Recipe: Mexican Manicotti

I meant to post this over the weekend since I actually made this last Friday, but I never got around to it. But hey, better late than never!

I got the recipe from the Taste Of Home website and pretty much followed it...although I did double it since we were having friends over for dinner. I think I could've made one batch and it would've been enough (especially with chips & dip and veggies and dessert). The recipe says 8 servings, which is almost 2 Manicotti shells per serving. My 8oz boxes had 14 shells I think which means we had 28 shells for 6 adults, 2 tweens and 4 young-ish kids. And we had at least 10 shells leftover. And I didn't realize it until about 10pm the night before we were having this, but the recipe calls for assembling it the night before and then refrigerating it until the next day - that ended up working in my favor since I had to work before we had friends over and Justin could just pop it in the oven.

The Recipe

Here's the original recipe: Mexican Manicotti from Taste of Home.

I did tweak the seasonings a little, so here's my recipe (single batch):
1 pound lean ground beef
1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoons Penzey's Adobo Seasoning blend
1 package (8 ounces) uncooked manicotti shells
2-1/2 cups water
1 jar (16 ounces) picante sauce
1-1/2 cups (12 ounces) sour cream
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack or Mexican cheese blend

Mix together beef, beans and seasonings until well blended. Using a spoon (or whatever other method you have) stuff the beef & bean mixture into the manicotti shells. (It's really gross, I got my step-daughter to help me because I was tired of doing it after about 5 shells and since we were making a double batch I still had 23 shells to go.) Anyways, grease a 9x13 pan and arrange the manicotti shells however they will fit. Mix the Picante and water and pour over the top of the shells. Then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge until the next day (or later that day, but probably no more than 24 hours).

Bake at 350 for a hour, remove from over and spread with sour cream and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes to melt the cheese.

Our Thoughts

Everyone said they liked it. We didn't finish all of the leftovers, but we did eat it two more times before it went bad. I'm not sure how I feel about the beans in the meat. I think the texture was a little weird for me. It was good, just kind of weird. But definitely something we'll keep around, it's quite a bit of work for a normal week night dinner, but if I want something to prep the night before and just have Justin put in the oven, this recipe would work for that.