January 26: Taco Chili-Mac

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 ½ pounds lean ground beef

2 teaspoons hot sauce, such as Tabasco

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

1 large onion, chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped with greens

3 garlic cloves, chopped

   Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 28-ounce can stewed tomatoes

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or broth

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 pound macaroni, cooked al dente

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the vegetable oil and the meat. Cook over medium-high heat, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon.

Drain well. Season with the hot sauce, Worcestershire, cumin, chili, and salt and pepper. Add the jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, celery, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, then sauté the veggies for 5 minutes.

Add all the tomatoes and stock and bring to a bubble.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir in the cilantro.

Stir in the macaroni. If desired, top with sour cream.

8 SERVINGS

This is the variation of Salsa Stoup and Double-Decker Baked Quesadillas. I made it today instead of on Wednesday like I would have because I thought this was the best meal for taking to the family who just had a baby. I signed up to do that today.

Rachael Ray lists this as 6 servings. It came to the absolute top of my pot when it was all done. It was overflowing when I transferred it to the casserole dish to take to the family, so I scooped out 1 serving. That makes me think you could easily get 9 servings out of this. She also says to serve it with double-decker baked quesadillas. Man that's a lot of food. I decided to modify the recipe to skip that part. The other way I modified it was to drain the ground beef after it's cooked. Mine had too much fat content I guess. And I only put in about a teaspoon of oil instead of 2 tablespoons like suggested.

I did eat the serving I scooped out with a dollop of sour cream. I thought it would be too hot because of the Tabasco AND the jalapenos, but it wasn't at all. But I did just put in a dash of hot sauce instead of 2 teaspoons, so that would probably make a difference.