Mexican Casserole

People stress out when they have me over for dinner.. apparently planning a vegetarian meal stretches a meat-eater's imagination in pretzel-like ways.

What people don't realise is that it's equally difficult for me as a vegetarian to make a dinner for meat-eaters. People are afraid of coming for dinner for fear that they'll be fed raw millet and bulgur pate with couscous and sprouts on the side. Uhm, I don't eat that (often).

My Mexican casserole goes over well with both my veggie roommate and meat-eating guests. Loosely based on my mom's "tacaroni", it consists of whatever veggies are in the fridge, Yves Mexican Ground Round, some pasta and cheese. Le voila!

Ingredients:

4-6 cups cooked rotini
1/2 red onion, diced
2 stalks celery
1/2 each red & green peppers, diced
1/2 zucchini
6-8 mushrooms
2-4 cups raw spinach and/or cooked kale
1 package Yves Mexican veggie ground round
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese


Put a large pot of water on to boil. While waiting for that, dice up all the veggies and throw in second largest pot. Cook it down like any other pot of veggies: sweat the onions celery and peppers first, add mushrooms & zucchini, cook until soft, then add spinach and put a lid on the pot to reduce.

By now you can probably put the pasta into the boiling water.

Next add the Mexican ground round, 1/4 cup water and the cottage cheese to the pot of veggies, stir and put lid back on so that the flavours start to blend.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and put it back in the big pot. Add the veggies & ground round, most of the cheddar cheese and the can of diced tomatoes. Mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into a casserole dish and top with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar.


Slide the casserole dish into the oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. I usually put some tinfoil under the casserole dish as this invariably bubbles over the side. Let rest for a short while before serving. Dig in and eat.. be sure to leave time for seconds!



** You can easily make this meaty by leaving out the yves veggie ground round and adding left over taco meat. That's how my mom always used to make it **