Mexican Lasagna

Mexican lasagna is something I've been wanting to make for a long time. It's basically a taco casserole, but that name sounded pretty gross, so Mexican lasagna it is.

I went a little crazy with my version (PUT ALL THE DELCIOUS FOOD IN IT!!), so I've included lots of tips for when you make yours. Sometimes simple really is better, and I think this is a good case of that. :D

Step 1: Ingredients!

I got really excited when it came to ingredients for this. Waaaaaay too excited actually. It ended up having too many flavors and being a little over-seasoned.

So this is what I suggest:

• 1 pound meat of choice - shredded or ground 
• 16 oz cheese of choice  (I used a mix of cheddar and monterey jack)
•  white corn tortillas (I ended up using 16)
• 2 jars of salsa - or one salsa, one tomato sauce
• 14.5 oz can of black beans
• 14.5 oz can of corn
• 14.5 oz can refried beans
• 1 onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 tablespoons of taco seasoning to season the meat (find my recipe here!)
• green onion, fresh jalapeno, fresh tomato, cilantro, sour cream, etc - for mixing in or serving!

I used salsa, enchilada sauce and some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in mine, which is where I ran into problems. The enchilada sauce + the adobo sauce + the taco seasoning made the lasagna have a pretty strong chili flavor. It wasn't bad but it overpowered some of the other flavors. Boo!

I think enchilada sauce on its own could be really good (use a can of it instead of salsa!) - but make sure you're using a good brand!

Also, I considered using cottage cheese for the cheese in the lasagna - that's what my mom does for her regular lasagna and it's amazing. If you do that, you can mix it with a little cheddar inside and just use plain cheddar on top.

Oh! Next time I'm going to chop up some green onions and mix them into the refried beans, too.

Step 2: Meat and Veg Prep

I used ground beef, an onion, a jalapeno and some chipotle peppers for my meat mix. 

Dice up all the veggies and cook them down with the meat. Add taco seasoning for a little extra flavor. 

I also drained and rinsed my black beans and corn and added a pinch of chili and cumin powder to them. 

Step 3: Layering Prep

Before you get started layering, get everything ready. :D 

One additional thing I did to help speed this up is to warm up the refried beans so they could be smoothed onto the tortillas a little easier.

Preheat your oven to 400 F. 

Step 4: Layering!

Woohoo! Here we go. You're about to create a food party.

This is how I layered:

1. sauce or salsa on the bottom
2. six tortillas cut in half and laid on top
3. meat/onion/jalapeno mix
4. black beans and corn
5. more sauce or salsa!
6. cheeeeeese
7. six more tortillas cut in half and laid out
8. refried beans
9. more meat/onion/jalapeno mix
10. sauce/salsa
11. more cheese
12. more tortillas!
13. spoon a little sauce over the tortillas, top with sliced jalapenos and more cheese!

Yep. That's a ton of stuff in there. At this point you can probably weight lift with it. :D

Step 5: Baking

Pop the lasagna into a 400 F oven for 30 minutes.

I recommend putting the pan of lasagna onto a larger baking sheet so it won't drip onto the bottom of your oven and smoke. 

Once it's out, let it cool for a while before cutting into it. Maybe 10-15 minutes? If you don't wait it all kinda falls apart and you will probably become a victim of cheese lava. 

Enjoy! 

I really liked it topped with fresh tomatoes, cilantro and sour cream. :D