Easy, Cheesy Dorito Casserole

I like easy...and I like things that my family says are good.  This recipe is both and was told could fix it again by both the husband and the youngest daughter.

Easy Cheesy Dorito Casserole is one dish I'd seen repeatedly on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.  My daughter Audrey thinks my most 'famous' meal is my soft tacos.  I can't share that recipe because McCormick Seasoning might get a little mad about me sharing their taco recipe from their seasoning pouch!  I think she'd eat my soft tacos every night if I'd make them.

This recipe tonight combined  Audrey's favorite Taco Seasoning, tomato salsa (hot sauce), sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, shredded cheddar cheese, lean ground Certified Hereford Beef -CHB, and crushed Dorito Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips.  It was simple enough the most inexperienced cook could make it and the most advanced cook might like for it's taste.  I can see if being one of those meals college kids, especially the male crowd would love. 

Serve this dish along side refried or black beans, a salad and your favorite drink - little kid or adult for a simple meal that is easy to make on the most rushed of nights!

Click here for the recipe for Easy Cheesy Dorito Casserole!


Enjoy!

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen.

Tater Tot Casserole

Great memories were made this weekend!  Our middle daughter Bethany received her Fighting Texas Aggie 2015 Senior Ring at Texas A&M on Friday and dunked her ring with sorority sisters on Saturday night!  Getting to be foremost with all our daughters in Aggieland was wonderful in it's own right, but the added fun of getting to be around her's and some of our best friends, their sweet parents and making all those memories together will be something we will always cherish! 

Texas A&M has been college home for two of our daughters.  The years of football games and tailgates, parents' weekends, and moving them in and out of their various homes have been some of our very favorite memories.  Our favorite restaurants are there like Wings and More, La Bodega, Lane's and Chimy's.  And we enjoy The Dixie Chicken for a game of pool, and a good Aggie tent sale to buy more shirts than we will ever wear! 

We love you sweet girls.  Thanks for wanting us to be a part of your college fun weekends, being the role models you are for our little Audrey and for enriching our lives more than you will ever know! 

                                                     ********************************

Tonight, as we arrived late home from Aggieland I contemplated one more meal out!  Our favorite family restaurant was calling my name as #1 I was tired and didn't feel like cooking, and #2 anytime we've been gone a while my favorite food to eat is always from there.  Feeling lazy and realizing our house guest Kyle had gone fishing on our place and Scott was busily working in our garden, I knew they'd be hungry as would our youngest daughter...so thank God for the defrost button on my microwave and some frozen tater tots!  This meal was on the table in under an hour and will be great as leftovers tomorrow night when I don't feel like cooking again!

I've made this meal for years and can't believe I haven't shared it before now.  I've used ground pork  as well as beef and think ground turkey meat would be equally as good.  However, tonight I used ground beef and to be precise it was CHB, Certified Hereford Beef right off our place!  Kyle enjoyed it, as did the rest of us and I convinced him how easy it was to make!

The Ranch Kitchen's Tater Tot Casserole

2 lbs. ground beef, browned and drained
1 onion, chopped fine
1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 cups grated cheddar cheese or 8 slices American Cheese slices
1 cup water
1 teaspoon Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning or Allspice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, garlic salt to taste for top of casserole

Brown ground beef and chopped onion until all pink is gone and drain excess fat, if any.  Add to this both cans of soup and one can of water.  Stir well and add 1 teaspoon of Tony Chachere's Creole Cajun Seasoning and 1 teaspoon of garlic salt.

Pour this mixture in a casserole dish like a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish that has been sprayed or greased with Pam cooking spray or oil.  Sprinkle on cheese or place on 8 slices of American Cheese slices (that is what I used tonight as I was out of cheddar cheese).  Pour entire frozen package of tater tots in a layer on top of meat and cheese mixture.  Sprinkle tater tots with a small amount of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and garlic salt.  Place in an oven that has been preheated to 425 degrees and cook uncovered for thirty minutes or until tater tots are slightly browned! 

