Southwest Pasta Dinner in a Hurry

With my life changing in the next few weeks when my guy and his little ladies move in with me, I decided I needed to create more meals in a hurry. I typically eat later at night after I wind down from the work day, but the little ladies eat pretty much right when they get home. So with my guy and I both working full time, I needed to find meals that work in a hurry that are yummy.

I have had a recipe for Southwest Pasta pinned to my The Main Event board on Pinterest. I used this as a base for my meal, but made a lot of adjustments to make the dish go farther and add more flavor.

I doubled the recipe to start and boiled an entire bag of tricolor noodles. Then I browned an entire pound of meat with 1/2 a purple onion. Then I mixed in 3/4 of a can of sloppy joe mix, a can of black beans (drained and rinsed) and a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies. I added some garlic powder and cumin.

Then I added the noodles with the rest of the sloppy joe sauce. This helps break the nood
les apart after they are sitting for a bit. And I added in 1 cup of shredded cheese.

At this point, I served myself up a bit to try. The flavor was amazing but soon the green chilies overpowered my tender taste buds and I wished I had some sour cream in the house.

Alas, I was out, but I found a package of 1/3 less fat cream cheese. I chopped up the block and mixed it into the entire dish. I knew that letting it sit would only increase the flavors so I didn't worry if this was too much.

I added a small bit to my plateful and it turned out perfectly. I am very happy with this dish and maybe using regular diced tomatoes will help bring the heat lower for the little ladies too! But I think this dish will be something they will like. 

This entire meal took about 20 minutes to put together. Boiling the noodles and browning the meat takes the longest, the rest is just opening cans and mixing things together.

Quesadillas for Kiddos

Cooking meals for kiddos is something newer for me. They have less complex palates and like things a little more plain than I do. Nothing wrong with that - they will grow to love food later in life. Believe it or not, I was an extremely picky eater as a child. I would only eat a baked potato or noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese when we went out. I disliked marinara sauce and ketchup, and it wasn't until high school that I started to really enjoy what I was eating and experimented with flavors. I have never and will never like McDonald's hamburgers (I have had one in my whole life with a bun soaked in ketchup and mustard and never wanted one again!)

I asked my mom recently what some of the go-to meals were in our house once my brother and I were a little less picky. She told me that we loved tacos, spaghetti, grilled cheese, pizza casserole, broccoli chicken rollups and quesadillas. I ran these ideas past my guy and he told me quesadillas would be a home run with the kiddos.

I started by seasoning up some chicken breasts with cumin, cilantro, onion powder, salt and pepper. I chopped them up and put them in a pan to cook through.

Then I shredded the meat and put it back in the pan with Wildtree Taco Seasoning and water, and simmered for 15 minutes. The kiddos weren't crazy about the idea of chicken in their quesadillas but I knew that my guy and I would love it.

The kiddos chose just cheese in theirs and my guy and I went a little more complex. I chopped up some black olives, red pepper, added some salsa and the chicken and we were set.

I put the oven on broil and in just 5 minutes, the quesadillas were done, flipping once to crisp each side of the tortilla a bit. The kiddos selected sour cream and salsa on the side to dip. They both ate  their entire quesadillas and I got two thumbs up on the meal. That isn't the easiest to get from the kids, so I added this meal to the staple list.

My guy and I enjoyed sliced avocado and sour cream with ours. The avocados were perfectly ripe -- so buttery and rich.

In a matter of a half hour, I had dinner on the table and then a half hour later, there were happy bellies all around.