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Slow Cooker Recipe
Mexican Casserole
Cinco de Mayo may be over, but we can’t get enough of our favorite Mexican dishes. There are three fabulous reasons to celebrate this Mexican Casserole:
1. Because it takes 8 hour to cook, we can throw the ingredients in the slow cooker before work and return home at the end of the day to a finished meal. No need to stop by the house on our lunch breaks just to turn on the slow cooker.
2. Though sour cream, refried beans and guacamole are absolutely heavenly, they sure add extra calories to a meal. This recipe – fixed lightly but with plenty of flavor – means we don’t feel as guilty when going for seconds…or thirds…or…
3. This casserole is so delicious we wish Cinco de Mayo came twice a year!
Mexican Casserole
Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly, page 178
Makes 8 servings
Ideal slow cooker size: 4- or 5-quart
Ingredients:
1 lb. extra-lean ground beef
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
16-oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
14-½ oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
8-oz. can tomato sauce
¼ cup water
1 envelope reduced-sodium taco seasoning
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1⅓ cups instant rice, uncooked
1 cup low-fat cheddar cheese
1. Brown ground beef and onion in nonstick skillet.
2. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker except rice and cheese.
3. Cook on low 8-9 hours.
4. Stir in rice, cover, and cook until tender.
5. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover and cook until cheese is melted. Serve.
Per Serving: 270 calories (60 calories from fat), 7g total fat (3g saturated, 0g trans), 25mg cholesterol, 820mg sodium, 32g total carbohydrate (5g fiber, 3g sugar) 21g protein, 25%DV vitamin A, 20%DV vitamin C, 15%DV calcium, 20%DV iron.
Estimated serving size?
How long will it take the rice to cook?
Thanks!
> I suspect the instant package will tell you how long it takes to cook. I plan to cook regular rice separately and stir in at the end. May have to make a larger amount of rice to compensate for the extra liquid.
New recipe!
Can I get this recipe emailed to me please?
Thank you!
Jocelyn… you can click on the email button on the bottom of the page.>
Can you please give an approx time it will take for the rice to cook once added to the crockpot.
Sounds like a delish recipe and one I can’t wait to try.
> i usually do 15 minutes for instant white rice and 25 minutes for instant brown rice.
I’d like to try this but would like to make it a little healthier. Do you think I could use brown rice and just put it in from the beginning?
I LOVE my FIAFI Lightly Book! The best part is that the family has NO IDEA the good stuff is good for them! This recipe reminds me of my hubby’s favorite on Page 77 – Meatloaf with a Mexican Touch. I had more taco seasoning and veggie soup mix, and tonight I’m using ground turkey. It brings smiles across the supper table EVERY time!
Holly- in my experience brown rice will not cook properly in recipes like this. You can cook it in the microwave though, that’s what I do, and then mix it in. Just put 1 cup of brown rice and 3 cups of water in a large microwave safe container (big enough that the water only comes up about halfway). Microwave on high for ten minutes, then on 50% power for twenty minutes. Then let it cool for about 5 minutes and drain off any excess water (there’s usually a small amount left). It always comes out perfectly for me this way.
Memarie…. do you cover the dish while cooking in the microwave?
>
Do you cook the casserole with the cover on? You only mentioned it with the rice and cheese leaving me to assume you might leave the cover off for the casserole. Thanks.
> You always cook in the crockpot with the lid on.
Please add a Print button to print the recipes. It would be so helpful!
> I totally agree that a print button for these recipes would be nice. I have used them more than once and they’re nice and would be SO much nicer to be able to print them easily. Right now I just highlight, cut and paste onto a word document. Thanks!
There is a print button . Look down towards the bottome and see the printer. Worked for me.
How do I print this? You have so many good recipies!
I just coied and pasted it into Word and then printed it.
>
*copied>
> Two ways to print
1. Just push print but you end up printing everything on the web page.
2. I like pasting:
a. Open up a word doc.
b. Highlight the data on the web site that you want to print.
c. Go to the edit menu (generally at the top of your page).
d. Click on Copy
e. Bring up the word doc
f. Go to Edit again
g. click on copy
h. the copied data appears on the word doc.
i. Print the word doc
j. Save the word doc for future use if you want.
For anyone doing Weight Watchers, I did the math and it’s 7 Points Plus per serving. Sounds like a keeper!
> i put this in the recipe builder on weight watchers web and it came out to be 6 pts , but i change the rice to brown …either way 6 or 7 points this recipe looks very good..
> thanks for posting the points for us
Sounds delicious, but too heavy for a springtime dish.
Thanks, Julie. I thought you always cooked with the lid on, but the instructions led me to question myself.
To print the recipe…highlight what you want to print, then right click on it, select… “Print…”, your print window will pop up. Under “Page Range” click “Selection”. You will just print what you’ve highlighted. Happy printing!!!
