Southwestern Beef Chili with Corn

This recipe is from Real Simple magazine, September 2008. I really enjoyed this meal and it makes fantastic leftovers. Also, you can make it in advance and freeze it or freeze the leftovers.

Southwestern Beef Chili with Corn
1 tbsp olive oil

2 carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 lb ground beef
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 15-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup grated cheddar
2 scallions, sliced

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion, and bell pepper and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until it is no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until it is slightly darkened, 1 minute. Add the beans, chili powder, 3 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Simmer over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the corn. Divide among the bowls and top with teh cheddar and scallions.

I really liked this recipe. It came together really easily and it was nice that the main substance in the dish wasn't meat. I used ground chuck instead of ground beef but I don't think that would make any difference. I also used green onions instead of scallions. The store didn't have scallions. I think that the dish would be the same without them and they seemed superfluous.

The leftovers were delicious. I think they get better with age. I have frozen some so that I can see how it tastes after it has been frozen.

I have been trying to use the food that I have before buying more because I am running out of space in my kitchen. I have a lot of free time today so for lunch I decided to make a breakfast casserole. I have several recipes for breakfast casseroles but they all required ingredients that I didn't have. Instead I just made up the recipe as I went. It turned out great and I used a good amount of food from the fridge and freezer.

Easy Breakfast Casserole

1 tortilla (I used Stacey's Big Organic Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas)
10 breakfast sausage links (I used little sizzler's pork sausage links)
10 ounces shredded potatoes (I used southwest flavored Simply Potatoes hash browns)
4 eggs (I used free range chicken eggs from the farmer's market)
shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese (I just used whatever was in my freezer)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*F.
Cook the sausage according to package directions. Remove sausage from pan but do not drain pan.
Cook the shredded potatoes in the leftover sausage grease until golden brown, turning once.
Meanwhile, cut the cook sausage into slices or chunks.
Grease an 8x8 baking dish, then place one tortilla in the bottom of the dish. Cover tortilla with sausage. When shredded potatoes are done, cover the sausage with the shredded potatoes.
Beat the eggs in a bowl. Pour over shredded potatoes. Spread shredded cheese over the egg.
Bake at 350* for 20 minutes or until eggs are set and cheese is melted.


The tortilla acts like a crust for the casserole. I forgot to grease the baking dish. This is an important step because if you don't the tortilla will stick to the bottom of the pan and will be very hard scrap off. See the picture.