Texan Manicotti

• I recall when my blogging started, I thought I'd be doing a lot of food and recipes - haven't been so far. I made this over the weekend and everyone remarked on how good it was. IF you have a compulsive need to fancy up - you can put chopped green onions, sliced olives and/or slices of avocado on top of the sour cream when this is served. I like food spicy - so if you aren't keen on hot stuff you might cut back on the chili powder.
  
  
  Ingredients::
• 1 pound lean ground beef /
  1 (16 ounce) can refried beans /
  3 teaspoons chili powder/
  1 ½ teaspoons ground oregano /
  1 teaspoon ground cumin /
  1 package manicotti shells (8 ounces) /
  2 ½ cups water /
  1 can RoTel or diced tomatoes with green chilies /
  1 cup (4 ounces) shredded jack or Mexican blend cheese /
  Topping
  1 cup of sour cream//
  
  
  In a bowl, thoroughly combine uncooked beef(yes really truly - raw ground beef), refried beans,cumin, chili powder and oregano. Spoon(see note) into uncooked manicotti shells; arrange in a greased 13 X 9 inch baking dish. Combine water and can of RoTel; pour over shells. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes - then sprinkle with shredded cheese and return to oven uncovered for another 15 minutes. Uncover, spoon sour cream over the top. Yield : 8 servings
  
  Note: I found it a lot easier to put the filling into a pastry cone (or a ziploc type bag with a corner cut off) and pipe the filling in - no manicotti shell breakage and you can fill the shells completely.