Slow Cooker Zesty Taco Soup

You are all probably aware of how excited we were about getting a big box of goodies from Dos Rios Taco Meat. We were especially excited about the Chile Verde flavor, since it's not available right now in our area. Keep in mind there's absolutely nothing stopping you from browning up your own ground beef and adding your own seasoning, but I am inherently lazy and am enamored of the concept of heat and eat meat (say that five times fast). This recipe is literally just dumping ingredients into a pot and heating them until it is hot enough to serve. That's the magic. This soup has a little bit of a zing to it as the meat has some jalapeno already in it. Much like anything I cook in the slow-cooker, this is not much to look at. However, it smells and tastes wonderful. This is absolutely a perfect dish for the wet and cold weather we've been having lately. If you live somewhere that is warm and dry, I don't want to hear about it. I'm not sure what else to tell you. If you use the Dos Rios meat, there's virtually nothing to do with this recipe other than throw everything into a pot and applying heat. Granted, that's really all cooking is, but here you at least won't have to cook and drain the beef. Since I'm a swell guy, I included stovetop cooking instructions. I just keep on giving. As always, any notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Zesty Taco Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Dos Rios Chile Verde Taco Meat, defrosted
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (10.5 ounce) cheddar cheese soup (you could certainly use nacho cheese soup if you had it on hand. We had cheddar, so that's what we used)
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (15. 5 ounces) white hominy, drained
• 8 ounces (about half a jar) salsa (we went with a hot, thick and chunky Chi-Chi's salsa. Feel free to use whatever floats your boat)
• 1-1/4 cup chicken stock (you could use just water, but we've really been enjoying using stock)
• Optional: sour cream and black olives to garnish after cooking.

Directions

1. Put everything in a large (around 5 quart) slow cooker. 
2. Stir to combine.
3. Cook on LOW for 5 hours. 
   
4. Add any garnishes

OR

1. Put everything in a large (around 5 quart) Dutch oven
2. Stir to combine
3. Cook on the stovetop on medium heat until it starts to simmer, stirring occasionally.
4. Add any garnishes

We worked the numbers, and it looks like this is about 275 calories per cup. (This does not take into account any sour cream you add)

Good times!

Mexican Style Rice Casserole

Time for another inauthentic recipe! This one made use of the copious amount of white rice we had leftover from the last time we ordered Chinese take-out. Normally I'd use it to make rice pudding, but we didn't have anything for dinner. Desperate times call for desperate measure. What we ended up with was a surprisingly tasty and filling meal that was super easy to make. It works as a side or main, and is easily made vegetarian by leaving out the ground beef!

Mexican Style Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked white rice
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) tomato soup
• 1 can tomatoes with jalapeno (10 ounces)
• 3/4 can (about 1-1/2 cups) corn
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
• 1 packet Sazon seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• more cheese, dammit.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (191C, Gas Mark 5)
2. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except the extra cheese.
3. In a 9x13" greased baking dish dump in everything from the bowl and spread evenly.
4. Top with as much extra cheese as you can possibly tolerate.
5. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until top is starting to bubble.

Good times!

Mexican Style Lasagna

I can't believe that we're still cooking meals this far into the stay at home order. I figure at some point we would have devolved into an endless parade of frozen pizzas, ramen, and mac & cheese. And yet here we are! We're even modifying book recipes! Go us! This particular recipe originally called for lasagna noodles, which we thought was dumb. Also, we didn't have enough lasagna noodles and I didn't feel like making them from scratch. We swapped in and out a bunch of ingredients. If you don't have sofrito laying about, or can't make it from scratch, just use a pack of taco seasoning or some chili powder. Go wild. It's all gonna be poop in the end. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It had a lot of flavor and was very filling. It's currently sitting in my stomach like a brick. Mocking me. TWAS HUBRIS THAT BROUGHT ME HERE. Sorry, I'll go.

Mexican Style Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 16oz. can refried beans
• 1/4 cup sofrito
• 1 tablespoon dried, minced onion
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 12 corn tortillas (6" diameter)
• 1 16oz. jar of your favorite salsa
• 16 ounces sour cream
• 3 ounces (about half a can) of black olives, sliced
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (177C, Gasmark 4)
2. In a skillet, brown ground beef. 
3. Drain the beef and add the minced onion, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, and sofrito. Cook another 3-4 minutes.
4. Add the refried beans to the meat and mix until completely incorporated.
5. Grease a 9"x13" baking dish. Add a layer of 6 corn tortillas. (We discovered if you cut the tortillas in half, you can put the flat edges against the edges of the pan and make a uniform layer.)
6. Take half the meat mixture and spread it evenly over the layer of tortillas
7. Add another layer of tortillas and top it with the rest of the meat mixture.
8. Top with the salsa and cook at 350F for 35 minutes.
9. Take out of oven and add a layer of sour cream. Then top with cheese and olives.

