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Enchilada Casserole

You will need the following ingredients to fill one deep baking tray/casserole dish.
2.5 lb 75/25 Ground Beef
1 lb Beef or Pork Chorizo
1 White Onion
1 can Refried Beans of choice or 1 1/2 C homemade Refried Beans
4 cups dried Rice
1 bunch of Cilantro leaves
1 cup grated Cheddar
Garlic and Chilies to season
Your Tortilla of choice. If 12 inch you will need about a dozen. 10 inch you will need close to 15
1 pt finely diced Salsa or Enchilada Sauce if you want

So first you want to get your rice going 6-8 cups of water (out with six and keep the other two off to the side just in case it needs it. Due to variances between rice when farmed it is not impossible to hear of or have happen. While this is going on chop up your cilantro, grate your cheddar, chop up your onion, and get your beans warm. After your rice is cooked take it out of the pot and let it cool for a moment.

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So toss your chorizo, beef, and onion in to the pot on medium heat until the onions are soft.

When it is almost done you can toss your cilantro in with your rice and whatever seasonings you wish and give that a good mix.

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At this point you may want to preheat your oven to about 300 F. It doesn’t take me that long and while that is going it is time to take our baking tray out and begin construction on each burrito just as soon as the meat finishes.

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As you can see we get more then just meat or cheese. You can also see from the shadow that my kitchen lighting needs some work.(oh well no fancy foodie pictures here what you see is still good enough to eat) A spoonful of meat, a spoonful of rice, a half spoonful of warm refried beans and a heavy pinch of cheddar before being rolled up. Prep for the baking tray if you want is to spoon a little bit of your sauce or salsa in. Finely diced salsa was on heavy sale so I just grabbed that. If you make it or buy it you will need about a pint.

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Almost a dozen big ol’ beefy burritos before saucing and cheese on top. If you do not want use all your sauce do not feel the need to with thinner sauces you may find a little less works or some people really like theirs saucy. In any case play it how you wish to play it as you can see below mine is a little drier.You can tell this will definitely get you full in hurry. Dress up the top with some more of the sauce and the remainder of the cheese before being put in for 20 minutes.

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You want it in the oven long enough just for the cheese to melt and the tortilla to absorb some of the liquid. This makes 5-6 servings and does really well in the microwave after being kept in the fridge.

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How to make bachelor chow

So if you need a cheap meal to not absolutely suck here is what we call ramen which has more salt then anything else you can put in your body outside of a salt brick. It does last a long time. When making ramen you usually drop it in some water microwave it until soft, add seasoning and mix.

Now often times ramen can get very boring so here some tips to help make the meals a little easier to get down. When you cook your ramen in water it rehydrates it however after it gets soft you can continue cooking. I like to saute it in a non stick pan or with a drop of oil to get some color on the noodles before tossing them back in the broth.
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Next is the sauce for those who do not know the bullion packet has the majority of the salt and many times you can make a quick sauce to toss with your noodles with.
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After you make a sauce you could finish it back in a small amount of broth or just let the sauce do the job in the pan before grabbing a fork and jumping in.
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Between making the noodles fried or soft, sauces, and broth combinations you can make thousands of dishes and even whole cookbooks have been written on the subject, but those are the things that can turn a simple ingredient in to something not so boring.

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