Mexican Mac & Cheese- Better Homes & Gardens

This month, I've been cooking and experimenting more often.  I'm aiming to work with the food in my freezer and pantry as often as possible to cut back on spending a bit.  I went through my handy dandy clipped recipe binder and pulled out those that I could make with whatever I have on hand, give or take an ingredient or two.  Then I gave those recipes to Shawn to weed out the ones that he wasn't interested in trying.  Its interesting to see what I think he'll like versus what he'll actually try.  It surprises me sometimes!  This one looked delicious and he seemed pretty interested in it, so I gave it a shot. 

Some background on the recipe: Better Homes and Gardens magazine has a section where they give you a topic each month and people can contribute recipes for prizes.  I aim to win this one day!  In the meantime, I clip other people's recipes to try new things.  This recipe won the $500 prize for "new ways with sausage" back in March 2011.   I submitted my breakfast potatoes and didn't hear back.  Their loss!

Recipe planning can be a little hard when you're working out of the freezer because you have to get your timing just right.  You have to get the meat defrosted in time to cook but you can't always guarantee what you'll want to eat the next night.  So, I had the sausage all ready to go for the evening and Shawn wasn't feeling pasta.  I wasn't feeling sandwiches, so I made the pasta for John and I and cut aside some sausage to make him sausage & pepper sandwiches. 

I used bulk sausage and sauteed up about 2/3 of the package with a chopped small onion in a sautee pan.  I drained the fat, then added the meat back to the pan with a jar of salsa.  I had about 3/4 of a jar from a local farmers market with a little heat to it.  While this was going on, I cooked up approximately 12 oz of rigatoni.  I've learned with time and practice to always undercook pasta when you're going to be baking it.  It'll finish cooking in the oven!  I got a hodge podge of cheese together- some colby jack, reduced fat cheddar, and a little sharp cheddar to finish it off.  The recipe called for a pound, but I used around 2/3 of a pound to match the rest of the scaled down recipe. 

I took a baking dish, coated with spray, and added a layer of pasta, a layer of meat, and a layer of cheese.  Repeated the layers- snuck a bite to make sure it tasted good (it did) and put in the oven for 35 minutes.  I topped it with some chopped tomatoes and cilantro. 

Ooooohhhhh, I love baked pasta.  Any kind, really.  Its just one of those dishes that I can eat way more than I should.  This was like a cross between mac and cheese and baked ziti, but with a Mexican flair.  Aka- it was absolutely and ridiculously amazing!  The cheese and meat sauce stayed separate, but kind of melted together at the same time.  The edges were crispy and the salsa made it all pretty spicy but the chopped tomatoes helped tone it down. 

One of my proudest moments was when John took a few bites and said it was spicy.  Then he asked for a drink and kept on eating it.  My little foodie in training!!!  Leftovers were not as plentiful as they should be (I really love baked pasta) but heated up really well the next day.  I'll definitely do this again with some turkey sausage and light cheese to lighten it up a bit.  I bet some chopped peppers would be good, too. 

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/pasta/mexican-mac-and-cheese/