Cheesy Beefy Beany Bake (but with turkey)

On the way home from work I mentioned to Jeff that I was feeling like Friday night warranted a frozen pizza and some serious sloth-like behavior. He gently suggested a stir fry because "it tricks you into eating vegetables." To that I say nothing tricks me into eating vegetables! But somehow the guilt resulted in me abandoning my freezer fare for my famous Cheesy Beefy Beany Bake (despite the fact that it's probably not any better for you than pizza. But we'll pretend.) A couple of years ago I made this with ground turkey for a group that included a non-red-meat eater and discovered that it's actually better, so I make it this way all the time now.

Step 1: Dump package of ground turkey in big skillet and poke and stir until it's brown and crumbled. Drain the fat.

Add a bunch of salsa verde and cook until just about all the liquid is gone. In Texas I could buy fairly authentic salsa verde in little cans. I used a can and a half for this step, saving the last half a can for latter in the recipe. Here in D.C. I can only find jars of "salsa verde" that's intended as a chip dip. It has much less water content, so I thin it out with chicken broth.

Next up, dry seasonings. A bunch of cumin, some garlic powder and cayenne pepper.

And last but not least, the beans. Rosarita brand refried beans are my favorite, and thankfully Safeway just started carrying them. My mother, god love her, probably spent a small fortune in postage mailing me cans of Rosarita beans from Texas the first year I lived here.

Mixing the beans into the meat and salsa mixture is a little challenging at first. But never fear, as the beans heat up they get softer and eventually you'll have a nice homogenous mess.

Put a thin layer of the turkey-bean stuff on a large (burrito size) tortilla. Sprinkle on a little cheese (I use sharp cheddar), and roll it up. You want to roll it like a jelly roll, not like you normally would roll a burrito.

Place it in an greased casserole dish seam-side down and tuck the ends down along the sides.

Keep on making little burritos, overlapping them slightly, until the dish is full -- about 7 of 'em should do it.

Spread any remaining bean mixture on top and add more salsa verde.

Next pile on a whole bunch of cheese. It isn't called cheesy for nothing. If you're the plan ahead type, you can stop here, cover the dish and stick it in the refrigerator for a day. It actually tastes much better once the beans, turkey and spices cohabitate for several hours.

When it's time to eat, place in a 350 degree oven for at least 15 minutes (longer if its been in the fridge.) There's nothing actually cooking at this stage; you're just melting the cheese and heating everything through.

Yum, yum, yum ... definitely better than frozen pizza. It makes great leftovers, but the cheesy top is never pretty or quite the right texture when it's reheated.