This was simple and good. I make casseroles on weekends, and dish them out into individual containers for meals at work throughout the week, and quick dinners on nights the hubby and I are busy. To servings of this, I added ahandful of frozen corn for me, and italian-style green beans sprayed with a little butter spray for my hubby (since we can never agree on vegetables.) I had the first for lunch today -- it nuked very nicely, and is just about the right moist spot between too dry and too soggy. If I hadn't married a corn-hater, I'd throw some corn in with the rice or meat next time... or maybe even give it it's own layer between them. I preferreded *not* precooking the beef it was much more of a cohesive crust that way... I had no problems with it cooking through. I added 10 minutes to the initial bake time, but the meat thermometer showed even the center was plenty cooked through. Texture of meat came out like a thin meatloaf. This is a perfect application for very lean ground meats, such as turkey, lean beef, or Buffalo -- the meat comes out nice and juicy, even if you cook extra long to be sure the meat cooks through, without any added any fat. I didn't have any tomato paste, so I left it out... didn't notice the difference. Fr diet reasons, I used 2% cheese in the rice, and half 2%, half full fat for the topping. Even though the recipe said "ungreased", I used a light spray of Pam, and was glad I did - especially with the lean meat -- the pyrex pie plate

Reviewed On: Aug. 10, 2009