Black Bean and Sweet Potato Casserole

Driving home from a delicious weekend at my parents' house (and I mean "delicious," because my mom is an amazing cook!), I realized that I had no idea what we were going to eat this week...and then I fully panicked when I got home and
it hit me that I was clueless about what my daughter and I were going to eat tonight (since my husband was out and we were on our own)!

Luckily, I was able to make this Black Bean Sweet Potato Casserole (adapted from Hungry Healthy Girl's recipe here), because it takes little prep and I had everything on hand already! I had my black beans in the freezer from last week's Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger (guess I REALLY like this combo!) and my mom had sent me home with a baked sweet potato that I didn't eat over the weekend.

While Kim's recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes, I am still torn on whether it is safe to eat tomatoes in a can (I first heard of this when my sister shared "8 Foods Even the Experts Won't Eat," yet I also understand where Darya Rose is coming from in her post "Are Canned Tomatoes Dangerous?"), so I haven't been buying a lot of canned tomatoes recently. Instead, though, I just diced a couple of tomatoes that were probably on the verge of going bad in a few days. I also only had the raw corn tortillas that I keep in my freezer, so I cooked them in a dry pan for a minute on each side and then tore them to create the layers.

Overall, this was totally filling and pretty easy, without me having to do much prep work...which was especially good since my daughter really wanted to play instead of watch me cook.

PS. Since it was just me and my little one tonight for dinner, I didn't get a chance to snap a picture. Sorry!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato (either already baked or cook it in the microwave for 3-5 minutes to soften)
1-1.5c black beans
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1tsp chili powder
1tsp garlic salt
1/2tsp cinnamon
1-1.5c salsa (divided)
4 corn tortillas
Cheese (optional; I didn't have any, but Kim's recipe called for it)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Dice your softened sweet potato. Mix diced sweet potato, beans, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, and spices in a large bowl until well-combined.

3. Put 1/2c of salsa at the bottom of 8x8 baking dish (or a bit more if it doesn't cover the bottom of the dish).

4. Tear two of the tortillas into strips and cover the salsa. Then spoon over half of the black bean and sweet potato mixture on top. Pour the remaining salsa over the mixture.

5. Again, tear the remaining tortillas into strips and cover with the remaining half of the black bean and sweet potato mixture. Top with cheese (if using).

6. Bake, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes. Let it stand for five minutes and then spoon out and serve.

I topped mine and my little one's with a dollop of Greek yogurt, but feel free to top with avocados, more salsa, cheese, cilantro, etc.