Is it too soon for another Mexican-ish recipe? Y’all seemed to love the Taco Pie, so I have high hopes that you’ll enjoy this recipe just as much. I sure did.

I am a huge fan of the cheese enchiladas from our local Mexican restaurant and believe me, I have tried my best to recreate them at home. I just can’t ever get them right, though. The cheese, the sauce, the consistency of it all just never seems to work out the way I imagine it too.

I still haven’t mastered that recipe, but I don’t really care anymore. Now I have these cream cheese chicken enchiladas and they are, dare I say it, even better. They are so creamy with just the perfect amount of spice and the most genius addition I can think of: corn. Yep, corn. In an enchilada.

The corn just gives these this perfect little unexpected sweet crunch. I love it. I bet you will too.

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas
Recipe slightly adapted from Taste and Tell

• 5 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup light sour cream
• 10 ounces enchilada sauce (canned is just fine)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese, divided
• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed (canned corn works just fine, but drain it first)
• 4 oz. diced green chiles (I used the tiny can you get by the taco sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 8 8-inch flour tortillas

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray.

In the bowl of your mixer cream together the cream cheese, sour cream, and 1/2 of the enchilada sauce. Stir in 1/2 cup of each type of cheese.

In a second bowl toss together the chicken, corn, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, green chiles, and half of the scallions. Add the chicken mixture to the cheese mixture and combine well.

Spread about half of the remaining enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.

Spoon the filling into each tortilla, roll the tortilla up, and place in the baking dish with the seam down. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the filled tortillas and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with the remaining scallions and serve.

I admittedly have a lot of “favorites” when it comes to food, but one constant favorite of mine is Mexican food. I could eat at our local Mexican restaurant every night for dinner and I’d be delighted to have Taco Bell for lunch each day. Yes, yes I did just admit to loving Taco Bell on a food blog. I kinda have a thing for drive thru food. Don’t hate.

Anyway, my love of Mexican food is deep and never-ending. I once told my husband that I wanted a divorce so that I could instead find an old Mexican grandma to marry. It would have been a match made in heaven.  However, I also have a love of pasta. It’s so carby and delicious. You can dress it up any way you like and one of my favorite ways to dress it up is with my other favorite…tacos.

And, okay, I probably shouldn’t call this Mexican food, but it’s my American version of Mexican food and man, is it ever tasty.

My daughter who routinely declares that she hates Mexican food, doesn’t want tacos, won’t eat that quesadilla, and WHERE IS MY CHEESEBURGER, MOTHER? ate this for lunch today. It’s all about presentation and this one is quite impressive.

You need a bit of extra time to prepare this as the pasta doesn’t just stand up in the pan all by itself, but it was much simpler than I anticipated. Smooshing the meat down into the tubes of pasta was pretty simple as well and the sound it made as it was sucked in was quite entertaining.

If, however, you are a normal person with a busy life who does not have the time to stand a pound of rigatoni noodles at attention, then just go ahead and toss this all together in a baking dish (9×13 would be good) and then cover with cheese and bake it that way. It’ll still taste good…it just won’t be as entertaining.

Y’all are gonna love this.

Taco Pie

• 1 lb rigatoni
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 package taco seasoning (or your own recipe)
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups salsa
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the pasta until not quite al dente. I let mine boil for 2 minutes less than the package suggested for al dente. When the pasta is done, drain and rinse. Toss the pasta with 1/2 cup of monterey jack cheese.

While the pasta is boiling, brown the ground beef and drain. Add the taco seasoning and however much water is needed, per the directions on the taco packet. Cook for a few minutes over low heat and then add in the cream cheese. Allow the cream cheese to fully melt into the meat mixture. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of salsa.

Grease a springform pan and stand the rigatoni noodles up tightly in the pan. It may help to hold the pan at an angle to get them to stand when you’re first standing them up. This step really is easier than you would think!

Spread the meat mixture on top of the noodles and use a straw to poke the meat down into the holes of the noodles. When you’ve poked the meat in as much as you can, pour the remaining half cup of salsa over the top. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 cups of cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the pan and cutting. Enjoy!

I’m pretty boring when it comes to sandwiches. My kids eat PB&Js quite a bit, I eat turkey, cheese, and tomato on white bread every now and then, and sometimes I spice things up with a totally gourmet grilled cheese sandwich (white bread, two slices of American cheese…we are fancy).

Sandwiches don’t have to be boring though. In fact, this sandwich will make you cry tears of joy. It will make you wonder why the heck you don’t eat sandwiches every day of the week. It will make you groan with pleasure, and that my friends is an amazing thing to be said about a sandwich.

This is super simple, super quick, and super flavorful. I like to cook my chicken on the stove in a bit of olive oil, but you could just as easily use grilled chicken. Even better, this sandwich is best when cold, so leftover chicken is perfect for this. Avocados add some fun color and creaminess, the red onion adds a bit of bite, and the bacon…well, the bacon just makes it delicious. Bacon has a way of doing that.

This recipe is a part of Bacon Week, the best week there ever was. If you’d like to participate, please send me a link to a bacon recipe on your blog and I’ll feature it here at the end of the week. Email the link (and feel free to include a picture sized 625px wide or smaller) by 10pm on July 1st to karly[at]bunsinmyoven.com[dot]com.

Chicken, Bacon, and Avocado Sandwiches
serves 4

• 1 package (about 1 3/4 pounds) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• salt, pepper, and garlic salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 avocado
• 8 slices bacon, fried crisp
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 4 kaiser rolls

Begin by pounding the chicken breasts to about 1/4 of an inch thick. Season on both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic salt.  Heat oil in a large skillet and add chicken breasts. Flip chicken breasts after about 5 minutes and continue cooking for 5 minutes more or until chicken is cooked through. Transfer to a plate, slice chicken into small pieces and place in the fridge to chill.

