Chris requested Mexican food for dinner last night, which usually presents a problem for my eating plan on the best of days, but when doing Weight Watchers Simply Filling plan, even more so. I went over to Cooking Light, searched through their recipes and stumbled upon their La Bamba casserole. With a few modifications, I was able to make it simply filling, satisfy his craving and keep within the perimeters of my plan.
Ingredients
2 4.5oz cans chopped green chilies (the recipe called for a can of whole green chilies that you would slice in half and layer the bottom of the casserole using them but I found they didn’t give enough “coverage”. I ended using one whole and one chopped to fill in the areas.- 1 pound ground turkey breast
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2t chili powder (I also added a pinch of chipotle chili powder but it’s not necessary)
- 1/2t cumin
- 1/4t salt
- 1 can (10.5 oz) diced tomatoes with and green chilies, undrained
- 2C frozen corn kernels, thawed (and I drained them).
- 1 16oz can fat free refried beans (I used the spicy variety)
- 6oz shredded fat free cheddar cheese
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes (I used quartered grape tomatoes)
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, coated with cooking spray, over medium-high heat, cook the turkey breast, breaking to crumble, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin and salt for about five minutes. Add the diced tomatoes with green chilies and cook another five minutes or until the liquid from the tomatoes is evaporated.
Meanwhile, make a layer of the canned green chilies in an 8×8 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread your turkey mixture on top. Next spread the corn and then the refried beans (which is difficult to spread because it sticks to the corn – honestly, I ended up using my fingers for this). Top with the shredded cheddar cheese and then bake for 30 minutes at 350. Let stand for five minutes, then top with the chopped tomato and green onion.
I found that the fat free cheese almost made a “crust” on top which I attribute to the properties of melting fat free cheese but dashed with a bit of Frank’s Hot Sauce, this was pretty good.
It serves 6.
