new recipe - mexican mac and cheese

I never thought that one new recipe a week would be the most difficult of my resolutions to keep. Not that I've been doing great on the others during the last few weeks either. I think what has made this one the most difficult is two fold - I just don't use recipes when I cook on a daily basis, and making new recipes means lots of planning. But I am determined to get back on track with all of the resolutions, so when I saw a pin for this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it, or at least a version of it, ASAP.

I did my cooking at my friend Carrie's so that she and her husband could hep me with another project and because it has been several weeks since we had supper together and that was one of the resolutions also. Whew!

So here's my version of BHG's Mexican Mac and Cheese.

I used elbow macaroni because that's what Carrie had, and she started it cooking while I was still on my way.

While the macaroni boiled, I cooked the sausage. Another of my adaptations - I switched the pork sausage to turkey sausage in hopes of making it just a tad healthier.

When the macaroni was ready, Carrie drained it off and put it back into the pot. I used that for mixing to save washing another bowl. I added the sausage to the macaroni and then cook the onions in the same skillet. I'm all about as few dirty dishes as possible.

Once they were just softened, I add them to the pot too.  Then added the salsa Verde and two packages of pepper jack cheese. I'm glad I was stirring in that big pot - or Carrie would have had cheesey macaroni in her floor with no Lucy or Jacob to clean it up.

Next the mixture was poured into a large baking dish and ready for the oven.

After it was bubbly, I added sliced grape tomatoes and black olives (another adaptation) and put it back into the oven for just a few minutes.

It was just a little spicy, a little cheesey, and a lot yummy! I will be making this dish again.

I brought home some leftovers for the boys. Jus really liked it too.

** a revision to the revision: I made this to take to church yesterday. I had been considering this change since the night I cooked it. This time I added about a 1/2 of a jar of sundried tomatoes in oil. I also used jalapeno pepper slices with the tomatoes on top rather than olives - I plan to use both the next time I make this.