My camera has recently been very uncooperative, and has balked at performing the task of photographing my cooking sessions. Granted, I haven’t been cooking a whole lot, but I did make at least one dish I would have loved to share with you. I’m hoping it’s just an issue with rechargeable batteries that are on their last leg. In the meantime, I’ll share this Fiesta Taco Casserole that I made awhile back but wasn’t impressed with.

If you’ve been reading for awhile, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a big fan of tacos, and taco flavored things. I should have learned by now that if a dish has “taco” in the name, but does not have taco seasonings in the ingredients, I’m probably not going to be happy with the finished product. That being said… I do think this would be a decent casserole if I used a regular can of beans, and a packet of taco seasoning instead of relying on a can of chili beans to provide the flavor for the meat layer. It will probably be a long time before I get around to trying again, so you’ll have to let me know what you think.

I don’t remember where I found this recipe, but I’m thinking it may have been in my Betty Crocker cookbook. Here’s what you’ll need.

1 lb ground beef, 1 can chili beans in sauce, salsa, sour cream, tortilla chips, onion, tomato, shredded cheese, lettuce.

First, brown up your ground beef with the onions until the onions are soft and the ground beef is no longer pink. Drain off fat, if necessary.

Add your can of chili beans, undrained.

Plus one cup of salsa.

Mix together.

Layer two cups of broken tortilla chips in the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish.

Layer your meat and bean mixture on top of the chips.

Spread 3/4 cup of sour cream on top of your meat mixture.

Followed by your tomato.

And finally, sprinkle on 1 cup of shredded cheese. I used a cheddar jack Mexican blend.

Look at the pretty layers!

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything’s hot and bubbly.

Serve with extra tortilla chips, shredded lettuce and salsa, all optional. This dish has potential with some changes, but the originally written recipe left a lot to be desired for me. I don’t think I even ate any of the leftovers.

Fiesta Taco Casserole
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 can (15 to 16 oz) spicy chili beans in sauce, undrained
1 cup salsa
2 cups coarsely broken tortilla chips
3/4 cup sour cream
4 medium green onions, sliced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
tortilla chips, optional
shredded lettuce, optional
salsa, optional

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In 10 inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until brown, drain. Stir in beans and 1 cup salsa. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.
In ungreased 2 qt casserole, place broken tortilla chips. Top with beef mixture. Spread with sour cream. Sprinkle with onions, tomato and cheese.
Bake uncovered 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Arrange tortilla chips around edge of casserole. Serve with lettuce and salsa.

Another dessert this week, and more cherries! It’s such an unassuming name, but this dessert was incredibly easy to make. I found it in the 15 minute section of my Simple and Delicious magazine. I’ve found that it works really well for pot lucks, and it’s perfect to make the day before… just mix it up and stick it in the fridge until it’s time for your get together!

I don’t really have much more to say about this recipe, just that if you like pineapple and cherries, you’re bound to really like this one!

You’ll need softened cream cheese, crushed pineapple, cherry pie filling, pecans, cool whip.

Start by putting your 8oz. of softened cream cheese in a large bowl.

Add in your 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, undrained.

Beat the cream cheese and pineapple together until they are well combined.

Open your 20 oz. can of cherry pie filling, and dump that in the bowl.

Add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans.

Stir in the cherries and the pecans until it’s pretty well mixed together.

Empty the whole 8 oz. container of cool whip into the bowl…

And stir it in completely!

It doesn’t look like much, but it sure was tasty. Not to mention really easy to make. I imagine it would be easily customizable with different fruit, too. Sorry for the less than appealing picture… I tried to get a good one with natural sunlight, but I just ended up with a blurry picture and Cherry Fluff smeared on the window.

Cherry Fluff

1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple, undrained
1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 carton (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and pineapple. Stir in the cherry pie filling, and the pecans. Fold in the whipped topping. Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.