December 24, 2007 Easy Tex-Mex Bake

Easy Tastebud Delights

12.24 Edition (December 24, 2007)

Easy Recipes

45 minutes+

Hi Everyone and Merry Christmas Eve to you! This is it!! No more cooking until tomorrow when we have our turkey dinner. Last night we ordered Chinese food for 5, so there was lots of leftovers to carry on until today.

Quite often we have lots of pasta and hamburger in the house and I wonder what kind of wonders I can create with it without having it looking like I'm just throwing ingredients in a pan and hoping for the best. This dish has a Tex-Mex theme to it so it will be fun for kids, after all, who doesn't like cheese, salsa and pasta? Enjoy!

Easy Tex-Mex Bake

1/2 pkg. small rotini uncooked pasta
1 lb. ground beef
1-10oz. pkg. frozen, thawed, drained corn
2/3 cup chunky salsa
1 container cottage cheese
1 egg
1 tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp. fresh, cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided

Cook pasta according to package, do not salt the water, drain, rinse, set aside.

Cook ground meat until no longer pink. Stir in corn and salsa. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine cottage cheese, egg, cilantro, pepper, cumin, and 1/2 the shredded cheese in a bowl.

Spray an 11-1/2 X 7-1/2 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon half the meat mixture into the bottom of the dish, top with the pasta, spoon cottage cheese mixture over the pasta, then the other half of the meat, and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until heated and bubbly.

Serve with garlic bread and caesar salad!!!
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