What's for Dinner Wednesday: Taco Pasta

The recipe for the day is one I just threw together with what I could find in the fridge and pantry.  Tacos are one of the few meals that all of my kids will eat.  When I make them, I always make TONS of meat.  4lbs of ground turkey feeds us all for dinner, the hubby's lunch the next day, and with what's leftover I get to have fun creating a new meal!

Here are the ingredients I used:

- 1lb of leftover ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning.
- 1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 can of black beans
- 3/4 cup of sour cream
- 8oz of Monterrey Jack Cheese
- 1 tbsp of chopped cilantro
- 1 box of rigatoni pasta

Throw the leftover meat in a pot to heat.  Once hot, mix in the tomatoes, black beans, and cilantro.  Then add the sour cream.  Cook up the pasta ( I always throw a good amount of salt in the boiling water before I add the pasta, it flavors the noodles so well).  Once the pasta is done strain it and put it in a 13x9in casserole dish.  Then add the meat mixture.  Mix well, top with the shredded Monterrey Jack.  Back in the oven at 375 degrees for 30min. 

I wish I had a picture to share with you all today.  I'll make sure to start snapping some whenever I cook a meal! 

Enjoy,

Crunchy Katie

French Toast Bread Pudding

What do you do with all of the ends of loaves of bread?  My kids refuse to eat them, as did I when I was a kid, so we always have a good amount of them laying around.  We are currently doing a pantry challenge thanks to a LOOOOONG time between pay periods so I had to come up with a tasty, kid friendly, breakfast using the ends of the bread.  Here's what I made!

French Toast Bread Pudding

I got some ideas from the web and went to town making it my own with what we had laying around!
Here's my recipe!

4 old hot dog buns (no mold, I promise)
4 old hamburger buns
6 end of the loaf slices
8 eggs
2 cups half and half
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar
half a stick of butter (plus a bit more for greasing the glass dish)
4 tbsp brown sugar

Here's how ya do it...

I used a 11x7 glass baking dish greased up real nice.  Strategically place the assortment of whatever bread you have laying around.  Squish it all in there real tight!  Now mix up all the other ingredients (minus the brown sugar and butter) and poor it all over the bread.  Now get a fork and mash that bread so it soaks up all the egg mixture.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

In the Morning...

Preheat oven to 350.  Place covered dish in the oven for 30min.  While it's baking, mix the brown sugar and butter to make a sort of dough.  After it bakes for 30min, take it out, remove foil and place bits of the brown sugar mixture all over the top of the pudding.  Now, put it back in for 35-40min or until its golden brown and bubbling!  

Serve hot with butter and syrup!

Enjoy!!