Engine 2 Mexican Casserole

Remember the other day when I mentioned how sick I was with the return of this blankety-blank flu? Well, it hit me a bit harder this time than the last, probably because I still wasn't fully recuperated. I can't eat, sleep or breathe because of the sneezing, coughing, and tsunami of - - - well, you get the picture.

My son feels sorry for me (and doesn't want me near his food) and volunteered to make dinner tonight. I figured it's about time he wants to learn how to make more than pasta or frozen pizza, and printed out the recipe and put all sorts of notes on the page.

Mexican Casserole

Pre-heat oven to 350

In a baking dish:
1 thin layer diced tomatoes
1 layer frozen brown rice
1 layer chopped tomatoes (thin layer)
1 layer frozen spinach
1 layer black beans
1 layer mixed veggies or corn
1 layer of chopped tomatoes (thin layer)
Sprinkle with chili seasoning.

Bake for about 35 minutes or until it’s hot ;)
You can serve it on corn tortillas or whole grain tortillas or just plain :)
from Engine 2 Daily Beet blog

My changes:
Each layer of tomatoes was one canned of diced, with juice. The bottom and middle layers were no-salt added tomatoes. My guys did the grocery shopping Sunday and one of the items I asked them to get was no-salt added or lower sodium flavored tomatoes, explaining a type that has onion, peppers, and/or garlic, like Rotel. My husband brought home a can of Hunts Spicy Red Pepper.

The sodium count of this is a little higher than I usually like (320 mg per half cup), but at this point of this flu I can probably need the salt, and the spiciness (I *hope* it's not too spicy!) will only help the sinuses flow, so this is what I he used for the top layer of tomatoes.

I already had 3 cups of cooked brown rice in the refrigerator so all he had to do was dump and break up the lumps.

I make my own seasoning mix using this recipe and skip the added salt and use Bryanna's unchicken broth powder so all he had to do was open the jar and dip in with the spoon.

We're corn lovers so I told him to use a whole small bag of frozen corn. 

When ready, it all barely fit into the 2 1/2 quart Corningware casserole dish! Whoops! I guess I should have had him use the gigantic Pyrex bowl. Oh, well - next time. At least as the frozen foods cook they shrink down.

I'm so grateful he's willing to help out, even though he's not over his cold 100% yet, but he sees how awful I feel and insisted. Tomorrow's casserole is even easier, so hopefully he'll be willing to do that one for me, too.