Taco Pasta and a Birthday Giveaway! *GIVEAWAY CLOSED*

Hi folks. I sure hope you all had a wonderful day. I am still basking in the birthday celebration. Did you all stop by yesterday's post to see my birthday cake? The wonderful and talented Chef Dennis baked me an amazing cake. If you have not seen it yet here's a peek:

I know right! Make sure you all stop by to see the recipe on my post. Also take a minute to stop at Chef Dennis's blog A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis to say hello and follow him if you don't already. I cannot thank him enough for making my birthday extra special this year. You rocked my isolated little foodie world Dennis and I adore you for doing this. Now be prepared as you are going to get requests like crazy for birthday posts over the next year. Lol!

Okay so I made something a bit outside my comfort zone for Slow Cooker Saturday today. It was bit too mixed up and jumbled for me. I have issues or quirks as I like to call them, about certain foods that shouldn't be hot getting all melty. I also have a quirk about food touching. Basically when I eat anything like this I have to close my eyes in order to be able to eat it. And that just leads to disaster and needing a bib. I cannot think about it or I won't eat it. I wanted to make this one for hubs though so I put on my big girl pants and as I always tell my kids, "suck it up buttercup". Sometimes you just gotta do what you just gotta do. What I had to do was a taco pasta. I started by wanting to do a taco bake but the thought of throwing hard, crunchy chips in a wet dish grossed me out. So then I thought soup, but I just could not logistically figure that one out. Then the mind wandered to Timothy Olyphant, er, I mean doing a pasta. I had no clue how to put this together. So I did some "research", or basically what I call tinkering around. I looked up some recipes online for taco pasta but none of them were screaming come eat me. You see I don't like sour cream and most recipes call for it. I also don't like rotel and some recipes called for that. I found one recipe by a fellow blogger named Fake Ginger and hers looked really good. It still had the sour cream but I figured I could change that to suit my taste. Worked out pretty well. While for me I wouldn't say I LOVED it, it was good. Now hubs, he LOVED it. So my vote is meh, and his vote is yeah! He even had sour cream on his, blech! So gross!

Slow Cooker Taco Pasta:

Recipe adapted from Fake Ginger

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef, cooked
1 can beef broth (284ml/10 oz)
1 can water using the broth can
2 packages taco seasoning, any brand
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped white or sweet onion
4 to 5 cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped
1 can tomato sauce, any brand (680 ml)
1 brick cream cheese (250 ml)
6 cups medium shell noodles, cooked
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Optional- sour cream and/or salsa to top it with

Directions:

Brown your ground beef in a skillet or pan until browned. Drain excess fat and rinse.

Now pop that into your slow cooker.

Add 1 can of the beef broth, then fill that can with water and empty that in the slow cooker as well.

Add 2 packages of taco seasoning.

Add your onion and green pepper.

Add your garlic.

Now add your tomato sauce.

Give it a good stir and cover.

Turn on low for about 3-4 hours.

Now add your cream cheese and cook for another 30 minutes.

Now you can add your pre-cooked noodles and your shredded cheese.

Cook for 20 to 30 minutes more, basically until the cheese melts.

Serve with an ooey gooey smile.

Tips and Hints:

This is a monster size batch. Feel free to half or quarter it.

I thought I could have gotten away with half a brick of cream cheese.

I think you could jazz this up with tomatoes or salsa, I hate both.

It's probably good with sour cream but I hate that too.

You could dunk tortilla chips in it and eat it if you wanted to. But that is just plain gross.

You could call a therapist for me for all my food quirks. I could clearly use some help!!!

I hope you try it out. I used a ton of noodles but I like my pastas like that. Feel free to tweak and change to suit your own taste. It's one of those recipes that you can have a ton of fun with. I would love to thank Amanda from Fake Ginger for the inspiration, your pictures had me saying "okay Lunie, you can do this, today you will tackle your food touching fear", and not a lot of recipes can make me say that. So kudos to Amanda for making seem a little less nutty, even if it was just for one day.

Okay so that wraps up this....

What?

I said what?

I am hosting a what?

I promised a what?

Okay, okay I did, you are correctamundo. I did promise a giveaway. Now it's not a new car, or a new camera, or even a new puppy, although I have a cute little westie pup if you're interested. Her name is Demon Spawn of Satan aka Malia. Nope it's nothing flashy or expensive or mind-blowing. It's just this:

Yup, you got it folks. The winner gets a 1 year subscription to BonAppetit Magazine. How cool am I? Ya, you love me now right. It's okay, I love me too.

*GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*

Here's how you can enter. Leave me a comment. That is your entry. Easy peasy. If you want extra entries you can do any of these things:

Follow me on TWITTER, leave me a separate comment you did so.

Follow me on PINTEREST, leave me a separate comment you did so.

Follow my blog by GFC, or EMAIL, or RSS, leave me a separate comment you did so.

Follow me on FACEBOOK, leave me a separate comment you did so.

Follow my other blog, LOSING IT LIKE A LUNATIC, leave me a separate comment you did so.

EDIT:


I am adding a bonus entry for tweeting about the giveaway. Tweet anything you want about it but make sure you tag @CravingsLunatic so I can verify you have done it. All entries will be verified before winner is announced.


Also if you are a fan and not a fellow blogger please leave me your email or a way to get in touch with should you win. I have to have a way to notify you. Thanks. xx

That's it folks. Easy peasy and Bon Appetit Squeezy. Simple and lots of chances to win.

The legal crapola:

This giveaway is open to everyone Bon Appetit ship their magazine. So international entries are very welcome on this one.

Contest closes in one week, the official draw date is January 28 at 12 noon. Winner will be announced the next day. Winner has 24 HOURS TO CLAIM PRIZE or it will be redrawn.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday to wish me a happy birthday. You guys rock and I am so happy to have met you all doing this little old blog.

Some other news:

The blog is getting a major overhaul soon. So stay tuned for big changes that will make your experience here more enjoyable and easier. Also lots of new things being added so sure hope you will love the new me. Cravings of a Lunatic is growing up and putting on it's big girl pants. Woot woot!

Toodles and smoochies.xx