Good Times!

Cheeseburger Jalapeno Poppers

     Year after year I can count on my garden to produce insane amounts of peppers. There's only so many peppers I can pickle or make into relish. Surplus peppers are almost always stuffed and frozen for later. Banana peppers normally end up Sriracha Stuffed, but I wanted to do something different for my jalapenos. This particular mix really does taste like a cheeseburger! I might actually use that meat mix for other recipes. I'm resourceful like that. If you go to make these, don't be a dummy like me. Remember not to touch your eyes or nostrils. Also, assembly is messy, so have paper towels on hand. I can guarantee you'll love these and they will be a hit at any party!* As always, any notes are in blue.

Cheeseburger Jalapeno Poppers
(banana pepper poppers if you're a wuss)

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 2 tablespoons ketchup (or catsup if you prefer)
• around 2 dozen larger jalapeno peppers (if you're a big baby and heat is an issue, you can use banana peppers, but you won't fill as many since they tend to be a bit bigger than jalapenos. I did a mix of the two for my most recent batch since The Wife is breast feeding and I have this image of The Spud breathing fire)

Directions

1. Cut the ends off the peppers and core them out, being careful to not cut through the sides of the peppers. Make sure to remove all the seeds. Set peppers aside. 
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add beef and cook until browned. About halfway into the cooking, add the onion and garlic powder.
3. Once the meat is browned, drain off the grease and make sure the meat is broken into very small pieces. Mix in the mustard, ketchup and cheese. Stir until cheese has melted completely into the meat. You may need to keep the heat on low for this.
4. Take the meat off the heat. (BONUS FOR RHYMING)
5. Fill each pepper with the still warm meat mixture. If you let it cool, the cheese will start to set and make it very hard to get into the peppers. Use whatever method you feel is best to fill the peppers. If you've got really small fingers, you'll do fine. I generally do it Civil War style and load a small charge of meat in and then ramrod it in with a chopstick. Fill the peppers to the top.
6. If you have one of those jalapeno popper racks, this step is easy. 

   

   I'm talking about one of these guys.

   Fill a rack and put them in the oven at 375F (190C, Gasmark5) for about 20-25 minutes or until the peppers start to blister. Make sure you put a drip pan under this or you're in for a world of hurt come cleanup as these will leak grease. If you don't have this rack, or are using banana peppers, lay a sheet of foil or silpat mat on a baking sheet. Cook about the same amount of time, turning the peppers once so they blister evenly. 
7. Remove peppers from oven and let set for 5-10 minutes
8. Bonus idea: cook bacon halfway and then wrap it around the peppers, securing it with toothpicks. Finish cooking and you have bacon-cheeseburger poppers!
9. Bonus idea #2: Wrap peppers in canned biscuit dough for a greasy cheesburger popper in a bun!

Good times!

* I totally can not guarantee that.

Vegetable Uber Quiche

     Ah, the much-maligned quiche.  Is it macho? It makes no difference to me. It uses a lot of eggs, and that's what really matters. I'm a big fan of anything that uses lots of eggs. The only thing that keeps me from making quiche with any regularity is the crust. That's why I love the idea of a crustless quiche. Granted, a crustless quiche is very much like a breakfast casserole. I guess that's another win. This particular quiche is loaded with all sorts of veggies. So many, that I have dubbed it an "Uber-Quiche." I'd like to think that all the veggies cancel out the eggs and cheese. As far as I'm concerned, eating this is like eating celery. With cheese. And a bunch of eggs. Whatever. It's delicious and I plan on making it again. Feel free to mess with the veggies used. If you're making it a point to do exactly what I say every time, you're accepting a fair amount of risk. As always, any notes are in blue.

Vegetable Uber-Quiche

Ingredients

• 9 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 heaping cup shredded cheddar-jack cheese
• 1/2 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 cup kale, spines removed
• 1 lb potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Greektown seasoning (available from The Spice House. If you don't have it available, it uses: salt, garlic powder, Tellicherry black pepper, onion powder, oregano and lemon peel)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, Gasmark 5)
2. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, mix all the vegetables to ensure an even distribution. Pour the vegetables into the baking dish and spread them in an even layer.
4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and cheese (make sure to take the eggs out of the shells. That's very important). Pour mixture over vegetables in baking dish.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until eggs are completely set.

Good times!