Blah Chili into Tamale Pie

From Queen of Carrots:

Usually I make better chili, but I had been thinking it was time to have a meatless meal, and for some reason I forgot the green peppers and I came home dead tired and probably messed up the seasonings, so the initial chili was not all that exciting. There was enough left over, once the next day's lunch was taken care of, to make one meal, but not two, and I still rely on leftovers for lunches.

So I fried up the missing hamburger and green peppers, and mixed them in a casserole dish with the chili, some frozen corn, and a can of olives. (BTW, I've discovered by laborious price/weight comparisons, that you can get more olives for the same price if you buy them chopped rather than sliced or whole--they sell the cans based on size, not weight. So if it's a casserole where appearances don't matter, I use chopped.) Then I whipped up my usual cornbread (I used to follow tamale pie recipes laboriously until I realized--the topping is just cornbread!), minus the honey and with the addition of a can of green chiles and grated cheese, and spread that on top. I baked it for forty-five minutes or so (It takes it longer to cook than it would if it were just cornbread).

The end result gave me enough for dinner and lunch and generated great husbandly enthusiasm. Also, if I had included the hamburger and peppers in the first place, I would not have needed the skillet and could have made the whole thing using less dishes than it takes to make and heat cornbread and leftover chili separately. I bet this would also work as an easy way to jazz up canned chili.