Crock Pot Tamale Pie

I came across this Fit Marriage website a couple of weeks ago and noticed the nutrition tab, so I clicked on it to see what recipes they had posted. One recipe that caught my eye was this crock pot tamale pie. And guess what? The crock pot that is shown in the video is exactly like the one we have! Haha! We had all of the ingredients except the cornmeal, so I had Ryan pick some up so we could try this the next Sunday. We also didn't have any fire roasted diced tomatoes with chilies, so we just used a can of diced tomatoes without chilies.


Filling ingredients:
1 lb. cooked ground beef (I just used 1/2 a lb.)
1 15 oz. can black beans drained & rinsed
1 15 oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes with chilies
1 15 oz. can corn drained
1 Tbsp. chili powder or taco seasoning
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 cup diced onions
1 cup cheddar cheese

Cornbread topping ingredients:
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cup flour or gluten-free baking mix
1 tsp. baking powder – omit if using gluten-free mix that has baking powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions:
Spray stoneware with cooking spray.

Combine all filling ingredients from above in crock pot. Stir ingredients together until thoroughly mixed as you will not be able to mix again. (I combined all ingredients in a bowl, stirred them together, and then put the mixture in the crock pot.)

In a large bowl, mix all topping ingredients from above. Stir to a smooth texture, then pour topping onto filling in crock pot.

Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.


I think the recipe originally said 6-8 hours, and that's what the lady says in the video. Funny thing is, since the crock pot is exactly like ours, when I read/heard the 6-8 hours, I said out loud to Ryan "I bet it will be done in about 5 hours!" And then watching the video, they said it was done in 4 1/2 hours. Ha ha! I knew it! Every crock pot recipe I have ever tried has always been done a lot sooner than what the time on the recipe says. It is a good crock pot! :)

This recipe was perfect to make on Sunday--with 3 hours of church and then about an hour of choir practice, that's 4 hours. I set the timer for 4 1/2 hours and started it about 15 minutes before we left to go to church, so it only had about 15 minutes left by the time we got home! Right as we walked in the door, we immediately smelled the tamale pie and it smelled sooooo good!

I remember when I was younger, my mom occasionally bought canned tamales from the store. I used to eat them. Then I got sick of them after a while. When I tasted this crock pot tamale pie, it reminded me of when I used to eat canned tamales...only it was a LOT better!

So healthy! So delicious! So easy! You should try this! :)

One suggestion, though... even if you use a crock pot liner, you might still want to spray it with cooking spray. We didn't and the topping got stuck to it. Oops!