Mexibake with Turkey Mince

This is a recipe I have modified from Planning with Kids, one that has excellent reviews from heaps of readers and their families.

As per usual, I have tweaked it to suit our family. The basic method is the same, it’s mainly ingredients tweaking here and there from my end that made this a meal the whole Circus gave two thumbs up! My family doesn’t baulk at added veges in any meal, they are quite happy to eat just about anything (most of the time!) that I have topped up (or stretched out to feed more!!) with veges. But if you have ones that don’t like the chunky bits in with their meat, just omit or grate everything you want to hide in the sauce. On that note, I used the whole taco seasoning sachet, which for some littlies might be too much but I found that even my non spice loving four year old didn’t even make mention of any ‘piciness (won’t say his SP’s!).

Here’s the link to the original Mexibake recipe at the Planning with Kids website.

And here’s my version!

Mexibake with Turkey Mince

Ingredients
500 grams turkey mince
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 red capsicum, finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1 zucchini, finely diced
olive oil for fry pan
410 grams crushed tinned tomatoes
1 packet Taco Seasoning Mix
1 large jar of your favourite pasta sauce
500ml natural yoghurt
1/2 – 1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 1/2 cups basmati rice (uncooked)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Cook the rice as per your usual method. (I had the rice going in my rice cooker while I chopped up the veges.)
3. Heat oil in large frying pan. Once at a medium heat fry onion for a few minutes until soft.
4. Add the turkey mince to the pan and brown, breaking it up as you go.
5. Once meat is cooked, stir in capsicums and carrot. Cook for few minutes to soften slightly.
6. Add tomatoes and the pasta sauce and stir well.
7. Add taco seasoning and mix into the sauce.
8. Let simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. In a large lasagna dish, spread rice on the bottom, until is a just under halfway. Don’t press the rice firmly in, as it will then stick to the bottom.
10. Spread the meat mixture evenly on top of the rice.
11. Spread natural yoghurt evenly on top of meat mixture.
12. Sprinkle cheese over the top. I don’t like a lot of cheese on top, hence the varied amount needed. Just sprinkle over the yoghurt layer to your taste.
13. Cover with aluminium foil or the oven safe lid of your dish and bake in the oven for half an hour.
14. Remove the foil/lid and bake for another 5 – 10 minutes to allow the cheese to go all golden and cripsy around the edges.
15. Serve either on its own or with a side salad and some extra natural yoghurt.

Notes
1. This quantity made enough for our family of five to have two meals out of it plus a couple of lunch sized portions.
2. Instead of the natural yoghurt, you could use sour cream, as stated in the original recipe from Planning with Kids. I find you can’t tell the difference between the two in baking things like this, so try to choose the yoghurt option over the sour cream!