Tamale Pie

When I saw this in-a-hurry tamale pie posted on Eat, Live, Run I knew I had to give it a try. Instead of the typical cornmeal crust in a tamale pie, a polenta roll is used in this dish. This makes it a lot quicker to make and also dirty's fewer dishes. It's so easy on the clean up side, after dinner when my husband was doing the dishes, he thanked me for cleaning some of them while cooking. I didn't clean a thing, but don't worry I still took credit and said you're welcome. I'm sure if he knew I didn't clean them, he would thank me for not dirtying a lot so the you're welcome would be warranted regardless.

I made a few adjustments, the main one was adding ground turkey, where the original recipe was a vegetarian option. It was a quick weeknight meal, that I will be making again. If you can restrain yourself from eating it all the first time around, the leftovers were even better! Keep reading for the recipe.

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 polenta roll
1 15 oz can of pinto beans
2 ears of corn, removed from cob (frozen or canned corn works if you don't have fresh)
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
sour cream (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground turkey over medium heat in stove top pan, breaking it up and mixing around until cooked through and no longer pink. Drain any grease from pan. Add in pinto beans, corn, garlic salt, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, and salsa, mix until well combined.

Slice polenta into 1/4 inch slices and layer in the bottom of a small baking dish, slightly overlapping slices. Add turkey and bean mixture on top, and then sprinkle with cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes, remove foil and bake for 15 more minutes. Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top and serve with sour cream if desired.

Enjoy!