The word casserole, to me, conjures up visions of weird, cheesy and unrecognizable goop in a rectangular dish. My parents were fantastic cooks of fresh and exotic foods, but they did have a few casseroles in their rotation while I was growing up. I still make a couple of my favorite ones (yes, I still have a favorite casserole that involves chips, chicken and cheese), but I definitely put a mental block on the few recipes I didn’t like growing up. I decided to dig into the archives of my mind to see about reworking one of the casseroles I remember fondly, and I was pleasantly surprised by how it came out. This Mexican Casserole is no-fail because the bottom is basically any type of ground turkey chili you like, topped with a thin layer of cornbread, and then baked to perfection. I made my ground turkey very lean, and I like to make the cornbread a little healthier too. The kids are fans and I find I can sneak onions and red bell peppers into this recipe quite easily. 
Casserole Ingredients:
- Cooking Spray
- 1 package very lean ground turkey (about 1 pound)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1/4 cup onion (finely chopped)
- 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1 can black beans or kidney beans, drained
- 1 can corn (drained and split in half)
- 4 ounces red pasta sauce
- 6 ounces salsa
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- salt and pepper
- cayenne or Mexican spices (optional)
- 1 box Jiffy cornbread
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup skim milk
- 1/3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt or cottage cheese
- 1/2 cup reduced-fat cheese, optional
