Mexican Pizza

Nothing stops my husband from eating cold pizza. He loves it.

Before heading to work, he came upstairs to kiss me goodbye and he was eating this for breakfast. I had it for dinner the night before and it was fantastic straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
2 pizza bases (equivalent to medium sized pizzas)
1 can refried beans
2-3 cups shredded Mexican cheese
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1 avocado, chopped
chopped lettuce
optional: sour cream, black olives, green onions, salsa, cilantro, jalapenos

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown ground beef in large skillet, over medium heat. Add taco seasoning to the ground beef according to package directions. Drain excess grease. Place pizza base on ungreased cookie sheet. Spread refried beans on the pizza base. Top with cooked ground beef mixture, sprinkle with cheese, and place in oven. Cook for 10 minutes or until pizza crust is crisp. Add tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, avocado, and additional toppings to your pizza. Keep avoiding Taco Bell.

E: 10
A: 9 - pizza base had to be purchased
T: 10
HH: 10

Original recipe required baking the pizza crust first, but mine was precooked

Stuffed Bell Peppers

As soon as our winter came, I found myself searching for recipes that involved the oven. I'm happy to stand in the kitchen making dinner with a preheated oven. I like to pretend I have a fireplace. This recipe for Southwestern Stuffed Peppers is tasty, but be sure and add some more spices of your choice. 

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 package (1.25 oz) taco seasoning mix
1 egg, beaten
2 cups cooked Spanish rice
4 green bell peppers
19 oz can diced tomatoes
16 oz jar salsa
shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream

Directions:
Combine beef, onion, seasoning mix, and egg in a large bowl. Add cooked rice and mix well. Cut peppers in half lengthwise, remove seeds and membrane. Spread tomatoes on the bottom of an ovenproof 13x9 inch baking dish. The liquid from the tomatoes will reduce during cooking, so if you like sauce, then add 1 cup of water. Place peppers, cut side up, on top of the tomatoes. Spoon beef mixture into peppers. Top each pepper with salsa. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes or until beef is cooked thoroughly and peppers are soft. Cover each pepper with cheese and return to oven until the cheese melts. Serve with sour cream and additional salsa.

E: 8
A: 9
T: 8
HH: 8 - we agreed this recipe needed more spices (cumin, salt, garlic)

Recipe adapted from food.com

Making Mozzarella

Doesn't that look delicious?!  Trust me, it was.  This post is about all the wonderful food from Cousin Camp.  Yes, as the title says, we made mozzarella!  We'll start with that.  Here's a play by play in pictures:

You start by heating milk.  (We used 2%)

So, these are not the technical directions, Lisa brought a kit that had the recipe.  If you want to make it, I suggest that the first time.

Lisa, the magic maker, and mom, the credit taker

Look at the curds and whey forming!  (Little Miss Muffet would be so proud.)

Curds are the thicker white stuff coming together (this equals cheese eventually).  Whey is the liquid.

I tasted the whey, just tastes like bland, warm milk.  I just wanted to know what it was from experience when my kids (no I'm not pregnant, this would be a horrible way to tell you that) ask me about what exactly Miss Muffet was eating.

We were all quite fascinated.

KR was a little scared to get close even.

Notice everyone is in their pajamas... this was a theme for the trip.

 

 Then you drain off the whey.

Add salt and kneed the curds.

Voila!  Homemade Mozzarella!

Don't you want some?!

Unfortunately, I don't think I have documentation of all the food we ate.  However, I must say we ate fresh, healthy foods, that tasted amazing.  Look how colorful this is:

This is a pretty simple recipe and very delicious.  It's basically grilled corn, tomatoes, basil, and lime juice.  You can add balsamic vinegar too.  Everyone else had mint in theirs, but I don't like it, so I had a special bowl without the mint.  :)

We had grilled chicken and then leftovers became chicken salad... it was awesome.

You can see a few more things in this post about Cousin Camp... look for the boatnicking.