Hamburger Corn Bread Casserole

Simple, quick and few ingredients. Really, it could be our cooking mantra, at least for mid-week recipes. When both people are working long hours in a day, you certainly don't want to spend forever cooking in the kitchen.

So when we perused the latest issue, March 2009, of Healthy Cooking magazine, we knew we had to try this casserole. (Yes, there are a fair amount of ingredients in this recipe, but we consider it few because most of these ingredients, especially for the topping, are ones we have handy in the home every day.)

Hamburger Corn Bread Casserole
1 pound lean ground sirloin
1 chopped small onion
15 ounces of black or other beans
1 can 14 1/2-ounce undrained diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
TOPPING:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup fat-free milk
1 tablespoon canola oil

Brown beef and onion over medium heat in a skillet; drain. Add the beans, tomatoes, chili powder and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.


In a bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, milk and canola oil; whisk.


Transfer the beef and beans mixture into an 11-by-7-inch baking pan coated with spray. Then spread the topping over the baking pan and gently massage it into all corners.


Bake uncovered at 425 degrees for 14 to 18 minutes.



This recipe certainly has the potential to be a staple in our rotation. We also added some sour cream to the top, which provided a good contrast.

However, our final product lacked salt, namely because we used tomatoes that had no salt added and used rehydrated dry beans instead of canned beans. Also, we could have used some cheese and thought that adding some vegetables, namely corn, would have made it much better.

Suffice to say, we will try this recipe again soon, and we'll try it our way.