Cornbread Chili Casserole (Skillet)

 Make it do or do without... that was a part of a phrase I heard a lot from my Grandma growing up.

And it's so true, I have been able to transform and improve a lot of recipes doing just that.

Yesterday Crow wanted to go to the store to buy ingredients for a meal, and I was like, show me the recipe and let's see what we already have that we can use instead.

The Recipe comes from Sally - I'm assuming it's Sally's Baking Addiction because she uses that blog a lot.

Here are the original ingredients and in bold are the changes I made.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb ground turkey (I used 1.2 lbs ground beef)
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper (I combined onion and the bell pepper ingredients by using pre-diced frozen onion and vegetable mix from Great Value - it contains onion, bell pepper, celery, parsley)
• 1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds and ribs removed (I used a 1 tbsp jalapeno jelly)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I used 2 tsp Great Value minced garlic in a jar)
• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (I combined leftover marinara, pizza, and pasta sauces in the fridge and poured them into the pot. And because I use a little extra water in the jars to shake and rinse out every last drop of leftover sauces, I skipped the broth)
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed (I used Bush's best Southwest Zest Pinto Beans, not rinsed)
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed (I skipped this because I used jalapeno jelly above)
• 1 + 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 _ 1/2 tsp cumin
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper (I skipped the last 4 spice ingredients and used 1 hIneaping Tbsp of McCormick Chili seasoning mix)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda (I like to add it to tomato soup, chili, etc - it helps cut the acidity and make the meal easier on my tummy)

Cornbread Topping

• 1 cup fine cornmeal (I was all out, so I used 1 cup fine almond meal - I figure it's about the texture anyway)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed (I skipped the last 4 ingredients and instead used 1 cup of buttermilk pancake mix)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (I only buy salted butter - yum)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk, or whole milk (I only buy 2% milk, so that's what I used).
• Optional: 1 cup corn kernels, 1 Tbsp jalepeno jelly

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large oven proof* skillet that holds 3/5-4 quarts, heal the oil over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the ground meat, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno and garlic. Saute until the meat has cooked through, breaking up with a spoon as it cooks. Stir in the rest of the chili ingredients, and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
3. Whisk all the cornbread ingredients together in a large bowl, including optional corn and jalapeno jelly. Remove chili from heat and spoon the cornbread batter on top.
4. Bake, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes or until the cornbread is golden on top and cooked through (showing cracks in the corn bread)
5. Spoon into bowls or onto plates and serve warm with optional toppings. I used sour cream and avocado - yummy!
6. Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to one week. 

*If you don't have an oven proof skillet, that's okay. Just pour the chili into an oven proof casserole dish in step 3 and continue.

Surprisingly, the almond meal was a great substitute - I didn't even really miss the cornmeal. I thought the bread was really yummy. Maybe using pancake batter helped as well. I really like buying the Great Value pre-diced frozen onion and vegetables mix as well - it really saves time making dinner - it just cuts out all the prep time. This meal came together really fast. It is so yummy and the leftovers are even better. I'm loving it.