Sunday night's Dinner: Mexican Casserole & Sweet Cornbread

Grant had been wanting some Mexican food and something casserole-ish, so he found this recipe for Easy Mexican Casserole on the ipod from allrecipes.com. I'm really starting to like their website! It seems like a good collection of recipes posted by various people with helpful reviews. We also found this Sweet Cornbread recipe on their site. If you want a fairly easy Mexican-type dish, I would recommend this recipe. And I would definitely recommend the cornbread!! It was SO good, especially if you like a sweeter cornbread. Much better than the Jiffy cornbread mix, and almost as easy to make! Sorry I didn't get photos of either dish.

Easy Mexican Casserole
(Source: Allrecipes.com)

1 pound lean ground beef
2 cups salsa
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans, drained
3 cups crushed tortilla chips
2 cups sour cream
1 (2 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained (We didn't add these)
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef until no longer pink. Stir in salsa, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in beans, and heat through.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Spread crushed tortilla chips in dish, and then spoon beef mixture over chips. Spread sour cream over beef, and sprinkle olives, green onion, and tomato over the sour cream. Top with Cheddar cheese. (The only thing we might do differently next time would be to wait to put the sour cream on until after the casserole has baked. It dried up during the cooking, and we both thought it would be nice to have the sour cream cold and creamy on top.)

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.


Golden Sweet Cornbread
(Source: Allrecipes.com)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or canola oil)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan (or 8 inch square).

In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (We baked ours at the same time as the Mexican casserole, at 350 degrees, and it was still done in the 25 minutes in our dark pan.)