When craving tacos/burritos, I came up with this recipe. Unfortnately, the first time I made it, my husband and I polished off the whole thing it was so yummy. Now when I make it, the casserole dish stays on the stove forcing us to get up and go get more helpings if we -really- want it. Thought I'd share. It definitely gets us through the taco/mexican food cravings.

If you want to try a faster way to make this, check here.

Serves 4:
1 can refried beans (I'm lucky enough to have a Trader Joes that carries organic refried beans with nothing but beans, water, spices).
1 lb extra lean ground beef (I'm able to get 94% lean - groundy turkey can be used too)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper chopped (red's my favorite, but use whatever)
8 oz mushrooms, coarsely chopped (diced, not sliced)
1 can green chilis (like ortega)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or more, if you'd like)
2-3 TB chili powder (your favorite that hopefully has no added sugar) [for other ideas in taco seasoning, check out the Taco Seasoning Recipes thread]
1 TB cumin
1-2 t garlic powder
2-3 TB tomato paste
2/3 C shredded f/f or l/f cheese, your choice, although I think cheddar is the best

Garnish - any, all work well:
chopped green onions
chopped black olives
l/f, f/f sour cream
chopped lettuce and tomatoes
chopped cilantro
chopped white or bermuda onion
salsa

Preheat oven to 450. Take a flat casserole dish, spray with cooking spray and spread refried beans on the bottom. Season with salt and pepper and bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute meat, onions, bell pepper, garlic (season with S&P) until onion begins to soften and meat beings to brown. Add mushrooms and cook until they've released their water and meat is thoroughly browned. Drain fat and add all spices, and cook for about 2-3 minutes until spices toast. Add green chilies and tomato paste, along with a little bit of water, if needed. The mixture should be moist but not runny.

Take the casserole dish with the beans, pour mixture on top and top with cheese (sometimes I add olives and green onions at this stage). Bake in the oven for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and just starts to bubble. Serve with generous heaps of lettuce as a bed (romain, red leaf and iceberg work really well here), and garnish with garnishes of your choice.

Fast Version:

I love the Taco Bake and really enjoy using it during Phase 1 times. But baking it takes far too long for me and, since all the ingredients are cooked already (except the cheese), I decided to microwave it. Here's what I do (my changes in red):

I hope if you've avoided this recipe in the past because you didn't want to heat up the kitchen with the oven, or you didn't have the extra time, you will now try it. It's worth every minute in the kitchen, but this way there's less time there and more time enjoying it!

On size and freezing:

I usually make this in an oval casserole dish (I think it's about 8 inches on the long side?- i think an 8x8 should work, but I've never tried it - you could always put the 8x8 on a cookie sheet in case there's spillage.

I freeze this all the time. I defrost in the microwave for about 5 minutes then either heat it in the microwave, or pop it in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes. It's one of my 'make a bunch on the weekend and freeze' dishes.

I keep track of everything in Fitday - so I computed the calorie/fat/carb counts. I know many SBD folks don't watch cals, but I thought some of you might find this helpful for your journals.

Using no fat refried beans, and 96% lean beef here is the breakdown. (Everything else is as shown in the recipe)

Per Serving - 1/4 of recipe:
Calories 363
Total Fat 12.5 g
Total Carb 23 g
Fiber 5 g
Protein 41 g

I made some modifications since I'm sooo picky and don't like a few things in the recipe....I used petitie diced tomatoes w/ jalepeno's instead of mushrooms, I left out the bell peppers also.

This is sooo good and I don't miss my tortillas at all, yeahhhhhh!!! Great stuff

Made this last night for dinner. OMG it is so delicious! I added tomato sauce instead of paste, and it still turned out good. I also substituted ground chicken for ground turkey. Yum. Excellent addition to my SB recipe collection. Thanks!!

I made this last night. I used canned mushrooms instead of fresh, but I got the same result. It was good but too many mushrooms for DH, so I'll substitute another veggie next time. Thanks for the recipe! It's so great I'm having it for lunch, too!

Well I messed this recipe up I used a big can of beans instead of a regular can so the beans are overpowering in it. Amazingly, it was still GREAT and I ate it for dinner last night and lunch today. mmmmmm yummy! Next time I won't put in so many beans and it will be even better.

Made this for dinner as planned, mine was a little soupy. I didn't have any tomato paste so I subsituted some chopped tomatoes and half a small can of plain tomato sauce. Renamed it Taco Chili...that was about the consistancy of it. It was soooo yummy. My picky boyfriend even said that if that was diet food, he was into it. Will definately make it again!

I use a thick chunky salsa instead of tomato paste.

I made my own mini version of this for lunch with ingredients I had in my fridge. I used seasoned black beans (1/2C) mashed them up and baked as per the recipe, then sauteed a small diced pork tenderloin with onions, garlic and 1/2 a red bell pepper with cumin, coriander, tumeric, and chili powder (those are mexican spice right??), topped the baked beans with that and cheese and baked like the recipe said. I topped it off with lettuce tomato, sour cream, and salsa! Yummy! I should've made this instead of cheating at Taco Bell the other day!! A+++++ !!

Soooo Good!! After I took the casserole out of the oven and turned the oven off, I tossed in a few gorditas - they heated up while the casserole cooled down. Then hubby and kids put their portions on the gorditas and chowed down. I had mine plain, and didn't miss the corn stuff at all!

This is really fabulous!
I had to leave out the green chillis and only use 2TBSP of chilli powder because DH doesnt care for spicy food,it still tasted superb.

Just made this for dinner last night (first night of Phase 1) - yummy! DH liked it, too, and so did our 17 month old DS, even though he doesn't like meat very well. We all love Mexican, so I'm sure I'll be making this again. I made it in an 8x8 Pyrex, and I forgot to add the chilis. I also cut the bell pepper in half (I'm sensitive to bell pepper - but not chilis! Weird, huh?). We had it on a bed of shredded lettuce, with olives, lf sour cream, salsa, and cherry tomatoes on top. Mmmm! It was very filling, too. There were even leftovers for DH's lunch!

I think next time I'll use 2 cans of beans as DS loves them so much. Oh, for the record, we buy Rosarita brand ff refried beans - DH can't eat pork (including lard) so we've been buying those for years. I don't even like beans made with lard anymore - they taste funny to me.

So yummy. We made it with jalepenos and wow, it had some kick! Thanks