Brown Rice Mexican Bake

My friend Anne gave me this recipe, she got it from another friend, who found it through weight watchers. I used regular cheese, I think the lower fat versions do not melt as well, or taste as good for that matter.


Ingredients
Cooking Spray
1 1/2 cups brown rice
3 cups broth
1 1/4 cups salsa
1tsp ground cumin
15oz can refried beans
10oz frozen corn
4oz diced green chillis
1tsp chili powder
10oz frozen spinach
3/4 cup cheddar cheese
Fresh cilantro to garnish

Start the brown rice cooking first. Depending on what kind you have it can take up to an hour. I like to cook my brown rice with broth whenever possible, it makes it very tasty. 

Here are the ingredients I used. The picture doesn't include and onion and a can of black beans, but those and the peppers were used as side dishes.

Here are the sliced onions and peppers, again, not for the main recipe, but very pretty!

Making the filling. I used refried black beans, the amount of corn was estimated because I have a costco sized bag of it, the the green chilis and chili powder.

Here it is all mixed together, not quite as pretty as the previous picture.

Shredded cheese. Quite a bit more than 1/4 cup, a happy mistake.

All this time, the spinach has been draining over the sink. It is crazy the amount of water you can get out of it. I just kept going back and squeezing.

This is after cooking down for a very long time. The key is to get the peppers tender.

Once the brown rice is cooked, mix it with the salsa and cumin.

Here it is all mixed up.

Spray the bottom of you pan. I used my square pyrex, and it ended up being full to the brim, but it didn't spill over, so a good size to use. Then you put half of the rice (2 cups) in the bottom of the pan, spread it out evenly.

Then the whole batch of corn and bean mixture goes on top of the rice, and spread out evenly.

Spread out the spinach next, and sprinkle a little cheese on top of that.

Spread out the remainder of the rice and top with more cheese.

I just love side shots, being able to see the pretty layers through the glass pan.

Here is the finished product cooked for 30 mins at 375

I served with black beans, peppers and a tortilla, and cilantro to garnish.

Austin's plate. He is still learning to use a plate, I ended up scraping it on to his highchair tray after a few minutes.

It was a hit! He ate pretty much everything.