Mexican Rice & Cheese

A casserole that's fairly mild, but sneaks up on you. I modified a recipe here that had too much fat/salt for us. A personal bias, I hate throwing out the end of packages of food and the directions for this dish reflect that. Also, I like lots of salt, DH lots of pepper, so I don't cook with them. Preparation time includes cooking the rice. If you have 2-3C of cooked rice, the time will be cut in half!

• Ready In: 1 hr 30 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 1 9x9 pan

Ingredients

• 1⁄4 cup brown rice
• 3⁄4 cup  broken  jasmine rice (white rice would work)
• 1 1⁄2 cups water
• 1⁄2 onion, chopped (I used a sweet onion)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 (4 ounce) can  chopped chilies
• 1⁄4 teaspoon  taco seasoning or 1⁄4 teaspoon chili powder
• 2  cups fat-free cottage cheese
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dry buttermilk or 1⁄4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4  slices monterey jack pepper cheese
• 1 -2  cup  breadcrumbs
•  cooking spray

Directions

1. Cook rices in 1 1/4C water. When done, turn off heat and fluff with a fork. Yield will be about 2 3/4C cooked rice.
2. Heat 1/4C water in a fry pan. Cook the onions in this until they are transluscent. Drain extra water (if any) into a small bowl. Stir olive oil into rice.
3. Open chilis, but not quite all the way. Push down on the lid to squeeze the liquid from the can into the small bowl with the water above. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, beat 1C of the cottage cheese until the consistency of sour cream. Stir in the buttermilk powder or lemon juice. If you had a lot of liquid, you may need to add more cottage cheese to get the correct consistency. Add up to 1/4C more cheese, if necessary.
5. Mix the rice, unbeaten cottage cheese, onions, taco seasoning, and drained chilis together.
6. Spray a 9 x 9 pan with cooking spray. Put about 1/2 the rice mixture on the bottom in an even layer. Add a layer of the beaten cheese. Take 2 slices of the pepper cheese, cut them in 1/2 and place them in the four quadrants of the pan (The idea is to get the cheese into the middle of the food.). Repeat this process, starting with the rice mixture, ending with the pepper jack, forming a 2nd layer.
7. Put the bread crumbs in the cottage cheese container to pick up whatever food remains, then scoop it out and add them to the liquids in the bowl. Mix throughly. This should be crumbly, not wet. Sprinkle the moistened bread crumbs on top of the 2nd layer of pepper jack cheese until the top of the casserole is completely covered.
8. Bake 375 for 25 minutes. Turn on broiler and brown on top for the last 5 minutes, or less, as required by your oven.