Chickpea, Ham, Tomato Casserole

I was searching for a quick casserole to make the other night. As I scoured the Allrecipe site (http://allrecipes.com/) which I love, I became inspired by this recipe I found: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/zesty-rice-n-bean-casserole/detail.aspx. I didn't have all of the ingredients but it gave me an idea for a variation on this recipe. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients
2 cups of instant brown rice
1 large can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp of minced garlic (I use the bottle of minced garlic)
1 tsp of chili spice
1 can of mushrooms
1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed (you can use kidney beans if you want, I only had a small can of chickpeas)
1 can of ham
1/3 of paneer (I was using it up in my fridge - this is optional)
1.5 cups of shredded cheese - I used the taco flavoured cheese because I had bought some on special
1 tbsp of cajun spice
1 tbsp of roasted red pepper and garlic spice
Note: use whatever spice you want to make it flavourful. We like it on the hotter side. One suggestion is to use flavoured diced tomatoes.

Directions:
Prepare the instant rice according to instructions

In a large frying pan, cook the garlic and mushrooms for about 5 to 7 minutes is some olive oil.
Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, chili spice and let simmer until the rice is down.

Once the rice is done, add it it the mixture along with the ham. I like to mash up the ham with a fork and pre - season it with the roasted red pepper spice.

Add half of the cheese, cover and simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes. I mainly did this because I wanted the paneer to soak into the juices. If you are not using the paneer you can take it straight to the stove if you want.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the contents in a 3 quart container. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and cook for 15 to 20 minutes in the stove.

I have managed to get three meals out of this (6 servings). These were large servings so you may be able to get 8 servings out of it but you will want to have a good side dish.