Sometimes I cook. Sometimes I slap a bunch of junk together and call it cooking. This is one of those times.
Tex Mex Casserole was born out of a burning desire for a casserole dish, but a lack of a desire for 99/100ths of the casseroles that are out there. There were always a couple ingredients in the ones I found online that I scrunched my nose up at. At first I was going to take Macaroni & Cheese and jazz it up with taco seasoning and other stuff, but that seemed too unhealthy. In reality, I don't think I did much better with this number, but it turned out good and I only used one powdered product!
Pros: pretty cheap, husband liked it, 2 year old ate half her portion, high protein, high fiber, mostly real food, leftovers
Cons: not super healthy, lots of dishes to wash, leftovers
TEX MEX CASSEROLE
Ingredients
- some ground beef (I used about 2/3 lb.ish)
- 1 small onion
- 1 can black beans
- 1 can petite diced tomatoes
- 1 envelope taco seasoning
- half a box or so whole wheat pasta
- bag o' shredded cheese (I used Mexican Blend, whatever that is)
1. Preheat your oven to 400. Boil up some water for the pasta. Cook it according to the box directions.
2. While that's working, dice up your onion. By the way, on Lifehacker I got this little gem of advice:
That if you chew gum while you cut onions, you'll have no tears. GENIUS!! LIES!! Dude, don't even bother. I cried like a 9 months pregnant lady at a Sarah McLachlan-narrated ASPCA commercial.
So anyway, chop your onion.
3. Sauté that in a little olive oil until it is mostly cooked. Use a pretty big skillet if you have one. Oh yeah, you need a little olive oil too.
4. Slide your onions to one side and add ground beef. Brown it up.
5. Add 1 can petite diced tomatoes to the pan. I didn't have the petite type so I cut up some regular type diced tomatoes.
6. Drain the black beans and toss them in. You should be stirring at various points during this.
7. Stir in the taco seasoning. You can just choose your own spices if you're fancy like that, or use this Make Your Own Taco Seasoning recipe, or buy a premade packet and throw it in if you're lazy like me.
8. Your pasta should be cooked by now. Drain it well and stir that in too.
9. Add a big handful of cheese and stir it in.
10. Spray a square (9x9?) Pyrex dish with cooking spray and then put your mixture in it. It will look like this:
11. Put some cheese on it. You can be conservative or just use the rest of the bag. I was somewhere in the middle.
12. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.
Done!
You could also make 2 of these and freeze one of them for later (just cover it very tightly after step 11), but I don't know how to tell you to cook it. Maybe 350 for an hour or 400 for 45 minutes? Either way, we did really like this and it was very affordable and easy!
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