Spicy Success

46. Love your spices.
37. Sweeten and salt your food yourself.
82. Cook.

Unless you want to ask every server, barista, and counterperson at your favorite sandwich shop, "What is in this?  Is there any way I can see a complete list of ingredients?" (And - FYI - the answer to that question is almost always no), Rules 37 and 82 are pretty much unavoidable.  Still, when you live a busy life, you have to learn very quickly how to cook efficiently for yourself.  You need meals that are fast, simple, (link)utilize massive amounts of seasonal produce, that can be cooked in huge quantities and frozen easily for the weeks ahead.  It's rough and often deeply stressful tightrope to walk. 

Which is why I'm so extremely proud of the taco millet bake I made up last week: not only does it meet all the above requirements, it's also so rich in spices I don't even feel compelled to top it with cheese (a big feat for me - I want to add cheese to EVERYTHING).  This is the idea behind the "love your spices" philosophy, and an old standby in weight loss circles in general: if you spice your food properly, you won't have to slather it in so much fat and salt. 

I scavenged my recipe from a millet bake by Mark Bittman (who we've already established is awesome).  This is absolutely nothing like my taco bake, but it was the only thing I could find online with instructions for baking millet.  Millet is a lovely and undervalued food; it's a whole grain and loaded with all kinds of fiber and protein.  It's also got a very mild, bready flavor which I think makes it a great base for just about any kind of casserole. 
Unfortunately, since I just sort of made this dish up as I went along, I have nothing that bears any resemblence to a comprehendible recipe.  Instead, here's some detailed instructions for how you can make this casserole, if "you" are actually "me."  ...Which also serves as a pathetic peek into how Leigh functions in the kitchen.

1. Get out some ground meat from the freezer - you happen to grab a pound of lean, grassfed beef, but really any meat from a well-fed animal will do - and brown it.

2. While the ground beef is cooking, chop up every vegetable you can get your hands on; everything that you bought at the growers' market that weekend, plus some other stuff lying around that you did.  This could (and does) include red peppers, zucchini, summer squash, oyster mushrooms, and corn kernels.  Oh, and some organic black beans, because they're in your cupboard and why not? More protein.  Chop up an onion too, but set that aside to sautee with the millet.

3. Dump all the vegetables in a bowl with some tomato paste (note: it is difficult to find a can of tomato paste with just pure tomato puree and no weird stuff like sodium citrate, but not impossible) and nice big heap of cumin (probably a tablespoonish?) some salt, and some cayenne pepper if you want it spicy.  Mix it up so that all the vegetables are evenly coated.

4. Spread the veggies out on the bottom of a big casserole dish.... and then transfer to an even bigger casserole dish because there are a TON of veggies in there.  Layer the ground beef on top and set aside. 

5. Start sauteeing your onions in some oil until the onions are transucent.  Take out your millet, measure out a half a cup like in Bittman's recipe and then decide that a half a cup doesn't look like near enough, so just dump out all of it (probably another half a cup) into your pan and cook until the millet is golden brown and fragrant, just like Bittman says.

6. Layer the millet on top of the veggies and beef, and cover the top with a little more tomato puree, just for good measure.  Realize with all the extra millet, you have absolutely no idea how much liquid to add, so fill with vegetable broth until it covers the mixture by about an inch.  Hope that works. (It does.)

7. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for... 20 minutes, maybe?  Half an hour?  Keep an eye on it, just to be safe, and bake until the millet is cooked.  It's obvious when it is - it changes color, and looks all puffy and delicious and edible.

8. Divide into individual portions, freeze and sprinkle with a little cilantro when served.  Congratulate yourself on NOT wasting precious time in the kitchen on an utter failure.  Good job!