I found a recipe for Mexican Stuffed Shells and thought it looked promising. I do not have access to everything required, but fudged it (and made a half recipe) and I think it turned out really well.
Ingredients
1 pound of ground beef
1 package of taco seasoning
1 package of cream cheese (250 grams)
1 cup taco sauce*
1 1/2 cups salsa
large noodles (I used canelloni, but shells might be easier)
grated cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350.
In a frying pan, brown the ground beef; add taco seasoning and prepare as directed on package. Stir in cream cheese and let simmer for a few minutes until cheese has completely melted.
Pour the salsa in the bottom of a baking dish.
Stuff the uncooked** noodles with the meat mixture and place on top of salsa in baking dish. Once the pan is full of noodles, top with taco sauce. Make sure that the noodles are completely covered otherwise they will not cook.
Top with grated cheese and bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and noodles are soft. Broil for a few minutes to brown the cheese.
Top with any additional condiments. . .more salsa, green onions or sour cream.
Enjoy!
*I could not find any taco sauce, so I made my own variation of it. The recipe is here, but I just used what I had in my cupboards and it turned out just fine.
Taco Sauce
1 can of tomato sauce
1 tsp chillies
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
dash of Worcester sauce
salt and pepper to taste
In a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients and let sit for 30 minutes to allow the flavours to blend. Refrigerate if not using immediately.
** If you prefer, you can precook the noodles, but I think that it is way easier to stuff the noodles when they are hard and as long as the sauce is covering the noodles, they will soften while cooking.
Great effort there Elizabeth. Looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteIt frustrates me too at times when a recipe you really want to cook has ingredients you aren't able to source locally.