Quinoa & Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I'm completely addicted to Pinterest. It's my guilty pleasure. If I'm bored and don't have anything to do I will log on to Pinterest and pin away. As I continue to settle into my new role as a wife I like to do wifey things like. .. try new recipes on my husband. Sometimes they turn out great and other times we end up having to make an In-N-Out run, lol but hey, at least I'm trying.

I'm a serious foodie. I love cooking and experimenting with new recipes. As we try to live a healthier lifestyle I've been incorporating different foods into our diet, my favorite being Quinoa. I probably use quinoa in at least two of our meals every week.

While on Pinterest I cam across a recipe for Quinoa Enchilada Casserole. I'm famous for my traditional enchilada casserole, it's a staple in my potluck arsenal, so I was really excited to try the recipe but decided instead of following someone else's recipe I would simply use it as inspiration and make my traditional enchilada casserole but add quinoa. Here's what I did. . .

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• Chicken breast (I cut chicken breast from a rotisserie chicken I purchased at Costco - you can either add chicken breast or make this dish vegetarian - it's up to you)
• 1 15.5 oz can refried OR black beans
• 1/2 cup frozen corn (I used trader joe's fire roasted corn)
• 1 small white onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/2 red bell pepper 
• Fresh spinach (I used about 2 cups)
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 can rotel diced tomatoes
• 1 15.5 oz can green enchilada sauce
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Shredded cheese

Seasonings used:
Garlic salt, black pepper, seasoning salt (I season to taste, so I don't have exact amounts)

Directions:

1. I cooked my quinoa in the rice cooker prior to preparing the other ingredients. 
2. Pre-heat your oven to 350. 
3. Once my quinoa was fully cooked I cut my onion and bell peppers, corn and garlic and sauteed them in 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, saute them for 5 minutes. 
4. Next I added chicken breast I cut from my rotisserie chicken, 1 can of refried beans, 1 can of rotel diced tomatoes and your cooked quinoa. 
5. Add fresh spinach, stir around and let cook for 3 minutes.
6. Mix all of that together and add 1 can of green enchilada sauce. 
7. At this point you can add your desired seasonings. 
8. Next I place the quinoa mixture into a casserole dish and top with cheese. Hubby mentioned that it would have been better if I had add a layer of cheese in the middle of the mixture - hmmm maybe next time. 
9. Put in the oven for 10 minutes and BOOM that's it. Super easy and super yummy.