Theresa's Adaptation of Great Grandma Brunner's Tamale Pie

Great Grandma Brunner's Tamale Pie
Adapted by her Great Granddaughter

Ingredients:

• 1 cup slivered almonds (optional) and a little oil
• 1/2 - 1 lb ground beef
• 1 chopped onion (optional)
• 1 chopped green pepper (optional)
• 3-4 large handfuls of egg noodles
• 3-4 cups water
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (or small can parts and stems) (optional)
• 3 - 5 medium sized beef tamales in large chunks
• 1 can olives chopped (optional)
• 2 - 3 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 tsp cayanne pepper (optional)
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Brown almond slivers in some oil in a large skillet then set aside in the casserole dish.
3. Brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper in the large skillet.
4. Add the water and egg noodles to the meat, cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until the egg noodles have sucked up all the water. The meat should be pretty well cooked through.
5. Drain this mixture and put into a 9X13 casserole dish or pyrex pan.
6. Combine with almonds, diced tomatoes (juice and all), corn, mushrooms, tamale chunks, olives, worcestershire sauce, cayanne pepper, paprika, and pepper. Make sure everything is mixed together in the pan without breaking up the tamale chunks too badly.
7. Cover with shredded cheese
8. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until cheese has melted and contents are bubbling.

I haven't tried this yet, but I think it'll work and I'm going to try it shortly after christmas since I have some tamales I want to use. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Some Notes on the Changes I've made:

• I made some of the ingredients optional for picky eaters.
• I cut the overall cooking time down by at least 45 minutes for the mom who doesn't have time to let dinner cook ALL DAY.
• I stole the idea of cooking the meat with the noodles from hamburger helper's recipes. They always use this shortcut to save on DISHES, EASE, and TIME I've noticed.
• I cut down the amounts of the ingredients so that the end result would be better suited to a smaller family.
• I don't prefer creamed corn so i substituted for whole kernel.