If you have a meat and potatoes kind of man around your house this is a sure pleaser of a meal!  It's a main dish that the most beginner of cooks can make and the most experienced will enjoy for the sure ease of it!  Enjoy! 

Cooks Note:  You can use ground pork or turkey for this family favorite meal as well.

Alise @ The Ranch Kitchen!

The Ranch Kitchen's Green Chili and Cheese Hash Brown Casserole

Green Chili and Cheese Hash Brown Casserole

 

 

Instant hash browns are now one of my new favorite food to stock in my pantry!  No peeling potatoes or thawing them out from the freezer.  Just pour, add hot water, allow potatoes to moisten and cook on your skillet or add to your casserole. Potatoes just got even easier!

 

New Years Eve we had the pleasure of having my middle daughter's sweet college friends at our home and ranch.  We spent the better part of the two days while they were in eating and having a great visit!  I realize all to well that we need to cherish these times, because before long our house won't be the destination they chose.  We felt safe having them at our house and not on the roads/  We especially enjoyed watching our favorite team the Texas Aggies pull out a last minute win in their bowl game against Duke!  It was a nail bitter for sure!

 

For that nights meal, to go along with the brisket we had smoked on our pit, I served these potatoes.  We all really enjoyed them and especially the kids.  It made enough that I served them again reheated in my oven with our annual New Years day lunch of pork ribs, black-eyed peas, my Granny's wilted cabbage, black-eyed pea relish and cornbread. Check out my recipe tab at the top of this page for all these recipes except for the black-eyed peas that will be posted soon.

 

 

Green Chili and Cheese Hash Brown Casserole

 

8  - 10 cups of dehydrated hash browns prepared according to package directions

water for hash browns (see hash brown directions)

 

For mixture:

1 - 4 ounce, large can of diced green chili's

1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 - 16 ounce can of Pet Evaporated Milk

1 cup water

2 cups cheddar cheese ( I used the cheddar cheese crumbles in the package and shredded would work just as well)

1 stick margarine

2 teaspoons Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

1 tablespoon of garlic salt

 

***I did not add chopped green or white/yellow onions to this, but it would be a great addition

 

Prepare hash brown according to package directions.  Make sure you drain well.  In a large bowl, place the hash browns and add both soups, evaporated milk, 1 cup water, cheese and seasonings.  Mix well as you add each ingredient.  Spoon hash brown mixture into a large 9 x 13 baking dish.  Place 1 tablespoon squares of margarine across the entire top of the hash brown casserole.  Sprinkle with additional Tony Chachere's for seasoning and color before placing in the oven.

 

Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until mixture is bubbling throughout and cheese is melted. 

 

This is an easy, great dish to take to potlucks, work, or just serve at home.  I made this for a huge crowd and don't see why if you didn't want to cook this entire portion in one night you couldn't place half of it in a freezer container and cook at a later date. 

 

Let me know what you think!

 

Alise @ The Ranch Kitchen

 

 



Home at Last! The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken Divan!

HOME AT LAST!

HOME!  The last few weekends have been hectic to say the least!  Showing cattle is fun, but hard work on good old dad, mom, and especially the kids.  January used to be one dull month before cattle showing!  But now, there is now time to rest, especially on the last few weekends of the first month of the year!  Showing in the junior and open Hereford cattle shows at the Fort Worth Stock Show has become a tradition for our girls and ranch.  However, as of the last few years we could not do it without our ranch herdsmen Steve.  His help with our cattle and constant gentle guidance of our Audrey been a God send for us all.  Thank you Steve!

My husband this year completed two years as the Texas Hereford President during our National Hereford Show weekend.  It's an association we all hold dear to our hearts.  The people and ranches in their membership have become like family to us all and it was an honor for Scott to lead this historic association. He was blessed to have a great group of officers and executive committee members to assist him. I have just been so very proud of how he has really given everything he had to insure the associations success.

