Viva La Quinoa!

Yours truly was craving Mexican food the other day. Yours truly had also been given a beautiful, big bag of quinoa, and was working on cleaning out the pantry a little to start the new year with a clean slate... yeah, yeah, I know January is almost over, but I procrastinate just a little, ok, alot...
So, what was I to do in order to satisfy this little craving, while still keeping things healthy and nutritious? Well... I had cans of black beans, diced tomatoes, olives... and ortega chiles! This is promising! I always have green onions around, and it was produce shopping day anyway, so I picked up some corn tortillas, bell peppers and cilantro. A casserole! I shall make a casserole! And it shall be called... Viva La Quinoa! I rolled up my sleeves and dove in headlong...

The Goods:
3 cups rinsed quinoa
4 small cubes cilantro bullion
4 small cubes chipotle bullion
3 cans black beans
3 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans black olives
2 large cans diced green chiles
1 green bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
4 green onions
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 avocado
1 lb ground beef
2 chubs beef chorizo
4 tbsp dried onion flakes
1 tbsp black pepper
(1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese)

Make it Happen:
Rinse the quinoa well, until it stops foaming for the most part. Put the quinoa & bullion in crockpot with 6 cups water, set on high.
Head to to the stove, and simmer the chorizo on medium heat, then drain off as much fat as possible. I used a paper towel to pat the surface and wick away as much oil as humanly possible. Add the ground beef, mix well and brown the whole mishmash. Set that sucker aside!

Next up, combine 2 cans drained black beans, 1 can ortegas, 2 tbsp onion flakes & pepper in bowl. set aside. Chop the bell peppers into small cubes, mince cilantro, julienne avocado in the skin, thinly slice the green onions. set aside

When quinoa is cooked, put in large bowl & mix in 1 can tomatoes, 1 can drained black beans, 1 can ortegas, 1 can olives, diced, chopped peppers.

In casserole dishes or loaf pans, arrange a layer of corn tortillas on the bottom, then add a thick layer of quinoa mixture. Smooth it out and pack it down! Then spoon a little tomato over it. Lay down another layer of tortillas. Then, spread a thin layer of black bean/ortega mixture, and little more tomato. Next, layer on some of the meat. Sprinkle the top with more diced olives, finely chopped cilantro, green onions and avocado. Sprinkle with mozzarella shreds if ya want it cheesy! I'm told it's tasty with cheese, but since I was using death cheese, I couldn't comment. BUT, I think it would be tasty with cheez!

Finally, cover dem pans with foil and bake 'em at 350 for 20 minutes or so, until they're heated throughout, and the cheese/cheez is melted if you're using it. Serve with tortilla chips, salad, by itself, or whatever suits your fancy!

Note: the proportions for this recipe makes ALOT. Like 6 large loaf pans alot. So, if you're not cooking for a small army (or bunch of firefighters), you can scale things as much or little as you want!