Mexi Macaroni Casserole

Okay, so that picture I posted yesterday made your mouth water, didn't it? Yep, I know it did. HERE is the original recipe it came from. Buuuttt I tweaked it to my tastes. Here's a list of changes I made:

For starters, lets discuss the ingredients; I used 3 minced garlic cloves (because measuring fresh garlic into tablespoons is too much work). I did not use a whole onion, just half because some people in my household (cough, cough, Joe and the kids) do not even like onion, but I did not want to leave it out completely because it gives the dish more flavor. I completely omitted the red pepper flakes (too spicy for kids), the bacon pieces (just did not appeal to me), the green pepper (did not have one on hand), and the brown sugar. Since I left out the red pepper flakes, I did add a little bit of cayenne pepper to give it a little zing. I also only used one package of taco seasoning (the store bought kind) because after reading the reviews it sounded like using two would overpower the dish; especially with me leaving so many ingredients out.

About the tomato sauce and soup... I'm not a huge fan of tomato soup, so instead of using the one can of sauce and two cans of soup it called for, I used one small (8 ounce) can of sauce, one can of soup, and one can of rotel. After mixing these into the pot, I filled the small sauce can with water and added that as well to loosen up the dish.

And last but not least; after cooking the macaroni, I decided it was too much and ended up using only about 3/4 of what was made.

After making all of these changes, I pretty much just made a whole new recipe. But it turned out delicious. I had my grandmother come over and take some for dinner, she loved it. Then when Joe got home from work he had 3 plate fulls! And all that was left after us eating it was a little bowl for Joe to take for lunch the next day. I will say that it was not a big hit with my children. They are the pickiest children alive. My daughter pretty much just ate the cheese off the top and whatever little meat pieces happened to end up in her mouth by accident. My son ate some of the noodles but not much. However I will be adding this recipe to my cookbook and using it again. Hope you enjoy!