So, I’ve become sort of pathetically obsessed with this one frozen entree from Amy’s Kitchen; the Mexican Tamale Pie.

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A delicious combination of beans, tomatoey sauce, corn, veggies, and cilantro, this is like a meal made out of salsa, I think. It’s a little skimpy on its own so I usually put it on a bed of pasta, rice, quinoa, cauliflower, etc. I also tried to put it in a tortilla once but tragically it leaked all over the plate.

So even when this meal is on a great sale at the store, it still rings up at nearly 3 dollars (and I don’t even want to admit what I’ve seen it go for as full price at some stores). Therefore, I read the ingredient list and thought to myself, “for crying out loud, I can make this myself.” Making it even easier is the fact that I don’t like the cornbread-style topping, so basically I was looking at three ingredients, more or less:

1. pinto beans
2. tomatoes/ tomatoe paste
3. corn

Other than that, I can use my spice drawer to give garlic and onion flavors, as well as sriracha to give it some heat. Here’s what I whipped up:

So how did it turn out?

Well, to be honest it was fine (I put this batch on top of some quinoa) but I really missed something distinct in the Amy’s concoction. It might have just been the cilantro, but it might have been something else. In version 2.0 I used tomato paste too, but it didn’t still have the same somethin’ somethin’.

So I guess it’s back to the drawing board!

Do you ever try to recreate a restaurant or frozen meal from scratch to try to save some money? Any success stories?

Meri