Velveeta Tex-Mex Beef and Potatoes

Velveeta Tex-Mex Beef and Potatoes

Since football season is upon us, I have started making one of my all time favorite snacks – Velveeta and Rotel cheese dip (do I hear angels singing?). There’s nothing like watching SEC football while chowing down on corn chips and cheese. This stuff is so good it makes me cheer for Bama. Well, as long as they aren’t playing LSU or Auburn. It’s not good enough to make me cheer for Tennessee, but I digress.

Anywho, so when I saw a recipe that started with the word VELVEETA (seriously, do you hear angels singing?), I had to try it. It’s super easy to make, the ingredients are cheap, and it tastes good. And kids can easily help with this recipe (oh yes, I went there – straight to the baby train).

As usual, I made a few notes to make my cooking experience easier next time:

  • Buy a pre-chopped onion – Yes, it’s more expensive than buying an onion and chopping it myself, but it’s still cheaper than Roger hauling my hiny to the hospital after I slightly nick my finger with a knife and then pass out from the sliver of blood that appears, trip over a cat on the way down, and hit my head on the counter. Plus, I’m pretty sure blood doesn’t go with anything – even Velveeta. Pre-chopped onions – another reason I love Publix, and until I actually attend one of their knife skills classes, I’ll continue to buy these. It’s not that I can’t chop veggies. I just have a bad history with onions. OK? Stop judging me.
  • Velveeta is fun for everyone! – If your kid is old enough to use a knife, let them cut up the Velveeta. It’s soft enough to use a butter knife, so it’s pretty kid friendly. If they’re too young to use a knife, then they can throw carefully place the chunks of cheese into the pot for you. Now, where is my mommy blog license?
  • Brand names are for suckers – Because this recipe is from Kraft’s magazine, they pimp all of their products in the ingredients. Hey, it’s just good ol fashioned marketing. But I used grocery store brands for all of it (except the Velveeta – there is NO SUBSTITUTE – angels don’t sing for regular old “cheese product”), and it tasted fine.
  • Take your aggression out on the taters – Frozen hashbrowns are frozen. Yes, I see how obvious that is now, but I wasn’t thinking about that before. And the taters don’t come in a bag of just 4 cups, so I had to break them up somehow. I threw them in the microwave for 1 minute and then took my knife to them like an ice pick. It was like experiencing a whole new kind of frozen treat. The taters broke apart with ease, and I had a strange sense to smile and say muhahahah. But moving on.
  • Sour cream could add some flavor – Nothing exciting about this statement. But I think adding a dollup of sour cream to each serving could be quite tasty. (Did I just say “dollup”? I’m delirious from the Velveeta.)

Check out the recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1   red pepper, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 pkg.  (1-1/4 oz.) TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 cups  frozen Southern-style hash browns (cubed not shredded variety)
  • 1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen corn
  • 1/2 lb.  (8 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

HEAT oven to 350°F.

BROWN meat with peppers and onions in large skillet; drain. Return to skillet.

STIR in taco mix and water. Add potatoes, corn and VELVEETA; mix well. Spoon into 13×9-inch baking dish; cover.

BAKE 20 min.; stir. Bake, uncovered, 15 min. or until heated through.

Source for recipe and image

Meet Drufo

Drufo

This is Drufo. He was one of the dogs at the construction site in Ecuador. His favorite resting spot happened to be where the team was digging an 8 feet deep hole. But did that bother him? Heck no! He just jumped down in the hole and took a nap. And don’t worry – he had an escape plan . . .

Colinas del Norte

The sweet kids of Colinas del Norte

It means “Hills of the North,” and it’s a special place in the hearts of our Ecuador mission team. In years past the team has worked with the children at the daycare here. The kids are ages 2-5. We visited them on our last work day, and they managed to touch all of us in just a few minutes. Continue reading

Seeing God’s Power

At tonight’s devotion I realized something – God is making sure we don’t fail.

Today Karen worked construction, so I led the music (Tanya, are you proud?!?). Even though I volunteered for this job, I was really nervous. The songs are in Spanish and the tunes are new to me. But today at VBS not only did I do a pretty good job leading the music, I had FUN! God was there.

Chris hurt his arm working construction and so had to join the VBS team for today and tomorrow. But it was awesome with Chris. The kids love him and he’s a great addition to our team. God knew we needed him there.

Travis shared a story tonight about how his working area was directly in the sun. The helpers at the church tried several times to make some shade for him with tarps, but it never worked. Later, the pastor told the translator he had something to tell Travis. He said, “We tried to provide you shade but failed, so God sent clouds.” Travis said the clouds stuck around the rest of the day. God provided.

We can’t fail. God is making sure of it, and I’m so thankful for His power. At devotion, Gail told us that God is always there providing for us, but we often miss it in the comforts of home. I tell you what I’ve learned – God’s love and power are magnified here. It’s like suddenly His love for us is in focus; it was always there but now I see it so clearly.

Thank you to everyone who gave me (and all of us) the chance to be on this mission. I know I’m not alone in saying that the experiences here are life changing.

And finally more pictures! First from the construction site. Today some of the church members came out to meet the team and see their progress.

Gail and MomTommy and RonConstruction siteGail, Alison, Mom, and KarenConstruction teamTravis helping a church member Meeting the church members

I’m sorry again for the lack of VBS pictures. I’ll try to snag someone’s memory card and copy some of the photos. I snapped these while hanging outside the daycare between sessions yesterday. The kids come out from everywhere and love to have their picture taken.

Some of our VBS kidsMore neighborhood kidsOn the bus headed back to the hotel

Candy!

We just got back from the “super maxi” (grocery store). We bought a ton of candy we’ve never heard of. Can’t wait to try it, but trying to hold off until at least we’ve had dinner.

Ecuador candy and snacks