Chiles Rellenos Casserole

Have you noticed I gravitate toward one-dish-wonders covered in cheese? :)

I'd like to preface this post by saying I won't be cooking much this fall since Bobby will be away (see other blog for details), and cooking for 1 isn't that interesting! There will be a lot of stir-fried veggies, cheese and crackers, and hopefully just a minimal amount of pasta--but really it's the easiest thing to make for one person! I'm completely open to some suggestions though if you've got them!

And if there's interest on the part of the readers, I'm happy to post a few favorite recipes without a photo (because it's unlikely I'll actually make them). For example, I went to my technique class at Williams-Sonoma this morning (my favorite weekend ritual) and today was all about Fall Baking. I picked up some great tips and recipes, but if I were to make a whole apple coffee cake or fruit crisp, I'd just eat it! So leave some comments if you'd like some recipes even without pictures.

But back to the cheesy dinner at hand! This came out of my Cooking Light Cookbook, and definitely got both our approvals for a repeat appearance. 15 minutes prep, and total cooking time of an hour and 5 minutes--estimated 333 calories per serving. Not too shabby.


Chiles Rellenos Casserole

1/2 lb ground chicken
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
16 oz can of fat-free refried beans
(2) 4oz cans of whole green chiles, drained and cut lengthwise into quarters
1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese
1 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained
1/3 cup flour
1 1/3 cup skim milk
couple shakes of Tabasco
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 350. Cook the chicken and onion together in a non-stick skillet over med-high heat, until browned. In a large bowl, combine the chicken mixture and the next 5 ingredients. PAM an 11x7 baking dish (you can see I went for my corning ware) and arrange half of the green chile strips in the bottom of the dish. Top the chiles with 1/2 cup cheese. Spoon the chicken mixture onto the cheese and spread gently--leaving a 1/4inch border around the edge of the dish. Cover evenly with the corn. Arrange remaining chile strips over the corn, and top with 1/2 cup cheese. In a smaller bowl, combine the flour and salt--gradually adding milk and Tabasco. Whisk until blended. Stir in eggs and egg whites, and pour whole mixture over the casserole. Bake for 1 hour and let stand 5 minutes.

Might be a lot of ingredients, but it went really quickly. You could also substitute the ground chicken for ground turkey or extra-lean beef depending on your preference. And of course, I probably added more cheese :)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Well, I finally made a cake that didn't fall apart when it came out of the pan! I'm sure the gooey caramel and fruit topping of pineapple upside down cakes had nothing to do with that, and it was all completely and totally my mad baking skillz.

Bobby usually prefers fruit-based desserts over heavy chocolate treats (weirdo), so I thought he'd really like pineapple upside down cake just for that reason. Apparently this kind of cake was a new concept for him and it was hard to tell whether or not he really liked it. Usually when we have desserts lying around, he goes through them pretty quickly--but with this, he only ate it when I served it and took it to him. I happened to really like this recipe and thought it was delicious, so I'm overruling his underwhelming reaction. He does insist he enjoyed it though, but I'm not totally buying it.

This is a pretty quick and easy recipe, but I'll note that the original calls for it to bake in a skillet instead of a cake pan. That's not a technique I've tried before, and putting my non-stick skillets in the oven to bake for a while makes me a little nervous. A Dutch oven is one thing...that's what it's intended for right? But a skillet... So anyway, I used my 9x13 cake pan, which worked fine, but it was a thinner cake, as you can tell from the photo. I think in the future I might use something between a 9x13 and a 9x9.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 can sliced pineapple, undrained
maraschino cherries
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Using a skillet, melt the butter over low heat. Remove from heat and mix in the brown sugar. Pour mixture into a baking dish and layer pineapple slices on top. Place a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple slice. Separate the eggs. In a large bowl or using a mixer, beat the egg yolks until lightly fluffy. Add 1/2 cup pineapple juice, white sugar and vanilla. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Sift baking powder, flour, and salt--combine well. Beat egg whites until stiff then fold into the egg yolk mixture (this was new for me, and I've since learned it's best to have your eggs at room temp for this). Add this mixture on top of the pineapple. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes.

Because of the gooey top, you won't want to use a cooling rack for this type of cake--instead wait until it cools 20 minutes or so, then turn upside-down onto a cake. You can tell from my picture that I omitted the cherries because I forgot them!