways you can make this, and trust me, I've made this dozens of times with all different combos of beans, tomatoes, etc.  This is the version I made yesterday

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground meat (I used the very lean home raised beef I get from my parents)
• 1 29-oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 15-oz can of black beans
• 1 1-oz can of red beans
• 1 12-oz pkg frozen corn
• 2 packets of taco seasoning
• about a tablespoon of dried onion flakes

Ordinarily I cook the meat first, draining it if I use commercial ground meat--luckily our homegrown meat is so lean we don't have to do that. But our son is eating vegetarian right now, so I cooked the ground meat in a skillet separately. Once I got the meat cooking, I put the corn in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, I opened the tomato sauce and beans, and dumped them in my soup pot, adding the taco seasoning and onion flakes, bringing it to a simmer.  When the corn was ready, I opened it and added it to the soup pot.  At this point, all it needs is some time.  Cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes to give everything time to meld together.  At this point, I scooped some out in a smaller saucepan for my son, and added the cooked ground meat to the rest.

Taking out some of it made the meat version a little thicker than I usually make it, and I normally would have added some additional tomato sauce, maybe even just a little water, and some additional seasoning, but I used up all of the taco seasoning I had (and I had borrowed one of those packets from my mother!)

I ate mine with a little grated "Fiesta blend" grated cheese and a little dollop of sour cream.

This is good a regular soup, with crackers, or with corn chips.  It's very hearty, no matter how you eat it. 

My son pronounced the vegetarian version good, as well.  "Almost like real taco soup". 

Last night turned out to be good night for it, although we've had very warm weather lately, we had a thunderstorm move through and cool things back down quite a bit. 

What's your "go-to" meal for cooking from your pantry?

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating...

This post is linked to:

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home

Foodtastic Friday and Friends at Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Clever Chicks Blog Hop at The Chicken Chick

Mealtime Monday at Couponing and Cooking

Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar & Gluten Free

Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam