More Montaxican with a Corn Tortilla Casserole

Still Experimenting with this Whole Flexitarian Thing

Michael Pollan in my secret boyfriend.

When I first started reading Michael Pollan several years ago I fell for him, hard. I am happily married, mind you, and my husband and I have been together for nearly 10 years, but my hubby had some competition around the time I started reading about food rules, responsible eating, and how someone besides me felt McDonald's was essentially wrong.

Michael Pollan taught me about being a flexitarian, or a vegetarian, more or less, that indulges in meat a few times a week instead of a few times a day. We dove in, first because we wanted to eat responsible meat, then because it was economically sound, and finally because it felt physically better. 

I shall try to avoid too much information here, but after a meat heavy meal, my family and I experience a phenomena we refer to as "the meat bloat" where we have heavy stomachs that don't seem to diminish after hours of digesting. Sometimes it takes 24 hours of vegetable eating to right us. After my brother's wedding last summer where every course was meat heavy (responsible meat, but meat nonetheless) my family ended up at the oasis of Norris Hot Springs the day after and scarfed down salad after salad, craving the veggies to balance us out.

Now, we still buy little meat, occasionally indulge at BBQs and friendly gatherings, but rely mostly on the veggie stuffs. 

We eat tons of black beans, quinoa, tofu, cheese, and leafy greens for out protein and iron. Sunday supper was a good feast, and a meatless one at that.

Corn Tortilla Casserole

Ingredients: * means its local

9-12 small corn tortillas *

1 cup cooked corn kernals *

1 can black beans

4 green onions, chopped *

2 heirloom tomatoes, diced *

1 yellow crookneck squash, diced *

8 ounces sour cream

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 jar salsa

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix your onions, black beans, tomatoes, squash and corn. Shred your cheese and set aside. 

Layers your casserole with three tortillas on the bottom, 1/3 the veggies mix, then 1/3 the salsa jar, and 1/3 the cheese. Continue this way and if possible mash three corn tortillas on the top of the casserole and add remaining cheese on top. Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 10-15 until the tortillas on top are crispy not burned.

I let it sit for a few minutes to gather together, but there was still some loose nature to it, like any good casserole. Serve with lots of sour cream on top, or if you like sour cream dolloped on each layer before you bake it.