Tamale Pie

aka, Mexican Shepherd's Pie.

It didn't turn out quite the way I planned.  Yeah, like that's such an unusual occurrence in my life. I got home from my second visit to the mechanic of the day with barely an hour before I had to leave again for work. (I realized after I got home in the morning that none of the things the car had been in for were actually fixed.  When I called, he said, "But the headlights work!"  "The headlights always worked!!!" Yes, they took care of it.)

Jeff was lobbying for take out, but I wanted to get that ground beef cooked, and we've all been eating too much junk lately.  So I amended a few things for speed and ease.  I didn't put in any cheese.  I didn't shred any zucchini. I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned (yeah, ok, that didn't actually save time but it did use up some tomatoes that would have otherwise gone bad). I mashed up the beans so they wouldn't be as conspicuous and would help hold things together.  I used less sugar in the cornbread topping.

Here's the final result:

12 oz ground beef
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic,  minced
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 can black beans, drained, rinsed and mashed
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
ground cumin
1/2 cup beef broth
3 small roma tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of corn niblets
Your favorite cornbread recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Brown the ground beef.  Drain off the fat.  Add the onions, garlic & peppers.  Cook until softened.  Add beans, chipotle pepper and cumin to taste (chili powder would have been good here, duh).  Add beef broth (or water or other broth).  Remove from heat and stir in tomatoes & corn. 
3. Pour into casserole dish.  Mine was an oval about a foot long.
4. Make cornbread topping.  Use cornbread mix, or the recipe from the back of the canister, or your favorite recipe. Pour topping over the meat mixture.
5. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, until top is nicely browned.

6 servings. 430 calories, 54 carbs, 16 g fat, 22g protein, 6 g fiber,11 g sugar per serving.

When I got home from work, Lauren met me at the door, raving about how good dinner was.  No one else mentioned it, so I know it was not a runaway hit.  What can I say?  Casseroles are always a hard sell around here.  I really liked it, and will have no problem eating it for lunches.