Sunday, November 9, 2008

Cheesy Gooey Goodness...


(Cheesy Gooey Tex-Mex Casserole, by Molly Sonier)


(Holy cow this was good)


(And it was meatless!)

First I doubled this chili gravy recipe from Homesick Texan(doubled the liquid and seasoning, not the flour and oil). I tweaked it a bit with about 1/2 teaspoon chipolte powder and about a teaspoon red wine vinegar.

Then I layered(in a 9x13 stoneware casserole) the sauce with corn tortillas, about 10 in all, 2 blocks of Cabot's 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese, grated, 1 can fat free refried beans(just glopped by the tablespoon), about 2 cups fresh spinach, 1 cup cilantro leaves(very loosely packed). My layers went like this:

Sauce
Tortillas
Beans
Cheese
Cilantro
Tortillas
Sauce
Beans
Spinach
Cheese
Tortillas
Sauce(I didn't quite use all of it)
Beans
Cilantro
Cheese

Baked it, covered, at 350 for about 40 minutes. Slurped it up with some greek yogurt on top. Died happy(no not really, but I could have). There is just a teeny bit left for tomorrow. I may send it with Mark if he does the dishes tonight.

In other news...

We were looking SO forward to camping this weekend. Based on the events, it seems God may have been telling us "no" but we didn't listen til he stopped us in our tracks.

Mark had a bad feeling about going all week and I couldn't really get into it either. Once we got the stuff together we were excited to be getting away. We decided against taking the canoe because the Suburban was weighted down too much as it was. Due to his busy week Mark didn't get around to making reservations at the state park we wanted to visit. We got about a mile underway and Mark decided he'd better call to see if there were tent site vacancies. There were not. He pulled off the road and called 6 or 7 other state parks. Only one had sites available. We turned around to head to that park and the Suburban just died. Quit working at all. We coasted to an oil top road that lead back home and came to a stop in the woods. Car would NOT start. Mark jogged back home and drove back with jumper cables. It wasn't the battery. Would allllllmost turn over but not quite. So, we loaded all the camping equipment in his work van and drove back home. We decided to call a wrecker service to haul it home for us. Currently it is sitting in the yard near the driveway. We are unsure what we'll do with it. The repairs for this and many other "ailments" will probably run close to $1100 and there are other things wrong with it as well.

Today we went to visit friends and I was handed some leftovers from a garage sale.*G* I got a cast iron skillet, a neat-o purse, and a vintage barbie with a beeeautiful purple crocheted doily dress, and some okra and peppers!! Barbie has a photo shoot sceduled for tomorrow. Then we looked at used trucks and SUVs(we have to have something to pull the boat and haul 3-5 kids, dogs, equipment and so forth). Finally we headed to Trade Days to see what we could find to drag home! I managed to leave with an adorable(and I mean ADORABLE) crocheted mouse with a dark blue dress. She is just too sweet!! Her photo shoot is scheduled around the same time as purple barbie, so I'll have pics sometime tomorrow. The kids and I got sno-cones and we all split a large funnel cake. I don't think I've had one of those in 25 years! I also ran into a very old friend(30 years!) who works for the police department now. We caught each other up on who and what. Then I checked in with my friend who is selling my scarves, she said 3 had sold!! Woot!! I don't know which ones though. She knits the most incredible striped stocking caps to sell. They are about 5 to 6 feet long and are so cute(I need a picture of them). I wish I was a knitter but there ain't no way...

We're expecting rain tomorrow with slightly cooler temps following. It has been a wonderful fall so far with very little rain and short-sleeve weather almost every day.

6 comments:

autumnesf said...

Ugh! We've been plagued with car troubles this whole year and it stinks. And my van is only 4 years old!

And I'm with you...I'd love to learn to knit...but it just ain't happening!!

Betts said...

Car troubles!! Ooo, I hate them. It's all too expensive. Makes me want to get a horse and wagon, but the horse would probably get sick and they aren't cheap either.

Sounds like your weekend was a mix of good and bad... better than all bad.

A Slice of the Pie said...

I think you linked to that chili gravy recipe before, and it has become my favorite enchilada sauce (I do it meat product free, however). I had planned on doing enchiladas for dinner one night this week, so now I think I will do it like your casserole!

As for your camping trip, it sounds like something was at work keeping you home this weekend. I wonder if whatever would have happened had you gone would have been worse than what did happen.

Kel

~Molly~ said...

Kel,

This turned out SO much better than enchiladas, much creamier and rich! I think it was the addition of the refried beans and the extra chili sauce. It was also much easier to tear tortillas than to roll them up. I did miss something here, I don't think I quite doubled the seasonings but I did increase to account for the extra water I used.

Betts said...

Thank you for your many kind comments on my blog. I wanted to get back to you with your question on my post today. I believe you can use other meat (even organs), but pork is not recommended... something about a worm in raw pork.

You should definitely look at the book I mentioned. I would have looked up the meat question for you, but I've temporarily misplaced mine.

Anonymous said...

WOW, that casserole looks great! My grandmother was from Texas and I always loved her Tex-Mex take on dinners. Thanks for sharing this!

Jen
cabotblog.com