Sunday, March 1, 2009

Mexican Beef Casserole

***UPDATED RECIPE***

Last week for Menu Plan Monday I shared one of the recipes I'd be making, Mexican Beef Casserole. I need to update the recipe slightly after having talked with my mom and making it this last week.

Mexican Beef Casserole
from my mom

2 lbs ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 lb grated American cheese
***1 pkg Doritos (I used a large package of white corn chips because I'm not sure they make plain Doritos anymore)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can Rotel
***1 can chili beans
2/3 cup water

While my ground beef was cooking, I shredded the American cheese with my Pampered Chef cheese grating thing. The package of cheese I bought was sliced but not individually wrapped, and it was a little more than 1/2 a pound.

I crushed half of the corn chips at a time. I put them in a glass bowl and used a pastry cutter. That works so much better than anything else I've ever done, and it is super fast.

This is all the corn chips crushed.

When my mom sent me the recipe she left out the can of chili beans. She thought Hubby couldn't have any beans at all because of his gout. It is a food that he has to watch, but not one of his worst triggers that he doesn't touch. So I put the beans in.

You might notice this is not a regular flat casserole dish. It's supposed to be made in a 'taller' one. Those are my mom's words. I am not an owner of a lot of different cooking dishes because in my limited mind, that constitutes clutter. So when I called, cooking already in process, and asked about the pan size, she said she always used an old square Corning Ware dish. The only thing I had that would hold this was a Pampered Chef 'bowl' that also serves as a lid to a round baker. I was getting worried as I searched in my cabinets!

Soup mixture.

Halfway layered.

Ready to go in the oven.

It took somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes to cook.

Yummy!

There was only enough left for two people to have leftovers.

What I would do differently: I will try it with a pre-shredded bag of cheese next time, probably the Mexican blend. American isn't my favorite unless it's on a grilled cheese sandwich. I will probably up the garlic salt to a full teaspoon, and as I did leave out the onion and just sprinkled onion powder on the cooking beef, I will probably be a little more generous with my sprinkles next time.

It was pretty quick and definitely easy. Yummy, too.

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