Getting our Kitchen Ready for the Summer Sizzle-Creative Casserole Idea

Our Summer Sizzle 60 day challenge begins today. I decided to get my kitchen ready to support our family goals and the first step was to take inventory of what I have in my refrigerator…

1) Toss out all expired sauces, dressings, condiments, yogurts etc.
2) Give away or put into the freezer any foods that do not support your fitness and health goals.
3) Make a list of all the foods you need/want in your refrigerator and pantry and head out to your favorite store (Trader Joe’s for me) to stock your shelves.
4) Wash and cut up vegetables for quick snacks.
5) Wash, cut up and roast any vegetables you will be using in recipes for the week-so much easier to do ahead of time for quicker meal prep in the evenings.
6) Wash and dry all greens and store in an airtight container for easy add-ins for shakes or for salads.
7) You can also make Green Cubes if you have trouble keeping your greens from wilting and spoiling.
Stock up on frozen fruits and fresh fruits for snacks and smoothies.
8) Plan some healthy main dishes that can be made ahead in case you have a busy day full of summer fun.
9) The last thing I did was try to make sure I was not wasting any of the left-overs I had from the weekend so I got creative and put together a healthy Mexican casserole that can feed us for a few meals this week.

Here is what I had on hand that need to be used up: LOTS of homemade salsa, BBQ corn, browned and seasoned ground turkey, shredded chicken, fajita vegetables, tortillas and grated cheese. So instead of serving up a make your own burrito bar as I had done 2 nights ago….I put together a Mexican casserole filled with fajita veggies.

DIY Mexican Casserole
2 cups seasoned ground Turkey
2 cups shredded seasoned chicken
2-3 cups salsa ( I had homemade but you can use store bought)
3 ears bbq corn cut off the cob
2 cups grated cheddar
1 can black beans drained and rinsed (I pulled these from my pantry)
12 or more corn tortillas
2 cups fajita veggies steamed or roasted

I grabbed all of these containers from the refrigerator, opened a can of black beans and began stacking the ingredients…..a bit of salsa, tortillas to cover the bottom of a 9×13, then covered the tortillas with half the corn, beans, veggies, ground turkey on one half of the casserole dish and chicken on the other, then the cheese and more salsa. I layered two times ending with tortillas, the last of the salsa and cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Viola, we have 2 or 3 nights of dinner ready to go.

Get ready to Sizzle this Summer!