Reprinted with permission from Hoffman Media, LLC.

We are excited to be partnering with Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee! We will be cooking one of Sandra’s recipes each month. The last Thursday of each month will be designated as Sandra Lee Day. Sandra Lee will provide us with a recipe and instructions. The Lazy Moms will lead you step by step through the recipe, feed our families, and report back to you, our readers.

Be sure to visit our Lazy Mom Amazon Store! We have Sandra’s cookbooks available as well as a subscription to her new magazine. Additionally, you can check out her website at http://www.semihomemade.com/.

Sandra Lee has a passion for simple solutions that create dramatic results in all areas of home life.  She is editor-in-chief of Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade magazine, a popular television host and internationally-acclaimed home and food expert who has revolutionized the way people think about homemade. With her trademark 70/30 Semi-Homemade^® philosophy, which combines 70% ready-made products with 30% fresh and creative touches, Sandra is recognized as the foremost advocate to over-extended people. She created the platform to continually supply savory tactics that allows anyone to take 100% of the credit for something that looks, feels and tastes as if it were completely made from scratch.

Burrito Casserole and Spicy Cheddar Cornbread

Ever made a casserole in less than 15 minutes? Now’s your chance! Dice tomatoes and shred lettuce while the burritos cook in the microwave, then assemble and serve. The cornbread takes about the same amount of time, and its festive flavor will surprise your family.

It’s Easy to be intimidated by the though of planning a week of meals, so start small. Don’t fret over recipe organization, the state of your pantry, or the fact that you lack the serious spreadsheets you may think the task requires. When you’ve mastered the basics, graduate to more advanced menu planning skills, such as letting weekly grocery sales guide your choices.

Mix it up:

Balance the meals with a variety of main ingredients. Try pork one day, chicken another, then work in a beef dish (all considering your family’s preferences). Don’t be afraid to stick to family favorites while you get accustomed to weekly menu planning.

Look at your family’s schedule for the week:

Put your quickest meal on the day that’s the most squeezed for time. Save the more involved recipes for weekends or days that are less hectic in your house.

Write it down:

It will take a little time, but an organized list will pay off a quicker-grocery shopping trip. Search the Internet if you have a chance – you’ll find an almost overwhelming selection of fill-in-the-blank grocery lists.

For more information on Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade week of menus and corresponding shopping list from “5 for 5 Supper Success” visit Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Magazine at www.semihomemademag.com for easy planning and printing!

One of the most important things to remember when preparing a Sandra Lee recipe is to always have a cocktail in hand! Sandra wraps up each episode with a creative cocktail to go with her meal. These Lazy Moms thought it would be even more appropriate to begin with a creative cocktail! Since we are making burritos we decided margaritas was the way to go! Here is LML with her beverage in hand! Let the cooking commence!

While LMA was waiting on LML (she was at the beauty shop – she just had to get all pretty for her Sandra Lee day!) she set out all of the ingredients.

Doesn’t look too intimidating, does it? I think even a Lazy Mom might be able to pull this off. When LML finally showed, LMA was on her third margarita! Just kidding! Time to get to work.

The first thing was to heat the burritos in the microwave. Sandra suggests putting them in a 8.5×11 glass dish to heat them. However, LMA’s microwave is outdated and small and could not hold this size dish. So we put half in a smaller dish and heated them in two takes. Once they were all heated, we transferred them to the larger dish.

While these were heating in the microwave, we got started on the cornbread. Anything that starts with a mix is a winner in our Lazy book! Here is LML opening the cornbread. Notice the scissors she is using. We were too lazy to look for the kitchen shears.

We followed Sandra’s cornbread recipe to the letter. We put oil in the skillet and added eggs, water and a secret ingredient to the mix.

There are two things that we love about this cornbread recipe. The first is that you can make it in a cast iron skillet! That was great! We felt like Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies. We’ve always wanted to cook in a cast iron skillet, but it seemed intimidating for some reason. We love how Sandra makes everything so easy! The second thing we loved about this recipe was the secret ingredient. Sandra adds taco seasoning to the mix to give it a kick!

Here is what the cornbread mixture looked like when we had everything added to the mix as we were pouring it into the skillet. We know that this resembles those great orange vegetables that we used to feed our babies out of those little jars, but don’t worry it doesn’t taste anything like that!

While the cornbread was cooking, it was time to assemble the burritos. The next thing we did was pour the cans of enchilada sauce over the burritos. This already looks like dinner, don’t you think? That Sandra, she knows what she’s doing!

No Mexican meal is complete without some cheese, and were not talking about the Mariachi band! We added the cheese and went back to the microwave. Uh-oh! Even after a margarita, this dish still won’t fit in LMA’s microwave. A Lazy Mom is nothing but resourceful! We just slipped this dish in the oven with the cornbread for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Man that looks pretty good and we’re not even finished! We shouldn’t be surprised that Sandra can even dress up a frozen burrito! Her outfits are always perfectly coordinated with her kitchen! That woman knows how to dress things up.

Since LML was getting her hair set for the week and was late getting to LMA’s, LMA had all of the prep work done. All we had to do was decorate the burritos. No this is not Amelia Bedelia, we’re actually going to garnish (not dress) the burritos. As we are typing this, LML has no idea who Amelia Bedelia is! Please tell LMA  that you know who Amelia Bedelia is!

This picture looks so good, LML’s stomach is growling while we write! Meanwhile, LMA still can’t get over that LML doesn’t know who Amelia Bedelia is! We might have to have a reading week here on Lazy Moms! If you look closely, you’ll see that part of this dish did not get dressed. That’s because LMA knew one of her picky kids would just pick it off anyway.

Ding! What does that buzzer mean?

1. Time for another margarita
2. Time for LML to come out from under the blow dryer
3. Time to get the cornbread out of the oven

If you guessed #1, you’re right! But, it was also time for #3.  Out the cornbread came and here comes the Mariachi band. Time for some more cheese and then back into the oven because cheese is always better melted. We were so hungry at this point we decided a taste test was in order.

Mmmm, yum! These Lazy Moms agree, this was the best frozen burrito we have ever eaten. The presentation was great. In fact, Lazy Dad Daniel was very excited when he came home to see this dinner waiting for him. Here are LMA’s kids enjoying their dinner. Hannah even had seconds!

Here are the Lazy Moms’ suggestions for preparing this meal:

• If you have a smaller or older microwave, you may want to heat the burritos in your oven if time allows
• If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can make the cornbread in a regular dish. But, then you won’t feel like Granny!
• You might want to offer some sour cream with this as well (anything to fatten it up!)
• Everything’s better with margaritas!

Thanks so much Sandra for providing your recipes and tips! We had a great time and can’t wait to see what we get to cook next month! LML’s family will be the taste testers. We really enjoy Italian food by the way.

You can find these recipes in our Tip of the Day. You can purchase Sandra’s books and subscribe to her magazine in our Amazon Store. Be sure to check out Sandra’s site at http://www.semihomemade.com/.

Sandra Lee Burrito Casserole

Sandra Lee Spicy Cheddar Cornbread