When the chicken is cold, slice the avocado and red onion into thin slices. Mix together the mayo and mustard and spread on one side of the kasier roll. Layer the chicken, bacon, avocado, and onion on the roll. Enjoy!

Well, that’s quite a mouthful, isn’t it? Hot and Melty Oven Baked Ham and Swiss Sandwiches. I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t just title this “Ham and Cheese sandwiches.” Who would be interested in that? And I want you to be interested. I want you to be very interested.

You see, these little sandwiches are amazing things. They are so very simple, they’re perfect for feeding a crowd, they can be an appetizer, a snack, or a main course. They are great man food and are postively perfect for Sunday football. They’re also great girl food, since they are little mini sandwiches and everyone knows that all girls think mini foods are cute, right? No? That’s just me? Well, then.

I found this recipe on Dine and Dish back in August and since then I’ve made these about 10 times. I just can’t help myself. They are delish! I serve them when my husband has his buddies over for football, I served them along with a big pot of chili on Halloween, and I serve them for dinner when I’m in a hurry and need something tasty and easy.

You can really feed a crowd with these and it only takes minutes to prepare them. You just slice a package of King’s Hawaiian Rolls in half, layer the bottoms with ham and cheese, place the top pieces of bread on, and then pour the delightful butter mixture over them. The original recipe says to refrigerate these overnight or for several hours, but I find that even 30 minutes works just fine.

The topping is a mixture of melted butter, worchestershire sauce, ground mustard, poppy seeds, and dried onion flakes. I leave out the poppy seeds and onion flakes because my picky little family would have a stroke if I put something like a poppy seed on their bun. I can just hear them now, “What is this? Bird food?!” And let’s not even consider what would happen if I put chunks of dried onion on these. I do add a bit of onion powder, though. Sneaky, aren’t I?

Hot and Melty Oven Baked Ham and Swiss Sandwiches (Or: Oven Ham Sammies)
adapted from Dine and Dish

• 1 12 count package Kings Hawaiian Rolls
• 12 slices swiss cheese
• 12-16oz thin sliced ham
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp poppy seeds (optional)
• 2 tsp onion flakes (or 1 tsp onion powder)
• 2 tbsp worcheshire sauce

Place ham and cheese on the bottom of the sliced rolls. Cover with the top half of roll. Mix together the remaining five ingredients in a small bowl and spoon over the tops of the sandwiches. It will look like you have too much, but just dump it all on there. Let sit overnight or a couple of hours. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for 15 minutes or until warmed through and the cheese is gooey and melty. Enjoy!

My little family likes things simple. They don’t do fancy food. They don’t want to look at it. They don’t want to smell it. They certainly don’t want to eat it. They don’t even want to hear the word fancy in relation to food. It’s a tough life I live.

Some days I plop down in the middle of my kitchen floor and I sob about it all. Other days, like today, I embrace the simple life. If I’m considering cooking something for my family but I’m not sure if they’ll eat it, I just ask myself one question.

Does it have ketchup in it?

If the answer is yes, there’s about a 95% chance they’re going to eat it.

With that rule in mind, I put together today’s lunch for me and the kids. These little Barbecue Biscuits are simple food, they contain ketchup, and not only do my kids love them, but so do I.

Let’s make these, shall we?

Quite a lot of my favorite recipes start like this: Dump a pound of ground beef into a pan and start browning it. I can’t help it. Ground beef is so versatile and kid-friendly. Also, it’s pretty yummy.

I always make one pound of ground beef for this, but I usually have a bit of left over meat. I like having the leftovers for lunch the next day, but if you aren’t a fan of leftovers, just use 3/4 of a pound of meat.

While your beef is browning, let’s make the sauce. Again, nothing fancy, this is just homemade sloppy joe sauce. You can’t go wrong with sloppy joe sauce. If you already have a favorite sauce, go ahead and use it. If you don’t, try mine. It’s pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

This sauce is just ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. Stir it together and dump it into the pan of cooked ground beef and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Told ya this was simple.

While the meat is simmering, grab your muffin tin. I always use regular sized muffins, but my tin was at my mama’s house so I had to use my mini muffin tin. It was kind of a pain in the butt, but I persevered.

Grab a can of refrigerator biscuit dough (or make up your favorite recipe of dough) and roll each biscuit into a ball. Flatten it out and press it into the muffin tins so that you have a little bowl shape. If you are using a mini muffin tin, use a half biscuit for each muffin.

Spoon as much as will fit into each biscuit and bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. I let mine bake a little too long today and they got a bit crunchy. That didn’t stop my son from eating his weight in barbecue biscuits, though.

If you think your family can handle the excitment of it, go ahead a sprinkle a little grated cheddar cheese over the tops as soon as you take them from the oven.

(I was concerned about the above picture being kind of ugly, so I asked my husband what he would think if he just stumbled across that picture on the internet. “Would you want to eat that,” I asked. He looked at it and replied, “No. I’d ask myself what the heck they did to that muffin.” I have to say, I’m thrilled to provide y’all with such stunning photography here on Buns In My Oven.)

Barbecue Biscuits

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons prepared mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can refrigerated biscuit dough (regular sized biscuits, 10 total)
• grated cheddar cheese, for topping

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, cook ground beef until no longer pink. Drain fat. In a small bowl, mix together ketchup, water, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Pour onto ground beef and stir to combine. Simmer over low heat for ten minutes.

While meat is simmering, roll each biscuit into a bowl, flatten and stretch the dough to fit in the muffin tin.

Spoon the meat into the biscuit cups and bake for about 10 minutes or until the dough is starting to brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese immediately.