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Welcome to Simple Fare, Fairly Simple. This is a place for me to post recipes of all kinds...along with other miscellaneous fodder from my so-called life here in the south. Who knows what you will find here. Could be anything from my husband...known as IT Guy...to my kids and beautiful grandbabies that are growing up way too fast right before my eyes. But...mostly this will be a place for food. I hope you'll see something you like and if you decide to try something from the list...leave me a comment and let me know!



Friday, May 27, 2011

I wanted to make cakepops for a Memorial Day picnic we're going to....but my problem was transporting them. I had to figure out a way to do that. Enter IT Guy. He's good for things OTHER than techy/geeky stuff. He's also very handy with woodworking. He runs a GIANT computer (of course) driven CNC machine that can do all kinds of fancy stuff. So I asked him to design me something that would hold cakepops upright and be sturdy enough to move them. Voila! This is what he came up with. 



             Pretty cool, huh?        

                  

A while back I ordered some really cute stuff from Fancy Flours. They have the neatest stuff over there. One of things I ordered was a couple of packages of sugar ants and red checked cupcake wrappers. I made vanilla cupcakes then piped green frosting for grass then placed an ant on each cupcake. A friend gave me the little ant stickers that I placed on a serving tray.



Stinkin' cute!

Burrito Casserole

This casserole was fun to make. You know how we are around here when it comes to Mexican food. This casserole tasted EXACTLY like a burrito! How fun is that? I used fresh, frozen, roasted green chilies but if you don't have those, the canned version will work fine. Also...I didn't have a burrito mix, so I used a taco mix (I know, I know...not the same as fresh spices...but hey, it worked) and that was fine! We had some leftover that IT Guy has taken to work and had for a snack. I think one of my boys even got into it because the leftovers looked suspiciously depleted! The nice thing about this is you can leave out or add what you want. My kids are not tomato lovers, so I left those out. If you don't care for beans, then leave those out and add more rice. Whatever you like in a burrito, just translate that over to this dish. I added sour cream on top of mine and if I'd had guacamole, I'd have had that, too!!



Burrito Casserole



6 medium flour tortillas, soft taco size
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 small can diced green chilies
1 package (1 ounce) burrito seasoning
1 can (approx. 15 ounces) refried beans
1 cup cooked rice
2 large tomatoes, diced - optional
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, optional
6 ounces shredded mild Cheddar cheese or blend of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses

Lightly grease a 2 1/2 to 3-quart baking dish. Heat oven to 350°.

Slice tortillas into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Arrange half of the strips in the bottom of the baking dish. Set the remaining strips aside.

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and onion until beef is no longer pink. Add the green chilies, cilantro, beans, rice and burrito seasoning and stir to blend. Continue cooking, stirring, until hot and bubbly.

Spoon the hot filling mixture evenly over the tortilla layer. Sprinkle with the diced tomatoes and green onions. Top with the remaining tortilla strips then sprinkle with the cheese.


Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and the casserole is bubbly.

Serves 6.


Let's get started....
Let's get started....
 
Cut your flour tortillas into strips and lay half of them in the bottom of a casserole dish.
Cut your flour tortillas into strips 
and lay half of them in the bottom 
of a casserole dish.
 
Saute the onion and cook the ground beef.
Saute the onion and cook the ground beef.
 
Add the beans, rice, cilantro, green chilies and burrito (or in my case, taco) mix.
Add the beans, rice, cilantro, green 
chilies and burrito (or in my case, taco) mix.
 
Stir it up and allow it to heat through.
Stir it up and allow it to heat through.
 
Spoon the meat mixture over the flour tortillas then sprinkle the green onion, tomatoes, etc. over that.
Spoon the meat mixture over the 
flour tortillas then sprinkle the green
 onion, tomatoes, etc. over that.
 
Add the remaining cut tortillas and then sprinkle with cheese.
Add the remaining cut tortillas 
and then sprinkle with cheese.
 
Bake it up for about 15 minutes or so then enjoy!
Bake it up for about 15 minutes or so then enjoy!

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