The Ranch Kitchen's Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl

During December my daughter Bethany and I tried a few new recipes and added our own flair to them.  She had recently come across a recipe and it reminded her of her days in Aggieland when she loved these from their favorite taco restaurant.  

We recreated this recipe giving it our own additions dubbing it Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl for my Sure champ post for January of 2016.  We added our own special changes on two separate evenings to this fun dish. 

This rice, bean, corn with onion all in one pot meal was made in large batches so that we wouldn't have to cook the next night.  Around Christmas with our school and family events, it was nice to have a hearty meal that was easy to make and quick to reheat in the microwave.  

The second time we made this recipe we substituted the black beans for pinto beans and exchanged the whole kernel corn for creamed corn since that is all our pantry had.  It was just as good, but Bethany preferred the pop of the whole kernel corn and the black beans.  

We added sliced black olives the second time and really loved that addition. My husband and I love extra spicy dishes, so we even added Tabasco Sauce to the top of our taco bowls. We also added sour cream and fresh cut cilantro to Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl for extra flavor as a garnish or topping.

 

I told Bethany that this would be a fun dish to serve with a variety of toppings for a party or feeding a large crowd.  Condiments like your fresh shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro, diced black olives, and even jalapenos would be great additions to the top of this delicious dish.  

This dish would be an excellent recipe to make for my friends on the show road this winter and especially for those of you who will be in Denver or Fort Worth in January.  I am even imaginging it for tailgating at Texas A&M next fall.  I can just see it all now in my large roaster hauling it in to the barns instead of my tradition Chicken Spaghetti for a Crowd.  All my toppings would be set off to the side with southwestern decorative dishes, a big basket of my favorite Pappacita's chips from home and some of my Nolana's Family Hot Sauce. 

Click here for the recipe for Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl

We hope you'll give this recipe a try and let us know how you made your own additions to it as well.  Remember you can share your own recipes on my site under the Share a Recipe tab. The Ranch Kitchen is also on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, so follow us there as well! 

It was fun cooking and planning out meals with my daughter this past holiday while she was in from college.  She has a good eye for recipes and is creatively detailed when this momma sometimes needs an extra push to get dinner on the table.  

She starts a new internship this week.  We pray and wish the very best for her as she completes her masters this spring.  I'm one proud momma in more ways than one.  I have three good reasons and sweet husband that helps makes life a good one. I hope each of my daughters find their way in this big old world in a profession they love and a man like mine who loves both me and most of the time my cooking adventures!

Alise  and Bethany - The Ranch Kitchen  

Cowboy Beans

It's the first day of fall and nothing says cooler weather more than a big bowl of pinto beans simmering on the stove.

This past weekend, on our thankfully lazy Sunday afternoon, I cooked a dish we all grew up with around my house called Cowboy Beans.  This dish was made famous by my mom because anytime she placed the word cowboy in front of a dish, my brothers would eat it up and so would I. 

The name just sounded rough and tough....something surely we should eat and always did.  Moms of little, rowdy boys like my brothers have to learn what works and naming her food seemed to do the trick.

Pinto beans are one of those one pot meals that you can make and allow to cook all afternoon.  The pinto beans in this recipe had not been presoaked the night before to tenderize the beans. Just follow the directions on the back of your beans package for the 'quick cooking' method.  However, if you do presoak your pinto beans you will reduce your cooking time by half.

You may chose to use your pressure or slow cooker to make this dish even easier.  Just follow their cooking directions for similar recipes.

Adding ground beef, pork, or turkey to these pinto beans makes this a meal chalked full of extra protein.  I baked some homemade cornbread with a square pat of real butter making us all pretty content and full by that evening.  You can get a recipe for my Jumbo Mexican Cornbread here, but I'd cut the recipe down by 3/4 as this recipe is for a huge crowd!  Of course you can always freeze the cornbread. 

Click here on the link for our Cowboy Beans to get the recipe where you can copy, share by email or to save in your files. 

Cowboy Beans

This recipe can be served on top of rice and is always better the second day when the flavors seem to continue to improve.  Reheat Cowboy Beans on your stove or in your microwave oven the next day. 

We hope you'll enjoy this simple dish that is a family favorite on our ranch and a favorite of my childhood.  It's one of my husband's favorites that we cook all fall and winter long. 

         Alise - The Ranch Kitchen