Crock pot March: Mexican layer casserole

Sorry for the unintentional hiatus.  I've been having some technical difficulties.  Life's rough when you live in a house full of gadgets and you don't know how to run them without your husband's help.

Last week, I decided to make blogging more of a priority.  I sat down at my computer and began to write a post, but my computer actually shut down on me and wouldn’t turn back on.  Before you roll your eyes at me and remind me that Tots is actually a ‘computer guy,’ you should know he was away at the state basketball tournament, so I was completely on my own.  

Lucky for us both, he’s back now and my computer is working.  I would be lying if I told you he performed some sort of voodoo magic to fix it; I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it was actually an issue with the power cord and the degree to which it was connected and conducting electricity.*  Whatever.

March is finally here and it’s busy already; I knew this would happen when I decided on my resolutions, and that’s why I made this my crock pot month.  I chose Friday night for my crock pot night this week because an effortless meal sounded like a good way to kick off my weekend.

Because it was Friday, it had to be a meatless meal so I picked one of my favorites: a layered Mexican casserole.  This recipe is so good, I actually didn’t even notice that the meat was missing.  All you need is:

2 (15 ½ oz) cans of hominy drained

1 (15 oz) can of black beans, rinsed and drined

1 (14 ½ oz) can diced tomatos with garlic, basil and oregano, undrained

1 cup of chunky salsa

1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste

½ tsp ground cumin

3 large flour tortillas

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

¼ cup sliced black olives

First, you need to prep your crock pot.  Spray it down with a non-stick spray (or use crock pot liners), and then tear three 18 x 4 in strips of heavy duty tinfoil.  Lay the strips across each other, and fan them out so it looks like a snowflake.  Press the strips down into the crock pot, leaving the ends hanging up out of the top of the crock pot, creating handles.

 Mix the hominy, beans, tomatoes with juice, salsa, tomato paste, and cumin.  Press one tortilla into the bottom of your crock pot, and then dump 1/3 of the hominy mixture onto it and 1/3 of your cheese.  Repeat the layers, lasagna-style, and cook it 6-8 hours on low (or 2-3 hours on high).  When you’re ready to eat it, the foil handles make it easy to get out of the crock pot.

There you have it, an easy, Lenten-approved crock pot meal.  Let me know what you think if you try this.  Do you have a favorite crock pot recipe?  You know I’m always looking for more, post it in the comments!

*Yes, it was plugged in.  I’m not an idiot.  It just wasn’t plugged all the way in.