bonjourhan

I’ve had a lot of people ask me for easy recipes that you can throw together without a whole lot of effort. I have quite an arsenal of these from my highly creative mother (who fed our family of 6, plus the odd guest or 2). She is a genius at coming up with simple, delicious recipes with random ingredients, and over time many have developed into family favorites. Thus, I have decided to add a new category on my blog just for these. I’ll tag these recipes (and any other ones I come up with along the way) as “Easy meals,” and if you want to look at the whole list of these easy recipes, you can just click on “Easy meals” button at the top of the page. These meals are perfect for:

• Beginners
• Anyone who is busy ever.

I think that pretty much covers it.

Ingredients

Now this will be fun… These recipes are in this category partly because you can make them with an assortment of ingredients. Mexican pizza is really quick to whip up if you have some of these ingredients on hand! You don’t need everything I’m listing – this is mostly to give you ideas.

• Ingredients to make cornbread (or cornbread mix)
• 1 can refried beans
• 1 tomato, chopped
• Black olives, sliced
• Shredded meat (I used chicken)
• A handful or two of frozen corn
• Shredded cheese
• Sour cream
• Salsa

You can also add green chiles, bell peppers, or whatever you want.

Directions

This is ridiculously easy, and it tastes delicious!

1. Prepare 1 batch of cornbread and bake it spread out in the bottom of a large glass casserole dish. Leave the oven on when you take it out.
2. Heat a small sautée pan while the cornbread is in the oven, and sautée the corn in about 1/2 tsp olive oil until some of the edges are just barely turning brown. I used chipotle-flavored olive oil, and I sprinkled a lot of black pepper on the corn as I cooked it. Set it aside. You can just use plain corn, but this extra step gives it an amazing flavor.
3. I sautéed a chicken breast (seasoned with Cholula chili-lime seasoning) in a few drops more of the same chipotle olive oil, then I took it out and shredded it with a fork. I put it back in the sautée pan for another minute or so, so the shreds from the inside of the chicken breast can get some seasoning too.
4. Spread the refried beans evenly across the cornbread “crust.” Sprinkle the tomato, olives, shredded chicken, corn and whatever else on top.
5. Sprinkle cheese across the top to your desired thickness (or at least to whatever thickness you can get away with..).
6. Bake it for about 10 minutes, or just until the cheese is fully melted.
7. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

I grew up eating it, so it’s a comfort food for me too. This is seriously delicious. What would you put on it? I’d love to hear your variations!

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