Today, I finished up most of the laundry and attempted to get my house back in order!  The meal I served on this Super Bowl Sunday is not necessarily a party food, but comfort food at it's finest.  It's filling and above all one of my favorite meals to make in the winter.  Along with the rice, a salad and the avocados I served with ranch dressing, dinner was ready in under an hour and fifteen minutes.  It's cheesy texture pleases even the pickiest kiddos and will fill up those men in your house.  Left overs are my favorite and I profess to even eating it cold...in my house eating something cold is the ultimate compliment!

The Ranch Kitchen's Chicken Divan

10 chicken tenders

10 broccoli spears. frozen or fresh

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

juice of 1/2 lime equalling about 3 tablespoons

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup mayonnaise (no light)

1 cups sour cream (no light)

Spray a 9 x 13 inch glass dish with Pam.  Place chicken tenders in dish.  Place broccoli spears on top of chicken tenders.  Mix soups, lime juice, mayonnaise, sour cream well.  Add grated cheese to this mixture and blend.  Pour this mixture on top of chicken topped with broccoli, making sure to cover all of the dish.  Cook on 400 for 1 hour or until the mixture begins to brown on top.

Serve with cooked long grain rice or Uncle Ben's. 

Alise

Chicken or Pork Chops and Rice

Today, I am on a deadline...but I work best that way.  I am the biggest procrastinator in the world!  In college whenever I had a big paper due, project, or presentation, I did everything but what I needed to do.  I cooked, cleaned (I hate to clean house), and I became 'Suzy Homemaker'.  Finally at 10:30 at night, when everyone was asleep, I was at my best, exhausted, but in 'my zone'.  Whatever it takes - I always meet those deadlines!

 

So below is not the meal I prepared last night, but should have...I fixed an elaborate meal of roast beef and all the sides...remember I had a deadline to meet! Crazy but true! 

What I should have fixed was my easy - Pork Chops or Chicken and Rice!  So here's to what I should have done...and my 'ode' to soup in the can!

I owe a lot to soup and soup mixes.  They are staples in my kitchen.  I can't imagine life without them.  I imagine my granny, making homemade based soups and stocks over a hot stove with five kids at her side.  Thank God for modern conveniences and soup in a can! 

For new cooks the recipe I am enclosing today is EASY.  Anyone can make this as it's that simple.  It's comfort food at it's best.  Along with my Italian Green Beans, a green salad, and French bread you'll have  a meal that everyone will love. 

 

 

 

Chicken or Pork Chops and Rice

Chicken breast or pork chops – 4 to 8 of each

1 can of cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken soup according to your taste (because some people just hate mushrooms!)

1 pkg. onion soup mix – dry mix

4 - 6 cans water

1 stick margarine or butter

2 cups rice – Uncle Ben’s brand white rice or 2 packages of Uncle Ben's Wild Rice with seasoning packet as in the picture above...if you use Wild Rice omit/take out the onion soup mix as you have seasoning packets in the Wild Rice.

salt and pepper to taste -optional

Directions:
* In a 9 x 13 inch glass dish sprayed with cooking oil, place water and soups. 
* Stir and break up soups with a whisk or fork. 
* Mix in rice evenly. 
* Place meat on top of the rice/soup mixture. 
* Dot with margarine and season with salt and pepper. 
* Cover with foil and cook on 375 degrees Farenheit for 1 and 1/2 hour or until meat or rice looks done (bottom of your dish will be slightly browned). The top of rice and meat will be slightly 'crusty'.  Do not cook too long or it will dry out the rice.  Adjust cooking time depending on your oven.

Serve with my The Ranch Kitchen's Italian Green Beans, rolls and my Winter Salad all found on this site under Recipes and Side Dishes.  This is one of my dad Al's favorite recipes!

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen