Here’s what I ended up doing for dinner last night:

Super easy and turned out tasty, which is a good thing since there’s enough of it to feed an army and we’ll be having it again tonight. :)

I browned up about a pound total of a mix of ground beef and pan sausage (seasoned ground pork — breakfast sausage) with chopped onion, bell pepper, and a tablespoon of chili powder. Then I added a can of diced chili tomatoes (already pre-seasoned with peppers and such) and let it simmer on low to extract as much grease and liquid as possible and blend the flavors. While that was simmering, I mixed up a package mix for cornbread. I should have put less liquid in with the mix, but I wasn’t thinking. The cornmeal mix was far too watery (milky, actually), so I added a little additional cornmeal and some whole wheat flour until it still dripped slowly off the spoon.

Then I drained the meats and veggies, placed them in a 9″x12″ baking pan, tossed in a half can of hominy (you could use regular corn or beans, but I used what I had), and leveled the mixture out in the bottom of the pan. This was topped with a generous layer of ground cheese (I would have used cheddar or jack, but I only have Italian cheeses as the moment — any favorite cheese will work). Finally, I spooned the cornbread mix over the top in a grid pattern leaving it that way, instead of spreading it evenly (you can see a photo of the finished and baked pan here).

The final product was baked in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, and then I checked it every few minutes until the cornbread crust was baked through. It might have been about 30 minutes total. I didn’t keep track, because it will be different depending on pan and oven. When I removed it from the oven, I let it sit for about five minutes to cool down to edible temperatures, and then served it with the ubiquitous garden salad consisting of only lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and carrots (once again, what I had on hand).

This time I used canned goods, because I am trying to use up the current supply in the pantry so I can restock with more organic or homemade stuff. Eventually, I am going to expand this recipe to be one of my usual “from scratch” recipes, which should be too hard. There really isn’t too much to it. I’d say it makes enough to serve 6 people … four if they are really hungry … more if some are children. :)

Side benefit for households containing only two people is having dinner for the next night. Not sure how it freezes, but if there’s any left over tonight, I’ll try it and see. Might get mushy, but I bet it will still taste as good.