I agree with Rosalie… I only use brown rice, never instant anything, so I will cook the rice separately and add toward the end. Sounds delicious!!!
What is the serving size?
What if I only have a 6-7 quart crockpot? Should I double the ingredients, or cook for a lower amount of time?
Wow, this sounds like an excellent filling for tacos. I would not add the cheese, but would make it available to place in the taco shell along with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sliced green onions and, of course, the cheese.
Just printed this the way you said and it worked wonderful, beats having to copy to word, thanks for the directions. Will try this dish, sounds yummy!
Oh my Goodness! Freda Smith, you are an Angel for teaching me how to print recipes. I have tried to teach myself how and never could figure it out. I’m slowly learning and looking forward to adding the Mexican Casserole to my cookbook. Thanks so much for your help!
Freda, for years I have been cutting and pasting things into Word when I want to print something off a web site. Thank you for this streamlined way of doing it!
you could save even more calories by adding calaflower in place of the rice and it will also cut back on the carbs if you are watching your carb count.
I just made this dish. It is in the crockpot as I write! Haha I made some substitutions: I used the Lawry’s “Hot” taco seasoning, because my husband loves spicy food. Then I used Fire-Roasted diced tomatoes and I had 3 corncobs from yesterday’s BBQ, so I removed the corn and used instead of the bell pepper. I plan on using this mix for my Bell Pepper stuffing. It’s not even warm and it already tastes good! Thanks for the recipe!
I can’t wait to try it.
It sounds delicious, and I can’t wait to try it.
>It sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try it.
mexican
Got this going in my cooker…. looking forward to eating this…. My game-time meal>>
JOLIPRINT people works great http://joliprint.com/
Just put on your tool bar and print almost any page
Why use instant rice and not regular rice? I really don’t like the consistency of instant rice.
I already posted on this recipe but I had to post again after I actually ate it. I didn’t have instant rice so I substituted it with brown rice but I precooked it first and added to dish right before serving. I microwaved the bell peppers in a microwavable baggie on high for two minutes ( first I cut in half so now you have two little cups and cleaned them out) they came out perfect. Then I put the cheese on the mixture and ten scooped into the bell peppers. They were so delicious I ate the whole pepper!
Sounds easy, and I’m all for that.
I fixed this last night for our church potluck and was very pleased! Had many compliments. Thank you for an easy idea, that I know I will be fixing many more times!
This was perfect. Delicious! Only thing missing was cornbread. I will definately make this again. Quick, Easy and Super Duper Tastey
Recipe for Mexican Casserole, Please.
Ill bet this would be great if you substitued the can of diced tomatoes with a can (maybe 2, I think it’s a smaller can than called for) of Ro*Tel! Maybe even some Pepper Jack cheese instead of the Cheddar.. I cant wait tto try it!!
this sounds just like the taco soup i make and it takes like 30 minutes on top of the stove. it’s so good. i’d rather it take 30 minutes to all day. i love crockpot cooking, but if i can make it faster, then that’s the way i’ll go. i make this about once a week. everybody loves it.
Casserole
Oh my, made this last night and hubby & I enjoyed it tremendously. THANK you. xoxo
try a jar of salsa in place of the tomato
Can I throw brown rice in at the beginning because it needs to cook longer?
Swiss Steak
I love this recipe………… And I cook my rice in my rice cooker, then add to the slow cooker. Too easy! And Mexican food is good year round. We eat it every chance we get here in Texas.
BBQ RIBS
BBQ RIBS
WE PREFER PORK RIBS BUT BEEF WILL ALSO WORK WELL
spray bottom with pam, add ribs and (depending how much your making_ from1/2 to 1 full can of any brand beer. we use Bud Light.
set on med low for 5-7 hours (can stay longer if you work just turn down the heat a bit) then about 15 – 20 minutes before you serve it pull out the bones and add 1/2 bottle of favorite BBQ sauce turn on med-high uncovered.
when it is thickened enough for your taste turn off and serve on rolls with chips and slaw. easy and really tasty
ENJOY!
STUFFED PEPPERS
core and clean your peppers. put aside while mixing the meat (ground beef or turkey) with egg, bread crumbs, rice salt, pepper, tomato sauce & and chopped onion (I use dehydrated onion flakes) pour just a lil tomato sauce in the bottom of the slow cooker then fill each pepper just a lil over the top stand up in the slow cooker and add some more tomato sauce over it but not to much. cook on med-low (low if you need to be gone more than 5 hours) till peppers are tender. add some grated mozzarella on top re-cover for about 10-15 minutes till cheese is melted. serve with either chips or mashed potatoes.
enjoy!
Thank you for NOT having a print button on your page. Such a button makes it too easy for me to print instead of copy/pasting it to a file. I inherited boxes of recipes that my mother collected/printed, and I consider it a huge waste of natural resources, not to mention money paid out for toner cartridges. I’m putting all the recipes in files on the computer (which is a free laptop I received through Freecycle).