mexican casserole.

hey guys! i am up in the air right now.. flying to san francisco. it is all i can do not to hyperventilate because i am on one of those super tiny planes that barely give you enough room to blink let alone breathe. janetha g=verrrry caustrophobic.

i had a really rushed day today. marshall and i went to a show last night (tim kasher, anyone? he is the singer for cursive and the good life and now has an album out under his own name.. anyone love him? anyone? he is great live.) where was i? that was a long parentheses so i lost track..

oh yeah! we went to a show and got home at 1:30 AM. i was too tired to finish packing, so i ate a huge bowl of cereal and hit the hay. i woke up at 7 this morning to finish up my packing.

next up, i had a two hour seminar at questar gas. it was all about energy efficiency rebates and it was incredibly exciting. let me tell ya.

from the seminar, i went to a business lunch with our reps from the bank. i figured that wasn’t the best time to bust out my camera.. but i had a pulled chicken salad. in case you were curious.

after lunch, i headed to my office and tried to cram 8 hours of work into 2 hours. hmmm.. not sure that went well. there’s always monday for catching up, right? right.

i left from work straight to the airport where i learned my bag was 12 pounds too heavy so i had to fork over and extra $90. what a racket. i don’t even know how heavy it is going to be on the way home after packing up the festival swag! in my defense, i have a boatload of stuff to give my sister as well as my foodbuzz roomies—that should lighten the load a LOT.

anyway, now i am on the plane, and have probably bored you completely to death. my apologies.. but i forgot to bring a book, there is no wi-fi, i already looked at the sky mall mag, so all i can do is ramble.

onto the title of this post!

i actually made this recipe a week ago, but i knew i needed a few things to post while i was out of town.. and i wasn’t on the ball enough to ask for guest posts.

woops.

ever since i ate this, though, i have been wanting to make it again.

last friday, i saw elise post a meal she made for her husband. hear that elise? your HUSBAND. elise and i are both newlyweds. i saw her delicious mexican inspired casserole and i knew i had to make it. immediately.

i love mexican. i love casseroles. i am not quite sure why something like this hasn’t happened in my kitchen before last week.

mexican casserole.

adapted from the hungry, hungry hippie.

ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey, chicken or beef
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 packet low sodium taco seasoning
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans
• 2-3 tomatoes, diced
• 1 (11 oz) can green enchilada sauce
• 1 cup 0% plain greek yogurt (can sub sour cream)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 (4.5 oz) can diced green chiles
• avocado or guacamole for garnish
• serve with whole wheat tortillas

directions:

in a large, deep skillet, sauté your onion and bell pepper over medium-high heat.

when they start to soften, add your ground turkey (omit if you are vegan/vegetarian.. this would still taste great!).

throw in the taco seasoning. i just put it in alone and ignore the directions on the packet that tell you to add water.

once your meat is cooked through and the onion & pepper are nice and soft, throw in your rice, tomatoes and black beans.

mix well.

next up: enchilada sauce. pour it in and mix well.

time to add your greek yogurt. again, you can omit this or use a vegan version if you don’t do dairy.

if it happens to be the last of your yogurt, go ahead and let your pups lick the container. you know they want to. they’ve been staring at you for 15 minutes.

happy dogs. for the record, i took about 17 more photos of them licking the yogurt container. it was hard to pick only 3, but i did it.

where was i? oh yeah.. mix the yogurt in.

how about some cheese?  yes, please. by the way, if you are vegan, now is the time to use daiya cheese. i have tasted it and i gotta say.. it’s damn good for a faux cheese!

you can add the diced chiles whenever. i threw them in at the end on a whim and they really kicked up the flavor.. i am glad i added them.

pour it all into a 9×13 baking dish and sprinkle with a little more cheese for good measure.

cover with foil, or don’t.. i did, but you don’t have to.. and bake at 350 degrees until warmed through—about a half hour. remove the foil and kick the oven into broil mode for a few minutes at the end to really make that cheese on top nice and bubbly.

heat some tortillas in your already hot oven.. wheat for the girls, white for the guys (we were at kristen & rory’s when we ate this.)

mix up some guacamole.. try not to eat it all before the casserole is ready

dish up a portion and devour!

incredible. really, it was. plus it was so easy to make and it is really a versatile dish! i want to try it with red enchilada sauce next time.

oh, and the leftovers were even better. trust me. you should make it.

i would thank elise for the idea in this post, but i would rather thank her in person.. since she is my roomie at the foodbuzz festival this weekend! stoked.

well, i guess i will stop rambling now. i better find something to do for the remainder of the flight.. booooring.

i don’t have anything incredible lined up for while i am in san francisco.. but hopefully i will find some time to pop in and say hi. oh, and momma b may or may not have another travel post up her sleeve.. we’ll see!

hope everyone has a great night, a lovely friday and a fabulous weekend.

Qs~

1. flying: love it, hate it or somewhere in between? flying makes me claustro. i don’t love it, but i do love that it means i am en route to somewhere fun and new.. so i can handle it!

2. what is your favorite mexican dish? for me, nothing beats a smothered burrito.

xo. janetha g.